Share market volatility
I’m glad I don’t currently own shares. We sold them all to buy our house in Mount Gambier. The sale price was between 10 and 20 percent off the peak but still yielded a profit.
I checked the prices today after hearing the Dow dropped 358 points overnight.
Westpac is down to $20.69, WA Newspapers to $8.48 and Cortona Resources to 18 cents. Most people won’t have heard of Cortona.
They have some prospective gold tenements near Kalgoorlie and in New South Wales. The price climbed above 50 cents at one stage. I sold them in the low 40s and mid 30s.
If I hadn’t sold them we wouldn’t have been able to afford the house deposit.
As far as I know there is no reason for the price decline other than sentiment and people wanting cash.
Dealing with bureaucracy
Changing address is a pain at any time, more so when you move interstate. I can’t imagine the fuss if you moved overseas!
We attended to some of the essential paperwork in advance of moving from Kalgoorlie to Mount Gambier. Electricity, water and telephone all had to be changed before we shifted.
I earmarked today for notifying the host of other services we use. Read more
Automatic subscription fees
I’ve been caught out several times in the past year with businesses and organisations taking automatic payments from my credit card for subscription services.
It always makes me feel a mixture of silly and peeved.
Silly that I didn’t read the fine print when I signed up for the service and peeved that I didn’t knowingly authorise it and wasn’t notified.
I’m talking big names here like McAfee and Ancestry.com.
Oh, I know they haven’t broken any laws and the automatic payment information is probably as prominent as other text on the sign-up page.
The lesson I’ve learned is to read all the subscription detail more thoroughly.
I really think though, they should make the automatic payment opt-in, rather than opt-out. There are plenty of other service providers who operate that way.
And they should certainly send the subscriber a reminder.
Odd coins in the change
A reader came into the newspaper office with a 1900 sixpence she had found in her small change, thinking it somewhat remarkable. I don’t think it’s amazing at all, but worthy of a blog post.
I don’t handle much change these days except one and two dollar coins. When I was a child these were banknotes. The one and two-cent coins of my youth no longer exist.
Decimal currency was introduced to Australia in 1966. Pounds, shillings and pence ceased to be legal tender in February 1967, a month after I was born. Read more
Staying patient
My Firehorse horoscope on Facebook today includes: “Bureaucracy will be slower than usual, which will cause you to be in an execrable mood; but at least spare your near collaborators.”
I’m waiting for the bank to approve finance on a new housing investment loan. That seems to be a circular process which has no logical timeframe. Based on our last experience I’m actually happy with how smoothly this one has gone.
If the stars were flagging a work issue I can’t say the wheels are turning any faster or slower than usual. Read that as you will.
I filled my former deputy in this morning on some recent events and she replied it’s fortunate I have “the patience of a Saint”. Read more
Google Finance Australia
It slipped past me in October that Google Finance began offering Australian share market prices and reports.
One of my few reasons for using Yahoo previously had been its superior Australian market coverage.
Now I can go to the cleaner look of Google and not worry about flickering ads.
Telstra’s future
Telstra’s group managing director for public policy, Dr Phil Burgess, arrived in Kalgoorlie-Boulder this evening for a flying visit. He came straight from the airport to a private dinner with business and community representatives at the Cornwall Hotel.
I was pleased to be among the small group of a dozen people. It’s not often you get to meet one of the most influential businessmen in the country.
Burgess is one of the “Three Amigos†who came to Australia in July 2005 with the new management team headed by Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo.
I thought the meeting was going to be off the record, so I didn’t take my notebook or camera. Bad journalist! Burgess said over drinks on his arrival that he doesn’t believe there is any such thing as “off the record” in Australia. He has heard it said, he reckons, and then read his words the next day.
Not that he’s any stranger to the media. Burgess has been the hard hitter for Telstra in its running campaign against government regulation.
I’m writing this article less than two hours after the meeting finished, and I’m paraphrasing some of the key points. Read more
Gisele dumps dollar
Supermodel Gisele Bündchen has reportedly asked to be paid in euros rather than US dollars.
The world’s highest-paid model is said to be concerned about the weakness of the greenback. Fair enough too. The Australian dollar is heading towards parity and some analysts tip US$1.50 against the euro.
Share market overheated?
I sold shares in Nufarm today for $17.26 (NUF.AX) which I bought in February for $11.55. That’s a nice gain of 49 percent on a premium stock in nine months.
I probably should have held them another four months to reduce the capital gains tax, but the market is so uncertain just now I thought I should take the profit.
I sold News Corp at a small loss last week as part of reducing my exposure to stocks in the current climate. I’m confident holding banks and BHP, but feel nervous about industrials and retailers.
When I started buying shares 18 months ago I looked for companies I thought were undervalued. I don’t see any fitting that description today.
American Express card
I obtained a new Earth Card recently from Westpac. It’s actually two cards. You get a Mastercard and American Express.
For every dollar spent you get half a point (Mastercard) and one point (American Express) with Qantas Frequent Flyer. Living in regional Western Australia, it’s a long way to anywhere, so the idea of flight discounts in the future is very appealing.
I’ve switched most of my direct debits to American Express and will pay most bills with it.
One downside. I had to wait about three weeks for the frequent flyer registration to come through. Meanwhile, we had our Esperance long weekend and I flogged the card, only to be told it didn’t generate any points.
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