As I’ve mentioned in ad nauseam, I hate paying taxes. This years tax results ended up more favorable than in years past.  I’m actually getting money back from the Fed this year, about $850 to be more precise. To be honest, my goal is to break even.  If there’s anything wo ... Read more

Anyone who’s followed this space for any length of time knows I despise tax season.  I don’t generally use the term “hate”, but in this rare case it seems to apply. Hate ,    –verb (used with object) to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion ... Read more

Last night my wife and I went out to a movie for the first time in a long time.  We brought Grandma over to look over little Squeebles, and mom and dad went out on town. We went to see The Blind Side, which I highly recommend.  The underlying story is of a well-off couple with two kids who ta ... Read more

Although I’ve achieved this goal a lot later in the program than I’d like, I managed to max out both my wife and I’s Roth IRA’s for 2009… in the nick of time. With a kid romping around and daycare chewing up the extra cash, it will be much more difficult to fund al ... Read more

This is just the beginning I suspect.  The rate for emergency loans from the Fed went up to 0.75% today, up from 0.5%.  It’s really a trivial move, but it signals far much more than just a quarter point increase in rates. This is the beginning. Readers of this space know that I fee ... Read more

It’s been a long 12 months, but I’m back above water, both in my trading account and in my retirement accounts.  I really owe it all to my stellar strategy: “One of the best rules anybody can learn about investing is to do nothing, absolutely nothing, unless there is somethin ... Read more

Last week I sold off some Provident Energy (PVX: chart , web , Y! ) stock, and some CREE (CREE: chart , web , Y! ). I’m up about 80% on CREE, and am about back to even on PVX. I’m rarely up 80% on anything (read my posts on Ford before you draw any conclusions on my trad ... Read t ... Read more

There are only 24 hours in the day, and I need at least 8 of them for sleep. Otherwise I’m a grumpy bump the next day. My son just had his first birthday this last week, and I’ve reflected back on the last 12 months, and constantly wonder where the time has gone. We spent 8 days ... Read more