Gary Stapp Weblog

*** CREDIT CARD "RIP OFF"1/14/10 ***

So you've got that $5,000 or $10,000 credit card with you and you're out Christmas shopping, or maybe you're out at one of the casinos, the horse races, or even at the bank and you decide to get a little "cash" from your card for "whatever" reason. Big, big mistake. You just did exactly what these credit card companies pray for. We all know that if we get "cash" it cost us a small fee, right? You couldn't be more wrong. You think to yourself, I know it's a higher rate so I'll just pay this portion of it off next month. NO, NO. That's NOT the way it works. Lets say you have a $5,000 limit on your card and you owe $3,000 on it. You go to the bank and withdraw $500 in cash on the card for "whatever reason". The credit card company charges you a $20 or $30 fee and adds the $500 debit. Now here's what you don't know. Remember that 9.9% interest for purchases? No, No,  not on "cash". You're going to be charged somewhere around 20% or 25%. Now for the killer. That $500 sits in a separate account (different interest rate) behind the $3000 balance you already have and none of your payments will go towards paying that down until the $3000 is completely paid off in full first. That means you are going to pay $10 a month interest ($120 a year) on that $500 cash advance you took at that ridiculous rate "for the rest of your life" unless you stop using the card and pay it off so you can finally get to that $500 and pay it off. But, sometimes that's not as easy as we think. One more thing. Not only is the credit card company going to charge you a fee, but the place that gave you the cash will too. Probably between 1 to 7%, and guess what.. .... those fees go on top of the $500, so you start out owing about $550 at that higher rate. It's conceivable that when you finally do payoff the card in say 5 years, you will have paid back about $1200 for that $500 cash advance. Do yourself a favor before it's too late and if you need a little cash, go to someplace like American General or Beneficial Finance it can be sooooooo much cheaper.

***HAIR OF THE DOG***

The next time you or someone you care about.. has a little too much celebration at Aunt Betty's wedding or the neighbors party and wakes up with that big head and turbulent tummy known as the"hangover" , forget the coffee, raw egg, bloody mary, glass of wine and the like and try toast & honey. It really works, where as "a hair of the dog" doesn't. It just prolongs the suffering. By theway "hair of the dog" stems from British folk treatments for dog bites, which held that a hair taken from the offending dog and placed on the wound would help to heal it.

*** OUR 2009 PORTFOLIO ***

First, let me say that even "I" (after 6 years of averaging 50% returns) got blasted by the stock market last year (2008). The only bright spot was our play on ZYNX (now ZYXI) that went from $1.57 to $6.15. After all the smoke had cleared, we actually lost about 50%. So we're 6-1 on good years vs bad years. Even though real estate and the economy is looking for more downward movement in 2009. Let's try and get back on the winning track. For 2009, as of the inking of this newsletter on Thursday Feb 5th, here are our stocks, BAC (Bank of America) at $4.84, ZYXI .OB AT $1.11, RF (Regions Financial) at $2.84, Feed (Agfeed Industries) at $1.35, HGSI (Human Genome Sciences) at $2.52, SOL (Renesola LTD) this is a solar play hedging against higher oil prices, and SWKS (Skyworks Solutions) at $5.02. You should have about 14% in each of these. Remember now, you can play with real money, monopoly money, or marbles. I would almost guarantee you, almost, that this portfolio will be up at least 50% this year, and I (we) will be back on the winning track.

***DOES ANYONE REMEMBER???

Back in 1943 when we were at war and most of our able body men were fighting, we almost lost the National Football League. Things were so bad that the league took what was left of the Pittsburgh Steelers "seven players" and the Philadelphia Eagles "seventeen players" and merged them into one temporary team for the 1943 season. The name of this makeshift team was, of course, the PITTSBURGH STEEGLES. Considering both Pittsburgh and Philly only had one winning season in the last ten years, the new team was the brunt of a lot of jokes with no one expecting them to even win one game. The Steegles surprised a lot of people by actually beating the BROOKLYN DODGERS in the first game of the year (I suppose you never heard of the Chicago Rams either) ...and went on to post a 5-4-1 season, with that one tie against the 1942 world champion Washington Redskins. By the way ...those soft leather helmets were tied on with a piece of shoe string in those days. Chin straps had yet to be invented. The Steegles were disbanded after the one season.