Neville's Financial Blog

I will be posting some New Year’s Resolutions soon for 2005. I graduate from college this coming semester, so a lot of important decisions will be made in 2005. Till then, Happy New Year’s!

OUCH. New York for two weeks left an $825 dent in my wallet. Not working also threw off my monthly income by a bit, but I made a $913 profit from my online business to counteract that.

Also, I am now only reporting usable, liquid assets of mine. I will still report my business balance account which holds funds I owe, but I will not consider it an asset.

These last few days have been harsh on stocks, so my longterm holdings are not doing so hot. I have also transfered all the money I owe for my business to the business balance account. I like keeping my business 100% debt free, which is not great looking for balance sheets, but I like having no liabilites for now.

General Account: $423

Spending Account: $82

Investment Account: $860

Permanent Savings: $5,300

Stock Portfolio Value: $7,810

Total Assests: $14,475

Credit Card Balance: $0

Business Balance: $4,392

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So far my financial year is not off to the right start, but I am changing that soon!

I think everyday I should post what I have done to improve my fiancial situation or life. My goal here is to not let the days slip by.

Today was a slow day:

-Sent out a letter to all TX Entrepreneurs inviting them to get together and talk business.

-Went to the library to research business advertising.

At this rate, I am going nowhere. This list needs to expand, and quickly.

The Kirk Report put out a small list of possible ten-bagger stocks. I’ve started doing more long-term trading, so I took a good look at some of these:

agh, axr, brn, bpt, cmbc, crt, nobh

I would like a nice steady growth stock to hold for 5 to 10 years. I looked at all of these, and I’m waiting till the price dips on a few of them. I also have General Electric (GE) on my list of possible buys. I am just waiting for a nice dip in the stock for an entry point.

Today I accomplished:

-Setting up a meeting with a fellow investor.

-Web design work.

These slow days need to stop. I must be more productive everyday!

Stocks have been down quite bit the last few days. My unexperienced, non-credible opinion is: Investors have taken their profits from the recent uptrend in the market, and are a little apprehensive to buy at the moment.

I feel the same way. The good thing is, I am starting to feel the next few weeks will be a prime purchase point. I believe this year will be an up year, but much slower than the last.

Right now I have my eye on: ge, agh, axr, brn, bpt, cmbc, crt, nobh



I have put a limit buy order on GE for my longterm portfolio. If the price is right, Ameritrade will trigger my trade automatically. I plan to buy only longterm stocks this year.

On an unrelated topic, I go back to my apartment in Austin on Wednesday or Thursday…for my last semester of college!

For the last couple of days I’ve had a limit order to buy General Electric (GE) at $35.00. It is on a downtrend right now, and it looks as if $35.00 will be approched within the next few days. After I buy (if it hits), I plan to hold GE for the next few years. I expect to buy at $35, and take a loss on the stock for a little while.

The downtrend appears it will continue for a few more days before leveling out and possibly going up. Let me know what you think!

Today I ran a bunch of errands. While dropping some things off to a family friend, I asked him for a quick tour of his business.

Over 20 years ago he invented a cheap method of sand blasting, and turned it into a large business. He sandblasts and metalblasts large and small pieces of equipment for companies.

I plan to learn more about his business as time goes on. It is always good to have plenty of business contacts, especially for someone like me who loves starting businesses.

I’d like to thank Murray from Capital Ideas Blog for a great lunch and the kind words he had to say about me in a recent post. At 23 years of age he has just shy of a six-figure savings, now that’s impressive! It’s refreshing to meet someone so young and financially responsible.

Still young, has a great job, invests, saves and has fun…this guy has a pretty bright future!

Overall this lunch was very successful. It gives me a sort of fiscal role model to look up to (he is a year older than me) and being where he is in one year would be great.

A lot of my best contacts have come through simple lunches like this. If I meet a person with an interesting business, I will ask them to show me how their business runs. Usually they are proud of the business they have built, and are more than willing to show me around.

I am taking some time to just relax and enjoy the beautiful weather in Austin right now before the weekend starts up, and then school. Didn’t do much but read today, so I’ll just post some crazy money making ideas:

1.) Helicopter Rentals.

I got this idea from New York and the insane traffic. I figured a helicopter charter service that picks you up and takes you directly into the city would be profitable. I wanted to rent a helicopter to pick me and friends up from New Jersey and drop us in New York for a New Year’s party, but all I found was helicopter sight-seeing tours.

2.) Handrail Advertising.

I was posting some flyers when I got this idea, then fashioned a crude device to make it work. A week later I found MediaRails.com had taken the idea to the next level. I contacted the company to get my hands on their handrail printing machine, but they were only interested in large, establsihed advertising companies. I still think this is a great opportunity, as it is not being done in the United States…yet. When I spoke to MedialRails, they told me they would hit U.S. shores in mid-2005.

At any one time I have a million ideas written down, those are just two. Feel free to comment on them, I’d love to hear improvements, devil’s advocate agruments or any comments!

I came up with an idea recently, and I wish to further pursue it. It seems legal as of now, and I believe has a potentially huge market if properly executed, I also have a contact who works in the industry.

My problem is how to present my idea. As of now I am thinking of:

• Inviting my contact for a quick lunch or visiting his business.
• Give him a 10 second explanation of what I plan to do.
• Show him a prototype (It’s actually just a different process of doing something).
• Discuss the legality, cost and consumer appeal of the product.

If the idea has no legal red tape and has the potential to make even a little money, I will pursue it. There is always a lesson in every failure, so I come out ahead either way :)