I am planning on a long trip out of state tommorrow morning, so stopped in at Valvoline Instant Oil Change to get my oil changed. For the first they had me turn on my lights, and singals to test them all. I asked when this had started, and apparently it was just implemented the previous week. In case one was burned out, they now sell the service of replacing bulbs. That’s a great idea for trying to get all the money out of a customer per visit that you can. My bill came to about $60, about $42 for the oil change, and $14 for an air filter. I gotta start maming appointments at Honda, or the service place up the road. VIOC is just getting too expensive. And if I wasn’t so procrastinative, I could make an appointment at some other place, and save some money. After sucking the money out of my wallet, I decided to look them up. Valvoline Instant Oil Change is part of Valvoline which is a division of Ashland Inc. I looked up Ashland (ASH) and found their growth estimates are on 6% per year for the next 5 years. Too slow for me. But I learned another stock that I don’t want to buy at this time, and that I need to start making appointments for my oil changes.
Regular Brokerage Account:
| Name | Sym | Shares | Value | Gain/Loss |
| Advance Auto Parts | AAP | 13.040 | $824.52 | $79.68 |
| Amazon.com | AMZN | 23.495 | $840.89 | $93.91 |
| Cabela’s | CAB | 26.247 | $572.45 | $74.54 |
| Carnival Cruise Lines | CCL | 20.467 | $1,138.58 | $141.48 |
| Citigroup | C | 0.047 | $2.23 | $0.00 |
| Dick’s Sporting Goods | DKS | 36.632 | $1,378.46 | $134.49 |
| eBay | EBAY | 7.965 | $297.49 | $50.50 |
| Lowes | LOW | 13.030 | $774.11 | $29.23 |
| Michaels Stores | MIK | 5.833 | $243.47 | ($3.51) |
| Red Robin Gourmet Burgers | RRGB | 18.986 | $1,152.26 | $178.23 |
| Target | TGT | 9.057 | $496.05 | $41.53 |
| US Real Estate Index | IYR | 8.588 | $553.41 | $51.19 |
| Total | $8,273.92 | $871.26 |
Roth IRA Account:
| Name | Sym | Shares | Value | Gain/Loss |
| MSCI Emerging Markets Index | EEM | 21.882 | $1,588.20 | $94.31 |
| US Real Estate Index | IYR | 34.037 | $2,193.34 | $190.74 |
| US Energy Sector Index | IYE | 6.455 | $515.50 | $18.53 |
| Pengrowth Energy Trust A | PGH | 12.419 | $275.21 | $23.88 |
| Primewest Energy | PWI | 10.649 | $269.42 | $15.45 |
| Total | $4,841.66 | $342.90 |
I was have been looking at my IYE (US Energy Index Fund), and have been wondering if I want to keep it. I read that the energy stocks are likely to crash, but I don’t know. We will always need energy. I compared all my funds, and what they have done compared with each other. I decided to hold on to my IYE for now, but the DVY fund stood out as having under performed the other of my funds. I bought it because it has outperformed the S&P 500. But I decided to sell it. I sold it during the 12:30 window, and put in an order for more IYR (US Real Estate Index Fund) in the 3pm window. My IYR has been doing quite well and it would be good to have more invested in real estate. I wish I had done it last week. Today is the ex-dividend date for IYR, so I don’t think I will get the dividends on the $505 of additional IYR I am purchasing today.
I just found out they are going to be building a Red Robin Gourmet Burgers down the street from where I work. I am excited! The closest Red Robin had been 150 miles away, but now I’ll be able to go to lunch there once in a while. And even better yet, the stock has gone up over 2% today! Nice!
If you are not familiar with Red Robin, try this recipe for a facsimilie of thier Bonzai Burger.
Yeah! Rot in prison you scum! We need more of these crooked CEOs in prisons! It is just sick that these people are paid major bucks to run companies, and they misuse their positions to line their pockets with money as they suck the profits from the companies, run them into the ground, and cook the books the fool the shareholders till the whole thing comes crashing down. Many people have lost their money investing in companies like these based on the financials only to find out the numbers are bogus. If you invest money in a company, and the company doesn’t do well, and you lose your money, that’s one thing. But if the publically available financial information is fraudulent, and high ranking executives are getting rich at the expense of the shareholders, that’s another thing completely! Dennis Kozlowski you scumbag, I hope you become some serial killer’s bitch!