After taking a little bit of a break, I have decided to get back to doing stock reviews again. As you can see, a few post prior to this one I did a review of Netflix (NFLX). One thing that I have been trying to do is place the review in a .pdf file, rather than just a really long post on the blog. I think that the long post on the blog sort of takes away from the whole blog concept because it is makes it more tedious to get to other posts, especially if you don’t feel like reading the review.
So basically what I am going to do from now on is just have a short Cliff’s Notes version of the review with a link the full report. This way if the user wants to see they whole report they can just click on the link. Otherwise they can just pass it on by and go to the next post.
Random
Reviews, Stocks
Will you be one of the many that rushes out to the malls the day after Thanksgiving in search of amazing deals? I for one will not be joining you. From the sounds of the news these days, it looks like I will not be the only one making this decision this year. I will add though that I have never gone to the malls the day after Thanksgiving. Fighting the masses for a couple extra dollars off just doesn’t seem worth it to me.
Many stores are viewing this holiday season as one that will make or break them. I would be on the lookout for some bad earnings from the retail sector in comparison to previous years. Roughly guesstimating, I would assume that I will spend about 20% less on Christmas this year. I am managing to do this by spending less on a per person basis. I am making up for this by buying more smaller things that are typically lower priced. In the past I had bought a few more expensive items. I am hoping that this strategy will save me some money this year. According to my Microsoft Money data from last year, I spent $696.30 on gifts between 10/01/2007 and 12/31/2007. For the entire year 2007, I spent $904.33 on gifts. 20% less would put me at $557.04 for the holiday months. As of now I have spent $217.30. I will try to keep a running total of my holiday spending for the year. I think it will be frightening to find out how much I spend.To date I have spent $1,234.65 on gifts for 2008. This puts me on pace for spending $1,363.42 for the year. My total ballooned from last year because both of my parents turned 50 this year. Because of this, I got them much more expensive gifts than I normally would have.
Maybe this is me, but this seems like an extraordinate amount to have spent on gifts for a given year. I know that it is better to give than receive, but still.
Personal Finance
gifts, holidays, shopping, thanksgiving
Netflix (NFLX) recently released its Q3′08 financial results. As of 11/24/2008, the company trades at $22.21. I feel that the stock should reach $30 by the end of 2009. This is just over a 35% gain! I have analyzed their 3rd quarter results and produced a report that gives my current outlook on the company. Netflix has also recently teamed up with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 to provide downloadable content to the videogame console. With over 25 million Xbox 360 consoles sold, this gives Netflix a unique opportunity to capture a greater market share for streaming content.
You can find the full report here. The file is in .pdf format.
Even if you don’t agree with my current outlook on the company, I think you will find that there is a lot of valuable information in this report. The best thing is that the report is totally free! It is only five pages in length, so you don’t have to worry about spending all day reading it either! It gets down and dirty and straight to the point.
The other thing I just want to throw out there is that as of 11/24/2008, I do not have any sort of financial position in NFLX.
***5/14 Update*** Check out how the $30 prediction worked out. $29.89 on 12/31/2009!
Stock Recommendations, Stocks
netflix, nflx, review, stock
I posted a while back that I was attempting to transition to spending cash only. I must admit that it was quite difficult at first. I would find many reasons to cheat the system. For example: if I were to be at a restaurant and the bill was $28.00 and all I had was two $20s. I wouldn’t want the waiter to make me change, so I would just put down the card instead. That doesn’t really help you if you are trying to save money by spending cash only.
Over the past month I have put a lot of effort towards spending just cash only. My strategy is to take out $120/week out of the ATM. Anything that I have left over I put into a little box for something down the road. I haven’t quite decided what it is that I am saving for, but at least I feel good about it. Over the past month or so I have managed to save an additional $190 by using this strategy. For me personally, I find it harder to spend cash, so I am more likely to conserve it.
I think that it is helpful to stash the leftovers somewhere so that you can physically see how your pile is progressing. I think that the amount is more meaningful if you see a pile of money stacked up, rather than just some number on your online banking. I am curious if anyone else uses a similar technique to this.
One other strategy that I was pondering was that once I hit $120 in my secret stash, I would take a break from the ATM for the week. I think that I am going to stick with my current strategy for now. I think that I will probably use this stash for buying Christmas presents sooner rather than later.
Cash Management, Personal Finance, Savings
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