Aloha ... I imagine this is not the way to have gone about this - but I am very inexperienced. Two years ago I had the web site of an easy-to-use chart of shorts for any given stock. I lost that sadly. I have tried the Yahoo site, but find it too difficult to navigate. Could someone please email me a free website or two so I can check shorts. Thank you ...or, as we say here...mahalo nui loa ! Jay ( Rajojo6@aol.com)

VoIP, Inc. is providing the technology behind this product, VoIP, Inc (VOII.OB)

Major equity indexes have outperformed California real estate over the last 30 years. Following the last 5 years of R/E outperformance, do you think it's wise to keep 80% of your assets in R/E?

Jen:
1) Real Estate at times might be outperformed by certain equities but not over all.
2) Real Estate can be depreciated for a tremendous tax benefit, when it is actually appreciating.
3) My largest asset was purchased as an REO from the bank in 1994 when things were dismal. We are up 1400% in 12 years not counting the tax benefits and income. And it is actually infinite because we refinanced and pulled all of the original money out many years ago. Cannot do that with stock.
4) On another property we just sold we are doing something called a 1031 exchange which allows to acquire something larger and pay no capital gains on something we have owned for three decades, which is almost all of it. This exchange process allows us to increase our holdings without paying capital gains and can be done over and over...that is how empires are built.
5) If need be we can leverage 80% of the value. Stocks can only be leveraged 35% typically.
6) There are more benefits but that should be enough to demonstrate the superiority of real estate.

Hello: My name is Gloria, my question is; how does one know how or when is a good time to buy some stocks. And also how fast can one make money of the stocks. How do I know what stock to buy and how much for me to put on the stock. Can I started with a maybe a $1.00 or how high do I have to go to make quick money. HOw does one know which stock is a good one to buy. I have always been interating in buying some stock, but always been scared to do so. I do not know anything about buying stock. My reason for this comment is because I want to buy stocks but not sure how, can you help me with this question.

Thank you
Gloria
of Texas City, Tx.

I think isrg has great potential. What are the merits of the lawsuit with CA Institute of Technology? How do you think this will play out and what will the timeframe be?

I am lost in my windows....was reading about Duke (the basketball team and DUK the energy company) sorry for the basketball team but as for the DUK energy , which I own, the best thing that could happen to them is to sell out to Dominion (D) and go forward.....help me...
tobby

HI SHELDON: ARE YOU STILL HOLDING ON TO iSRG and if so , DO YOU HAVE AN UPDATE ON THE STOCH..THANKS..K R DALAL

Regarding your comments on AMZN......all I can say is watch this stock after the holidays are over and reports its next quarterly earnings.You might be surprised on the outcome and wish you bought ir at 85.Short term investments are a good way to play this game.

I bought NCT at $11 mainly for the dividend. Now it's trading below $10 and the Dividend is around 30%. Since they recently reported some substantial losses, do you think they can sustain their dividend?

Sheldon, Thank you for your kind comments about my posting on your item about the views of Warren Buffett and George Bush on recession! Michael

Hi Sheldon,
Really enjoyed reading your blog about HOG and I also agree a significant other is a very good investment with exponential returns!
If you open up a 7 year chart you can see that there is 'long term' support for Harley at around $35 which is where the stock closed on Fri 7 March 2008.
Would you consider this as a good entry point given that is a multi year low. IMHO when the US economy revives the stock should start climbing and given its div yield one essentially is getting paid for waiting?

800 pound gorilla? You're mixing metaphors. It's the elephant in the room that everyone is aware of but no one talks about.

The AXA commercial isn't helping with this misconception.

You said the magic word "architect." Iwas in a high priced assisted living facility and there was no central over head light.The place looked like. I knew why I was depressed and knew why my client is depressed. As a lawyer I shall not mention the creative theories of liabiltiy for the layout. But my Irish temper too off that over lighting existed.

Hi Sheldon,

Just a correction in terms of your article citing that the beer company will be owned by the Dutch. Belgians are not Dutch. People from the Netherlands (Holland) are Dutch. They get very insulted if you confuse them. I used to live in Holland and my sister was born there.
Just an educational side note.
Shirin

Hello Sheldon,  I hold over block of WaMu. I've been with this stock since it's original bank Palo Alto Savings in the early 60's. I'm not about to bail on what was a very sound bank and I feel still has the personnel to see us through this.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their sweetheart deal with S&P ratings on their toxic mortgages passed as securities are the real problem. Heads need to fall there.

Many a sound firm were taken advantage of under this false instrumentation which stemed from the negating of Senate bill S190 in 2005.

There is blame enough to go around but let's not through the baby out with the bath water.

IT MAKES NO SENSE TO GIVE MONEY TO THE CAR COMPANIES BECUASE NOBODY WILL BUY THE CARS WITH THE ECONOMY THE WAY IT IS.. THEY SHOULD GIVE MONEY TO PEOPLE TO BUY CARS WITH AND THAT WOULD KEEP THE DEALERS, REPAIRERS AND MANUFACTURERS IN BUSINESS.

About equities vs real estate. I wanted to point out that according to Forbes magazine, from the 25 years prior to 2004, real estate appreciated on average 274% but the S&P was up over 1000%

http://www.forbes.com/2005/05/27/cx_sc_0527home.html

I am an investor and a CPA and fully agree that real estate has significant financing as well as tax advantages to equities. But as far as appreciation in the long term, according to Forbes the S&P 500 has outperformed real estate.

Kristin,

The Forbes article ignores much more than they state. But they state plenty like that they only consider homes -- not investment property. And they do not count the opportunity to syndicate investment property.

Consider that stock is generally not leveraged and a home is. If you put 25% down on a home that is a healthy down payment. Therefore you should multiply the 274% by 4 to reach = 1096% at a minimum.

Now what if I buy something with 10% down which is closer to the average over the time frame discussed in the article.

274% x 10 = 2,740%!!!!!

Now suppose I do a syndication. I CAN INCREASE THE MARGINS AGAIN!

There is much more but consider that should I choose to I can do tax free 1031 exchanges, increasing value for decades without paying capital gains. Stocks cannot do that.

So while I write about stocks and invest in stocks and know that everyone cannot get into real estate, I consider it the far superior investment.

Which Vanguard Funds are you in? I'm new to investing and probably will not spend much effort researching individual stocks - so what might I get in to if my primary motivation is simply not missing out on the inevitable growth of the economy over the next couple of decades?