Happy Anniversary.

No, I didn’t secretly get married on this date. Ten years ago on this very day as a sophomore in college I walked into an Olde Discount Stockbrokers office and made my first ever stock purchase. And I believe it was a Tuesday as well. I had passed by the office several times previously scoping it out and I really wanted to get my hands on the research reports they had just inside the front door. Remember this was before online trading and research really blew up. I know it is incredibly dorky to say but that was a very memorable day in the history of my life. That day I pretty much put all the money I had ever saved up to that point into three stocks, Coke, Pepsi, and Johnson & Johnson. $1500 each. I believe it was the first semester of my sophomore year that I had this kinda grumpy old professor for Accounting who for some reason I want to say looked a lot like Bob S. from the SEC. He was the first person that ever talked about stocks and stock analysis. He was always talking up the big multi-nationals like Coke and Gillette. He made us do a fundamental analysis report on Ann Taylor Stores. After that I was hooked and switched my major from Management to Finance. The next semester I bought those stocks and paid $41.75 per trade in commissions but it only took me 6 more months to wise up and open an Etrade account and buy my first stock online. I still hold the original shares of PEP and JNJ but sold all the Coke only to buy some new shares a couple years ago. They all turned out to be very good purchases, especially the JNJ. The current dividend yield on those original JNJ shares is something like 6 or 7% per year now. Those days in my early finance classes are the only times I can remember that I was ever excited and interested in going to class. So it’s been ten years and I have to say that the excitement level isn’t quite the same but I’m certainly not bored of it like all the other subjects. I just remembered that it was also at about that time that I switched from grabbing the Sports section first to the Business section. And I still do.

I find it interesting that the accounting professor was one of a handful of people that had a big influence on a major decision about the direction my life would take yet I never saw him again after that semester was finished. I wonder if I've ever influence a someone's major life decision?

My recommendation for this week is that you all refer all your friends and family to Waterford Financial Management for investment services! ;o) Seriously though, my recommendation is that you go check out the Green Festival at McCormick Place this weekend. It is cheap and should be quite interesting. Free bike valet too.

Have a good week.

You've Got Mail.

Well, it finally happened. No, I didn’t get married. My Employer ID number finally came in from the IRS. That was Monday night so on Tuesday morning I registered with the IL treasury and then headed to the bank to open a business checking account. Turns out that since I’ve been such a loyal customer to Citibank that they will give me a free business checking account. Well, that and I have to sign up for online banking, overdraft protection, and a credit card as conditions for not paying a fee. But the catch is that they are going to do everything short of a body cavity search before they open the checking account. I found it a little strange since I’m not asking to borrow money but just accessing money that I’m going to deposit in the account. So it may be a week before the account is open. And then yesterday morning I got a call from the NASD (no they’re not busting me already) and they gave me the username, password, & CRD # for the business so I can register with the securities department in MI. So things are progressing nicely. It’s been the busiest week for the firm so far.

Last weekend I had my friend Amy from New Orleans here to visit. She was an AmeriCorps volunteer with me in Jacksonville. We had a good time and went to a few cool places around the city. On Thursday we went to the Body Worlds 2 exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. It was pretty much the same as last time I went but still freaky. There were ridiculous crowds though. On Friday we went to the Museum of Contemporary Photography at 600 S. Michigan. They had a pretty cool exhibit where the photographer took the same picture simultaneously from various positions. It was cool to see the same person with the different backgrounds from each direction. I recommend it. It’s free but they want a donation and it would only take 10 minutes to look at the exhibit (maybe a half hour for the whole museum). Then we stopped by the Archicenter, which, of course, is one of my favorite spots. Nothing too new there. Then we hit the Chicago Cultural Society, which is also on Michigan. They had some interesting work there too. If you are on a tight budget those three places are good bets because they are all free, all on Michigan Ave, and all within walking distance. And if you do it on a Thursday, you can hit the Art Institute for free too. We also went to the Cubby Bear on Wednesday night for some live music. And on Saturday night we went to see a double feature documentary at this cool little theatre on Milwaukee as part of the “Chicago International Documentary Festival.” The first movie was about the Ukraine during the 20s, 30s, & 40s, and was actually in English and the other movie was about fallout from Chernobyl, which is also in the Ukraine. Unfortunately Kramer wasn’t around to say Ukraine is weak and feeble. The best part was the theatre. You walk in off this crappy street straight into the theatre. It was just a big room with art on the walls and about 10 rows of 6 wide stadium seating. And the seats were oversized, rocked, and had huge arm rests with cup-holders. They even provided free wine and water, it was the perfect complement to the Quizno’s we had for dinner.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend and I let’s also hope that this damn cold weather goes away. Adios.

PS - Pictures are from my trip to the Jax zoo last month with Heather. That giraffe's head was about 6 inches from us. And since I talked up Heather a couple posts ago I thougt I'd provide a picture.

Damn Cold Weather.

Every time I think we're out, it just keeps pulling us back in, Winter that is. Bad Godfather III reference.

I've made a little progress on the business in the past week. I have a PO Box for all business mail now. Speaking of that, if anyone ever considered getting a PO Box from the UPS store I would tell you to check out the Post Office first. There is a UPS store about 3 blocks from my house so I stopped in to get prices. They charge $50 a month for the same box I'm getting at the Post Office for $11. Who is paying that? Just seems too disproportionate to be competitive. I also filed paperwork to begin registering with the State of MI under the Securities Act there. Still waiting on the IRS though.

Last week I finally went onto You Tube to check out the video for this crazy song that I kept hearing on Alt Nation. It is by Modest Mouse. For as crazy as the song is (I only understood about a quarter of the lyrics and when I looked them up it didn't make any more sense) the video is ten times crazier. I found it hilarious because it is just so abstract (weird). So my recommendation this week for anyone who has any interest in alt rock is to go to You Tube and pull up Modest Mouse's "Dashboard." Even though I can't understand the song, I still like it but that may be just because the radio beat it into my head so many times. I'm not above a good payola brainwashing. While you are checking that out you might as well check out the Smashing Pumpkins' "Geek USA" as that is my all-time favorite song. Watch the live version with the clowns on stage.

Well, I have a friend from Jacksonville who now lives in New Orleans coming in for a couple days so I'm off to the airport. Have a good week and enjoy the cold.