Railcar Manufacturing: ARII or TRN?

Sometimes investing is like being in the Opthamologist exam ... when the Doctor asks .. which is more in focus A or B. So the question might be JPM or WFC; XOM or COP, DELL or HPQ, HD or LOW, WAG or CVS.

Today's stock comparison is Railcar Manufacturing: ARII or TRN?. I'm not an investor in either yet. Trinity Homepage | American Railcar homepage

My own conclusion is that they are both worthwhile considerations for dividend investing. Seeking Apha has a brief article on American Railcar. Conclusion:

ARII trades at a 25 percent discount from its 52-week high. Crude-by-rail traffic is expected to increase by 300,000 units in 2013, nearly offsetting a drop in coal traffic in 2012. On top of that, coal is moved along a rail network that has been established for decades, while crude oil traffic is along a network that is still in development. Carl Icahn holds 55 percent of the outstanding shares of the ARII. The dividend yield is very generous at 2.9 percent on a very safe 31 percent payout ratio. The Graham fair value is $36.22, forward P/E is 8.54 and analysts expect annual EPS growth of 15 percent over the next five years. ARII appears to be undervalued at this level.

NextDoor Forster Preserve reaches Requisite Threshold

forsterpreserve.nextdoor.com

Comment: Relieved ... I had to have 9 neighbors signup to make it! At least one from every street signed up (except the one house on Old Rockford Road).

Each share of stock should be viewed as a miniature factory

Clyde & Dale's Barrel Factory - N Scale

This is how I view investing. I'm playing a "game" like Monopoly. Investing is buying little tiny companies - each individual share of stock is like a miniature factory. I ask these questions:

• Is it profitable?
• Is it viable? (Clyde & Dale's Barrel Factory is cute but few are buying barrels!)
• Is it part of a mix? A Coca-Cola bottling plant, an aircraft factory, a bank, et cetera. (If you have every played the simulation game - Sim City - this analogy may make sense)
• Does it return part of the profit to the owner? The dividend.

Retirement Plan: Handicapped Tour Guide for the Very Wealthy

Rich Manhattan moms hire handicapped tour guides so kids can cut lines at Disney World

Excerpt:

Some wealthy Manhattan moms have figured out a way to cut the long lines at Disney World — by hiring disabled people to pose as family members so they and their kids can jump to the front, The Post has learned.

Comment: Called ... turning lemons into lemonade

"Space Oddity" from the ISS

Comment: Bowie's voice is better but oh the "set" of the ISS. Wiki on Space Oddity

"Moneyball": About the business of baseball

I missed the 1st 20 minutes but managed to see the remainder of Moneyball on TV last night. An absolutely great film.Why I liked it ... it was essentially a film about economics.

Other baseball films that I have enjoyed:

• A League of Their Own
• 61*
• The Natural
• Field of Dreams
• Eight Men Out

The Edward Jones "7"

I met Friday with and Edward Jones financial advisor. Here are 7 stocks she recommended. Taking these 7 stocks, here's how % 50K could be invested with a 3% dividend yield. Click image for larger view

Investing in "The Peet Fund" with $ 50,000

Comment: There is no "Peet Fund" but with the following same top 20 stocks as "The Peet Fund" one could have a dividend yield of 3.04%. ShareBuilder is a good place to buy stocks in odd-lots. Click image for larger, better view.

The Peet Fund

I view every share of stock as a little miniature factory that will produce profit for us in retirement. Above image Clyde & Dale's Barrel Factory - N Scale
If our investments were a mutual fund:

Price per Share, Dividend, and Yield

Top 20 Holdings

Comment. Basically used the same format of holdings for PEY:

Blood letting .... book sorting ... beef stroganoff

This phrase explains my day: Blood letting .... book sorting ... beef stroganoff

• I gave blood at the Memorial Blood Center in Plymouth at 11:00 am. 
• After lunch Kathee and I worked on our book sorting project ^*
• Book sorting is a dirty job .... just out of the shower. Kathee is making beef stroganoff

^* Book sorting project:

• The theological book sort. Kathee packed 10 boxes of theology / religious books. All to be donated to a church NW of us. She has not completed the final count, but my estimate is 350+ books. What: commentaries, greek aids, Bibles, Greek New Testaments, dozens of old hymnals of various kids, plus more more more. I did keep a very small collection for myself
• The sell to half priced books group. We need to do more work on this next week. Our son Nathan will help us with this
• The keep list. Some theology books ... others too
• The trash list: example: old computer books for products no longer current (MS-DOS v 5, Windows 3.1, etc), old high school yearbooks. I only kept my Senior year. All college year-books. We almost filled a 96 gallon garbage container.
• Technology books: Linux, HTML, Linux utilities, CSS, et cetera, I haven't figured out what to do with these. Maybe to half-priced books

The larger project:

• We are having our lower level completely re-carpeted the first week of June. This is approx. 1300 square feet. Includes 2 bedrooms and closets and the large family room where our pool table is. Next Friday the pool table is to be disassembled and moved into the back room
• After carpeting we hope to continue clean out: back unfinished room. Et cetera
• Long term I would like to be down to stuff to furnish a 1500-1700 sq ft condo (2015 or 2016)

Will the "100-Yen" Store go the way of the "Five and Dime"?

Tough Times Ahead for 100-Yen Stores

Excerpt:

Japanese investors and exporters may be cheering the dollar's return to the ¥100 mark, but for the thousands of "100 Yen" discount stores around the country, it signals tough times ahead.

The 100-yen shops have become representative of a deflationary Japan, thriving by astonishing customers with the purchasing power of the ¥100 coin. They offer everything from cellphone chargers to fake eyelashes for the same low price. Their business model has centered on a strong yen pushing down prices of the imported goods that fill their shelves.

... Since the price the shops can charge is fixed, by definition, creative store managers may be forced to give consumers a little less bang for their money. What used to buy 10 balloons might soon buy eight, a pack of five hair curlers might be replaced by packs of three, and kitchen sponges might be cut into smaller pieces, said 100-yen store managers in Tokyo. They say they are also looking to raise the percentage of Japan-made goods on the shelves.

Comment: Note to business owner - don't put the price in the business name. Eg. Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Inc, and Family Dollar Stores Inc.

Spock's Vulcan salute based on Hebrew Blessing

Vulcan salute

Excerpt:

The Vulcan salute first appeared in 1967 on the Star Trek second season opening episode, "Amok Time". The gesture famously has a reputation for being difficult for some people to make without practice or the covert pre-positioning of the fingers, and actors on the original show reportedly had to position their fingers off-screen with the other hand before raising their hand into frame. This reputation may stem from variations in individuals' manual dexterity ... In his autobiography I Am Not Spock, Nimoy wrote that he based it on the Priestly Blessing performed by Jewish Kohanim with both hands, thumb to thumb in this same position, representing the Hebrew letter Shin (ש), which has three upward strokes similar to the position of the thumb and fingers in the salute. The letter Shin here stands for Shaddai, meaning "Almighty (God)". Nimoy wrote that when he was a child, his grandfather took him to an Orthodox synagogue. There he saw the blessing performed and was very impressed by it

Comment: Interesting.

Happy Birthday Mom (93rd)

Comment: I'm a little blue because I wish I was there with her today. Mom was hospitalized with a foot infection on April 25th. Now she is in a rehab facility until May 16th. We almost always are in Dallas for her birthday but we went in March this year to help her move out of her house.

11300 42nd Place N

11300 42nd Place N

Comment: The latest to go up for sale in our neighborhood. We first saw the for-sale sign on Tuesday 5/7/13

19 Minnesota companies in Fortune 500

19 Minnesota companies in Fortune 500; 10 move up in rank

Comment: Click image for larger. Of the above I like: TGT, MMM, USB, GIS, XEL, HRL, and UNH. I generally only target stocks with a dividend yield above 3%

Join Next Door Forster Preserve (Plymouth, MN)

NextDoor Forster Preserve

Comment: Today we sent out 69 letters of invitations - one to each home. Nathan hand addressed every envelope for us. I need to have 9 neighbors sign up in the next 15 days to make a go of this. (NextDoor validates addresses so this invite is only good for houses in Forster Preserve (Plymouth, MN))

Fortune 500 Top 20

Fortune 500 Top 20

Also on the WSJ: Phillips 66: A New Old Face in the Fortune 500

Buying on the Internet .... A tax cheat?

Shopping on the Internet without paying sales taxes makes you a tax cheat in almost all states

Excerpt:

Buy anything on the Internet lately without paying sales tax? In all but a few states, you’re probably a tax cheat.

That’s right, even if Internet retailers don’t collect sales tax at the time of the purchase, you’re required by law to pay it in 45 states and the District of Columbia.

Here’s the problem for states: hardly anyone pays the tax, and there’s not much states can do about it.  Unpaid sales taxes are usually referred to as “use taxes” on state income tax returns.

.... Use taxes apply to purchases made over Internet, from catalogs, television and radio ads and purchases made directly from out-of-state companies. State officials, however, complain that few people pay these taxes, Olsten said.

Comment: I wouldn't even know how to file "use taxes" for Minnesota.

Lunch at Jax Cafe

Jax Cafe

Comment: Lunch with my son Roger today. Very nice. Location.

"Tubs of Fun" and the "Giant Banana"

Man Loses Life Savings Playing Carnival Game, Wins Giant Banana

Excerpt:

One man never imagined he would spend his life savings on a giant stuffed banana with dreadlocks. Henry Gribbohm, 30, lost $2600 – his entire savings – on a game called Tubs of Fun at a Manchester, NH., carnival. He wanted to win an Xbox Kinect (retail value of around $100), but quickly lost $300 on the game when the balls he tossed, bounced out of the tubs. Instead of cutting his losses, he went home to get the rest of his savings, which he lost as well in a few rounds of double or nothing.

Comment: He could have bought one for $ 149. Image below