1170 Financial Decisions

Monday, March 19, 2007

Talked with Daughter yesterday. Her father has agreed to retire, has signed the papers, and will be moving back east. His elderly mother's home has her old beauty parlor attached, and his sister has begun converting it into an apartment for him. The ball's rolling. I guess the main impetus was when his blood sugar got low enough that he was able to look around and realize all the things he had let go, like the taxes, car registration, and so on. Daughter was supposed to return last Saturday, but her flight had been canceled because of the snow, so she's returning Tuesday, late. I asked her what the weather was like there, and she said it's in the 70s. I was surprised. It's in the low 20s here, and near Boulder it's 70s?

According to both the thermostat and the thermometer on the desk, it's 74 in my house right now, and I'm still freezing. My hands and nose and legs are so cold. Maybe it's because there's no sun today. Maybe I'm not eating enough fats or something. I am literally shivering.

Piper told me last Wednesday that he wants me to sell all my odd lots of stock, and about half the large oil company blocks "by the end of the week", so we can transfer more into bonds and mutual funds. By the end of last week. He said that the recent severe drops in the market wouldn't affect the odd lots much (like, 3 shares of this cheap stock, 14 shares of that moribund albatross, most acquired through spinoffs), and that the oil stocks have held their value, so they'd be ok. Well, I got busy with other stuff, and it didn't happen.

I spent much of today gathering transfer agent contact information, and researching recent market activity on the stocks, intending to make the sell order calls this afternoon. And now I'm glad I didn't sell last week, and I think it'll be a while before I unload the oil stocks.

Yeah, the oil stocks didn't drop much in the "market correction", relative to the share price, not like other industries that got hit harder, but it still averages out to $7 per share. Considering that I was about to sell more than 2,000 shares, a drop of $7 is $14,000 !!! The drop in oil stocks is a temporary "ouch" reaction, and it's going to go back up, faster probably than the rest of the market. So, uh uh, I'm not going to sell right now. Piper will just have to wait.

Yeah, ok, why do I have a financial adviser if I won't listen to his advice?

He's not just looking at the stock sale prices - he's also looking at tax issues and the prices of the tax-free bonds and mutual funds he wants to buy. That's what he does. But I have a feeling that the oil stock will rise before the bonds and funds. Oil will be ahead of the average. If it takes two months (and I don't think it'll take that long), that's only two months of taxes. That's not so bad. I have this weird idea that I can take a $14,000 "loss" to buy less expensive bonds, and bonds don't grow, or I can "grow" $14,000 then buy $14,000 more bonds, which retain value. The latter makes more sense to me.

Piper's job is to recommend a conservative and cautious path. I'm willing to take a chance. We get along because he doesn't fuss at me when I do it.
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