Mid-Week Milestones

This week marks a couple milestones for us.

• My oldest son is graduating college
• My oldest car reached the 300K mile club

I don’t know which is more remarkable.
Eric has successfully graduated, or soon officially will be, from George Mason University with a degree in Computer Engineering.

So if anybody out there could use a good young energetic IT guy who likes network security and database management, let me know! I think I just might know somebody who would love to help you out. 😉
Seriously feel free to contact me. . .
Eric had the same deal that all our kids have.  If you stay home after high school, you WILL go to a local college full time and earn a degree.  The alternative, other than going to college someplace else, in which case we would help up to a point financially, was not particularly attractive to either him or us.
Needless to say, he picked George Mason and lived at home.
This worked out well for everyone.  He got a degree with a lot less expense (no college room and board fees), very little debt and we got a live-in who would help with the kids and shopping from time to time.
A win-win situation if you ask me.
Now the deal is done and sorry Eric, we love you, but the real world awaits!  Go get it!
Regarding my car and the 300K mile club. . .

I have a 1997 Acura 2.2 CL which despite its Brand Name is an American Car.  In fact, the CL was the first Acura to be built in the United States.  All CL’s were built at the Honda Marysville, OH plant.  I bought it second hand back in 2002 from a local used car dealer and yes I approached my purchase with a certain amount of skepticism and I had a plan.

The car, remarkably, sat on the lot for well over a month, actually nearly two.  I think I first saw it and test drove it after about the 3rd week that they took possession.  Of course, the price the dealer had was, IMHO, a bit high and more than I wanted to spend and yes he used many of the standard “sales” tactics to try and convince me otherwise.

But, like I said, I had a plan.

I kept coming back every Monday to see if it was still there and negotiate a better price. I actually had spent quite a bit of time looking at different cars and ended up liking this particular CL the best.  Not because of the price, not because of the reliability, not because of the performance, but rather the reason I liked this car the best was that it was one of the few I could comfortable sit in and drive. I spend up to 2 – 3 hours every day driving so I better be comfortable while doing it.
I knew I wanted this car. I also knew I did not want to pay the dealers price.
The dealer knew I wanted this car. It was just a matter of time to see how all this would play out.
The longer the car sat on the lot, the better my negotiating hand became.
I ended up taking it on more than one test drive; in fact, I conveniently dropped it off at my favorite mechanic during one of those “test drives” and got a clean bill of health from him.
So, on my last weekly visit, which happened to be the last week of the second month for the dealer, I nonchalantly said, “I see it’s still here” 😉 .
It was at that time, after at least 3 -4 weeks of me coming back in, that a price I felt I could afford was negotiated and the prize was mine. I have enjoyed it and comfortably sat in it ever since!
And the best part, I knocked nearly 25% off the dealers original price.

Money, Cows, and Cars

So this past week has been kind of crazy.

It started with would turn out to be a weird theme and this picture,

which my nephew called the worlds best squirt gun.

Then this post on cow tipping.

Then an ad on the back of a car for this company.

And speaking of Cars… Remember my son and the guardrail?

Well, it seems there was a lot more damage than initially thought, and the cost of repairs was almost equal to the value of the car.

Which = TOTAL LOSS.

So now we have a check from the insurance company to deposit, one less car (for the moment), and yet to be determined higher insurance costs…

Which brings about the third part of this post; Money.

At least the stock market had a good week for gains.

DOW was up 4%
S&P was up 4.5%
NASDAQ was up 4.5%

My current holding left over from last month CISG was up 8.75% for the week.

And my Starting Lineup Watch list was up 6.31% for the week with the top player CTFO up a whopping 32.74%! I had been thinking of selling CISG for buying CTFO but did not. Oh Well, I can’t complain. 8% in one week is still really good and overall I am sitting at about 20% gain with this stock since last month.

You can always check on any of my starting lineup stocks with the yahoo finance badge I have posted on the right sideline.

I’ll have to take a closer look at my stocks to see if it makes sense to stay with CISG or go with one of my current Watch list stocks.

So I’ll leave you with this thought which was all brought about by a conversation with my Son’s Girlfriends Roommate from South Korea.

Seems that this is her first time in the US and goes out to see anything and everything ever chance she gets and take lots of pictures…

Including Cows!

Of course we all love cows and think they are just simply the greatest animals to ever walk the earth.

Why….

Because they are always Out-Standing In Their Field!