Kelly Brothers Money Blog

Hertz So Good…

zahmby — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 18:30:12 +0000

Hertz has made another offer for Dollar Thrifty rental car and it’s a good fit for Hertz because Hertz does a lot of business rentals. Dollar Thrifty’s clientele is largely the “leisure traveler”. Dollar Thrifty stock has been on a wild ride and if you got in at the right time, you’ve made a killing! Just over 27 months ago Dollar Thrifty stock was trading at one dollar per share. Last year Hertz made an offer for the company at about forty dollars a share, and upped it to fifty dollars before walking away. Their new offer is at seventy-two dollars a share, and of course if AVIS gets involved again it could go higher! So yeah…you could have turned $1 into $72 in less than two and a half years.

Brainteaser…

zahmby — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:09:56 +0000

Here’s a brainteaser for you…

What do the following American brands have in common?

Holiday Inn
Trader Joe’s
7-Eleven
Budweiser
Toll House Cookies

(See answer below)

Answer:

None of these so-called “American” brands is American, at least not any more: Holiday Inn – owned by Intercontinental Hotels, headquartered in England; Trader Joe’s – owned & operated by a family trust of German billionaire Theo Albrecht; 7-Eleven – owned by Seven & I Holdings, a Japanese company; Budweiser – acquired by InBev, based in Belgium; Toll House Cookies – owned by Nestle, a company based in Switzerland.

What are your plans for Memorial Day?

zahmby — Fri, 20 May 2011 16:19:22 +0000

… here is an option. This should be a great event. If you have a family member who is a Vet or a neighbor who servedhis or her country… this is your chance to say “Thank You.” Make sure you RSVP… space is limited.

Market History…

zahmby — Mon, 02 May 2011 21:30:29 +0000

As we reflect on the death of Osama Bin Laden at the hands of U.S. Forces yesterday in Pakistan, it pays to go back and look at what the market was doing when September 11th actually happened. The day before, September 10th, the Dow Industrials closed at 9605. Of course the market shut down for the better part of a week and when it came back, the first day back of trading, the Dow dropped 685 points. For the week after the attacks, the market dropped better than 14%. Now if we fast forward 9 1/2 years, we will see that the Dow is up about 33% since then, NASDAQ up 70% since September 11, 2001.

Does Privacy Exist…

zahmby — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:59:42 +0000

It has been talked about many times, how our privacy is being chipped away because of the proliferation of technology and the way we use technology. Two examples today, first of all Apple denies that it stores users locations on iPhones and iPads. They say it is a misunderstanding of their technology, but clearly the technology exists either on the iPhone itself or by the wireless carrier through the various cell phone towers where they can figure out where someone is at any given time or was at any given time. Secondly, we have Sony saying today that their security has been breached and they are having to disconnect seventy-seven million user accounts and that perhaps credit card information for all those users was stolen in a massive security hack job. They say that in the end it could cost their company billions of dollars. The question is “Will these various technological outlets be able to guarantee our privacy and our digital safety in the years to come, and if not,will people begin to pull away from using technology that potentially can expose one to massive fraud?”

I won what???

zahmby — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 15:09:05 +0000

Check out this article about the terrible prize given to someone at a weekend NBA playoff game. Earlier this year, I was impressed when an active duty member of the military took the half-court shot at a Kings game and missed. Joe Maloof told him to take another shot from the top of the key which the man sank. Joe gave him the car.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42746785

Talk In Trash…

zahmby — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 22:34:11 +0000

Waste Connections just keeps getting bigger and better. Waste Connections is a waste management company based out of Folsom and they just bought Hudson Waste Holding, a subsidiary which is based in New York. According to some analysts this is a pretty big deal and not small on their size scale, but Waste Connections just continues to grow. They are already the largest publicly traded company and they only became that about two years ago as McClatchy was going down they were coming up with their largest publicly traded company headquartered in the greater Sacramento region; current market cap of about $3.3 million which is now six times the market cap of McClatchy and SureWest combined, who are the next companies on that list.

Cash Is King…

zahmby — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 17:10:30 +0000

If you have cash, there are bargains out there right now in real estate. Obviously the equity market has recovered nicely and gold is way up, but real estate still depressed and some great bargains. Just as an example, The Lofts downtown….Sotiris Kolokotronis worked very hard on those lofts for a long time and it looks now like the remaining lofts will be sold on the courthouse steps coming up in the next few weeks. Also, ski condos – these are condos where you can ski in and ski out of the resort at Squaw Creek. Seventeen fully furnished units are going to auction and initial bids will start at $130k. When they were for sale, the units were priced from $375k – $965k. So that is going to happen later in the month of April. Great deals if you have a little cash sitting around!

We don’t pay no stinkin’ taxes…

zahmby — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:32:20 +0000

Great article in the NYT about how major corporations avoid taxation. Think about it, if you are their lead tax attorney, how much are your services worth??

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/GEs-Strategies-Let-It-Avoid-nytimes-3247736646.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=8&asset=&ccode=

All that glitters… is Silver!…

zahmby — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:04:11 +0000

With all the talk about gold, don’t forget it’s little sister, Silver. Unlike Gold, Silver is a precious metal and an industrial metal. You can buy Silver through its Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) with the symbol SLV. But if you want to buy the real deal and store it yourself, here are a few of the options and current prices, as described by my friend Stan Lucowicz of Capital City Loan and Jewelry. Thanks Stan!

Silver Coin 90 % (pre 1964)

90% silver coins remain to be the most popular way to buy and sell silver. In many cases, it trades at just slight premiums and, at some times, slight discounts to the spot price of silver. These are sold by multiples of face value “1 Bag” is $1000.00 Face with silver right now at $30.67 a bag contains aprx $21,900 in silver melt value (1000 x 21.90=21900). I would sell 90% as long as it was over $500 face for 22.90 on today market.

American Silver Eagles

Released in 1986, the American Silver Eagle coin is America’s only official investment-grade silver bullion coin. It is also the world’s only silver bullion coin whose weight, content and purity are guaranteed by the U. S. Government. American Eagles command a larger premium when dealing in over 400 coin or larger increments I could sell American eagles for $3.35 over spot (30.67 + 3.35 = 34.02) on todays market

Bullion Silver (bars or rounds)

Bars and rounds of any size are an excellent way to invest in pure silver while avoiding the premiums usually found on legal tender bullion coins. They are easily bought and sold, stored, stacked and counted. Straight bullion bars or rounds currently carries a premium of $1.50 over spot per coin on quantities over 400 (30.67 + 1.50 = 32.17) there is a one – two week delay in receiving rounds.