Jode403

I raised rabbits for many years when I was younger. Mostly satins (Siamese and Red mainly) but also some Californians and New Zealand whites. I always enjoyed raising them; they're a fairly easy animal to care for. Now that I've moved out on my own, I don't have the facility to take care of them, but maybe at some point in the future I'll raise some again.

First job - washing dishes at North Shore Country Club in Menasha. Started during my freshman year of high school. Worked there all the way through high school. After graduation, I worked summers for a landscaping company in the Fox Valley until I finished college. Now I'm an accountant.

The National Hurricane Center website is a pretty handy site for storm information. This time of year, a lot of employees at the insurance company I work for check the site daily, if not more. Here's a 5-day track forecast: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/145024.shtml?5day#contents

I also like Orv's frozen pizza. The sauce is different than any other frozen pizza that I've come across and sets it apart in my opinion.

You may very well be right. Fidelity's funds, in general, have struggled for quite some time. Many of their funds that were top performers during the 1990's are badly lagging today, and have seen net outflows during an otherwise strong market. One thing that affects performance of these funds is the asset allocation strategies they use. You can look at one fund company with a year 2045 retirement fund and it'll have 25% in bonds, while another company has a fund for the same year with less than 10% in bonds. Same thing with the allocation between small, mid, and large cap sectors. To say one is better than the other is difficult without knowing an individual's risk tolerance. I personally don't have any money in a target retirement fund, though my company (Sentry) offers some that have performed well. My 401k is allocated between bond, foreign, and market-cap sector funds. My IRA is in mostly individual stocks, with a few actively-managed "go-anywhere" type of funds mixed in (and DODFX for international exposure). I'm 25 so my risk tolerance is pretty high. It's nice to see this thread has gained some traction. I hope we can continue to have finance discussions from time to time on this board.

If nothing else, you could add the money to a target retirement or life cycle fund closest to your retirement date. All the big fund companies offer them (Vanguard, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, etc.). I looked through my IRA, which is mostly in invidivdual stocks (about 25% in funds, the rest in stocks). It's hard for me to find a stock I'd suggest as undervalued right now, due to the extended run-up we've had since last summer. I try to follow dadofandrew's approach and buy a company's stock when it's temporarily beaten down or out of favor. I got Microsoft (MSFT) last July at around $21.75, and it's now at $30.01. Similarly, I picked up Franklin Resources (BEN) in July at ~$85, and it closed today at $134.91. I still hold both as I don't feel they're overvalued yet. I picked up Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) in November, but that one hasn't done much for me yet. I'm down a few percent on that one (about 5%). If you're patient enough, you'll eventually be able to pick up something at a good bargain. I have about ten stocks that I'm watching now, but they haven't dropped enough for me to buy in. One stock that I've held for about three years, and that you may consider, is Oshkosh Truck (OSK). They're very good at allocating capital to smart acquisitions, then driving margin improvement at acquired companies. It's near a 52-week high and maybe a little expensive P/E-wise, but for a long-term purchase I think that one will pay off well. I also took a small flyer on TomoTherapy (TTPY), a Madison company that recently came public. They're growing rapidly, and just at the point of turning profits now. However, being a smaller company, there is an added element of risk there. I also have a decent portion of my portfolio in blue-chip large cap companies like Citigroup ©, General Electric (GE), Procter & Gamble (PG), along with JNJ and MSFT. They all pay dividends and carry a little less risk than some of the smaller companies I own.

My latest Charter story: I called a month ago to cancel our service since we were moving out of our apartment. When the account was set up last summer, my roommate put the account in her name. I called about two weeks after that to have my name added to the account so I could also pay the bills. The Charter employee added my name to the account and everything was set up, according to her. I've been paying the monthly bill for the last 10 months. When I called to cancel and get a refund for the unused portion of the last monthly payment, the employee told me that I was not showing up on the account number. I told him I'd gotten numerous Charter mailings besides the monthly bill in my name that would seem to indicate otherwise. I also mentioned that I had been paying the bill for 10 months. He again told me I was not on the account and that I couldn't close the account. I asked him why they'd cash my checks then. His exact response: "Oh yeah, we'll take money from anybody." Then he went into a rambling speech about privacy issues. I hung up and let my roommate deal with it. Last year, they lost my refund check in the mail when I closed the account. I was initially told that it would take 3-5 weeks to get the refund check. I called after 7 weeks and let them know that I hadn't received the check. The employee agreed that the check didn't look as if it had been cashed and said she'd have to initiate a check audit. She told me to wait two weeks and call back if I still didn't get it. I didn't, and called back. This time the employee said they found the check in the refund processing center. I asked if they sent either that check or a new one out to me. She said no, but that she would iniatiate the mailing of the check for me. I finally got it after another two weeks. It took me about 11 weeks to get my ~$40 refund. I too hate Charter.

It looks like it isn't posted to this website yet, but it should be in a day or two: www.tv-links.co.uk/show.do/1/103

I get the feeling that Daron would elope with David Eckstein if given the chance.

Haha, I turned on the radio just in time to hear Uecker's call of Lee's game-winner. Awesome.

http://66.216.78.210/photos/BROOM%201.jpg

The Brewers with a 6-spot in one inning? I think I've entered the bizarro world.

Since when is Russell a singles hitter?

Mass changed his name? I knew I should have come out from under that rock sooner.

Just tuned into the Beloit game. Beloit leads 5-4 going to the 7th inning.