Citi has not notified me of a change in my Citi Dividend card yet. On the fatwallet forums, many poeple have also noticed that people that have had the card for less than one year have not been notified of the change.

I think Citi does not want to irritate new cardholders so they will probably wait a bit before phasing in the card scalebacks.

Regardless, I’m going to do a no-fee balance transfer with my Citi Dividend Card and start using the Chase Cash Plus card. The $200 limit will force me to spend less and save more.

Made some changes to the short-term portfolio:
Sold CHS at $18.90 (cost $17.97).
Sold NT at $2.30 (cost $2.08).

Bought significantly more JBLU to bring down average cost to $10.05. I think oil prices should dip and JBLU is good for a 20% gain within the next month or two.

I think one of the comments on a previous post was referring to me and asked how come I don’t post my stock picks. I do, however, it isn’t the focus of my blog right now.

I am working on a portfolio page that’ll contain all my holdings.

Long-term holdings
My main long term holdings are BAC, AFR, and MRH.

BAC
Cost: $44.55
Current: $51.20
Yield: 5% (This is the yield the investment is putting out at my cost price. Buying today would net you a yield of 4.3%)

AFR
Cost: $10.29
Current: $11.35
Yield: 7.4%

MRH
Cost: $16.78
Current: $18.74
Yield: 1.7%

I’m considering adding HRPT Properties trust (HRP) to the list.The current yield on the stock is about 7.3% but I find it great that they are trading at basically one times book value. Great long term opportunity here I believe.

Short term plays
With SogoInvest‘s low cost commission I couldn’t help trying the trading game.

JBLU
Cost: $10.25
Bought date: 8/28/06
Current: $9.71

JVA
Cost: $4.11
Current: $4.05

CHS
Cost: $17.97
Bought date: 8/30/06
Current: $19.10

NT
Cost: $2.08
Bought date: 8/22/06
Current: $2.25

Half winners, half losers so far. Winners slightly better than the loser so far so I’m showing a positive. Give it a couple months and we’ll see the bigger picture.

One thing that still lingers in my mind today that really angers me is this:

The WTC site is still a big hole in the ground, after 5 years of red tape and arguing over the final design. It is still a big hole in the ground. Oh wait, it’s also a big hole in the ground surrounded by chain-link fence.

This really shows the dedication of the people responsible for the site. 5 years and the only thing that was accomplished was restored train service and a nifty fence around the hole (picture It’s a random picture I found on google image.)

They need to begin construction already. I’m not badmouthing the planned designs for the new WTC buildings but I really thought they should have built up the towers the exact same way they looked, with the exception of more modern methods. They also should have done it as soon as possible.

I got my Chase card in the mail today to discover that they gave me a paltry $200 limit. $200? Whoa, even my first credit card when I had no credit history at all with Citi gave me a line of $800, and that was awhile ago. $200? Guess Chase doesn’t want me to use their card. Also I asked for a CLI and the representative said that wasn’t possible at this time. I asked her what credit agency they got their information from and she said they can not disclose it to me. Sigh. Also she pushed the “credit protector” insurance program on me about 4-5 times. Insurance on a card with a $200 limit. Please.

This is just idiotic because what do they really expect anyone to do with a $200 limit. Buy McDonald’s? They can’t tell me where they get their information so I can’t check my credit report from that agency to see if there are any damaging items that caused them to give me this kind of credit line. The dumb broad from her call center in Mumbai probably couldn’t grasp the fact that I didn’t want the insurance. It’s probably okay to push it once, but to keep insisting on it… argh. Do they get a comission for those things?

Sometimes people will ask me about what invesments they should invest in. Sounds simple? Recommend a few here or there and you’re set. Nope, that’s not all there is to it. Here’s a few reasons why:

You get the blame.
Even if you give them sound advice, if things don’t work out the way they think it should, they WILL blame you. You’re giving them free advice and yet they think they get to blame to you if things don’t turn out their way. Unless they’re paying you for your services, they have no right to blame you. In essence, if they don’t understand the inherent risks of certain investments, they shouldn’t be there in the first place.

Some of them aren’t looking to “invest”.
This is especially true when it comes to the stock market. Some people think the stock market is equivalent to gambling at a casino. You can definitely tell if they ask “Do you play the stock market?”. They’re not looking to invest. Investing takes time and patience. They’ve probably got a friend or two that got lucky off some penny stock and think likewise.

I told people about how my investments so far have yielded about 20% in a one year time frame(more if not for the market’s downturn). They then go “that’s it?”. These kinds of people aren’t going to settle for 20% gains in a year, they want fast results, and generally are looking for riskier than hell investments. Most times they’re better off at the casino or racetrack.

They have the wrong ideas about key concepts.
A friend who wanted to invest in stocks asked me what stocks I would recommend. I said my pick for what I think has good upside potential with little downside was Montpelier Re (MRH). He checked the price quote and saw the price around $18. He then proceded to say:

“that’s a little expensive, do you have any recommendations under $10?”

I then tried to explain to him the concept of a company’s market cap and that a stock’s ticker price has no relation to the size of the company. No luck. Some people cannot let go the psychological aspect of the pricing of a stock. I guess it always feels good to own a high number of shares. This is probably one reason some people cannot stay away from penny stocks. There seems to be a greater upside potential for lower priced stocks and this is simply not true. What is true is that generally companies with smaller market caps do have great upside potential since they are smaller in size and have more room to expand.

“The chart looks good.”
I despise this conception the most. People will look at a chart at the stock’s past performance and see an upward trend and think this is a great investment. They invest and more often than not, the investment starts to go down. Looking at charts to pick your investments is a great way to lose money. Just because a stock is going up doesn’t mean it’ll go up in the future. Most times if it’s had a great run it might be valuated too high and drop to compensate.

Okay, it’s 4:30 AM and I’m done ranting. I’m pretty sure you know tons of people out there that shouldn’t be investing at all.

With all the rumors of the end/scaleback of the Citi Dividend rewards I got a letter from them informing me of a credit line increase today. This is perfect because according to the Citi website I can do a 0% no fee balance transfer for 6 months. I guess having the higher credit line helps keep my utilization down.

There are tons of rumors out there about Citi discontinuing it’s Citi Dividend rewards or scaling them back. I haven’t received any letters yet from Citi about my card.

I decided to take preventive measures and apply for the Chase Cash Plus Rewards Mastercard which also offers 5% cash back on gas, pharmacies, and supermarket purchases in case Citi does scale back or end the Citi Dividend run. 5% cashback on gas is a must have. Although I probably don’t drive as much anymore. Gas is one of my biggest expenses.

You also get 5000 points after your first purchase which is the equivalent of $50 cash back. So even if Citi didn’t end their card, I get $50 for grabbing this card.

I applied and was instantly approved. So I guess your changes are great.

Link to offer here. As usual with these type of promos it takes 6-8 weeks to recieve your bonus after your first purchase. Generally I think they purposefully “forget” to credit you so if I don’t get my bonus in two months of my first purchase, they’ll be hearing from me everyday until I do. I suggest the same for you.

I got my first eBay catalog in the mail today. Anyone else get one? It seems eBay is trying to spur sales by listing the types of products and their average selling price. Smart move I guess for people that never think about buying things off eBay. As long as they continue to eliminate fraud and con artist ebayers then things should look good.

I found this on the InstantProfitz forum from their admin:

“Most users make a first cashout of around $30. Testing the waters, likely.
Most users make a second cashout of above $100.
Most users, if they have one, make a third cashout of $150.
Most users with a fourth cashout take home $200.”

It’s funny because my first cashout was about $36… to test the waters. My second cashout is $120. September I plan on going crazy and try to get at least $300.