Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Market News and Emergency Fund

I really don't have enough time at work to check out any stocks or any news. I'm still learning some things, but I'm getting the hang of a few major activities.

UNM came out with a decent report, revenues and EPS beat the estimates. The last few days have been a bit tough, but I'll keep my eye on UNM.

I like reading Jim Jubak's column on MSN Money, and today he wrote about five winners from the energy bill (BTU, DE, CBI, TRP, BPL).

Avon Products announced a buyback and combined with a recent uptrend, I'm going to try to find some time to look into AVP.
Three other stocks that I might look into: FDP Fresh Del Monte. It has a nice dividend and I think it will be worth the time to look into it (the Motley Fool also wrote an article on FDP).
I found out today that Edgar is public (you know the company that has easy online access to SEC documents). I doubt I will buy it, but I want to read more about them.
The last one: Value Line. It has very popular products, and it has very little volume. The ticker is VALU. I'm just taking a quick glance and it looks like they have no debt, I'll assume conservative growth, gives off almost $2 of free cash flow, a ROE of 17%, and a profit margin of 25% (all figures taken from Yahoo Finance). Plus, it's yielding over 3%. Worth a look.


Portfolio
UNTD came out with a decent earnings report and it's up 4% in after-hours. Hopefully this finally turns the stock up. This is the only stock I'm losing money in (I'll break even if it opens at the +4%), but I think it still has potential.
YTD Portfolio is up +17.6%

Emergency Fund
I've read a few things about emergency funds (like on No Credit Needed), and I think it's a great idea to prepare. I'm going to use my ING account as the emergency fund holder, and I think 3 months worth of living expenses will be sufficient. Based on the rent I think I will be paying within a few months and bills, I'm estimated living expenses at $850/month. I'm going to set a rule for myself and not let my ING account go below $2,550.
It's currently above that right now, and I might transfer over the rest to my brokerage account.

2 comments:

NCN said...

Hey, thanks for the plug. Hope you like the new job. I was wondering, do they know that you blog? Was this something they asked about? I work in a non-corporate setting, and doubt this would ever come up. ncnblog

savingadvice said...

I was expecting them to ask if I have a blog or read about blogging in the confidentiality agreements, but there was no mention at all. I probably won't mention the blog for awhile, and I know I can't talk about anything about the company (what they are buying, selling, etc.)
I was definitely surprised blogs weren't mention.