MSFT Batman

Did Batman appear in Microsoft's stock chart late last year?  Doesn't look like he was able to save the day.

Can't wait to be best man

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Nothing to do

Big Tex Gas

Big Tex lets out a stinky one or a tanker just exploded.

Financial Lessons Learned

This "crisis" we're in has taught me a few things.  When I was young and first learned what FDIC stood for and what they did I had no idea why something like that was in place.  I thought it was in place to protect customers in case their bank got robbed.  I never imaged there would be a time that a bank would go under.  I was about 13 then.  But even today, I never imagined that it would happen to 2 of the 3 banks that I have money in.  Well, not 2 yet, Wachovia is still trying to figure out who wins them.

 

That's not really what I learned though.  This latest crisis has taught me that the American people will always over-indulge to a point that they cannot support themselves anymore.  Once they reach this point they'll whine and complain and look for people to blame.  They'll blame the government which will scramble to point fingers at each of the parties.  The government will try to come up with quick fixes, none of which will work.  After a year or two the econmy will again stabilize so that Americans can get back to over-indulging and going through the same thing all over again.

 

The problem is that when Americans are in a good economy they never think about what it's like in a bad economy.  They're not cutting back their spending, driving less, eating out less.  They're charging as much as they can so that they can pay for it tomorrow.  This time, tomorrow came and it was black.

 

What I've really learned is that cash is king.  Cash may drop in value slightly over time, but it will never get cut in half over a 6 month period.  Do yourself a favor and set some cash aside before you start gambling in the stock market.  Don't start researching stocks and looking at P/E ratios and dividends and trying to find deals until you have a good amount of cash in a bank saved for a rainy day.  This time that rainy day has come, and if my stock picks in the past are any indication, any research you do in this market is worthless.