A Life Time Routine~~~~

Hello My Darling Divas,

It was so strange and yet not strange to wake up yesterday morning and finding cold, wet fog surrounding the house, feeling so cut off from the world.

The aroma of coffee was enough to perk me up, but it was so cold that even Princess has to wear a sweater; I have a special doggie heating pad so that her joints are not in pain.

The sun finally shone wetly through the fog, and as it lifted I was surprised to see a small flock of ducks had taken shelter under some of the bushes, on the mulch covering. I guess it was warm enough for them, poor things. I keep a small metal bin of duck feed in the garage and I put some out for them in a pan, Juanita has ‘clucked’ at me saying they make a mess on the wooden deck and that her son-in-law will have to come and wash it off, but even I have heard her muttering in Spanish “poor things”, I smile thinking about her soft side and yes her son-in-law will have to come and wash/scrub the area.

This last Sunday Juanita took a break from visiting her family and came by the house to take down all the indoor decorations while Manuel took down and stored the outside lights and put them away for another year, I don’t keep a live tree anymore, the artificial ones seem to work very well, then he and Juanita went to join the rest of her family for a special mass for Epiphany, I told her to have fun with her family she is to have a vacation through Jan 11. She didn’t have to but it is traditional in her family to be sure that all the Christmas decorations are removed by January 6 the Feast of the Epiphany, otherwise one would have bad luck for the year. I think it’s really to show that one is not lazy, but it was very sweet of her to help me.

For the last few days I’ve been starting to put together my paperwork for my Tax Preparer, now it’s just waiting for the paper work from the government agencies, my banks and my broker and put it all together in a packet.

Now as a reminder I want all of you to go to my blog posting for January 4 and 5, 2008, in these two blogs you will have information to help you put your paper work in order, especially if one of your resolutions is to be better organized.

I have another Magazine to recommend to all of you. It is again our old standby Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, the February 2009 issue. Again they focus on how to rebuild your retirement portfolio, plus stocks that pay 5% or more.

I was happy to see that one of the stocks that I have an investment in, Briggs & Stratton (their symbol is BGG) was mentioned, granted it’s dividend share isn’t big, but what I did over a number of years is simply let the dividends buy more shares, (of course there is taxes to consider) so that I do get a nice little income now (not much but nice enough to put into a rainy day fund).

Remember Darlings, I always believe in something that is going to remain for the long haul and has less chance of going under.

A number of you who’ve contacted me, via my comments section (and please forgive me if I’ve deleted your comments but they were long and saying pretty much the same thing) were asking ‘You seem like such a social butterfly, how you keep up with all of this?’ or words to that effect.

Well Darlings it’s this---the key word is discipline, I have a schedule that I do adhere to, but I do vary it depending upon my health, weather conditions, commitments, appointments, etc.

Let us consider the week as going from Monday to Sunday, although calendars show the week as starting on Sunday and ending on Saturday, but think of it as I suggested.

Monday is for me is the start of my business week and I use it to find out how the stock market and other financial institutions are starting out, so that is a “work day for me”, while I watch what the market is doing I’m also reading all the news in regards to events both nation-wide and overseas, because I believe in the domino effect, what happens in one place will affect things and the economy in another. Having an idea of history is important.

This is also the time when I will flag stocks or bonds that show some promise of being a good investment, I don’t invest every week, most of the time I just monitor the progress of stocks holdings.

Tuesdays is when I make or return phone calls, I’m always careful in calling my friends in finance I know that they have busy work schedules, if they are unable to speak with me, I’ll make an appointment for when I can call them. This would also include my broker, now I know many of you invest on line and that is fine, I’ve done this for so many years that I prefer the personal touch.

Tuesdays is also a good day to call credit card companies, business companies, etc. if you have a dispute over your billing or to make doctor or dental appointments, beauty shop appointments etc. I try to have the calls completed in the morning; the only time I’ll make an exception is when I’m having my car maintance done.

I continue to read the news or watch CNN especially with on going situations.

Wednesdays is when I make financial decisions if I might buy either more shares in a stock, continue to watch it, invest in a stock that looks promising, or flag those that look like they may be in trouble. I also use Wednesdays to balance my banking accounts and for bill paying as well as certain days that I have flagged when I know certain amounts are going to be deducted to pay bills, this way I can keep tabs on my income and outgo.

I do not necessarily buy stocks on that day and not every week, it could be months before I make a purchase.

This is also the day my house keeper clips coupons and we do grocery shopping when I get home.

Thursdays I meet with my “Business Ladies Who Lunch” I find that this is a good time for me to hear what is happening in their business world and if they have heard of anything that is shifting, these are savvy ladies and if anything feels “off” with them they are usually right.

Fridays are when I look in to see how the markets have faired and how the flagged stocks are performing. I make notes and check on my notes from Monday and Wednesday.

I try to make Fridays my final decision days as well, if I’m going to buy or sell, but most of the choices I make is for the “long haul” that is what I prefer in my stocks. An excellent source is Value Line Investment Survey, some people prefer the print edition and some the on line source. I like the print because sometimes things will jump quickly out at me, but, and I know it seems redundant, I also subscribe to the on line version only because sometimes my print copy doesn’t come in a timely manner in the mail. I also do not keep a print copy beyond 6 months (it does add up since its weekly) but what I do is tear out those stocks that I’ve flagged for future reference and put them in a folder for safe keeping.

Saturdays, the only thing I do is check the news and see how things have closed I use the rest of the day to pick up and drop off any Dry Cleaning, run errands, and anything else.

Sundays is when I catch up on my reading both news and magazine articles I also use Sundays I try to go to Church at least twice a month and sometimes more, I find that getting up early even on Sundays keeps me on my toes and to not get lazy, then on the early part of the afternoon is use that for planning my week and looking over my “Day runner” for appointments and create my “tickle file” after that on the later Sunday afternoon’s I go to the Library and quickly read a weeks worth of Christian Science Monitors newspapers, drop off any magazines I’m done with in the exchange bin, look for at least one good book to read to off set my business reading and select several music CD’s for the week.

Now it is not all business for me, I try to end my day after the close of the New York Stock Exchange which is 3 hours a head of us since I’m on the west coast, but I do check in on the performance of a few of my overseas stocks.

Once the market has closed then I use the rest of the day for any appointments, or do some shopping, I make every effort to go to the gym 3 to 4 times a week, not necessarily the same day, and before I go to the gym I give my little Darling Diva Princess her little walk. It’s just several blocks to the beach and then along the beach trail and back, it’s a good time for me to think and muse on things, of course when crossing the streets one has to be careful and Princess cannot be hurried in leaving her “messages” and her “Mommy” does have to clean up after her.

Because it gets dark so early we go about an hour before Sunset, during the Summer of course we go later,

Weekends are for fun, sometimes I have things planned and sometimes I have nothing planned, when I have quiet evenings I use it to catch up on correspondence, writing for my Blog, calling friends or family, catch up on my reading.

When I come across an article that has promising information I first flag it and then when I’m done with the magazine I remove the article and put it into recycling, or if I have not removed anything out of the magazine I take it to the Library and put it into their magazine exchange bin.

And I have to admit it is a lot of reading, I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, our local paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Business Times (includes the Bay Area) and most of the magazines that I have mentioned. My library is my home office and I have a fast DSL line although I’m thinking of upgrading.

I do go into the city Mondays through Thursdays, and on occasion on Fridays, I rent a very small office space from my late husbands old firm where I keep much of my file information and I have a computer on line with a T2 line that is part of the office building, I am able to access the use of that for my use, now I had to get a business license, but I am in business for myself, I do not take clients, but because I am in business for myself I can take tax deductions. It’s complicated but it works well for me.

Years ago when I was learning about investing from my father and mother (yes she was a very sharp lady) and going to college to learn business, I started this routine and kept it up when I got married, I was fortunate in that I had a staff to help with the upkeep of the house, and although I’ve down sized my home (which was a good thing for me) Juanita although an employee for me, is also my helpmate, she keeps a keen eye on the house and makes sure things are run well, she also comes to me if there is a situation, I really view her as a partner, that is why is was so important for me to increase her income and improve her medical and dental insurance. I also established a retirement fund for her when she feels she is unable to work for me anymore.

I’ve also guided her daughter and son-in-law in solid investments to help them gain a better income. One of Juanita’s grand daughters is going to college and also has a keen sense of investment banking, she is a very sharp young lady and has started making modest investments with money she got from working part time and of all things, collecting cans and bottles, the income she’s getting from her investments is paying for most of her college, which has taken a burden off of her parents.

Juanita’s other grandchildren and children are doing well following her daughters’ Constance’s lead.

Now I know a number of you are wondering how can I possibly be able to do all this reading, it’s simple, I can scan an article in a magazine to see if it’s worth reading in depth, with newspapers, I skip the fluff articles, although Juanita loves the gardening and cooking section, and go directly to the financial section and then I scan local, national and international news as it would relate to affecting the economy, I save the comics, theatre and movie reviews for when I take a brief break. After all, the mind does have to play. In the evenings if I’m not going out, and television is a bore I will read for a bit from a novel and then meditate to relax my mind before going to bed

By meeting my “Business Ladies Who Lunch” on Thursdays, it also gives me a break from routine and keeps my mind relaxed and active as well.

I also offer suggestions to my friends if they are in a “puzzlement’ over something; not too long ago my dear friend “Mean Kitty” and I were having coffee and she told me that she was thinking of closing her savings account at a particular bank, I asked her why and she said that because she could not maintain $300 in her account for a full 30 or 31 days that $5 dollars is taken out as a fee. I suggested to her to ask her bank officer why that was happening, but do it in the bank, I told her that I have several standard savings accounts with attached checking and what I do is have once a month a certain amount automatically transferred from my checking to my savings and there is no fee and you can have the savings account go as low as you want, I told her to find out if that is possible and find out what is the minimum she can transfer without having to have fee charged.

That worked for her. She now has $10.00 a month transferred she doesn’t feel it, and it will build up in her account and as her finances increase she can have more money transferred if she wishes.

I try to post my blog when I can, and I write my blog when I can between everything else. Some postings may take a little longer, and of course I do take vacations when I feel that things will hold just fine. And since my investments have been for the long haul with solid companies I’ve very seldom have had to do any sell off.

Now that so called banker Madloff who got arrested, well years ago he approached my (now deceased)husband and me at a function and we did get together for lunch with him when we were in his area, and although he spoke of glowing reports on things, there was something about how he was describing things that made me want to hold back.

When my husband and I had a chance to get away from Madloff’s influence, we looked over what he had presented to us, and we both agreed that there was something a little “off” we couldn’t put our finger on it, but it didn’t have that solid feeling like Apple Corporation did when we first invested in Apple. We wisely decided to not invest with him; my husband felt it was some sort of pyramid scheme, which could collapse. Although it did appear to be solid, there was something just “off” with it. Now people have lost their retirement funds and Madloff is in jail. If it sounds too good to be true it usually is some sort of trap.

But that is my routine, I do have a beauty routine, an exercise routine, but I won’t bore you with those.

Now a quick investment suggestion, go to Value Line on line they have a 6 tips for investing or selecting stocks, an educational section, Do read that Darlings, also I'm going to look further into Logtectic, they supply add on's to computers, they've just been listed on Value Line For January 9, 2009 and they seem to be a good investment, I'm always cautious on computer stocks, so I don't have many (here today, gone tomorrow) but they seem to be a good solid company, so it's something I may take a few shares out on, and see how they do for the year, don't go overboard, always be cautious and always diversify your portfolio.

Just remember my Dear Divas and Diva’s in Training, you are in business, you are your own CEO’s of your life and your life is your business, Remember That.

Until Anon Darlings, Kisses.