Category Archives: Business & Economy

How to Profit & Prosper During a Recession or Depression

Business & Economy, Video

if you think the US economy is on the road to recovery anytime soon then this post isn’t for you.

for the rest of us, i want to recommend a couple of really good books. Peter Schiff, who was Ron Paul’s economic advisor during his Presidential campaign, was right about the credit, mortgage, currency crisis that we Americans finds ourselves in now. for the last several years he’s been very vocal about coming problems. he was ridiculed and belittled on national news programs that when watched in hindsight show just how right he was and just how wrong the other talking heads were.

here are the books i recommend:

The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets

Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse

i hope you can appreciate these books as much as me. i’ve also added some Peter Schiff videos so you can get an impression of the man.

here’s a video highlighting some of the ridicule and accuracy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1YhJRXqnXI

here’s a video highlighting some of his analogies (for those who just love analogies):

How to Pitch an Angel Investor (and how not to)

Business & Economy, TV, Video

so a friend recently turned me on to a tv show that’s been running for a couple of years now on the BBC called Dragons Den. it’s awesome. i wish i had known about it sooner. basically it’s a group of successful wealthy business men and women who are currently occupied primarily with angel investing. btw, raising venture capital and getting angel investments are two different things. here’s a good article detailing the differences between venture capitalists and angel investors.

anyhow, this is a great show where money is ‘won’ not necessarily because somebody ate the most bugs or randomly picked an appropriate sequence of numbered briefcases or knew the 5th POTUS wife’s name.. or knew what POTUS stands for… but rather because they successfully pitched something valuable and creative with the potential to improve the quality of life for a number of people. those who don’t ‘win’ usually get an ear full of.. umm.. constructive criticism.

here’s a sample video clip of the Dragons Den show:

Forbes 400 Wealthiest Americans 2007

Business & Economy

i just narrowly missed the list this year. to be on the list you had to at least be worth an estimated 1.3 billion dollars. i was shy by roughly 1.299999999 dollars. but i’m working hard to make it on next years list… i’ve just got to find a 2 billion dollar lottery i can win.

throwing out some names… Donald Trump is worth $3 Billion. Michael Bloomberg “doubled” his last year holdings of $5+ billion into $11+ billion sheesh… also, the google founders Page & Brin, are now each worth $18+ billion bucks. Warren Buffet “THE man” is still #2 with his measley $52 billion… and if you have to ask who #1 is… umm… are you living in a cave really??

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/54/richlist07_The-400-Richest-Americans_Rank.html

enjoy your weekend… you poor bums! i know this poor boy will!! hook’em horns!

200 Million Dollars in Profit for Apples iPhone (1st week)

Business & Economy, Technology

If you took the survey on my site, asking if the iPhone would succeed or fail… and you said fail… you’re very wrong so far. I’m personally surprised how well AAPL (Apple Computers) is doing with the iPhone… and i own one!! I didn’t think their margins were as strong as they evidentally are. I mean $600 isn’t chump change (not for this chump) but you get a decent chunk of technology for that price… lacking only in the hard-drive space aspect.

1 week after the hyped release… and way too many circulating iPhone commercials… AAPL stock rises for good reason as Steve Jobs pushes Apple to edge yet again with a product that is expected to go into the history books as one of the fastest selling consumer electronics products ever.

$200,000.00+ that’s just insane! >> source >> techcrunch

I know my brother is happy he didn’t listen to all my cuatious but neutral opinions (he’d say pessimisstic naysaying) about holding Apples stock during a risky but definitive moment in Apple’s history. I don’t see that stock coming down… UNLESS… people like me start having hardware problems. Let’s hope not!!!

Will the iPhone Succeed or Fail

Business & Economy, Technology

are you saving your pennies for a new iPhone… or are you mocking those who are? a lot of people are predicting the iPhone to take Apple to new heights while others are predicting a horrible future for the product. some people are buying all the Apple stock they can get their hands on… some are just trying to raise enough money to buy the actual device 🙂

some say the iPhone is a doomed convergence device… that convergence devices rarely succeed… and that the iPhone is going to be nothing like the iPod was/is for Apple.

personally i think the iPhone is no more a convergence device than the PC… in fact that’s all the iPhone is… it’s the first truly feature rich handheld PC. whether or not version 1 of the iPhone succeeds the iPhone will succeed in pushing PC’s to a place that Microsoft has not been able to in the last 7 or 8 years. maybe Apple stock bombs… and they have to go back to the drawing board as Nokia and Motorola and Samsung finally build devices that require more than $3.12 to bring to market… while M$ figures out a way to get it’s bloated resource hogging OS to work on such a ‘small’ hard-drive (8 gigabytes). the good thing is… at least somebody is doing it… multi sense touch screen… wireless internet… and applications that i really want access to while i’m out and about.

what about you, what do you think?

How to Beat A Speeding Ticket for $50

Business & Economy, Fun, Funny

speeding is… fun… but dangerous… and when you get caught it’s expensive. seriously, i speed a lot more than most the people i know. thanks to good old mom and dad 🙂 whom i remember driving 90mph in DFW and on I20 all the time when i was a young’n. since those days it seems like the rest of the world just has no sense of urgency when getting from point a to point b… hehe. don’t worry i do slow down from time to time on a country drive, especially in the winding Texas hill country.

anyhow… my dad told me for years and years… when you get a speeding ticket, you just pay a lawyer some nominal fee and they’ll get the ticket dismissed. he always told me this after i had told him i just paid a ticket or had to take defensive driving… and before i got my next ticket (i’m forgetful obviously, cause i’ve had plenty-o-tickets).

so a month ago i got a speeding ticket while up in Hurst… headed out to a Mavericks game, which was much better than the thumping they took last night from the GS Warriors :(. the ticket was gonna cost me $248 for 10+ MPH over the speed limit… c’mon i didn’t feel like i was in danger or that i was endangering anyone else on the road. o yeah, in fact i had just passed some idiot who was actually backing up on the road… yeah this nuthead was in reverse! anyhow the copper topper saw me… not the real reckless driver.

anyhow… finally… i remembered to get a ‘traffic attorney’!! i saved big bucks 🙂 the legal fee was $50 flat, and i was already late to report on the ticket… but no worries there hadn’t been a warrant issued yet. even if there had been a warrant out… the legal fees would’ve still been much cheaper than paying the ticket.

so how does it work… my understanding is that the attorney calls up the courthouse and asks for “probation” the court says “sure”… then you just don’t get another ticket within the same county for 3 months and it will be dismissed.

so the moral to this story…. speeding is dangerous… but, with this new found knowledge it doesn’t have to be as expensive as it has been for however long you’ve been paying the tickets and taking defensive driving!

enjoy

Superman Returns – Biggest Box Office Weekend Ever??

Business & Economy, Movies

i saw Superman Returns this weekend. it was good… better than i expected after hearing some critics. it was imho better than X-Men 3. i do agree that casting could’ve been a little better… besides Spacey who was perfect. there were many tributes to the older movies… with a nudge of newness… which was cool… but kind of left me feeling like it rode the fence too much.

a couple of weeks ago i predicted that Superman Returns would have the largest grossing opening weekend in US box office history… overtaking Spiderman. so far it doesn’t look like that feat will happen… but will know tomorrow… either way i think Warner Brothers and DC will be happy. i just figured Superman would/should/could have a larger audience.

Superman Returns Poster