Friday, July 25, 2008

Costco to raise prices...hope you Alpha'd already

Courtesy of ABC news:

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Story?id=5445433&page=1

"...Costco has announced that it will have to raise its prices, on some items by as much as 15 percent...."

a 15% return on your investment would be a good feat in today's Stock Market, yet if you bought ahead of such a predictable event, that is exactly what you would have "earned" in savings still in your wallet.

It pays to stockpile needed items ahead of time in these inflationary times, in fact, it is the one investment with the least amount of risk..
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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

If you are an Alpha Strategist, the time to buy is now

Con Agra and Kraft Foods will raise prices on their food products by 20% this year, meaning that jar of cheese whiz will go from 2.80 to 3.20 or so:



Here is the list of ConAgra products that will rise in price 20%

Wesson Oil would seem to be a good Alpha Buy, as would LaChoy Soy Sauce in the 1 gallon size.

Now it should be mentioned that the parallel "generic" brands of similar products actually come from one of these two companies, only in a different package, meaning even the "Cheapy" versions will rise in price.
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Sunday, July 6, 2008

Tha Alpha Strategy, what it is, how it works

In similar economic times, the mid to late 1970's, a Economist, John Pugsley wrote "The Alpha Strategy", a book on economics and more importantly, how to protect the purchasing power of your hard earned monies through a reviewing of the role of the goods we use in our lives.

Pugsley's Alpha Strategy basically eschews investments in liquid assets in favor of banking on inflation growth outstripping returns on investments in typical consumables such as Dry Good foods, Home Cleaning Products, Personal Care Products.

A good example of the Alpha Strategy in practice is found in the common light bulb, the same Light Bulb is mandated to be replaced with mercury filled toxic light bulbs in 2012, currently a 4 pack of generic light bulbs costs 1 dollar + tax, currrently a single mercury light bulb costs 3.50 a piece.

The average American Family uses 24 light bulbs a year:

Incandescent Light Bulb Cost per year........6.00

Mercury Light Bulb Cost per year.....84 dollars

A 78 dollar difference per year, if a ten year supply is purchased via the Alpha Strategy, incandescent bulbs would cost 60 dollars, a mercury bulb 10 year supply would cost 840 dollars.

The Alpha Strategy would turn 60 dollars in cost today, into 780 dollars in cash over a ten year period..

Wheat prices have doubled, that will work it's way down into the price of familiy staples such as Rotini, when price checked, the average cost has increased 37 cents on a box of pasta, with three pasta based meals a week, or 1.11 per week in additional cost, over 52 weeks, a 50 dollar + savings can be realized by bargain shopping and stock piling a supply of pasta now, before the poor wheat harvest and additional energy costs raise prices even higher.

The Alpha Strategy is a Contrarian one, instead of trying to increase the yield from an investment, it seeks to attack Future Costs by using today's dollars to cheat inflation down the road.

The additional benefits are that your Savings is Tax Free, and having a larger then average Larder (The Average Family has about two weeks of food stored) will help to protect one's loved ones in the event of a social disruption.

The Alpha Strategy is quite old, thousands of years old in fact, it comes from a time when there was no money per se, there were however goods such as shoes or swords or food herds that wealth was based on, Desert Dwellers have practiced this for a very long time.
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Thursday, February 21, 2008

Winter is ending, the sun is warm is again, my illness has passed, this year I feel renewed as the plants that surround me.
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Sunday, November 11, 2007

Ahh so far, so good the joys on contrarianism

In today's rush to be "different" it seems to me that people forget that there is a time fro change for that difference to be actual, and not merely complaining.

For example, the stock market has been said to be in crash mode for at least 2 yrs now, fine, it is over valued, well now it is readjusting it's values thanks to an inevitable bursting bubble.

For contrarian investors, this is not a time for "I told you so" it is a time to start stalking bargains, stocks that perform, pay dividends and show long term value.

For me, there is one more criteria, they must have DRIP DIP plans available, meaning that I can directly invest, and reinvest dividend income in the purchase of more shares automatically.

This also means decisions must be made about sellling Gold or Silver to buy those shares, both have had huge increases in valuation , and like the stock market, a correction is inevitable, those are the decisions that Contrarians make, and let others chase the money by going with the herd.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Opportunity?

With the survival of my favorite Christian Forum, the crisis has passed...sort of.

I have found that if something is marked for closing, then eventually it will be closed sooner or later, terrible, but that is the way it is.

So another forum has recently been put up for sale, and "IF" things can be worked out (Lord willing) then I will be able to purchase a piece of that forum and start a Christian sub forum on it.

I've made the offer, all that can be done is waiting for an answer.
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Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Alas, the parting of old friends

One of my favorite places on the 'Net has closed down, IMO because of budget and bandwith concerns, to borrow from a book:

One door closes, another opens

That's life.

So if any of my fellow exiles from Knifeforums stops in, welcome aboard.

Today the similarity of Christ's wilderness time and the Zen concept of "no mind" is on my mind.

Jesus spent time in the wilderness after his cousin John the Baptist was beheaded, no one really knows what he did when he was on his solourn, but it would not be unreasonable to consider that he was emptying himself, to allow God to fill him with His will.

The Zen concept of Zazen, of clearing your mind of troubles or even thoughts would seem to me to fit nicely into what Christ taught by his actions.

So in that line of thought started waking at 5:45 am, to read the Scriptures and to perhaps excercise as well.

It's a nice time to catch up and prepare for the day, a page of Proverbs, meditated upon while lifting weights  or
practicing Fencing is rather nice actually.
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