I haven’t heard from my accountant, so I gave him a call today. I asked about my tax return, and he said he was working on on it. I guess I need to get my tax stuff to him sooner. Actually I have known that. I have used the same CPA for about 6 or 7 years, and he is very good. But every year, my wife and procrastinate getting our tax stuff together for him. Personally, I hate doing taxes. I used to use Turbo Tax or Tax cut, but they were so stressfull. One year, I figured out I owed $5000 Federal tax, and hadn’t even gotten to state. Then I took my tax stuff to the account, and he got it down to $2000 Federal. He knew about deductions I could take. I am sure the deductions are in the software, but if you don’t know about taxes, and legal stuff to begin with… But the sooner we get our tax stuff to the accountant, the sooner we get it back, since he puts his clients in a queue based on when he recieves their stuff.
Anyway, he said he was currently working on our tax return and will give me a call when it is ready. Then I can go pick it up. My wife and I will need to sign it. Then he said I can just fax the signed page to him, since we are doing efile. I would still like to know how much we owe so I know how much money we will need. I may have to sell some of my stocks. Not sure. Depends on how much we owe. We did shove a bucnh of money into our 401k’s, so that should lower our tax base some.
Who are these guys? I originally saw a commercial for 17makethemoney.com. I wanted to get the free DVD, but for some reason I didn’t. I think they wanted to charge shipping, or make you pay for the DVD if you kept it, or something like that. I am not sure. I know I didn’t like that the guy called me at home. If I sign up for a free DVD, just send me a free DVD. I don’t want to talk to anyone at that point.
Then the other day I saw a commercial for 61makethemoney.com (maybe it 63makethemoney.com). Huh? I went to the sites and found they are the same. Then I started playing around, and found that it looks like all the domains from 1makethemoney.com to 99makethemoney.com are the same website. I didn’t test every number, but all of the ones I test came up with the same website. “What could extra income do for your family?” Why in the world would they make 99 different domains for the same website? They seem to have something to do with starting your own business. Maybe they sell these web sites? So maybe Joe Blow buys 63makethemoney.com, then he pays for a commercials, and gets a ton of traffic. He gives away the free dvds, and then the people turn around sell 64makethemoney.com, then 65makethemoney.com? I don’t know. It’s kind of flakey whatever these guys are doing.
Today’s Black Friday shopping sucked! I showed up at Circuit City before 4am, and there was already a long line. When the doors opened at 5am, the place was packed! I got the 250gb external drive for $40 (after rebates). I will use this as a backup device for Norton Ghost to write to. I tried to get the Season 1&2 Northern Exposure DVD for $12.99, but there didn’t seem to be any. The box didn’t look like it had been gone through yet…I just think they didn’t have any to begin with! I got a 1gb SD flash cardfor $2.99 (after rebates). I also got a 2gb SD card for $28. I got some DVD media for free after rebate. And also an X-Men last stand DVD for $9. There was more stuff on my list, but I just couldn’t find them in the store, or get to them. The check out lines were LOOOOOONNG! I didn’t get out of the store til 6:40.
I went to Target. I found a Family Guy Vol 3 DVD for $16, but I didn’t want to wait in the check out line that wrapped around the inside of the store for a couple things. I left.
I ended up going to Home Depot & Lowes to pick up some stuff I needed for a project. No long lines at these places.
I took an early lunch and bought a 24 sheet (strip) shredder on sale for $80 at Staples (to shred all those stinking credit card apps without having to open them!). And a Whistler radar detector at Radio Shack for $30.
It was not fun! I normally have fun, but today was not fun. Too crowded this year. I don’t know why. Some people said because of the nice weather.
I was watching the movie Fun With Dick And Jane. Not the original, but the remake with Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni. I like the original with George Segal and Jane Fonda much better. The main premise of the movie is a Dick (Jim Carrey) get screwed over by the heads of the corporation he works for. The company goes broke amid an accounting scandal. Dick and Jane spiral down until they turn to robbery. They find out that the CEO was behind the whole scandal, and they end up robbing him, and giving the money to the pension fund in his name.
But at the beginning of the credits they had a little sense of humor in their acknowledegments:
Special thanks to:
Ken Lay-Enron
Bernard Ebbers-WorldCom
David Myers-WorldCom
Dennis Kozlowski-Tyco
Mark H. Swartz-Tyco
John Rigas-Adelphia
Timothy Rigas-Adelphia
Scott Sullivan-WorldCom
Bufford Yates-WorldCom
Jeffrey Skilling-Enron
Andrew Fastow-Enron
Lea Fastow-Enron
Samuel D. Waksal-ImClone Systems
David Duncan-Arthur Andersen
E. Kirk Shelton-Cendant
Ben Glisan Jr.-Enron
Dan Boyle-Enron
Weston Smith-HealthSouth
Aaron Beam-HealthSouth
Arthur Andersen
Enron
Adelphia
Cendant
HealthSound
WorldCom
Now that was hilarious! 
Regular Brokerage Account:
| Name | Sym | Shares | Value | Gain/Loss |
| Advance Auto Parts | AAP | 31.336 | $962.02 | ($283.52) |
| Amazon.com | AMZN | 32.090 | $1,019.18 | ($124.76) |
| Cabela’s | CAB | 26.247 | $525.73 | $27.82 |
| Carnival Cruise Lines | CCL | 20.882 | $878.51 | ($138.08) |
| Dick’s Sporting Goods | DKS | 52.390 | $2,177.85 | $336.91 |
| eBay | EBAY | 25.911 | $730.17 | ($273.99) |
| GOOG | 0.936 | $354.20 | ($42.35) | |
| MSCI Emerging Markets Index | EEM | 1.059 | $104.67 | $4.74 |
| S&P Smallcap 600 Value Index | IJS | 35.777 | $2,487.57 | $34.18 |
| Lowes | LOW | 50.004 | $1,366.61 | ($133.10) |
| Red Robin Gourmet Burgers | RRGB | 31.934 | $1,352.40 | ($121.59) |
| Target | TGT | 17.544 | $858.78 | ($98.59) |
| Total | $12,817.69 | ($812.32) |
My Roth IRA Account:
| Name | Sym | Shares | Value | Gain/Loss |
| DJ Select Dividend Fund | DVY | 0.061 | $4.04 | $0.27 |
| MSCI Emerging Markets Index | EEM | 40.816 | $4,034.25 | $520.52 |
| US Real Estate Index | IYR | 80.407 | $6,092.44 | $923.86 |
| S&P SmallCap 600/BARRA Value | IJS | 24.053 | $1,672.41 | $157.67 |
| Pengrowth Energy Trust A | PGH | 26.273 | $606.38 | $88.28 |
| Primewest Energy | PWI | 21.988 | $669.09 | $102.36 |
| Total | $13,078.61 | $2,296.44 |
Wife’s Roth IRA Account:
| Name | Sym | Shares | Value | Gain/Loss |
| MSCI Emerging Markets Index | EEM | 9.987 | $987.12 | ($9.89) |
| S&P MidCap 400/BARRA Value | IJJ | 14.618 | $1,086.56 | $75.00 |
| US Real Estate Index | IYR | 33.234 | $2,518.14 | $460.58 |
| Total | $4,591.81 | $525.70 |
401k:
| Name | Value |
| AF GRTH FUND AMER | $62,997.58 |
| DREY MID CAP INDEX | $61,660.06 |
| DREYFUS SM CAP STK | $61,981.19 |
| SPARTAN INTL INDEX | $65,141.51 |
| Total | $251,780.34 |