johnl@haddock.UUCP (03/15/84)
#R:decwrl:-579800:haddock:11900002:177600:454 haddock!johnl Feb 29 11:30:00 1984 If you rent out your house, that's income, and the mortgage interest can be applied against it. For that matter, if you really don't live in the house, you can treat it as an investment property and deduct repairs, heat, etc. But if you're moving overseas, it probably pays to talk to somebody who knows about foreign tax rules. The rules are strange, and the way that the IRS and tax court interprets them are stranger still. John Levine, ima!johnl
johnl@haddock.UUCP (03/15/84)
#R:eisx:-69500:haddock:11900003:177600:2316 haddock!johnl Mar 4 18:45:00 1984 If your prime goal in managing your IRA is safety, then indeed a sensible strategy is to diversify, although it seems to me that putting the money in a bank IRA account which is insured by the government and pays in the vicinity of 10% is even safer. On the other hand, if you're in your 20s or 30s, you aren't going to be taking any money out of your IRA for 30 or 40 years, and you'll probably be making a lot more in the future than you are now. This means that safety may well not be your primary goal at this point. You might consider wild speculation. Historically, the overall return from risky investments is much better than from conservative ones, although the variation is a lot more. (This is why U.S. government bonds pay relatively low interest - there are few surprises.) So if you take a bunch of flyers now, a few of them might hit, and the odds are that you'll make more than if you stuck with a bank, mutual fund, or other conservative investment. You can always switch to more conservative investments later if you get nervous, and when you're older and richer, you'll likely be able to save more if you still need to. Moreover, most of you reading this have an advantage over the general public in that you know a lot about computers and can make better assessments than most people about computer stocks, at least. [For example, it's pretty clear to me that companies making IBM PC knockoffs are in trouble, since IBM has shown that they want the whole market; e.g. the new portable PC does roughly the same as a Compaq and costs slightly less. Compaq is OK for now, since they have a portable XT and IBM doesn't, but the handwriting's on the wall. Same for Eagle, Corona, etc. Better to find somebody with products that go into some niche IBM doesn't or else complement IBM stuff like Lotus does. End of digression.] Now, if you're the kind of person who gets nervous every time your NYNEX stock dips a quarter of a point, or if you find financial reports baffling, the risky strategy isn't for you. But if you don't need the money right away (clearly, or you wouldn't put it in an IRA), are willing to take the risk of losing it, and have some interest in researching stocks and stuff, it's worth a thought. John Levine, ima!johnl PS: I have this great oil drilling deal ...
tbul@trsvax.UUCP (08/16/84)
#R:decwrl:-286000:trsvax:52900009:37777777600:1159
trsvax!tbul Aug 16 12:11:00 1984
If you read back through the last several weeks of Wall Street Journal, you
will find many (3 - 5) articles (one about 3 days ago or so) on Trilogy.
The bottom line of these articles seems to be that their superchip technology
thrust has failed...well, perfecting the technology is not viable at this time.
Every one that has loaned T. any amount of money is writing the loans off.
This is one of the reasons that the stock has dropped.
The future seems to be that T is going to use what knowledge it has gained and
sell that. As for the price of T and is it a good buy is very questionable. I
would consider many items including exactly what they plan to do in the future
to make money. From what I remember, they have had 4 years to make it a go
but perhaps it is time the share holders got up and went...
I think I would wait for them to come out with a viable product or service,
one that sells well, and watch for earnings growth.
Tom Bulkowski
"Find an aim in life before you run out of ammunition." - Arnold Glasow
allegra!convex!ctvax!trsvax!tbul Fort Worth, Texas
O O O Official Software Engineer of the 1984 Olympics
O Obruce@ISM780.UUCP (02/06/85)
"The Stock Options Manual" Gastineau, Gary L McGraw-Hill Book Company ISBN 0-07-022970-8
rjn@hpfcmp.UUCP (rjn) (06/30/85)
re: latic culture scam
CNN did a half-hour segment on one of these flimflam outfits. They concluded
it was not a "pyramid" scheme (endless hierarchy of "distributors"), but
rather a "Ponzi" scheme. The money paid out to early investors ("growers") is
all coming from later investors - and not from resale of the cultures for
actual products.
CNN attempted to trace the cultures being bought from the growers. Although
the vendor claimed that it was all going to a beauty supply manufacturer in
CA, it appears that it all actually gets reprocessed into "starter kits" which
are sold to new growers.
Regards, Hewlett-Packard
Bob "wanna buy some USENET bonds?" Niland 3404 East Harmony Road
hplabs!hpfcla!rjn Fort Collins CO 80525