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The continuing market rally

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the current state of my finances, and how/what I had done in the past year.

Since that post, the market has continued on its rally and is now up even more.  It’s to the point where one has to question when things will settle off a bit.  This is where the emotions of the stock market start to get to me..  I wonder whether I should pull out some of my gains and set them on the sidelines for what must be the inevitable reset that’s just around the corner.  Or is it?

Here’s a snapshot of a few of the funds/stocks that I had purchased earlier this year, and their performance since I made those purchases:

FSMKX SPARTAN 500 INDEX INVESTOR CLASS 18.47%
GOOG GOOGLE INC CL A 74.78%
JABAX JANUS BALANCED FUND CLASS J 20.99%
JAHYX JANUS HIGH YIELD FUND CLASS J 25.67%
JAOSX JANUS OVERSEAS FUND CLASS J 18.47%
VGSIX VANGUARD REIT INDEX FUND 32.07%
WAMUQ WASHINGTON MUTUAL INC -89.96%
YHOO YAHOO INC 67.62%

Note that even my loser pick Washington Mutual – which I purchased prior to the downfall last year – is off from it’s overall lows (where I was down about 96%).

The problem I have, I guess, is that I’ve already got (I feel) a pretty diversified portfolio (this table only represents a portion of my overall holdings) – so other than cash (where it will earn nothing) I wouldn’t know where to put the money once I pull it out of the market..

So in the market it will stay, and I’ll continue to hope that the fast climb won’t soon be met with a fast decline.

I’d love to hear what others are considering.

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brick & mortar and e-commerce pricing

Yesterday i was doing a little product research on something I wanted to buy.  I looked at a couple of the reliable online sites to understand the models out there and the general pricing.

Then, while at lunch, I visited a nearby store that sold the product at 150% of the online price.  Needless to say, I didn’t buy it.

Returning back online, I found an online retailer with a brick & mortar location here in San Francisco with a great price.  So after work I made my way over to the store only to find that their price was too at the 50% markup.  What gives?logo

I talked to one of the sales reps at the store who informed me that they couldn’t match the online price (the registers would blow up was the phrasing he chose) but that I should remember that online charges shipping (and since they have a local presence, sales tax too).

I went home and bought it online.

I don’t understand a company that won’t:

  1. have consistent pricing.  OK, fine, I get that it costs money to have that item on display in San Francisco instead of in a warehouse in Nevada (or wherever) so I understand that you need to charge a markup so..
  2. meet internet pricing when asked – at least for the savvy shopper, allow for some flexibility in pricing at the register.  If not, at the very least..
  3. have a reasonable markup for the convenience.  Charge a reasonable (10%) markup for the convenience of walking out of the store right then and there with the product instead of having to wait for UPS.

The idea that this store wanted to charge me 50% more for that convenience was ridiculous.

With more and more information literally at peoples’ fingertips (think iphone) the idea that you can count on the un-informed shopper stumbling into your shop and unknowingly spending a 50% markup has got to be short-lived.

Doesn’t it?

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What do I pack for a trip?

The other night I met up with @soulcutter and @BWP22 for a few drinks and to talk about their upcoming travels to Europe.  Digging through some old photos, I found this one, from my 2007 trip to Thailand:

2007d03c002

Looking at this I realized that this is pretty much the stuff I bring on any trip.. give or take only a few items.

Some of this (like all of that sunblock!) is due to a trip to the sun – but even on a trip around Europe I’d end up bringing sunscreen to wear just about every sunny day (the joys of Irish skin).

And some of this stuff (like the rolls of film) are things of the past.

But for the most part, the items on here have proven time and again to be valuable, no matter where the destination.

I thought’s I’d just jot down a few notes about a couple of the items:

Chief among them are the North Face Galileo Small travel backpack.  This I bought several years ago and it has accompanied me on every trip since.  It’s the perfect size (2700 cubic inches) plus the additional daypack (1000 cubic inches) makes a great accompaniment.  I’ve found that over the years, the bigger the bag, the more I’ll bring so I like the way this bag limits me from breaking my back taking every last item.  Besides, I’m always amazed at just how much more I’ve been able to stuff in this bag when it comes time to head home.

I tend to bring plaid shirts because they hide the wrinkles and stains a little better.

Sadly I lost that eye mask on my trip to Africa – I’ll have to replace it for sure.  Those plus ear plugs (or noise canceling headphones if I’m awake) are just awesome for long flights.

I’ve got 3 cameras in this photo.. In this case it was a digital point and shoot, digital SLR and a film SLR.  I always bring at least 2 cameras – the point and shoot I will always take with me if I don’t want to lug the SLR (to dinner, clubs, etc.,).  2 SLRs come in handy for more photographic trips.. In this case I was still uncertain of digital and wanted the film camera along (especially for black and white).  More recently I’ve fully adopted digital but I may still bring 2 SLRs if I want the convenience of multiple lenses (like in Africa where I could have my older SLR housing the wide angle lens and my newer SLR with the telephoto.  Along with all of the accessories (chargers, batteries, lenses, filters, memory cards, etc.,) this is often the biggest/bulkiest part of my travel kit.

Some assorted pouches often come in handy – to organize all of those camera accessories, or photocopies, or dirty laundry..

Magazines are great for the flights – it’s mindless reading that’s easy to leave behind once you’re done.  I usually only do this for the flight out.  For the duration of the trip a good novel, travel guides, and my journal take up the rest of the down time.

I like traveling with a pocket knife – and almost always do .. man I wish we could take these on board.  This is the 1 item that often requires me to check my bag.  Not that I usually mind though.  It’s nice being able to walk freely around the airport (especially true when there are connections involved) without all of this.  That said, I’ve been getting less lucky at the baggage collection areas and in the last 18 months  have twice had items taken from my checked bags and twice not received my bags when I arrived.  So I may reconsider the pocket knife and just purchase one when I get to my destination.

The empty gatorade bottle was to save 3 bucks at the airport buying their overpriced water.. bring an empty and fill up at the fountain.

The clothes I bring (especially t-shirts, socks, underwear) is usually older and I usually don’t come home with it.  This is one way to offset the weight of anything you buy along the way.. as the trip progresses, I’ll just throw away old clothes instead of packing them back home.  That said, I only bring enough clothes for so many days of travel.  Laundry definitely happens along the way.  The tossing of clothes usually only happens during that last week of the trip.

While this photo is handy, I’ve also taken to the following exercise: After each trip, I write down each and everything I brought with me as I unpack – and then later make a quick notation of whether it was used or not.. this serves as a great reference for each future trip, where I can quickly scan the list of what I brought last time – and try to not pack anything I haven’t used for a few trips.

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shooting in black and white

A couple of weeks ago I went back East to attend Webb & Liz’s wedding in Greenfield, Mass.  Webb and I have been friends forever, and I wanted to have some images from the event that I was happy with.  I decided to bring along my SLR instead of just my G10 so that I could have more control over the images.

After deciding on the SLR, the next decision was what lens to bring.   While I wanted the SLR, I didn’t like the prospect of having a big honking lens (or worse: multiple lenses!).  After all, I wanted to enjoy the event as well, I didn’t just want to photograph it.  So I brought along the 20mm f/2.8 lens.  This would allow me to reduce the overall bulk of the camera as well as better capture low-light situations.

Next, I opted not to bring an external flash, instead relying on the built-in flash of my D300.  I don’t often use this flash, but it is a great option for when you want it.  In this case, I only used the flash on the night-before events which took place in a really dark bowling alley.

I decided before-hand that I wanted to have black & white images for this event, so I set up my camera to “shoot” in black and white.  Actually, I shoot in RAW mode, meaning that all of the image capture is stored in an unprocessed state, allowing all sorts of fine tuning during ‘processing.’  So what I did was set my camera to black and white shooting mode, so that the rear panel would show the image to me in black and white, even though it was really a full-color image that I was storing.  This gave me the best of both worlds.  By doing so I was able to preview what the image would look like in black and white, while still capturing the raw data, to allow me to do as I please when I generate the image.

Once back at my laptop, I transferred the raw files to Lightroom and applied some basic settings to process the raw files into black and white images.  I have several presets that I have downloaded from across the web that apply different kinds of settings – and in this case, I used some basic ‘film emulators’ settings to re-create the typical settings for a film like Tri-x, a film I’m used to shooting with.  With these settings in place, I then made common adjustments (lights, darks, contrast, etc.,).

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the outcome.  I think the images look decent on screen (especially considering the varying lighting conditions – from a neutral walk around town to a dark bowling alley (with flash) to a challenging-ly lit reception area to an overly-bright outdoor scene).   I was also trying to achieve multiple looks in the images – like blurring the dancing scenes to convey the sense of motion.  Some of these turned out OK but this is an effect that I wasn’t thrilled with this time…

There’s so much possible with digital processing – it’s a lot to get one’s hands around, but I definitely feel like I’m improving over these past few years.

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Finding the time to be productive

I’ve had the opportunity a few times where I’ve taken time off between jobs.  I am a HUGE fan of this and I can’t speak highly enough about it.  One of the things that amazed me, though, was people who would ask:

“What do you do with your time?”

These people would admit that were it them, they’d go stir crazy.

This is not something that I’ve suffered.  I find that there are so many things calling for my attention.  In fact, while gainfully employed I often find it hard to make the time to pursue the many activities that I enjoy.

I’ve been making an effort recently to spend more time working on some photo projects, including my weekly photo postings.  The main purpose of this effort is to make sure I’m spending more time examining the photos I’m taking (I’ve taken) in order to improve future images.  I figured, I should be able to spend at least a little time each week on this.  It’s just 1 photo per week, after all.

And yet, I’m amazed at how difficult it’s been.  And so it’s with some amazement that I look at others and dustin-was-herewhat they’re able to get done.  Recently, I’ve been checking in on a photo blog where the author, Dustin Diaz, produces 1 photograph to post PER DAY.  And these are highly-stylized, photos with lighting setups and accompanying tech notes and everything.  I am just amazed that he is able to find the time each and every day to put towards this effort (this in addition to holding down a job, relationship and even pet ownership, from what I can gather).

I’ll admit that some of the photos end up being quite similar and you might fault him for that but remember: each of those photos is going to take a couple of hours (including planning, set up, shooting, tear down, post processing, posting, describing, and then dealing with the comments, etc.,) so one can’t fault him too much for falling back to a similar setup.  Besides, it’s not like there’s a lot of time left in the day for pre-planning these thing and coming up with more differentiated setups.

Over the coming months, where I spend my time is going to be something I’m more consciously thinking about.  I feel like I’m already pretty decent at minimizing time spent on less-important stuff, it’s just that I’ve got to re-draw the line, lopping more stuff into the less-important column.

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checking in on finances, 1 year in..

Around this time last year I was heading off to Germany for a vacation planned months earlier.  It was while on this break that the US (and international) markets really started to report all of their irregularities that resulted in the ‘economic crisis’ of the last year.

index
S&P 500 1 year chart (via Yahoo Finance)

While this made for interesting conversations while on vacation, it was all a bit shocking to be watching while so far from home.  I returned from Germany and was rather amazed (along with so many others) to watch the markets continue to decline for as long as they did and as far as they did.

During the past year I made a lot of financial decisions to try to salvage some value in my portfolio and I decided to take a look back at some of the decisions I made, and where I am now, compared to last year.

I, like many people, find much of my savings in retirement plans.  As such, I try not to overly manage this money (since it will be a while until I draw from it).  The downside to this is that I had pretty much the same portfolio makeup at the beginning of the crisis as I had during the boom times of the previous decade.  Unlike some friends who warned of impeding doom (with calls to pull money out of the market) my money was still sitting vulnerably out there.  And it was hit.

Luckily though, I did have some safety.  First and foremost, I had recently transferred out a bunch of money from a previous employer’s 401k plan so that was sitting – as cash – in my IRA.  This meant that almost 30% of my IRAs value was haphazardly stored as a non-declining asset during the market slide.  Secondly, I had a reasonable security mix in my assets – including bonds, international and domestic stocks of various sizes.  This prevented a major loss in my accounts.  But even with these measures, my portfolio lost close to 35% of its value (but much better than the 50% decline in the S&P).

It was time to more actively manage the situation.

First: What to do with the cash?  I decided I needed to transfer from cash in a money market fund (earning less than 1% return) into something that would start earning.  I was also reasonably concerned that money market funds wouldn’t prove to be as safe as they had in the past.

Unfortunately, My first moves didn’t fare so well.  I moved some cash into commercial paper.  This quickly looked like a mistake.  At first these investments lost value but thankfully the strength of the companies is holding out and the value of these investments is recently back on track – most are now up in value with only 1 laggard which has been making a slow comeback throughout the year.

Second I decided to buy into stocks – breaking my multi-year streak of only owning funds. I decided to try to buy companies recently hit hard by the slide.  Google and Yahoo have proven to be good decisions (and I still hold out hope for the family of Yahoo properties providing even more upside).  Washington Mutual?  Not so much (currently down 97% on that one).

Finally, I diversified my Mutual Fund holdings even more.  I purchased lower-fee index funds (have you looked at that S&P chart over the last 6 months?!) and sold off some of the more expensive funds.  I already owned reasonably low-priced funds but these new funds are better and I’m more and more a fan of index funds for a bulk of the holdings.

So where am I today?

Not including contributions made over the past year, my portfolio is still down – just about 7%.  Not bad, considering it was down close to 35% just 6 months ago.  And I feel like I’m better poised for future growth, given my current mix.  Some of the commercial paper that I own will bring me a 6.75% return for the next 10 years – that might not always beat the market, but it sure is better than the past year.

And, I’ve continued to invest over the course of the year, so including my contributions, my portfolio value is up 8%.  While most of that is contributions, not all of it is.  Looking at my 401k for instance (which is easy to track since I started a new job just 1 year ago) I’ve made a 17% return on those contributions.

So, overall I feel pretty good about where I am.  I still have some cleaning up to do in my overall portfolio mix but I’m happy to have an overall portfolio value that is up in this troubling year.