Baci’s Life Blog

BARRON’S COVER
Even Better Than Bonds
By ANDREW BARY | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR
With bonds fully priced, it may be time to swap into preferred shares, utility stocks and other investments that produce income but offer protection if interest rates rise.
TIRED OF THE PUNY YIELDS ON YOUR BONDS? Worried that interest rates and inflation will rise, clobbering their prices? Now may be the time to start moving into high-yielding stocks, while scaling back fixed-income holdings.

Bonds rode the price roller coaster up as interest rates fell. They could take a scary plunge if rates shoot up.
This means buying utility and telecom stocks, which have lagged behind the overall stock market this year, as well as master limited partnerships focused on the transportation of natural gas and oil-related products. Other alternatives to traditional bonds include bank preferred stock and convertible securities.

In contrast to bond yields, many of which are near multi-decade lows, yields on these alternatives often run in the 5%-to-9% range. The underlying investments also offer the potential for capital gains and rising income to offset inflation. In addition, income from most of these investments now benefits from favorable tax treatment.

Chuck Lieberman, chief investment officer at Advisors Capital Management, a Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., investment advisor, calls this “investing for income with growth. This strategy offers growth of income and principal, in contrast with a fixed-income portfolio.” Lieberman is partial to master limited partnerships, high-dividend stocks, preferred shares and convertibles. Another alternative to U.S. bonds is foreign sovereign debt, which offers a hedge against a weakening dollar.

Master limited partnerships could be the past decade’s quietest investment success, generating annualized returns of 18%, against 15% for gold and about zilch for the Standard & Poor’s 500. While the MLP market has rallied sharply this year, major operators like Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (ticker: KMP), Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners (BWP) still yield 7% to 8% and have good growth prospects.

Bill Gross, the managing director of Pimco, the giant bond manager, wrote recently in his monthly commentary that electric-utility stocks looked attractive. He noted that their dividend yields now exceed those on utility bonds, while offering the added benefit of more favorable tax treatment than bond interest. “Growth in earnings should mimic the U.S. economy as it always has, and importantly, utilities yield 5% to 6%, not 0.01%,” Gross wrote, the 0.01% yield referring to the pitifully low yields on money-market funds.

The two major U.S. telecom operators, Verizon Communications (VZ) and AT&T (T), have trailed the S&P this year and their shares yield more than 6%. Preferred stock from Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo yield 8% to 9%. Those yields are down from the teens at the market’s bottom in March, but still look attractive, given the banks’ improving balance sheets and a recovering economy.

Many investors view the stock market as a minefield and the bond market as a haven. But at very low yield levels, bonds become dangerous. “If there is a little bit of a bubble somewhere, it’s in the bond market,” Lieberman says.

The “safest” part of the market, Treasuries, seems to be the most overvalued, and high-grade corporate bonds don’t look much better. Treasury yields range from just 0.85% on two-year notes to 4.4% on 30-year bonds, while high-grade corporates generally offer 3% to 5%. Federally backed mortgage securities also look unattractive at 4% yields. These securities are apt to return little or nothing after inflation and taxes.

While investors are apt to have their principal repaid if they hold their bonds until they mature, they will suffer losses if rates rise and they sell prior to maturity. As for investors in bond funds, they typically have no guarantee of getting their money back. And the funds often levy stiff management fees on their holdings.

Vanguard is an exception, but even with the help of low fees, its big mortgage and muni funds don’t yield much. Both the $37 billion Vanguard GNMA Fund (VFIIX) and the $26 billion Vanguard Intermediate-Term Tax-Exempt Fund (VWITX) yield about 3%. These funds carry annual expenses of less than one-quarter of a percentage point, roughly a quarter of what their rivals charge. It’s tough to justify taking a fee of a percentage point for a fund invested in 3% or 4% securities, but many fund companies do.

Low yields haven’t prevented a stampede into bond funds, which have had more than $40 billion in net inflows during each of the past three months from risk-averse investors who have been pulling money from domestic stock funds.

The Treasury and mortgage markets look particularly vulnerable because they are being supported by the Federal Reserve’s keeping short rates near zero and by its purchases of these securities. The Fed’s $1.25 trillion program to buy mortgage securities is due to end March 31.

Essentially, bond investors are giving cheap money to American business, the Treasury, new home buyers and overleveraged homeowners. The game may end badly for bondholders because rates are apt to rise in 2010 and 2011 from what appear to be artificially low levels.

The municipal market, a favorite of individual investors, looks overpriced for maturities of under 10 years, where yields are under 3%, and fairly priced for long-term maturities, where yields are around 5%. To get yields close to 6%, investors must buy dicier debt like that of California.

Many investors are chasing the junk-bond market, but the 50%-plus returns seen there this year will be unattainable in 2010, because yields have dropped to an average of 8% from 20% at the start of 2009. Yields on money-market funds are at or near zero, effectively resulting in a confiscation of investor money after inflation.

Real-estate investment trusts have attracted yield seekers, too. But REITs, up nearly 50% in the past 12 months, are no longer a bargain. Green Street Advisors, a Newport Beach, Calif., advisory firm, recently termed them “pricey,” in part on high valuations based on earnings relative to the S&P 500. Public-market values of real estate also are high compared with those in the private market. REIT dividend yields are averaging just 4%, and fundamentals in many sectors, including apartments and office buildings, look weak. Net operating income could fall in 2010 for the second straight year.

With all that in mind, here’s a look at some sectors that do provide decent yield alternatives to traditional bonds:

MASTER LIMITED PARTNERSHIPS: This $100 billion group is dominated by companies like Kinder Morgan, Enterprise Products and Magellan Midstream (MMP), which transport natural gas, jet fuel, heating oil, gasoline and other petroleum products.

Despite generating some of the best returns of any asset class in the past decade, MLPs are unfamiliar to most investors. That ought to change, because MLPs now provide 7%-to-8% dividend yields, and much of that income is tax-deferred. Dividend growth could run in the mid- to-high-single-digit range in the coming years, resulting in total annual returns above 10%. Kinder Morgan, one of the largest pipeline MLPs, recently said it will pay $4.40 in distributions in 2010, up 5% from 2009’s level. Its shares, at 56, yield 7.8%, based on the expected 2010 distribution.

“Think of an analogy to toll roads,” suggests Lieberman. “Pipelines are expensive to build, but operating costs are relatively low, which means they generate outstanding cash flow that services debt and finances sizable distributions to owners.” Pipelines are utility-like because their rates often are set by federal regulators.

Pipeline shares were slammed in late 2008 because of concern about reduced access to the capital markets. MLPs rely on equity and debt financing for expansion, as they typically pay out nearly all their annual cash flow in dividends. The fears about market access didn’t materialize and the stocks have come roaring back with the Alerian MLP Index (AMZ) up 65% in 2009 (with dividends included).

For many large master limited partnerships, 70% or more of their dividends — technically distributions — are tax-deferred. That’s because dividends usually are far greater than reported net income, largely as a result of noncash depreciation expenses.

Let’s say an MLP pays a $2 annual dividend, 80% of which is tax-deferred. An investor would owe income taxes on only 40 cents of that dividend (but the 40 cents would be taxed at regular-income rates, not the preferential dividend rate). The other $1.60 wouldn’t be taxed and instead would reduce the investor’s cost. If the investor paid $25 a share for an MLP, the cost basis would be reduced to $23.40. Taxes would be paid on the $1.60 when the shares are sold.

Many investors — particularly the elderly — simply hold MLP shares, with the intention of putting them in their estates. This essentially results in permanent tax deferral and a muni-like income stream, if the investor’s estate isn’t subject to federal inheritance taxes. Taxes on the sale of a long-held MLP can be high because an investor’s cost basis can drop toward zero after many years of dividends.

MLPs are best held in taxable accounts: they can cause tax headaches in IRAs and other tax-deferred accounts. Investors need to know that they will get an annual K-1 tax form, not a standard 1099, and that can complicate annual filings. Another wrinkle: MLPs often share annual income gains with general partners, or GPs, some of which are publicly traded. This can limit dividend increases. Magellan Midstream has an advantage because it has combined its limited and general partners, meaning there is no GP to cut into the income allocated to the limited partners.

Utilities: Because they’re seen as defensive, utility stocks have trailed the market. The Dow Jones Utilities Average has risen just 4% this year, versus a 22% gain for the S&P 500. But investors are warming to utilities, which rose 3% last week.

Until recently, the sector has been held back by various factors, including reduced power consumption, that have dampened profits at Midwestern utilities like First Energy (FE) and American Electric Power (AEP) that have a lot of industrial customers. Another negative has been the plunge in natural-gas prices, which has reduced the price advantage that nuclear utilities like Exelon (EXC) had over gas-fired rivals.

Regulated utilities, such as American Electric Power (AEP), Duke Energy (DUK), PG&E (PCG), Consolidated Edison (ED) and Southern Co. (SO), trade around 13 times projected 2009 profits and roughly 12 times estimated 2010 net, a discount to the S&P 500. “This is a safe level of valuation, and a lot of bad news already is discounted,” says Hugh Wynne, utility analyst at Sanford Bernstein. Wynne, who notes that utility dividend yields average close to 5%, favors laggards such as Exelon and FirstEnergy, as well as PG&E.

PG&E, at 43, trades for 13 times projected 2010 profits of $3.42 a share. The other big California utility, Edison International (EIX), also looks appealing, trading near 35, or 10 times next year’s estimated earnings. Bulls argue that the company’s regulated utility business is worth almost as much as the stock price and that investors effectively are paying little for its independent power division, Edison Mission Group, whose profits have been hit by weak power prices.

As an alternative to individual stocks, investors can buy the Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU), an ETF that trades around 31 and yields 4.1%. Several closed-end funds focus on utilities. One is Cohen & Steers Select Utility (UTF), which at its recent price near 15 — an 11% discount to its underlying net asset value — was yielding 6%.

TELECOM SHARES: Verizon and AT&T have perked up lately, although their slight losses this year leave them way behind the market. The telecom business faces greater challenges than electric utilities because Americans continue to cut the cord to wireline phones, eroding a once-lucrative business. Yet both companies remain financially solid, trade for low valuations, carry juicy dividends around 6% and are strong players in the wireless market. Reflecting its control of the country’s top wireless operation, Verizon, at 32, trades for about 13 times projected 2010 profits of $2.45 a share. AT&T, at 28, fetches 11 times estimated 2010 cash earnings of $2.50, which exclude about 25 cents of goodwill amortization from acquisitions.

Other high-yielders among big companies include major drug companies Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Merck (MRK) and Eli Lilly (LLY), as well as cigarette makers like Altria Group (MO) and Lorillard (LO). They yield anywhere from 4% to 7%.

PREFERRED STOCK: This market was hit in 2008 by multiple shocks, including the bankruptcy of preferred issuer Lehman Brothers, the banking industry’s troubles and the government’s surprise decision against protecting preferred shareholders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, when Uncle Sam effectively seized those mortgage agencies. Fannie and Freddie preferred trade for about five cents on the dollar.

After bottoming in March, preferreds have surged, with most yields dropping to 6% to 9%. “Preferred stock is subject to the same inflation problem as bonds,” Lieberman says. “But yields are significantly higher. That provides sufficient compensation…for the lack of inflation protection.”

Citigroup’s trust preferred securities, like its Series C, yield more than 9%. Bank of America’s 7.25% Series J preferred trades around 21, for a yield of 8.60%, and Wells Fargo’s 7.50% Series L preferred trades near 900 for an 8% yield. The Wells Fargo issue has a face value of $1,000, as opposed to $25 for most preferreds.

JPMorgan’s preferred has lower yields, just under 7%, reflecting Wall Street’s favorable view of the bank. Many foreign banks have issued preferreds; Lieberman likes Barclays, whose preferred yields about 8.5%. Among REITs, the largest preferred issuer is Public Storage, owner of self-storage facilities. Its preferred yields more than 7% and looks pretty safe, given the company’s solid balance sheet.

There are two types of preferred. Regular preferred is a senior form of equity, while trust preferred is junior debt and is senior to regular preferred. Therefore it is safer, but it generally yields less. The advantage of regular preferred is that its payouts are taxed at the preferential dividend rate of 15%, while trust-preferred dividends are taxed as ordinary income.

CONVERTIBLE SECURITIES: These hybrid securities, which can be converted into common shares under preset conditions, were battered in 2008 by a weak stock market, the junk-bond market’s collapse and forced sales by leveraged convertible hedge funds. But convertibles have risen sharply this year, with Putnam and Fidelity convertible mutual funds up 50% to 60%. The catalysts: the sharp rally in the shares of the generally more speculative companies that issue converts and the junk market’s big gains..

This makes for slimmer picking than in early 2009, when investors could get 10% to 15% yields on reasonably solid converts. Be forewarned: It’s tougher to buy converts than preferred stock because many convertible bonds are traded in an over-the-counter market where bid/offer spreads can be wide for individuals buying $25,000 to $100,000 of the securities. Convertible funds are a better bet for most investors.

For those willing to do their own work, converts can be an attractive lower-risk alternative to common stock, while offering much of common’s appreciation potential.

The money-losing airline industry has needed to raise capital and their converts carry lower rates than regular debt. Issuers include USAirways Group, UAL (parent of United Airlines), Continental Airlines and JetBlue Airways.

Chip maker Micron Technology has a 1.875% issue trading around 85, yielding 5% with a hefty conversion premium of 50%.

One way to play Ford is via its Series S convertible preferred stock, which trades around 36. Ford stopped paying dividends on that issue this year, but some investors are betting the reviving auto maker may resume the payout in 2010 and give investors unpaid dividends of more than $1.50 a share. If Ford resumes the $3.25 annual dividend, the yield would be 9%. The car maker must pay the preferred dividend if it wants to resume a common dividend.

In sum, while hardly anything is as cheap or attractive as it was earlier this year, MLPs, utility stocks, preferred and converts offer appealing alternatives to increasingly unattractive bonds.

http://www.nytimes.com/gift-guide/holiday-2009/10-best-gift-guide-sub/list.html

“Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used”

– Dr. Carl Sagan

Some of the lessons are what would be described as old school and some may be overly simplistic, but the hard truth is that each lesson works!

Lesson 1: “Save like you have no job and 6 mouths to feed.”

For my parents, saving was akin to a religion. They didn’t save 10 or 20 percent of their paycheck; rather they saved close to half of their take home pay. I suspect the urge to save is an instinctual feeling for many recent immigrants who arrive in a new country with no job and no home. The ability to save such a large percentage of what they made was dependent on controlling how much they spent each week. If you live well below your means you can save a large percentage of your weekly income.

Lesson 2: “Look for non-material ways to feel rich.”

My parents have never owned a fancy car or purchased luxury clothes or items. My parents hardly dine out or buy pre-cooked or packaged food. Rather, Annunziata and Tommaso find true fulfillment in family, great food, wine, and visiting the country where they were born. My parents appreciate nice, material things, but they are not defined or fulfilled via acquiring the aforementioned things.

Lesson 3: “Use your network for help.”

This means finding an uncle who does plumbing and a cousin who is a paralegal at a law firm. My parent’s family network has helped me, personally, with home improvement, legal advice, emergency situations (taking care of babies or a ride to the hospital), etc. If I had to pay a stranger every time I needed something done in my life, I would not only be broke, but I would lack real friends and family. The real life lesson here is to nurture family relationships and not rush to pay someone to do something for you. (There are other ways to reward people without a large check).

Lesson 4: “What’s a credit card?”

If you look at my dad’s wallet on a typical day it would resemble George Costanza’s wallet from Seinfeld – full of notes and papers and a good amount of cash. My father pays for everything in cash, and if he doesn’t have the cash, he will either not purchase the item or go to the bank and take out money. My parents have had very little credit card activity over the last 30 years, and I think it’s a key component to their practical lifestyle – (that is to say, you can’t buy stuff if you don’t have the cash!).

Lesson 5: “You can’t count on your job – always have other sources of income.”

My parents bought a two family home shortly after arriving in the US. The logic behind purchasing a two family home centered on having a monthly reoccurring revenue stream outside of a normal job. Sure, they would have liked a single family home with a larger yard and without constant maintenance in their rental unit, but they like the cash more! Do you have cash coming in every month outside of your normal job? If not, you may not be as financially secure as you think you are!

Lessons 6: “Do it yourself.”

My parents are both incredibly crafty. My dad performs his own car repairs, produces homemade wine, renovates his own home (including plumbing and electrical), cuts his own grass, and more. My mother makes all of her own food, cans tomatoes and vegetables, sews, cleans, and grows and tends a garden, among many other things. My parents have often told me that if the world were to fall into disrepair they would have no problem living their life. (They are independent and self sufficient).

Lesson 7: “Trust your family, be wary of everyone else.”

This may sound like a line out of the Godfather, but the fact that American society is based on a capitalist operating principle will motivate everyone from the shop owner to the general contractor to make as much money as possible from you, and there are no safety nets when it comes to preserving the wealth you’ve worked hard to acquire. This life lesson is akin to former Intel CEO Andy Groove’s line: “Only the Paranoid Survive.”

Lesson 8: “You are not defined by your job or fame.”

A job or career usually defines most adults in Anglo-Saxon cultures. Ask any typical American about their life, and the narrative usually centers on their work or job. If you ask the typical person from Southern Italy about their life, they’ll tell you stories about their family, homeland, last name, daughters, sons, food they grow, or wine they make. (I swear this isn’t connected to the high unemployment rate.) My parents are defined by who they are and not the job they do for someone else or the amount of money in their paycheck each week. This is a powerful principle to live by, and once you truly embrace it, the byproduct can be quite liberating.

Lesson 9: “Think big picture.”

Do you ever become overwhelmed by a problem you can’t, for the life of you, see past the immediate future? Maybe you’re worried about your job or if little Timmy will get accepted to Harvard in a few years, for example? These are illustrations of “small picture” thinking, and it can handicap many individuals from getting through tough moments in their life. Like many immigrants, my parents had to somehow block out the immediacy of not having much when they arrived in the US, in order think long term about the type of life they would someday lead.

Lesson 10: “Ignore your neighbors.”

I’m convinced that many individuals lead their life according to the goings-on of their neighbors. For example, if Doris next door leases a shiny new German sedan, you may be compelled to question the worth or legitimacy of your 10-year-old Ford sitting in the driveway. If, by the miracle of home refinancing, Doris adds another 800 square feet to her over-leveraged center hall colonial, you may all of sudden feel cramped in your tiny Cape-Cod-style home. What is my parents’ opinion of neighborhood goings-on? Make friends, and be a good neighbor, but don’t follow the neighbor into debt and materialism.

1. Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17 inch paper, 99 copies.
2. In the memo field of all your checks, write “for sexual favors.”
3. Specify that your drive-through order is “TO-GO.”
4. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
5. Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets.
6. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions “to keep them tuned up.”
7. Reply to everything someone says with “that’s what you think.”
8. Practice making fax and modem noises.
9. Highlight irrelevant information in scientific papers and “cc” them to your boss.
10. Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.
11. Finish all your sentences with the words “in accordance with prophesy.”
12. Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears and grimacing.
13. Disassemble your pen and “accidentally” flip the ink cartridge across the room.
14. Holler random numbers while someone is counting.
15. Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green, and insist to others that you “like it that way.”
16. Staple pages in the middle of the page.
17. Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a croaking noise.
18. Honk and wave to strangers.
19. Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints at the cash register.
20. TYPE IN UPPERCASE.
21. type only in lowercase.
22. dont use any punctuation either
23. Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets.
24. Repeat the following conversation a dozen times.
    “DO YOU HEAR THAT?”
    “What?”
    “Never mind, it’s gone now.”
25. As much as possible, skip rather than walk.
26. Try playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce “No, wait, I messed it up,” and repeat.
27. Ask people what gender they are.
28. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.
29. Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
30. Sing along at the opera.
31. Go to a poetry recital and ask why each poem doesn’t rhyme.
32. Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about “psychological profiles.”

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.
2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
3. Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get more sleep.
4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, ‘My purpose is to __________ today.’
5. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
6. Play more games and read more books than you did in 2008.
7. Make time to practice meditation, and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.
8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.
9. Dream more while you are awake.
10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
11. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.
12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
13. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and flowing energy into your life.
14. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip, OR issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the nagative blues away.
18. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
20. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
    
21. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
22. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
23. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: ‘In five years, will this matter?’
26. Forgive everyone for everything.
27. What other people think of you is none of your business.
28. Remember God heals everything.
29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
30. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
31. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
32. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
33. The best is yet to come.
34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
35. Do the right thing!
36. Call your family often.
37. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for _______. Today I accomplished ____.
38. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
39. Enjoy the ride. Remember this is not Disney World and you certainly don’t want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.
40. Laugh when you can, apologize when you should, and let go of what you can’t change.

Highly Recommended–A Beautiful Cab at a Great Price!!

EDGE is the most reasonable Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that one will find on the shelf, which does not compromise on quality. Blended by a notable winemaker, EDGE Cabernet Sauvignon drinks wonderfully now, and will age well for five to eight years. Edge spent 16 months in French and American oak barrels, of which 30% were new. It is a blend of Cabernet and a small amount of Merlot to round out the edges.

Ritz Half Moon Bay

If you ever get the chance to visit Half Moon Bay you should definitely take advantage of it.  The Ritz in Half Moon Bay is located with on the water where you can hear the waves crashing from your room.  We especially enjoyed Room 674 it has a view of the Golf course and Pacific.  The Golf Course has one of the greatest 18th holes I have ever played.

Take a look

Baci really enjoyed her visit to New York City where she stayed at the Ritz Carlton on Central Park.  The hotel is perfectly situated across from Central Park so it is ideal for walks through the park.  The weather was wonderful as well.

The Ritz was also very accommodating providing Baci with her own Ritz Food and Water Bowls.  She was also given treats and she especially enjoyed the Woof sign that was placed on the door letting others know of her presence.

Baci had a great time in Boston when she visited the Hotel Marlowe in Cambridge http://www.hotelmarlowe.com/

This is an extremely dog friendly hotel.  When she arrived she was provided with a dog bed and a lunch box of doggie treats (toys, treats, water bottle, bags etc.)  The staff could not have been more friendly.  We will definitely visit again!!

• I am an investor–I do not trade my investments frequently.  
• I am also a saver–I routinely invest each month using my savings.  
• I know every asset has risk and I consider the risk before buying.    I accept the risk by owning a diversity of assets.  
• I have an investment plan and plan for allocation.
• I invest regular amounts each month in both falling and rising markets. 
• I spread out my investments among stocks and bonds.
• My share of bonds equals my age.  
• I rebalance once a quarter.  
• I know that stocks are risky in the short run but not so risky in the long run.
• I force myself to sell high and buy low.  Patience is the key here.  
• I put at least 20 percent in international assets.  
• I stick to my plan and try not to check my stock balances every day (this one is not easy).
• I try to remember the words of Warren Buffet –” I am greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy.”

I highly recommend a service called Fly Clear if you fly a lot.  It will save you at least 30 minutes each time you fly.  Basically you no longer have to wait in a security line.  What you do is apply–as part of the application process they will ask all sorts of info about you and you will need to give finger prints (which can be done in the airport at one of their stands) so they can identify you.  Once you are approved there is a special line only for clear members ( you will provide your card and they will scan your fingerprints)–every time I have used Clear there has never been even 1 person in line ahead of me.  They have locations now all over the USA.  There is a link to the site below and please use the refer-a friend code this gives you a complimentary month of membership.  

Your Refer-A-Friend code: DSCAM1176418

Clear’s Refer-A-Friend Offer
If you love Clear as much as we do, tell your friends! Members who refer friends and family to enroll in Clear can receive complimentary months of Clear membership. For every new member you refer to Clear, we will add one free month of Clear membership to your account and to your friend’s account, too. In order to receive the complimentary month of membership, your friend must enter your “Refer-A-Friend” code on the payment page of online enrollment. For more details, please visitflyclear.com/referafriend or call Clear support at (866) 848-2415

Baci has been depressed for the last 2 days ever since Dolani went home for  a 2 week vacation (hopefully she will be back).  She has been moppy but is still the sweetest dog.

Baci just enjoyed a Brie and Ham Sandwich with me this evening and is still licking her lips.  This week we discovered that Baci loves to eat fresh strawberries and almonds  

As I arrived home today Baci greeted me with a 2 minutes of jumping, turning in place, and getting her ball–turning in place some more and then running to get her ball.  If everyone would greet each other with the enthusiasm and joy Baci does everyday the world would be a much happier place.

On the Ides of March–Baci had a really full day–she started her day with her usual breakfast and playtime.  Then I took her to the beach for a long walk and she got to a lot of “interesting” people.  She looked like she still had a lot of energy so I took her to our orchard for another walk.    Satisfied Baci arrived back just in time for a Sunday lunch of eggs and ham. 

And to cap things off she had her Sunday Spa day and is now resting