Since Biomat is closed Sunday and Monday, no blood money yet, so this post is about stocks to think about investing in. I tend to be both a bit of a contrarian (I like stocks that are beaten down a bit) and a value investor -- stocks that make money, have good P/E ratios, that have nice dividends, that have good cash flows, are all interesting to me.
With that in mind, I'm thinking about European banking stocks today. First, the panic level is pretty high around European banks. I like that. Second, there have already been a number of steps taken by the IMF and the European Central bank to mitigate wholesale disaster in many cases. Third, the Euro is trading against the dollar at 4-year lows today, which makes dividends and stock prices look pretty tasty.
So... here are a few stocks that I think are worth looking at:
NBG (National Bank of Greece ADR) $2.60, P/E 0.10, Div Yield 2.40%
LYG (Lloyds Banking Group ADR) $3.29, P/E 0.85, Div Yield 17.50%
IRE (Bank of Ireland ADR) $7.13, PE 28.40, 35.40%
STD (Banco Santander Central Hispano SA ADR) $10.45, P/E 8.00, Div Yield 6.20%
Feel free to chime in with observations, comments, and suggestions.
Happy hunting, everyone!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Since I'm not always the most linear person, some of the posts here will be little more than links, ideas, bits of information, or other random stuff. Posts like this one, for example. :-)
So... called Biomat USA in Ballard where I'll be giving up my plasma (http://biomatusa.grifols.com/results.asp?st=WA) and got their hours and how much they pay.
Basically it'll be $55.00 a week for donating twice ($20.00 the first time in a week, $35.00 the second donation) and will take around 1-1 1/2 hours each time. Now, I'm aware of the fact that I could just get a part time job or start a business or something and probably do better than that, not to mention that I have to buy gas and find the time to head out there, yadda-yadda.
But this is not just about the money. It's about the idea of the thing, and bleeding for cash is more interesting than mowing lawns for it, so there you go.
Of course, I'll also need to figure out how to invest my bits of cash, so I'll write about that too. Since I'm in the investigation phase, I'll mostly be putting ideas and links here until I come up with something more definitive. The investment du jour is "Ikaria" ( http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2010/05/13/ikaria-developer-of-the-hutchs-hibernation-on-demand-concept-seeks-200m-ipo/), so watch this space as I do my research. Also, feel free to throw out any tidbits you might have.
Finally, I need to start thinking about the rules of the game. I'm more of a 'spirit of the law' rather than the 'letter of the law' kind-of guy, so there will be a little bit of flexibility but I won't go too far from the basic plan or it ruins the game. The open question is whether or not I can add money in addition to the blood money, and I'm currently thinking that adding a little bit is okay but it has to be metaphorical blood money, as it were... for example, I'm budgeted $50.00 a week for going out to lunch or buying books and such, so I think it would be okay if I brown-bagged it every once in a while and added some of my spending money to the pot, but I'll probably limit it to no more than 50% of whatever I make donating plasma in any given month.
Well, that's all for today.
Have a good weekend.
So... called Biomat USA in Ballard where I'll be giving up my plasma (http://biomatusa.grifols.com/results.asp?st=WA) and got their hours and how much they pay.
Basically it'll be $55.00 a week for donating twice ($20.00 the first time in a week, $35.00 the second donation) and will take around 1-1 1/2 hours each time. Now, I'm aware of the fact that I could just get a part time job or start a business or something and probably do better than that, not to mention that I have to buy gas and find the time to head out there, yadda-yadda.
But this is not just about the money. It's about the idea of the thing, and bleeding for cash is more interesting than mowing lawns for it, so there you go.
Of course, I'll also need to figure out how to invest my bits of cash, so I'll write about that too. Since I'm in the investigation phase, I'll mostly be putting ideas and links here until I come up with something more definitive. The investment du jour is "Ikaria" ( http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2010/05/13/ikaria-developer-of-the-hutchs-hibernation-on-demand-concept-seeks-200m-ipo/), so watch this space as I do my research. Also, feel free to throw out any tidbits you might have.
Finally, I need to start thinking about the rules of the game. I'm more of a 'spirit of the law' rather than the 'letter of the law' kind-of guy, so there will be a little bit of flexibility but I won't go too far from the basic plan or it ruins the game. The open question is whether or not I can add money in addition to the blood money, and I'm currently thinking that adding a little bit is okay but it has to be metaphorical blood money, as it were... for example, I'm budgeted $50.00 a week for going out to lunch or buying books and such, so I think it would be okay if I brown-bagged it every once in a while and added some of my spending money to the pot, but I'll probably limit it to no more than 50% of whatever I make donating plasma in any given month.
Well, that's all for today.
Have a good weekend.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Blood and Money
Even though my bachelor's is in biology and I work in software, I've always been fascinated by economics. There are a lot of similarities between biology and economics and the two fields borrow pretty liberally from each other. On the macroeconomic side of things, there are all kinds of interesting things that happen with the flow and creation of wealth. I particularly enjoy reading the news, doing research, then saying, "I think thus and such is a good investment" based on what I find and then putting my money where my mouth is to see if I am clever (or lucky).
On the microeconomic side of things, I tend to be more philosophical. I like to think about what it means to be wealthy, the role that money plays in, "being of value to oneself and others", as the Buddhists say, and the relationship between money and morality. Is it true that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven? Or does "living in the moment" mean not concerning oneself with saving for the future? Is debt immoral? Money and wealth (or the lack of it) and how people spend, save, and give, tells a lot about a person.
I was poor for most of my adult life... now I'm doing okay because I have a pretty well-paying job, but I have a lot of catch-up to play. For the last ten years, I've invested in the stock market as a value investor and done pretty well. But inevitably I'd sell off what I had for one reason or another and now my brokerage account is mostly empty.
One day, I had a thought: What would be an interesting experiment to do that would tie together all of my random thoughts of, and dabblings in, money and investment that I could write about?
This blog is the answer to that question.
I'm going to start 'donating' my blood plasma, then investing the money I make from it until I have enough invested to generate $300.00 a month and write about how it plays out and what my thoughts are along the way.
My guess is that if I'm very, very good (and/or very, very lucky), I can achieve that in around 7 years. Let's find out if I'm right.
On the microeconomic side of things, I tend to be more philosophical. I like to think about what it means to be wealthy, the role that money plays in, "being of value to oneself and others", as the Buddhists say, and the relationship between money and morality. Is it true that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven? Or does "living in the moment" mean not concerning oneself with saving for the future? Is debt immoral? Money and wealth (or the lack of it) and how people spend, save, and give, tells a lot about a person.
I was poor for most of my adult life... now I'm doing okay because I have a pretty well-paying job, but I have a lot of catch-up to play. For the last ten years, I've invested in the stock market as a value investor and done pretty well. But inevitably I'd sell off what I had for one reason or another and now my brokerage account is mostly empty.
One day, I had a thought: What would be an interesting experiment to do that would tie together all of my random thoughts of, and dabblings in, money and investment that I could write about?
This blog is the answer to that question.
I'm going to start 'donating' my blood plasma, then investing the money I make from it until I have enough invested to generate $300.00 a month and write about how it plays out and what my thoughts are along the way.
My guess is that if I'm very, very good (and/or very, very lucky), I can achieve that in around 7 years. Let's find out if I'm right.
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