watchusmakemoney.com » Financial

I don’t need no antidepressants

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:35:39 +0000

So October was a pretty depressing month, the weather got cold, the days short and in general everything was crappy. November started off pretty bad too especially b/c I had my 25th birthday and I have not met any of my goals, I was supposed to be retired with millions in the bank by now. So I had myself a little mid-life crisis (yes 25 is mid-life, I might write another post on why) I traded in my 2008 Honda Accord for a 2009 Infiniti G37x Sedan which made me all happy again until I got my first bill and realized I can’t really afford it. So there I was getting old, barely making enough money to pay for my house and car not to mention my credit card debt (who pays that anyways) sounds like I could use some antidepressants, no? Well I don’t go for that crap, if I have a problem I solve it. In this case I needed money so I went out and got a bunch of it. How you ask? haha, you’ll have to stay tuned…it’s a good story, coming soon.

$2.5 Million Jaeger LeCoultre Watch, I may have to break the piggy bank open for this.

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:43:21 +0000

Click the picture below for the details, it sounds like a good investment to me.

David

Making money on Buffalo Wild Wings

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:33:23 +0000

My second to largest stock holding, Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) reported earnings this afternoon. Unlike last week when I predicted that another stock I owned would beat earnings (I was right) and the stock would go up (I was wrong), I decided to keep my mouth shut. Seems like it worked out OK, BWLD beat earnings estimates and said they are on track to meet their goals of 25% growth, pretty amazing in this economy. Even more amazing the stock is up about 5% in after hours trading, I guess sometimes the stock goes up when there’s good news, who knew. My initial target price for this stock was $40 and it’s getting pretty close, maybe time to sell and pay some credit card bills.

American Express Purchase Protection Program

Daniel — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:45:17 +0000

One reason I was tempted and ultimately decided to go with the amex centurion black card, was the fact that they have a purchase protection plan. Basically they will cover in item in the event that its lost stolen damaged or you are unhappy with the item for any reason. This all sounds great, today I called member services to request a refund for a purchase I made for an item that I’m not happy with. American express notified me that the protection plan only will cover up to 300 dollars. This purchase was for $1,300, so again I’m starting to think this card is a waste of money. Please let me know what you think about the card.

Making Money in the Stock Market

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:25:31 +0000

So far I’ve had a great week in the stock market, my biggest holding, Deckers Outdoor (Deck), maker of UGGs is announcing earnings after the market closes. So far this week it is up about 10% and it has made me a profit for 2009 of over 50%. I believe they will beat earnings expectations (partly because I bought a pair of their slippers) and go up to my original target price of $100. All I need is a couple more weeks like this and I’ll be out of debt. Everyone go out and buy some UGGs, they are really comfortable.

AMEX Centurion Black Card Concierge

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:42:10 +0000

A lot has been written about how amazing the American Express Centurion Black Card Concierge is. For example:

One cardholder wanted to locate and purchase the horse ridden by Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves. The horse was located in a stud ranch in Mexico, purchased and delivered to Europe by the concierge (from http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/blackcard.asp)

I haven’t thought of much to ask my concierge for yet, I only called in twice but so far they haven’t done anything I couldn’t do. The first time I called them I asked them to find me a local store that carried Pantherella Cashmere Socks, or a store that could ship them to me. This is the response I received:

I was not able to locate anything local or any physical stores for that matter, near you or in the US. Below I have listed 2 links that do sell the socks and ship to addresses in the US. I was able to find some places in the UK that will ship to the US but they are not partnered with us, so I cannot recommend those for you. Please look over these links below.

http://www.customshirt1.com/Socks_Mens_Cashmere.htm

http://www.dann-online.com/pantherella_socks_from_dann.htm

I was expecting more, like an offer to order them and have them hand-delivered but I couldn’t find anything better myself so I’ll say they did OK on this.

Today I wanted to go to the Detroit Tigers game and sit behind the Tigers dugout, American Express is supposed to have access to the best tickets around. I told them I was willing to sit anywhere in the infield box behind the Tigers dugout or in the dugout itself if they were really good. They knew I was joking about sitting in the dugout but they did offer to call up and ask (I told them they should but I don’t think they did). They were unable to get me any tickets in the sections requested through the ticket department but they did offer to go to third party brokers for me, I declined. I was able to find the tickets I wanted on Stubhub for about $30, I’m sure they would have found those for me if I asked but the bottom line is that in this case it was easier and faster for me to look myself than to call the concierge.

In another case, Daniel asked his concierge to get him a limo on a saturday night at about 2AM (actually sunday morning) to take him to the Casino. The Concierge said there were none available and that they couldn’t call the Casino for us to ask them to send a car. It took me two phone calls to find a limo that was available. That was pretty disappointing.

I’m not saying that the Concierge is useless, I do still think there are things they can help with, especially when traveling. What I am saying is that if you think that when you get a Black Card you can get whatever you want with a single phone call, you are mistaken.

Quitting smoking to make money

Daniel — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:38:46 +0000

Quiting smoking is easy, I have done it many times, so i would know. OK so maybe it’s not so simple but I have come to the realazation that I have to do it now, before it’s too late. Putting aside all the obvious medical reasons, I did some number crunching to try to motivate myself, here is what I came up with,

In michigan a pack of cigs cost aprox. $7.00, if you smoke just one pack a day that’s 49.00 dollars a week and that’s more than $2500.00 a year. In my calculations if I quit today and put seven dollars away every day in a separate account. By the time I am 52, I should have accumalated $188,845.88. This calculation is based on a meager 5% return, that’s not a crazy return to expect. quiting smokin will put me $188,845.88 closer to being a millionaire.

I will countinue to post on here with updates on my quitting smoking progress , and where I invest this huge sum of money that I will be saving.

Comments on the AMEX Black Card

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:20:29 +0000

After getting almost no comments from cashiers about my AMEX Black Card (aka Centurion Card) on the first 20+ purchases, the last 5 or 6 salespeople have all commented. All of them said basically the same thing and I have no idea how to reply. What they said was, “this is a heavy card”, now the Card is made out of titanium and is quite a bit heavier than a normal credit card so it’s a logical response from them. My issue is that they don’t say it as statement, they ask it like a question and seem to expect me to say something back. Am I supposed to say, “yes, that is the Amex black card, one of the most exclusive cards in the world that only extremely wealthy people can get” or something stuck up like that? That is not my style, I don’t mind getting undeserved respect for having the card but I’m not a complete asshole (feel free to agree with me on this). Any ideas? (No, I will not say “Kiss my black AMEX”)