Uncommon Cents

For the past few months I’ve been lamenting how Google (GOOG) has lagged badly compared to other tech stocks this year (and in fact was considerably in the red). That changed with their results this past week, and on Friday, GOOG zoomed with a one day gain of 11.19%–given their lofty stock price, this pushed the per share over $600 for the first time in awhile.

That said, GOOG is still down almost three percent for the year.

On Monday after the stock market closes, Apple, Inc. (AAPL) will release their quarterly result. Already up 49.36% year to date, it’s possible that AAPL (which also rose on Friday over four percent) will take off as well.

If that happens, I may end up shedding a few shares of it, just because it is again bumping up against the six percent limit per individual stock I set in my personal portfolio. But I think both of these companies will do well for a long time to come.

Tags: Investing, Stocks

It’s been a week since I got a Samsung Galaxy S phone, the Sprint Epic 4G, one of the most expensive phones on the market ($249 after $100 mail in rebate). I also had to upgrade my Sprint SERO plan to what’s called “SERO Premium” for $10 more a month, and pay another $10 a month for “premium data”, mostly meaning that Sprint’s 4G data service (which is indeed faster–where it’s available) costs me more.

What do I think so far?

With a few caveats, I like it.

It has a very nice display and the touch interface is fast and responsive. Sprint’s 4G data service is spotty on the island but when it’s fast, it’s really fast, and their 3G data has been reliable for years.

The Android Market is not quite the iTunes store, but with enough searching just about every application I would want on iOS is available for Android, although I am still making my way through the myriad of Twitter applications and Web browsers (sometimes, it’s quite possible less is more).

The notification system of Android is miles ahead of what iOS uses, and there does appear to be a healthy application ecosystem out there.

A few issues: the battery life on the phone is at best mediocre. The physical keyboard is not all that appealing (quite frankly, I’ve found physical keyboards on phones in general to be unappealing and prefer the virtual keyboard of this or the iOS devices). While lots of accesories for the device are available there are some omissions, such as car holders.

And of course, my requisite Sprint rant: when the phone had an issue (remember, I have had this phone for less than a week when this happens) where the battery inexplicably discharged and wouldn’t recharge, I called a local Sprint corporate store to try to get an appointment for service and they told me, in no uncertain terms, that I had to return to the store that sold me the device, which was not a third party store, but another Sprint corporate store. That seems a bit beyond ridiculous, but not out of line with Sprint’s history of customer service with me.

In any case, I think I’ll be keeping the phone, which says a lot because, as usual, I dislike Sprint’s service.

Tags: Technology

It wasn’t too long ago I refinanced the mortgage and ended up at 4.25% for a thirty year fixed.

I was pretty happy with that even though it was a difficult process that took much longer than I wanted. At that point I thought I would never need to do this again.

Now I am being tempted by 3.25% 15 year fixed mortgages.

I am not sure if I want to do this, but it’s surely tempting me.

Tags: Interest, Mortgages

We’ve been here before; the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the most watched stock market index in the world (although, in my opinion, not nearly as important as the S&P 500) crossed over 11,000 (again) on Friday.

We’ve been here before.

Realistically, this threshold is only psychological. There’s nothing more special about 11,000 than there is about 11,312 except it’s a nice round number. But if we’re lucky, maybe the Dow will still above that number for awhile–if not permanently.

Tags: Stocks

My aunt recently got hospitalized; physically she’s fine, but she may have the beginnings of dementia (or, hopefully, is just having a delirium, which is reversible). In any case, she’s here now, living with us.

Previous to this, she was living on her own in an apartment, with her only child living thousands of miles away in Boston.

Being a social worker, the two things I thought of after settling her in (meaning after getting her clothes and medications) were advance health care directives and having a loved one on her accounts to access funds if needed for her care.

Honestly, at least in Hawai’i, these two things alone will get people so far ahead in terms of planning for the long term that everything else is gravy.

We’ll be touching more on this as I get things more settled with my aunt as well as determine whether she can go back to safely living by herself.

Tags: Social aspects

It’s been a year for family issues, and we’ve got another one here. My aunt just got released from the hospital and since she lives alone she’s staying with us–at least for awhile, although this could end up being permanent. As I adjust, expect posts to be sporadic over the next couple of weeks. My apologies.

Tags: Administration

I got an Epic 4G on Saturday with the requisite amount of the polite but clearly unprepared staff at Kane’ohe Sprint (to be fair, I have an unusual plan and the plan upgrade offer only went into effect the day before). After they were able to get those things in order, I went off with my new phone.

Up to now, I’ve had non smartphones (”dumb” or “feature” phones in the phone world). The fortunate part of this is that those phones were cheap yet offered tethering, which I have great need of. The unfortunate part is that they couldn’t do very much even with the ability to access the Internet.

So, since Sprint finally offered those of us on the old SERO plans the option of getting a newer, better phone without a huge (like 100%) increase in plan price, I decided to go ahead and get an Epic 4G.

Nice screen, less than thrilling keyboards, and very nice 4G speed so far (Honolulu has Sprint’s implementation of 4G wireless), but I also have a bunch of issues with the non-stock Android installation on the Epic; I will work on this (I’m nothing if not a hacker) over the next few days.

Some promise so far, but I don’t think it’ll change my life.

Tags: Techonology

The best stock market September in many decades lifted our portfolio to an all time high this month. Let’s see how our four mutual funds did.

In the fixed income section of the portfolio, the Vanguard GNMA Fund (VFIIX) was down a miniscule .005% while yielding 3.08%; its companion, the Vanguard Total Bond Index Fund (VBMFX) was down an even smaller .0009% while yielding a healthy 3.47%. Both of these funds have done very well while I’ve owned them in providing fixed income ballast in a stormy market.

In the stock market part of the portfolio, September was huge. The Vanguard Total Stock Index Fund (VTSMX) was up 5.69% for the month while paying a 1.96% yield. Its companion, the Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund (VGTSX) was up an even better 6.71% while paying a 2.54% yield.

September was amazing. Let’s hope that the momentum continues the rest of the year.

Tags: Bonds, Investing, Mutual funds, Stocks

Blockbuster, the national video rental chain, declared bankruptcy last week.

Their stock is currently trading at six cents a share.

Six freaking cents.

How did this happen? Blockbuster failed to change with the times. Netflix and Redbox have eaten their lunch with business models that are more in line with modern times. Apple, Amazon, and a bunch more options are streaming video into your homes. Even the public library has done damage to them.

At this point, I am totally unconvinced Blockbuster has a future unless they change dramatically.

Full disclosure: I own stock in Apple, Netflix, Coinstar (parent company of Redbox), and until recently also owned stock in Amazon.

Tags: Stocks, Technology

We all agree that taxes are not our favorite things, yet I, for one, like things like public schools, paved roads, and home trash pickup, so I’m not opposed to paying them–I just wish they would use the money efficiently.

In times when growth is almost at a standstill, taxes don’t make a lot of sense, but when there are massive deficits to make up, taxes are absolutely a necessity.

Exactly where these will all go is not clear, but things like dividend and estate taxes and the alternative minimum tax all will be looked at closely.

I will keep an eye on this; I don’t want to pay more, but I believe I will need to.

Tags: Economy, Taxes