Why I play the ukulele

About two years ago I decided to order a ukulele.  My wife plays the piano, my dad the guitar, and several of my friends can play multitple musical instruments. Up until then the only thing I could do was tap along to songs on myn steering wheel.  I wanted more.  But I'm also a dad, I work full time, and I wanted something I could get up to speed and enjoy quickly.

I have a guitar from my father-in-law.  My dad plays it when he's in town.  I tried to learn and play but i couldn't get my fingers to co-operate.  I didn't find it fun so I stopped.  Yes this is a lack of willpower, but at this point I had no intentions of going pro and I wanted this as something fun to kill time and mess around.

I needed something easier, something relatively inexpensive, and something i could be up and running in a few hours of playing time.  Enter my first purchase:

Robinhood

I wanted to wait a few months before I posted anything about this, just to make sure things went smoothly.  I decided back in August to try and use Robinhood for some stock investing.  Bottom line up front: This is a fun platform for micro investing!

For those who haven't heard anything about it, Robinhood is an investment company that allows you to trade for free, as in no commissions for either buying or selling.  And unlike loyal3, you can trade any stock you want and have access to limit purchases and sales.  This makes it hugely valuable if you are a swing trading, holding shares for a few days and then dumping them because you don't have commissions eating into your profits.

Things I like about Robinhood.  First there are no costs, so if I want to buy one share of a $4 stock, I can do that.  What that means is I can spread my investments, building my own mutual fund, without having to spend serious coin on commisions or pay a management fee.  Secondly, They offer limit trading, meaning you can set a price you are willing to buy or sell at.  This is very handy if you have a price in mind to buy in at but can't monitor the market all the time.

There are a few things though that annoy me.  First is that deposits can take several days and there is no margin trading.  With Tradeking I can generally buy within an hour of submitting a transfer because I have enough money with them, they know I'm good for it (or else they can sell my shares if I'm not). So you can't jump right away unless you have money loaded.  Same thing with using money from sales, you have to wait the three business days for the money to settle.

The other annoying thing is the time delay in prices.  Not a huge deal, but definitely a reason to use limits for trading to make sure the stock hasn't shot up 5% in the last 10 minutes.

Dividends are simply dropped into your account with no notification or fanfare.  You can only see where the money came from on the monthly statements. Also no fractional shares or DRIPs. Which bring me to my last complaint...

Robinhood only operates on an android or iphone interface.  For trading this is no big deal, Its fast and intuitive.  But you can't download your statements on a computer, so you have to download them to your phone and then email or upload them to a google drive or drop box. I have minor security concerns about this, but the annoyance factor is the real issue here.

All that said, I will keep using it.  I've been buying small lots of interesting companies.  When you can buy one $7 share of something you find yourself watching it more, and if it goes to $10 I can sell it, pocket three bucks and price myself on that huge upside trade I made.  sounds dumb, but its the penny slots of investing.

Update 4/2/17: still using Robinhood, still free, no problems at all.

Switching to Linux Mint

I recently purchase the wife a new netbook for her to use when teaching while we are on the road, or hanging on the couch, or when I'm using the big computer to play Minecraft.  It was about time for a new netbook anyway as the old Acer Aspire was being a real dog.  It seems to have gotten caught up with a conflict somewhere between an Acer update and a Windows update and it just wasn't happy.

Once I got all of the old files off, and there weren't many as it was only a net book and we're pretty good about network drive usage, it was time to install Linux.  I've been away from looking at different distributions for a while so I got to work looking around. there are dozens (hundreds?) of Linux distributions, all with a following, and many made for specific reasons.  There's Scientific Linux which is focused on stability and uniformity. There's Arch and Puppy Linux that are focused on being super small. 

In the past I've used Ubuntu as a mainstay for bringing old desktop computers back to life.  I like Ubuntu, and what they stand for.  I think if you have decent computer, and you're sick of Windows and all its BS updates, memory leaks, anti-virus needing non-sense, then you really should give Ubuntu a go.
But I didn't use Ubuntu for this effort.  While I like Ubuntu when I have a regular power machine, and it flies with a strong machine, as a netbook OS it seems to drag.  Ubuntu wants to be everything for everyone, and so it automatically installs a lot of awesome, powerful, but resource hogging applications. You can install it slimmed down by doing an alternate install, but by the time you're doing that, you might as well invest the time in installing any version of Linux because you'll be using the command line a lot.

They do make Xubuntu which is the Ubuntu platform but uses the XFCE desktop instead of the Unity desktop. While it's fast, it's also rather rough, and the desktop hasn't been updated since 2012. I've had lots of small annoying issues with sound cards, wifi, microphone, etc with XFCE.  I can't trust that it won't go wonky on me, and I don't think its going to convert anyone from Windows because at least in windows, the mute key generally works.

One item that seems to have crept up on me, and it shouldn't have is Linux Mint.  Its been around for a while, and its based on Ubuntu, but its a better, lighter, smoother package.   It also comes ready to go for multi-media, which has been a problem for me in the past. It's also Steam friendly, so you can download many games and they'll run just fine.  It has several desktop choices, but you'll want to either focus on Cinnamon if you've got the power, or MATE if you're using an older machine like mine.

I've tried both the Cinnamon and the Mate desktop and I'll be sticking with the Mate.  I also tried the XFCE version, and had several issues.  I spent an hour fixing a few but in the end it just wasn't worth it.  They make live disks for all of them, so you can try the whole operating system before even installing it.

Oh, and in case its not obvious, its FREE.

Hero 9201 Fountain Pen is Garbage

I've been getting into fountain pens lately.  I bought my wife a Lamy Safari (Neon Coral) and she loves it.  I also got myself a Pilot Petit1 and a few Platinum Preppys to play with.  So I thought, maybe I'll get something that looks a little nicer, less plastic, but still cheap.  I wanted a pen I could use at work, but if I left it in a conference room I wouldn't be that upset about.

I thought about the Fountain Pen Hero 616 , which is a Parker 51 knock-off, but I don't like the look of the hooded nib.  Instead I saw on Amazon a Hero Fountain Pen 9201 . Nice black pen with gold looking features and a built in converter. I did a little looking online but found no real reviews of this pen.  Since it was cheap I pulled the trigger.

The Pen

A simple classic looking black pen.  Nothing remarkable, but better looking than a plastic Bic or Uni-Ball. Respectable weight, and i like the feel unposted.  Posted it's back heavy.  There is also an overly tight clasp that I can't seem to attach to anything. 

The pen comes with a converter.  The converter doesn't use the usual twist piston but instead has a slider attached to the piston.  Loading it with Noodlers Baystate Blue took about four piston pumps up and down and its still only about 70% filled.

The nib is nice looking.  the gold around the grip is textured.  Again, unposted its got decent hold and balance.

The Problem

It writes like crap.  I'm new to using a fountain pen.  My Pilot Petit1 is very smooth, and a bit overly wet, but I enjoy writing with it.  This thing is scratchy, hard to start, dry, basically everything bad about a fountain pen rolled into one. 

There is a tiny bit of flex in the medium nib, but it starts and stops constantly at a decent rate of writing.  In some cases most of the first word is just missing and I have to find scrap paper to get the pen going again.  I hate it. Its junk. Its like a dried up ball point you get at a hotel.

Save your money folks, a Platinum Preppy writes way better for half the price.  Otherwise get a cheaper Lamy and be happy.

Investing with Loyal3

EDIT 2018: Loyal3 shut down operations and merged with another brokerage and unfortunately stopped offering the services listed below.  THis is unfortunate as I thought the combination of monthly schedule investments and partial shares was a godsent for simple investing. Alas.

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As I'm getting smarter about investing (with a focus on long term), I keep circling back to how much I like Loyal3. Its dirt simple, allows for automated investing, and fee free.

For those who are looking to start putting away money, and are thinking about getting in "the market" (whatever that means to most people), there is usually a barrier.  For most investing is confusing. They don't know what to buy, what to sell, the fee structure can seem confusing ("what's an option?"), and of course there's the money. If you're like me, the concept of "invest over $100,000" is so foreign, they might as well be asking for a million.

With a regular stock brokerage you pay a commission when you buy or sell stocks.  For most online brokerages, this is a flat fee (ranging from $4 to $12).  Doesn't seem like much, but it can really eat into your investments.  As an example, if you want to buy just $300 of a stock, that $12 commission is a 4% hit.  You're stock will need to go up 4% just to break even.  Then when you sell you'll owe another $12.  So you started out with $300 in your pocket, bought $288 worth of stock, it rose 8.3% (good return it would seem), you sold and wound up with $300.  Well damn. You picked the right horse, put your money on it, and still made no money.

If you're going to buy and hold this may not matter as much, except that most buy and hold investments are looking at a 4-6% return every year.  So that $300 example, you lost a year's worth of growth just to get in the game.

If you have a few thousand dollars, this matters much less. a $12 fee on $1,000 is much easier to make up, and on $5,000 its in the noise of daily movement. But I don't usually have that kind of money lying around.  Further I don't want to wait until I have it to make some returns.

Loyal3 lets you buy stocks without paying a fee.  Further you can buy as little as $10 worth of stock and charge it to a credit card.  They let you automate this so you're card gets hit every month for that $10 and just buys stock for you.  They do this by bunching up all the orders and making one buy every day and then dividing up the stock shares to the users.  The fees they do pay are covered by the companies who are interested in bringing in more investors (the theory is that if you own Walmart stock, your more likely to shop at Walmart.  I can't argue this logic)

So lets break this down into Pros  and Cons

Pros:

• You can buy fractions of shares. You don't need to have the full purchase price of a stock, which in some cases can be hundreds of dollars
• There is no fee to buy or sell, so gains on your stock are yours from day one.
• You can put small amounts (up to $50) on your credit card.  If you have a cash back card that means you make money (or points, airline miles, etc) on the purchase. (See edit)
• You can automate this for every month.  Automation is one of the keys to building wealth because you stick to a plan, set aside cash, and it grow without your involvement.
• They allow you to buy stock in many companies you've heard of, who have been around for a long time, who pay dividends, and who will conceivably be around for a while. Think about Coca-Cola, Mcdonald's, Walmart, Kraft, Target; companies you know of and use on a daily or weekly basis.

Cons:

• Loyal3 is not a full service brokerage, and you can only invest in companies they have made deals with to cover their expenses.
• They only make one transaction per stock, per day. Usually around 2 PM. So you may not always buy at the best price of the day, nor sell at the highest.  For most long term investors this doesn't matter, but you CAN NOT day trade here. That's not the point of the program.
• Loyal3 takes some time to transfer money to.  They only buy when they have the money in hand.  So it you want to make a purchase using your checking account, it will take 3+ days.
• If you use a credit card you are not paying off each month, you're a fool.  You are borrowing money at very high rates in the hopes of modest returns.  Don't do that! I use a credit card that I pay off every month like clockwork. I get my cash back and pay it off.

I've been using this for about two months.  My transactions were smooth (if a bit slow, certainly compared to Tradeking), but I've bought my stocks on down days. and have since made a few bucks.  I have not sold anything yet, but will update when I do.

So in short, if you are new to investing, have only a little extra cash, and want to buy some stocks for medium and long term growth, I think Loyal3 is an excellent option.


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10 November Edit: I received this email from Loyal3:

"Through the success, we've also learned a lot about how people use LOYAL3. Credit cards have become a common method for people "gaming" LOYAL3 to gain credit card points and not for the purpose of investing. This increases our costs and subtracts from our mission of making it easy, affordable and fee-free for people to invest in the brands they love.

In order to put an end to the "gaming" of LOYAL3, and to maintain fee-free investing, on Tuesday, 11/18/2014, we will be removing credit and debit cards from the LOYAL3 platform. Automatic Monthly Plans (monthly recurring investments) using credit and debit cards will continue to be active until Thursday, 12/11/2014, to allow time to switch over to ACH (checking account transfers).               

So it seems the Credit card thing was to god to be true.  Sadly some bad apples have used it to game the system and therefore ruined what I thought was an excellent option for new investors.  I still think this is a valuable company to trade through, and I value the free trading more than the credit card use.


(Disclosure: While I have an account at Loyal3, I have not been paid for this review, nor do they have an affiliate program, so I gain nothing from this review.  I just wanted to share.)

Dollar Shave Club Review

About a year ago I decided to try out the Dollar Shave Club to try and save some money. Having used this for a year I'll tell you the good and the bad. I generaly used the Gillette brand razors before hand, and I liked the four bladed variety, but the sheer cost was pretty damn high. I would use a razor for about three weeks, then grab a fresh one. I shave every other day unless there's an event, so I got twelve shaves per razor.

Dollar Shave Club is simple and cheap. The concept is that they will send you a new four-pack of razors every month. Costs are as low as $3/month, although that is misleading, since with the cheapest razors you need to pay shipping. I use the four-bladed razors, which come ina four-pack for $6/month, but have free shipping.

The Bad

• The razors do not last as long. They start out as sharp as any new blade, but whether through thinner material, lower quality metal, quality control. They are only good for about 6-7 shaves before I start wanting a new one.
• They constantly want you to add some of their other products (shaving butter, aftershave, "One Wipe Charlies" aka baby wipes for men). They email you every month to see if you want these included in your purchase.

The Good

• At this price, I always have a sharp razor to use and I don't mind changing it out. While the razors don't last as long, One four pack and last me a month and a half. By month three I had a small surplus built up, which leads to the next good thig
• You can switch to every other month delivery. I did this when I grew my beard out for a few months, or when my surplus got a bit big. Its easy to do, one click in settings and its done.
• Free handle just for signing up, based on past experience, thats worth trying it for a month for a razor handle you can travel with.

So in conclusion, I like the Dollar Shave Club, it saves me money, and a sharp razor means less shaving rash. It's worth $6 to give it a try.