Low Finance

I was sitting with my sister, my aunt, and my brother-in-law at my sister's house last Saturday. I was there to swap out her CD Writer for a DVD Writer on her *&^&^% Dell computer and clean up whatever it was she had done to her machine which made it nearly unusable. This is something I have to do every month or two. Not swap out hardware... clean up the software. She treats her machine like it is a toaster but, like her toaster, she doesn't dump the crumbs out from time to time so I have to.

I was also there because there was a golf equipment "demo day" at the golf course in her community. I like to go to those because I get to hit golf balls for free, I get to try out new clubs I don't want to buy because they are too expensive these days, and I sometimes actually learn something. Ok, that last is a great rarity but I remain optimistic.

My aunt was there because I had picked her up from her little (and I do mean "little") house in beautiful downtown Sebring and dropped her off so my sister could take her to brunch without having to drive all the way into town and back, twice. It is not out of my way to go by my aunt's house when I go to my sister's. Which means I have no excuse not to pick her up. A fact my sister knows well and takes advantage of.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, we were sitting around on the patio by the pool. Almost everyone has a pool in Florida. Almost no one of them actually uses ithem but they are in abundance here. Our conversations get fairly random, as informal chats will, and cover all sorts of subjects. Saturday's spent mostly centered around financial matters.

I keep an "ear to the ground" about the Market by reading various things online and by reading comments from other readers, ones supposedly more knowledgeable than I, about the articles. I find a lot of negativity in the comments and a lot of optimism in the articles. On rare occasion I also find wisdom. But I never find good investment advice.

One of the things that repeats is the fact that most investors chase trends. Only successful ones anticipate them. I am reminded of this each time I am asked by my relatives or friends (the few that I have) about what looks good. I have absolutely no idea.

The Market is like a minefield. You know you are successful when you get through it and find all your limbs intact. You have no idea where the safe paths or dangerous paths are. All you can do is tread lightly and hope you took the right step.

I do have some investment advice for you, though. Don't listen to the talking heads on financial shows on TV. Except for what not to buy. If they recommend it, the odds are it won't deliver. If they recommend a certain sector "poised to grow", avoid it. If they say "stay away" from a sector, look at it closer. But be careful because they may be using reverse psychology on you.

I call this the anti-strategy.


Hey, you didn't think you were going to get advice you could use, did you?

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