The mass of investors buying stock every day do it on emotion. They got a tip at a party. Or somebody at work says "my broker is E.F.Hutton and he says" to buy a certain stock. Mercy!
When buying a stock you are buying actual ownership of the company represented. You own a small piece of the action. If the company is successful, the stock will rise accordingly and you will get rich (the proper representation is rewarded, possibly rich). The question is how do you decide which company to buy?
Imagine if you can, that you had enough money to buy any company you wanted and that you would own 100% of all the stock. "Make believe" that you become the CEO (chief executive officer) and will direct the company. It is yours. You can build it, mold it, treat employees as you'd like to be treated and pass the company on to those ungrateful little offspring that feel they are entitled to everything. That last comment wasn't necessary but it felt good.
If you are spending big bucks to buy a company, you would want great products. You would want products with potential for good growth. You would want a marketplace that was expanding. You would want stong profits with opportunity to improve them. Of course as CEO, you would want to be rewarded for the risk you are taking in buying the company. Big salary!
Buying stock is just that simple. Of course you are only CEO in your mind, but you look for potential of markets, products and profits. You also should take a long term perspective of 10 years or more.
So in my mind, I imagine what companies I would be proud to own. I love Johnson and Johnson. It makes bandages, aspirin, and baby powder. It makes stents for artery reconstruction. What is not to like? It helps people. It grows at 12-15% per year. It pays 2% dividends and has increased dividends for 25 years straight. It is international and 2 billion Chinese will soon benefit from my products. I would be proud to collect my $3,000,000 per year salary and then get my $10,000,000 bonus. Because I would be a benevolent dictator, I'd share my success with my employees. Johnson and Johnson passes my CEO test. I'd love to run it. I'd buy the stock.
There are some companies that are profitable and would be fun. Hershey Chocolate! Disney! ebay! Google! They pass my CEO test. When somebody would say to me "what do you do for a living", I could respond with I'm CEO of Hershey. Women would swoon at my feet?
You get the idea. Follow the money. Profits and more profits. Opportunity to grow products and profits. Forget the emotional bullshit. If you can feel you'd be proud to own a company and to become it's CEO, then it probably is a good stock.
Even good companies fail in our worldly environment of uncertainty but good companies represent opportunity to navigate the rough waters.
Good stocks picks could make you rich. One lady profiled in Money magazine had continued to buy Schering Plough stock over her lifetime. With all the splits and growth, she left her nieces and nephews $9,000,000 when she died at age 91. Her failing was that she was frugal. She got her coats at the Salvation Army. Come on! The fun of making money is to spend some of it. It her case she lost perspective but she demonstrated what picking a good company can do.
Actually you are the CEO of your own life. I will save that dissertation for another day.
Love,
Dad(Just Chas.)
I know financial subjects can be boring but I am determined to keep hitting on things that will affect you in your everyday lives.
Annuities are products usually sold by "bottom dwelling, scum sucking" insurance piranha (just using Margaret's words). The insurance companies make huge profits out of the "annuity game".
The only way I can put annuities in laymans terms is to give two examples.
Lets say you have $100,000 laying around (I know that is a stretch for most of you) and you need $5,000 per year of income to live on. The solution is easy. Buy a guaranteed certificate of deposit insured by the FDIC. Today it is easy to get 5% as an effective interest rate without taking a any of risk. Problem solved. You got your $5,000 per year.
Now example number two. You again have $100,000 laying around but you need more than $5,000 per year to live on. Your friendly insurance agent says he will guarantee you $8,000 for the rest of your life if you turn the $100,000 over to him. Good deal, right? How can he do this? Well he calculates how long someone like you will live and he gambles that in addition to the $5,000 per year that he can earn also, he will pay you some of the $100,000 that you gave him. He will pay you $5,000 based on his earnings and $3,000 from principal. After one year, he has $97,000 left to invest. The insurance company gambles that you will die before it pays out all the money you gave them including interest. Here is the "kicker". If you give the insurance company $100,000 in exchange for a monthly guarnteed income, it is gone. If you die one day after giving the $100,000 to the insurance company, they keep it. Your wife doesn't get it nor do your KIDS.
Here my get rich tip (in this case, stay rich tip). Manage your own money just like an insurance company would when they present you with an annuity. Earn the best interest you can and use some of your principal when necessary.
Now to complicate the world you should know there are lifetime annuities, tax-deferred annuities, single premium annuities, and variable annuities just to name a few. They all have sophiscated financial calculations to do different things but in the end, the insurance company makes big dollars with your money.
My tip of the day, AVOID ANNUITIES. There is an occasional situation where annuities might make sense, but it is the exception to the rule.
Love,
Dad(Just Chas.)
When you wish upon a star, it makes no difference who you are, all your dreams will come true. Something like that.
Well Grasshoppers, your mom had a wish to see Celine Dion perform in person. You know, the voice behind the theme song to Titanic. When Leo Dicaprio on the ship bow is hanging onto Kate Windslett as she raises her hands in search of being set free, the background music is sung by an angel voice. Yep. That was Celine Dion. I believe the song won an Oscar.
They have built a special theater in Las Vegas at Ceasar's Palace for Celine. All of Oprah Winfrey's disciples journey to Las Vegas to hear Celine. Celine married her older agent Rene', nursed him through cancer, had a miracle child and sings loves songs. Mercy. Mercy. How can you not like Celine?
Well we made the trip to see Celine. We did not leave until we were sure we had tickets. We could not get the tickets direct from the Ceasar Palace box office so we had to get them through a broker. We paid double the box office price. No price was to high to see Celine. Did I say that?
Well, we got to Las Vegas on Wednesday. Thursday night we were preparing to leave for the Celine performance. You guessed it. She cancelled. Something about allergies. TV interviewed an older lady at the airport who was leaving town to go home. She had planned to see Celine for 6 months and was leaving disappointed.
Well what about us? We paid extortion prices and traveled 1400 miles to see Celine. We were told by the concierge at our hotel, that Celine would probably be cancelled for the rest of the week. This can't happen.
So I did what I always did in business, I didn't take "no" for an answer. My bride and I wandered over to the Ceasar Palace box office to find out what the options were. Well, I learned I could not get refund directly for my cancelled tickets because my broker was the name on the tickets and he got the credit. I would have to wait until I got home until I could submit my claim to the broker. Then, good news. Celine was expected to be back the next night but there were no seats available. Of course! They were always sold out. While the attendant was looking at her screen, a block of seats became available. Apparently somebody had cancelled. Did we want the tickets? Are you kidding? Sign us up! These were better tickets, 5 rows back from the stage and a lot more expensive. We charged two tickets to Celine for Friday night. Whew! Think about this. I originally bought two tickets to Celine at double the retail price and I couldn't get an immediate refund AND I had just charged two more expensive tickets to Celine for Friday night. Over $1,000 worth of tickets to see Celine and we hadn't seen the performance.
Celines's status on Friday remained a concern. With allergies, who knows? We checked the box office at Ceasar's late Friday afternoon and they said she was in the building. In the building! That was nothing but good news.
I know the love of my life talked to her special angels and her dreams really did come true. The Celine Dion performance came off without a hitch. An audience of 5,000 watched a superb performance. She really does have a fantastic voice and the supporting cast along with big screen visuals made it a spectacular performance. I'd recommend it. Even to the non-Oprah disciples.
All was right with the world. The primary reason to go to Vegas had been achieved. Mom was happy. Dad was happy.
Actually this blog is dripping with sarcasm to make it interesting. The whole Vegas trip was really a delight and a good time was had by all. I've been promised a full refund on my cancelled tickets.
To my bride of 45 years, Happy Anniversary.
If you wish upon a star your dreams really do come true.
Love,
Dad(Just Chas.)
Shelby and I spent the last full day of our Las Vegas trip with Aleene and Lowell Dyer. Lowell was a colleague of mine while at Ripon Foods. They had journeyed 8 hours from Sacramento, California to Vegas and it was nice to see them.
During our visit, I coaxed Lowell into describing his basketball exploits his senior year in high school and there was an eerie similarity to my senior experience (read Almost Perfet).
Lowell played basketball for Richmond High School in California. They were the "Oilers" because of the oil storage and refining operation in Richmond. Richmond, for those of you that don't know, is located in the north San Franciso Bay area apparently near the Ocean. 20,000 population. The school year was 1952-53. The Richmond Oilers had a very good team. Several 6ft.4in. forwards and some guy name Mike Farmer at center measuring 6ft.7in. Lowell played guard and was 6ft. In 1953 that was a pretty tall team. Well, like my experience, the Richmond Oilers were undefeated going into the last 3 games of the year. Glory was in sight. They too could be perfect if they just "win out".
Yep, you guessed it. Fate stepped in and Mike Farmer, the big center, came down with appendicitis. The prognosis was that he would not play the last 3 games.
I can't take you through a step by step dramatization of the end of the season but playing the 3rd last game of the year without their big man, the Oilers lost by 1 point. Damn! One loss.
Then came the 2nd last game of the year, again without Farmer. The Richmond Oilers actually won. Still one loss. A terrific final game was now set up.
The last game of the year was a home. They were playing their fierce rival that also had only one loss. No Mike Farmer! I can only imagine but I bet the place was rocking. In their first meeting during the season, Lowell sunk a the last shot of the game to win by two points. Well the final game wasn't as dramatic as my last game in high school, but the Oilers also lost. Lowell couldn't tell me the final score but he said it "wasn't very close". Like my senior year, the season came down to the final game of the year. Close but no cigar.
Lowell ended the season as the Oilers leading scorer with 14 points per game. He got a basketball scholarhip to Stanford and played all four years for them. I think he varsity lettered his final 3 years.
Mike Farmer (having recovered from appendicitis) graduated from Richmond High School the next year in 1954. Richmond Oilers did win the league championship his final year. He got a full basketball scholarhip to San Francisco University. He was a team-mate of some guy named Bill Russell and helped USF win two NCAA Championships. Bill Russell went on to play in the NBA for the Boston Celtics and is considered to be one of the greatest players of all time.
Mike Farmer, I think went on to the NBA. I know he was one hell of a player.
I asked Lowell if he had seen Mike Farmer since high school and he said he hadn't. You'd think the friendship and team-mate status would have entitled Lowell some free tickets to an NBA game but no such luck. I guess like all high school relationships, time creates distance.
So you see Grasshoppers, another person experienced "an almost perfect" season and I'm sure Lowell reflects on what could have been. He can take solace in the fact that he was part of something very special. In truth it shaped his life.
So with this entry, a sincere thank you to Lowell for sharing his experience and to both Lowell and Aleene for joining us in Vegas. It was very, very special.
Love,
Dad(Just Chas.)
I was reminded of a childhood project when I saw two yuppies out riding their bicyle built for two. Spring has sprung.
John Zelm and I were downtown neighbors in Plymouth. I lived above the City Club and he was next door above May Kaestner's clothing store. He was two years older than me. I must have been around 12 years old when we dreamed up this bicycle project.
Like all kids with "nothing to do mom, I'm bored", John and I decided to build a "bike for two". We did it from old bicycle parts we could find (no Christopher, you do not have a corner on old parts). We cut the back wheel off one old bike and then chopped off the front steering assembly from a second bike. The Implement Company located right behind the City Club agreed to weld the frames together. Our biggest problem was getting the sprockets between the front person and back person lined up so that the common chain drive would stay on. It turned out pretty good except that the chain to the back of the bike kept coming off when we tried to go fast (put too much pressure on it). With parts, donated labor of the Implement Company employees and our own sweat, we probably spent $15-$20. Not bad. We probably had the only bicycle built for two in Plymouth.
When the common chain came off the rear person would come crashing down on the bars and you would walk funny for a while.
Well older John Zelm never liked sharing the bike with me. Remember I was two years younger and that was "yuk". He also felt I didn't peddle as hard. That part was probably true. The City had repaved the main street in town (actually the total length of Mill Street) and widened it out. There had been no traffic allowed for 6 months. To celebrate the reopening of the street, they had a bicycle race from one end of the street to the other. I don't remember what the prize was.
John Zelm thought he could smoke everybody with the "bike for two" because it was two people on a common frame. He had entered the bike and decided that Jim Barnes, a friend in his class would ride with him, not me. Asshole!
Well being the sport that I am, I went to the starting line to watch my creation run the race with John/Jim at the controls. The flag came down, there was a frenzy of bikes taking off and there sat the bike for two. With all the pressure put on the chain drive to the back of the bike it had come off. It was going nowhere. And, John Zelm was writhing around in pain because he had come down hard on the bar. Oh, poor John. It served the son of a gun right for not including me. Then I smiled because that could have been me limping around.
The bike eventually ended up being sold for $10 but it always warms me to think about the two bastards that tried to steal my thunder.
My opinion is that a "bicycle built for two" is meant to be shared by two young lovers where the woman can carry the whole load by doing more of the peddling. Just like she does in life! Did I get it right?
Enjoy the warmer weather.
Love,
Dad(Just Chas.)
The choice this morning was to talk about annuities or "what I believe in". I know your minds can only absorb so much financial philosophy so "what I believe in" wins out.
In the movie Bull Durham, Susan Surandon asks Kevin Kostner what he really believes in. His response is "soul, dawn, an evening susnset, the small of a womans back, a hanging curve ball, slow wet sloppy kisses, Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, soft-core pornography and opening presents on Christmas morning". I was moved. Here was a man who wasn't a mindless jock.
I pondered what my answer would be. The person closest to me wrote down on a piece of paper what my answer to Susan would be.
I believe in .......
Soul
The power of intuition
Reincarnation
The Golden Rule
Crisp, white, tailored open neck blouses
Banana popsicles
The swish of a pure jump shot
The ritual of baseball
Pagentry of Badger Football
The power of money
The existence of evil
Magic of Christmas
Persistence prevails
Johnsonville Brats
Johnsonville brats? Actually over the years I've never found brats that tasted as good and occasionally I get a craving. Yep, it stays on the list.
Nobody has ever asked me for my list before. I can only dream that they would.
What is your list? Quick! Off the top of your head. Don't spend weeks reflecting on it. Share it with me.
Love,
Dad(Just Chas.)
I watched the NCAA Basketball Tournament over the last few weeks. It is fun if you know just a little about the different teams. "Upsets" make it interesting.
I couldn't help thinking about the "zone". This a place where people go when things always go right. It is a place where amazing things happen. If you get in this zone, personal confidence is sky high. You don't want it to end.
Michael Jordon was playing in an NBA Championship game in the 90's and he was in a zone. He made an impossible twisting basket and on his way up the court to play defense, he shrugged his shoulders and had a whimsical grin as if to say "when you are hot, you're hot". He had found the zone. He had an amazing game.
I remember a practice basketball game when I was a senior in high school. The seniors were playing all the other aspiring undergraduate students. I made my first basket by pulling it out of my left ear (or some other difficult place) and I can still see the shot ripping the net. And that was the way it went. Shot after shot after shot. Give me the ball. It was going down baby. I was in the zone. I could do no wrong. And then? And then the game was over. The spell disappeared and I was back to normal. But it was magical.
I've been in the zone on the golf course where it just feels like every shot is going where you want. Putts go in. Chips are amazing. And then it ends.
I'm sure everybody reading this can think of situations where things were going so well, you didn't want it to end. Music. Sports. Dance. Romance. Oops, I'm not sure romance applies. For romance, stupor might be more appropriate. You get the idea.
In the basketball game last night, North Carolina beat Illinois. The big man, Sean May for North Carolina made 10 out of 11 basket attempts. He rebounded. He blocked shots. He was in the zone. It was also his birthday. Imagine being in a zone on your birthday.
My sincere wish is that you all experience the "zone". I hope it happens for long periods of time and often. You can not plan it. You can only recognize it when it occurs. You can keep putting yourself in situations where the zone might occur.
The zone be with you!
Love,
Dad
On the eve of our 45th wedding anniversay I'd like to reflect on the moments in life where a significant change takes place. These events mark a point in time where your life changes forever. You don't know it at the time, but hindsight is revealing.
Yes, April 2, 1960 defines our wedding. For me, I remember meeting Shelby in September, 1954. We were members of a "float committee" designing a decorated wagon for the Homecoming parade. Shelby volunteered her home as a place to plan our entry. We were freshmen in high school, tremendously insecure and impressionable. For some reason I remember the girl in a sparkling white blouse with a flashy smile. As Oprah would say, "it was a magic moment". I was smitten.
What followed was high school romance. Chuckie from downtown Plymouth living above the City Club Rooms. Shelby, a good catholic girl living in the ideal family house up on the hill. Rich people lived up there. I made many trips up that hill. Going together during high school reduces many anxieties. Homecoming and Prom are givens. Throw in the oldsmobile convertible and you have very special times.
Commiting to college was important for me, but not a magic moment. The eminent arrival of Deborah Kay was! Life took on a needed direction. My studying to be a high school math teacher turned to pursing an engneering degree at Marquette. That was significant because it served as the basis for my life career. Shelby's folks made the schooling possible. And then there was Debbie. She changed the life certainly of Shelby and Chuck, but also the whole Steger clan. She represented the energy of life. She got lots of special attention. All first borns do.
The coming of Kelly and Chris over the next few years were no less joyous. They made life very busy and meaningful. The next magic moment that changed my life, however, was starting at Vollrath Company becaue it was a journey that would let me gain confidence and grow personally. The money wasn't bad either. It was a special 17 years.
During the Vollrath years, Paul and Margaret appeared on the scene. They were kind of like a second family becaue they were distant from the "early three kids". If you don't do it right the first time, you get a second chance.
I would say that buying our first cottage was a magic moment. It served as the basis for more than 25 years of family entertainment. The boats, the rafts, the family "get togethers". It was a catalyst for our lives. I think that every child has his/her memories of the cottages.
I'm not sure moving to Appleton and starting employment at Ripon Foods is a magic moment. It did signify the bridge that got us from Vollrath/Sheboygan to retirement/Appleton.
It has been a journey. It all began with Shelby. Life is meant to be shared and I can't think of a better life partner. We had tremendous early years filled with infatuation, then years of building a family and the joy in watching the growth of each child.
For all the times that Shelby felt she was raising the kids alone, for the times that she needed a much need "break" and I wasn't listening and for never being the dance partner she yearned for, I hope she forgives me. I have never stopped loving her and she has made my life complete.
So you see, anniversary dates mark time but it is "magic moments" and special people that define life. Shelby has been the one constant in my life and I have never doubted her support and trust. She has given her life to me. What else is there?
Love,
Dad(Just Chas.)