4099 I hate utility companies

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

-- Plato --

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Last Friday I had lunch with Piper.  I didn't want to talk business, but he did mention that he thought I'd be very happy with the way we weathered the storm.  I reiterated that I wasn't worried, hadn't been worried, and no I don't need details.  Corporate profits are still at an all-time high.  It'll all come back.

Today I got another report from Progress Energy.  I own a bunch of something called "Contingent Value Obligations".  The damn things are worthless.  We owned stock in Florida Progress, inherited from Jay's mother, and sixteen years ago somebody pulled a quick one, and we got CVOs for our stock.  This is an explanation:

In connection with the acquisition of Florida Progress Corporation, Progress Energy issued 98.6 million CVOs. Each CVO represents the right of the holder to receive contingent payments based on after-tax cash flows above certain levels of four synthetic fuel facilities purchased by subsidiaries of Florida Progress Corporation in October 1999. The CVOs are debt instruments and, under GAAP, are valued at market value. Unrealized gains and losses from changes in market value are recognized in earnings each quarter.  

We're supposed to get checks from the profits of the subsidiaries, when the profits are above a certain level.  Well, in the past sixteen years, due I believe to creative bookkeeping, those subsidiaries have yet to show a profit!  (Above that certain level.)  So all these years later, we/I have yet to see a penny from the "taking" of our stock.  There's got to be something wrong with that.  We're supposed to believe that Progress Energy is still hanging on to subsidiaries that aren't making a profit, and haven't in sixteen years?  Or perhaps that "level" was set ridiculously high?  Every so often I get a letter wherein PE offers to buy the CVOs.  For a few cents each.

Yeah, sure.

Um, no.  I can wait you bastards out.
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4094 Stock Market

Monday, August 24, 2015

There's more money to be had in pandering to ignorance than in explaining it away.

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Yeah, how 'bout that stock market, eh? 

I talked with Piper last week, and told him yes, I'd heard, no, I'm not worried, and I told him strongly, in no uncertain terms, he is not to attempt to "play" the market with my account.  No selling off anything, no buying anything in an attempt to find bargains, no nothing.  Stand pat with my account.  Let it ride.  He seemed to be ok with that, which surprised me.  I'm sure he's freaking out today, but he's got other accounts he can play with besides mine.

The market has crashed before, and it always recovers eventually, and then goes higher.  We just need to be in nice solid boring stuff that will recover, and I have plenty of patience.  It was a bit too high, too optimistic given the state of Europe and China, and with no nice stimulating wars on the horizon it had to drop to a more reasonable level.  This huge drop is because people are in a panic.  It will stabilize when everyone calms down.

I told Piper at the end of last year to get me out of the far east, primary and secondary --- it was obvious that China was headed for the same housing-lending-banking train wreck that the US had not so long ago.  Yep.

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The green quote above, by the way, is absolutely random.  Not that it applies, anyway, except that it mentions money.
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3222 Nibbled to death by minnows

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Love means seeing someone’s wounds and broken places and loving them not only in spite of them, but also because of them.

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The old expression is "I'm being slowly nibbled to death by ducks." I laugh when I hear it, because it reminds me of our vacation on a narrowboat on the canals in England.

We would tie up at night along the tow path in the countryside, and then we'd be kept awake all night by loudly baa'ing sheep and a strange sound coming from the hull of the boat. It sounded like we were rubbing against rocks. I'd get up and go check that the bumpers were in place and that the lines were holding us tight to the canal side, and I'd poke with the push stick to make sure we weren't in a shallow spot, and I'd notice that the sound stopped when I was on deck, and started up again as soon as I went back to bed.

We quickly learned that we should tie up near cows, not sheep. Sheep are LOUD! And they baa all night as a safety thing. Cows sleep. It took a while, though, to find out that the scraping sound was ducks nibbling the algae on the side of the boat, and there was nothing we could do about that. (I'd have expected fish, not ducks, doing the nibbling, but fish sleep when it's dark, too. Ducks don't.)

So, anyway, minnows now.

I have so many big things to do. Like clean out the old house, finish painting here, move furniture down, and so on. Unfortunately, that's stuff that can be put off. I'm being held up by little things that have to be done RIGHT NOW! OR ELSE!

The Angel worked on my taxes over the weekend, and electronically filed them Sunday evening. Again, he filed them before I reviewed them. He does that every year, and every year I find something wrong and we have to file an amended form, and we have this "run it past me first even if that means we have to file for an extension" discussion. He sent me a copy by email. After they were filed.

Yep, errors. A bunch of stock was listed as short term gains that should have been long term, because TDAmeritrade reported them as short term because they counted from the time the distribution account was opened by the executors of my late father-in-law's estate, but I actually owned the stock dating from the time of death, which was a year earlier. Stuff like that.

Anyway, I ended up owing a few thousand over the estimated tax payments I'd already made, and The Angel arranged for payment to be made by direct transfer, on Monday, from my checking account. Yeah, we've done that before, but back then I owed only a few hundred. ACK!

I spent early Monday scrabbling to make sure there was enough money in the account to cover the transfer. I have the new account here, and that's what he used. But that account has a debit card (I hate the very concept of debit cards, and resisted as long as I could because I KNOW what's bound to happen), and no matter how I try, I'm very bad at keeping track of when I use the debit thing, and for how much, so "balance" is a rather hopeful but nebulous concept.

It was going to be close. Very close. Uncomfortably close.

I also have several accounts back at the old upriver address: one checking and savings pair used for PayPal only so I have tight control over debits, one checking and savings for everyday, and one savings for business use.

I have online access to the old accounts. Browsing through them to figure out where to get some money to cover the taxes and for the rest of the month, I noticed that I'd been debited $2 every month since October on all the savings accounts for "Bad Address". Huh?

The morning was spent moving money around. Much of the afternoon was spent trying to figure out what was wrong with the address on those accounts. I had changed the address on what I thought was all my accounts in person with a teller back in early November, and I had later verified it online.

I'm getting the monthly statements for one of the accounts, which include checking, savings, and signature loan info all on one statement, at the new address. The monthly statements didn't show the Bad Address fee being charged on that savings account, even though it did show up online. How's that for weird?

I wandered around the website, and could find no other address stuff. I had done everything I was supposed to do, or could do, for changing the address. I called the bank. This is what the guy on the phone told me to write:

Dear Folks,

I have two checking and three savings accounts with you under the name [Me], SS# nnn-nn-nnnn (Phone aaa-xxx-xxxx).

I recently moved from [old address], to [new address].

I have online access to my accounts, and all of them show up in the list on the online summary page. I changed the address in person in the [old location] office, and then I went online to the "Self Service" tab, then to "Personal Options", to "Personal Information", to "Change Address", and verified that the address was correct.

THE PROBLEM: The address change apparently did not take effect for ALL my accounts. I have been receiving the hardcopy statements for [account#] checking and savings at the new address, but not for the other accounts. Worse, I have been assessed a monthly $2 fee on the ALL savings accounts for "Bad Address". See especially savings account [other account number] for an example.

I spoke to B[....] in the call center, and he spoke to W[....], who agrees that it definitely wasn't my fault, I did what I was supposed to do, so the fees should be refunded, but that I needed to write an email (or letter, or whatever).

Please ensure that the address is changed on all accounts under my name, and refund the fees.

I appreciate your attention to this matter.

[Me]

This is what I got back:

I have refunded your accounts for the charges and I will send you copies. I will also be sending you a form to have notarized. Please print this e-mail and take it to a notary with your signature on it. I will be sending you the form for the notary to sign. I will send it in today's mail with a postage paid envelope so you can return the paperwork to me.
Thank you,
[Her first name]
Branch Manager

There were no attachments.

Ok. I went online and checked, and the fees have been refunded. But why do I have to print "this email", sign it, and "take it to a notary with your signature on it"? (She's snail-mailing the real forms. And why do they have to be notarized anyway?) And does she really not know that you have to sign in front of the notary? Or is it just unfortunate wording? Also, the branch manager when I'd last been there was a very intelligent, business-like, impressively tall and handsome black guy. What happened to him? Why is this fool with poor communication skills now in charge?

There's been some stupid thing like this every! single! day! for the past three weeks, that keeps me from getting the real work done. Minnows. Not even the size of ducks.

I'm being nibbled to death.
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3216 Taxes

Monday, April 11, 2011

We don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.

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I finally finished pulling together all the various pieces of paper for the income taxes. Wasn't easy.

Were you aware that when you sell stock, the 1099-Bs the brokers send you (and the Feds) have the total of the sale on it, but not the cost basis? You have to provide that yourself. Otherwise you end up paying taxes on the entire proceeds, not just the profit. Not to mention getting to deduct losses. And I sold a LOT of stock (60 lots of various sizes from 57 different companies) in 2010 to buy the car and the new house, and most of it I'd purchased 10 to 20 years ago.

That's stupid. They know exactly when I bought it and how much I paid for it. Why can't they just list the cost basis too?

I had the information, of course. Finding it was the problem. Some was here, some was up north at the old house. I was certain that I had brought all the files down south, but I couldn't for the life of me find them - until yesterday afternoon, when I opened a drawer in the "unused" side of the new desk, and there they were.

So now I have to get the stuff to The Angel. We'd already agreed that he'd file for an extension for me, but I was worried that maybe I hadn't paid enough estimated taxes, so I wanted to have at least rough numbers.

I did better than that! He ought to be able to do my taxes in an hour from my summary sheet alone.

I'll leave it up to him to figure out whether I was a resident of NJ for any part of 2010, and if so, how much of 2010. That will be interesting....

After I finished the tax packet, I started calling urologists, so I can get this stent and stone taken care of. I can feel the stent in my bladder, and it's starting to get annoying. The earliest office appointment I could get is the 21st. That's awfully close to Daughter's due date, but frankly, due dates are arbitrary anyway, and I don't suppose any other date would be any safer.

Today was beautiful, so Daughter and I went for a ride with the top down, walked around a classy little village a half-hour down the road, and had dinner at this place: http://www.nauvoogrillclub.com/. The building was stunning - art deco lighting fixtures and Frank Lloyd Wright-esque inside walls. (The photo on the site is not the most interesting view.) The food was excellent, but two iced teas, two appetzers, two entrees, and two desserts came to almost $90, so I won't be dining there often. (The individual prices weren't that bad - I'm wondering now if there wasn't maybe a mistake in the bill. Wouldn't be the first time....)
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3207 Buncha Idiots!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Either you control your attitude or it controls you.

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I'm venting here. I'm so annoyed I want to spit. If I'm ever in south Jersey, there's a certain bank manager I want to strangle.

Many moons ago when Ex#2 and I split, we owned a block of stock jointly. He got half and I got half, and we were to transfer our halves to each of us individually.

Well, I didn't do the transfer for my half, because Daughter was small, and if anything happened to me he'd be raising her, and if I left the stock joint it would go directly to him avoiding probate and tax, and that would be fine and just. So I simply had the account changed to my SS# and the dividends coming to me, and then of course I never got around to transferring them.

Cleaning out the old house I found the certificates. Of course they've split multiple times, so there are also shares in a joint "book-entry" account held at the transfer agency. Ack! I'd better get them transferred now, because if anything happened to him (and I don't see how he is possibly staying alive), I'd be the one with the probate and tax problems.

I called the transfer agent, and they sent me the form to transfer all the shares and the instructions. It's pretty straightforward. He and I each sign the form, and we each get what's called a Medallion Signature Guarantee. The medallion is absolutely required, and it says so several times, both on the form itself, on the cover letter, and on the instruction sheets. Two separate signatures as joint owners of the stock, and two medallions, one for each signature. Almost any decent sized bank can do the medallions.

So I filled out the form and sent it to him, along with a letter instructing him what to do, and the "How To" and "FAQ" sheets from the transfer agent. I even put stickies on the form with "sign here", "date here", and "medallion here" arrows.

I have to give him credit. He's trying his best. He's not the main problem, it's his local bank. (Well, he's a little bit of a problem because he doesn't know enough about the process to argue with his bank. Either that or he's already pissed them off enough on other occasions that they're just giving him a hard time -- and that's entirely possible. He does that. I can't believe the bank manager doesn't know how to transfer stock.)

Short lesson:

A Medallion Signature Guarantee and a Notary Public Stamp are similar in that you have to sign the document in front of the guarantor or notary, you have to show identification to prove you are who you claim to be, you have to affirm that you are signing of your own free will and demonstrate that you are sober and of sound mind sufficient to understand the significance of what you are signing. But there are also a few big differences.

The notary public has no financial stake in the document, and he/she can carry the stamp around in a pocket. The notary doesn't even have to know what the document is - just that the signature is that of the person signing. They'll usually accept a driver's license, and don't have to know the signator personally.

The medallion, on the other hand, carries insurance against forgery. If the signature turns out to be forged, the institution that applied the medallion is responsible for the inherent value of the document. It's a big deal.

All transfers of stock absolutely require the medallion, because the stock transfer agent never sees the actual signers, so the medallion transfers the financial responsibility to the medallion holder, who did see the signers and has the responsibility of authenticating the signator. That's why it's usually banks who do medallion signature guarantees, only an officer of the bank is allowed to use it, the medallions are kept under separate lock in the vault, and usually they will do them only for people who have a long-standing account with them.

Ok. So Ex#2 takes the transfer form to his bank, and asks for a Medallion Signature Guarantee.

The bank officer refuses.

Why? Because, says the bank manager, only sales of stock require a medallion. Transfers don't. According to him, just taking Ex#2 off the account needs only a notary stamp.

Duh? Like, uh, there's no chance of forging a signature to take someone's name off stock? No financial risk there? It's TRANSFERRING OWNERSHIP!

Ex#2 called me from the bank. I told him to have the bank manager call the transfer agent. He did. Next phone call, Ex#2 says the bank manager and the transfer agent got into an argument on the phone, and incredibly, the bank manager tried to tell the transfer agent what the agent needed to see.

Duh? Can you spell "arrogance"?

Anyway, the bank manager refuses to medallion guarantee the signature. That's the only bank where Ex#2 has accounts.

Ex#2 had the bright idea of selling me the stock for $0, "then the bank manager will do the medallion".

Duh?

First off, no contract is valid unless both parties receive "consideration", so it would have to be for, say, $1. Secondly, the sale would be reported to the feds, and, uh, do you want to talk about capital gains? You want to explain to the IRS a $1 sale of a gazillion dollars worth of stock? Look like a tax dodge, maybe? No? Ok, no selling.

More phone calls. Ex#2 lives in the tomato fields of south Jersey. There's only one other bank, in the next town over. So he went there. They won't do it because he doesn't have an account with them.

So he opens an account with them.

But - they want more documentation. They want an official document from the transfer agent as to how many shares are being transferred, and the total value. Ok, I can understand their wanting to know what their risk is. BUT, they also want a notarized statement from ME requesting the transfer.

Duh? Why?

It's taken this whole day. A dozen phone calls hither and yon to and from Ex#2 and the transfer agency, pulling together the additional documentation the new bank wants, writing another letter explaining what I'm sending and requesting that they please allow my ex-husband to sign stock over to me (duh?). I'm surprised they haven't asked for a notarized copy of the 28-year-old divorce decree.

I had only two things I absolutely wanted to do today - take a box to the post office for mailing, and pull together the tax stuff for my accountant, and I've got neither done, and it's too late now for the post office. Yeah, I've got a cell phone, but I had to stay here near the file cabinet and the computer between all those calls. And poor Ex#2 has been doing the running around and getting the runaround.

Buncha freakin' idiots down there in south Jersey. Probably being poisoned by all that chemical fertilizer sprayed in the air. Oughta go back to cow manure.

(Grumble.)
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3169 Spitting

Sunday, February 20, 2011

“[That] is forbidden. But possible.”
-- Common French saying --

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I don't get into political discussions with Piper any more. He's solidly extreme right wing, sees only the wingnut viewpoint. He tries to "educate" me, to turn me from my obviously mistaken ways, but I just shake my head and change the subject.

In all the bad things that have been happening in his life right now, the good thing is that the market is picking up. He congratulated me Friday that of all his investment clients, I've been the only one who didn't panic at all back when everything was tanking. I just shrugged and assured him that everything would eventually come back. Sooner or later. Sit tight. (During the bad times he looked really bad. Discouraged. Wanted to avoid talking to his clients.)

I've made back all the money I lost during the dip, and made 3% on my investments in the past month alone. Piper wanted to give all the credit for the turnaround to his new tea bag buddies in Congress. I pointed out that yes, rich folks are brightening up. I've heard that sales of BMW, Mercedes, and Lexus are up, luxury resorts and spas are picking up again. But it's not so bright for the little folk. His buddies in Congress are making all kinds of cuts, but the programs they're cutting are all cuts to the poorer folks. Services. They're taking from the poor and giving to the rich. So yeah, naturally the rich are happy, and that's what's reflected in the market.

As Field says, "Those 235 poli-tricksters remind me of the bully that goes to the playground looking for a fight, and ignores the bigger kids shooting hoops and heads straight to the swing and jungle gym to pick on the smaller kids."

The smaller kids can't afford lobbyists.

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I don't understand why they want to cut Social Security. Despite everything you hear, SS is not running out of money. In fact, SS has been running a significant surplus, and actually lends money to the federal government. They just don't want to count the loans as SS assets, because then they'd have to pay them back. Oh, by the way, remember when "they" wanted to "privatize" Social Security, i.e. invest the money in the stock market? Funny that we don't hear so much about that these days. I wonder why. I guess they forgot why Social Security was started in the first place.

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Last time I had been to the old house, from all the droppings it looked like the mice were running riot, so I set mouse traps. I caught only one mouse. I don't understand.

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I buy a lot of stuff online. The delivery guys around here (FedEx, UPS, USPS, and that other one) just drop the stuff on the doorstep. UPS is the only service that bothers to ring the doorbell, sometimes. At the old house, I was way up a long drive off the end of a dead-end street, and the house wasn't visible from the road or from neighbors' houses, but delivery guys always rang the doorbell when they left a package. Here, houses are cheek-by-jowl, the doorstep and anything on it is close to and clearly visible from a street full of traffic, cyclists, and pedestrians, but the delivery services just dump the package and run.

Several times I've stepped out the front door and found packages I didn't know were there.

Worse, I could have stepped out and NOT found packages I DIDN'T know SHOULD have been there.

FedEx is the weirdest. They have little stickies that say "We delivered your package", and have spaces for date and time, and check boxes for things like front door, back door, garage, neighbor, and so on.

Only two problems. They don't fill out ANY of the spaces or boxes, and they stick it on the package!

What good does that do?

(Oh, look, there's a Delivery Notice on this package saying they delivered a package. I wonder where the package is?)

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When I'm on the computer in the morning and evening, Jasper bugs me to play. I accidentally discovered how to get him to not disturb me.

I sit at the desk on a canvas director's chair. I had put another canvas chair next to mine one day to show someone something on the computer. Jasper has appropriated the chair. I guess he likes the canvas sling seat. He's happy to sit or sleep there, as long as I reach over and stroke his head every so often.

The only problem is that it's right below the printer, so I have to warn him before I print anything. He's such a chicken....

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Last month Daughter was running out of pants, so I invited her to shop in my closet. I had some loose knit drawstring pants that fit her expanding belly fine. She's fine on tops - she wears a lot of baggy sweaters anyway. Yesterday she said she's down to one pair of shoes, running shoes that are wide enough for her expanding feet. We wear about the same size, but my feet are wider than hers, so I think I'll be short some shoes soon, too.

Baby's due the end of April. No, after three frustrating ultrasounds, they still don't know, so "quit asking!"
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2065 Tracking the Market

Friday, October 10, 2008

I've been watching the charts for the various stock market indices, and I noticed something odd. Every day, they start out low, drop lower through the morning and early afternoon until they hit an extreme low, then they start climbing again! They climb steadily until about 4:30 pm, then they quickly drop halfway again - and that's where they start the same pattern the next day.

Odd pattern?

I think I know what's happening. People who are panicking are selling off. That's what causes the early fall. It's a bit annoying to me that when the news outlets report the activity, they report the low point for the day, without mentioning the rise. That only contributes to more panic.

Then the folks who see this as an opportunity wait until prices fall about as low as they're going to fall, and they start buying. That's what bumps it back up.

A lot of people are going to get very very rich from this. They're buying valuable stock at bargain basement prices.

I hope someone has seen fit to order a temporary halt on day-trading and other fast and short-term trades. Otherwise, you could buy a hunk of equities at 1 pm, and sell at 4 pm, and make a tidy profit, and if a lot of people are doing it, the turnover would contribute to the volatility, and increase the panic. Which, of course, benefits the people profiting.

I gave Piper the order today to jump in, and buy me some indexed and total market mutual fund shares, using the cash in my money market accounts. When the market rebounds (and it eventually will, as understanding of what happened and why grows), I could make an immediate 25% profit, at least.

Piper was bemoaning the fact that he couldn't get in. "I wish I had $200,000 or so available!" I expressed surprise. Of all people, I'd expect HIM to have a spare $200,000 lying around, but he says it's "all tied up" in investments he can't sell right now.

So, if you have some money, buy. If you aren't sure of the health of individual companies, buy indexed or total market mutual fund shares. You can find their phone numbers in any investment magazine. All you have to do is call.
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1319 Procrastination

Friday, June 22, 2007

I am in major procrastination mode. I decided that I had to do two things today: Gather up the clematis, and get the information together to sell the odd lots.

I have very carefully done neither.

The clematis is supposed to climb some chicken wire wrapped around the downspout next to the front porch. Every few years I cut it back to a few inches from the ground. It got cut back last fall, and with the mild winter and steady rain we've had, it has already grown a good 10 feet. Problem is, it isn't growing up the downspout. It has spread across the flower bed, over the azaleas, and halfway up the rhododendron.

Gathering it and tying it up isn't the hard part. The hard part is spiders and snakes. That area is full of spiders, and therefore is full of garter snakes who eat the spiders (I assume they eat the spiders - I HOPE they eat the spiders). Every time I've fussed in that area, I've flushed snakes. I'm not afraid of snakes, especially not garter snakes (although they DO get pretty big around here) - it's the spiders that really worry me. Big wolf spiders. It really won't be that bad. It's just so easy to find something else to do. Like visit YouTube. Much preferred over spiders and snakes.

Selling the odd lots will be easy. All I have to do is call the stockholder relations phone number on Monday, give them my SS#, account number, and count of shares to sell. Simple. I love that "all I have to do"!

I have to first find out what the stockholder relations phone number is for each of them. Some are available online, but only if you navigate some very dense web sites to find it. Some numbers are not available online. Some of them will have a number on a dividend check stub, but many of them are minor split-off stocks that don't pay dividends. None of them handle their own trades anyway.

Then find the account numbers. The ones that pay dividends will be easy. The ones that don't will be harder. I have to rely on my having filed the proper past communications in a timely fashion, and I've never been very good at that. The papers I need will be around here ... somewhere ... probably in a "to be filed" stack ... somewhere. Ack.

If I have the account numbers, I may not have to have the actual count of shares. The stupid things have a habit of splitting and spinning off. I'm never quite sure what the heck I've got. One more reason to get rid of odd lots of small stocks, anyway. They're never worth much, don't pay beans, and have a habit of reverse splitting, getting taken over, sold off, or changing names. I suppose if you have 3,000 shares of some small mid-western telephone company, it might be worth keeping track of it, but 5 shares acquired in a spinoff? Bleck.

I suppose once I get started it will be easier. Keep thinking - one step is one step forward, and you don't have to do it again. Getting started is the hardest part.

There's just so darn many of them!
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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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1136 Annoying Stock

Sunday, February 25, 2007

I canceled a planned outing with FirstWoman last night because I was tired, frustrated, and full of inertia. I just didn't want to make the effort. I canceled rollerskating with Angie this evening for the same reason.

I'm frustrated and feeling guilty because I've got so much to do, and it's not getting done. Every time I start something from the "to do" list, something happens and I get sidetracked.

This afternoon I decided I MUST start pulling together the tax stuff for The Angel, and start looking into selling more stock for Piper's planned portfolio balancing. The first thing I picked up from the financial bin was a proxy packet from my favorite stock.

This particular stock is one that I have told Piper I will not sell! No way! Not for nuthin! I like it! The stock has gone up steadily for the past six years - it is now worth more than five times what it was in 2000, and it pays good dividends. He agrees that I'd be crazy to sell it - in fact, I should buy more.

The company is being "acquired". A smaller company in the same industry is going to buy it out for 26 billion dollars. For each of our shares, we stockholders will get .67 share of the smaller company, and a bunch of cash.

I am being asked to vote my shares, for or against the acquisition.

Naturally, I need more info.

Three hours, and a trip around the internet, later, I voted a resounding NO!!! (Not that I have enough stock for them to notice....)

First of all, I will end up with 1/3 of my investment in equity, and 2/3 in cash on which I will have to pay capital gains tax. I would prefer a straight stock trade. Gimme a bunch of yours for all of mine. This deal amounts to selling 2/3 of a stock I never wanted to sell at all. I could turn around and buy more stock, but I'd still be out the tax.

Since the announcement, my company's stock has continued its rise, but the stock of the smaller company has fallen. Analysts seem to think that it is a "fair" offer to the stockholders, since .67 share of the smaller company plus the cash offered equals slightly higher than the current price of my company, BUT, and here's the scary part, most of them think that the smaller company is going to hurt themselves badly, that they really can't afford the 26 billion. So those ".67 share"s could be worth even less in the future, even though after the acquisition, it will be the largest company in the world in this industry. (A giant, but an injured giant.)

I am exceedingly annoyed.

That, The Amazing Race, and several phone calls, absorbed the afternoon and evening.
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Daughter and Hercules have been househunting in central NJ. Yesterday she said that they'd found the perfect house, and they had submitted an offer. The house had been on the market only one day. Today she called and said that someone else had submitted a bid, too, and it had apparently been accepted, even though their offer was probably higher. I wish I knew more about NJ real estate law, and how offers should be presented.

Emotional roller coaster for the kids. This is the second time that's happened to them in the past month.

I advised her to leave their offer "live" while they continue looking. The other buyers' deal may fall through. Besides, the real estate market is in decline, and in six months they may be able to get more house for the same money.
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#442 Jumping Ship

I didn't get a whole lot accomplished today. I got home this morning to find about 90 AOL journal alerts in my email (I subscribe to about 30 journals, and normally get only 10 or so alerts a day), and close to 100 emails from people complaining about AOL's decision to put ads in their personal journals.

Many of them I didn't read past the first couple of lines, but some of them were rolling-on-the-floor funny. Like the guy with the plaintive note: "Did something happen overnight that I don't know about? Sheesh, I'm always the last to know." I thought that was a riot. (Roman, AOL needs your voice of reason! It's getting downright nasty over there.)

So that took a lot of time. Especially following the links to check out other blog-hosting sites. This one looked pretty good, actually. So after a few hours of playing with formats and templates and learning, here I am, not running away from AOL's intrusive banner ads, but because this just plain looks like a better place to be.

I went to the hardware store and bought more weather stripping to finish the front door. Just in time, too. It's supposed to get down to around 18 degrees Friday night. Yeah. 18. Fahrenheit.

Then I stopped by Piper's office to give him more numbers. He's happy to find that the only stocks that I have actual paper certificates for happen to also be the only stocks that I plan to keep over this restructuring we're planning. All the rest is "book entry", which means we can sell them almost instantly with a phone call. Which means we can time the sales closer to advantageous market conditions.

Then I signed up for a class in Excel that Roman is teaching. It's an intermediate level class, Tuesday and Thursday evenings, five sessions, at Dutchess South. I haven't taken the basic class, but he says I shouldn't have any trouble. It starts next Tuesday. I figure I might want some kind of (real) bookkeeping program if I start selling stuff, so this can kill several birds with one stone. I learn something I need, with a willing tutor as needed, and I get to see him in action in a classroom.

Well, I just discovered the spell checker doesn't seem to want to work. Guess I gotta go read some more "Help".

~~Silk