Around here the corn burning stoves went into houses like crazy. Corn seems to burn well, much less work than wood, little mess left for cleaning out. Takes small amount of corn to keep the WHOLE house warm. I was rather surpised at how enthusiastic the new owners are over corn stoves. Transportation may not be the whole cost, but tractors are fueled with gas and oil, to work the soil and bring in the crops. Tractors are not especially efficient in fuel usage, cost a bunch to produce those crops. Costs that farmer has to pass to buyers so farmer can at least pay his bills. Hay is supposed to be costing more, I know the truck to go get it runs on fuel that has more than doubled in cost since last year. Much equipment is diesel powered, even costlier than gas. Diesel has always been cheaper to produce, now they just WON'T produce it, keeping cost high. Bush and his Oil friends are making plenty of money. Keeping cost of doing business for truckers very high. Consumers pay that extra. I don't know if Ethanol is going to be cost effective as a fuel. We have a local plant being built 5 miles away, 60 new jobs in a very hard hit job market area. Everyone is excited, but for corn fuel to be useful, it can't cost more to produce than it costs to sell. At least the farmers can sell their product, so many were just losing money planting corn. Prices just never got where you could turn a profit. I buy our grain, mixed at a local mill. No commercial bagged food for the animals so I am not seeing those costs. We use quite a bit of corn in the horse feed, prices seem to be staying higher than other years. I think the oats come from Canada. Not sure why they are not local, we do have oat production. Dry dog food prices are higher, even on the junky stuff. Again, I would point at mostly fuel prices to raise a crop, then transportation to get products to market.

It's been a long bull market, but interestingly enough, the total value has only risen 75% over the 10-month period. One of the lowest valuation increases of the 6 big bull markets in NYSE history, in fact. I do expect less profit out of the market this year, as corp profits are slowing and the Fed continues to maneuver towards that "soft landing". But overall, fundamentals ain't that bad, although the usual media hysteria has the average folk rattled. Can't be sure of anything, of course, but that's part of the risk of life, these days. Moderating risk is the best one can do, otherwise we'd never be brave enough to get out of bed in the morning! A large proportion of our current allocation is overseas, I will cut that back at the end of 2Q07. Time to take that 25% profit from 2006 and get into the next sector. We were lucky on that one, but I'm aiming for our normal return, more in 9-11% range this year. IF, of course, I'm guessing right, LOL.

Greetings everyone. Some folks may find some useful advice in the posts above. All that I said in the previous post still applies. The guy whose system I spoke of, whose Canadian system, using solid stocks, takes about 2 hours per year to operate, as one can choose a basket of 10, or 5, or 4 stocks and several of the chosen stocks, usually about 6 to 10 of the list of 10, continue unchanged, year to year. The system has a growth rate averaged over 20 years of about 14% ... at low (for Canadian residents) tax rate on current income, plus much of the gain stored up over a number of years till one sells, then there's a tax advantage on the gain, in Canada. But if one puts one's asset into the bank, where it produces interest ... one must pay part of the interest to the income tax people ... and interest is taxed at top rate. The borrowing agency guarantees that the number of dollars that you lent them won't shrink: the parallel guarantee that they never mention is the number of those invested dollars won't grow, either. So folks who put those grow-proof dollars into the bank must put some of the interest with the principal to maintain purchasing power, to counteract inflation. I expect my stocks to increase in value, at least partially offsetting the inflationary costs. I'd rather buy (part of) the bank! Not only have my bank shares' values grown, directly, over those years ... ... the dividend rate grew from a nickel or a dime, 41 years ago, to $3.48 annual rate, last year. Taxed at a low rate in earlier years, but the tax rate on that kind of income dropped again, last year. As that mutual fund manager said, "I like to buy a Dollar ... for 60 cents". I agree - but I'll buy it myself, saving the management fees that he charges. I'm sad that so many investors, when stock prices fall ... rush to the exits, instead of getting ready to buy more, and buying them. Further ... had some of you U.S. guys chosen to buy some Canadian money to have bought those stocks 5 - 6 - 7 years ago, 65 - 69 - 75 cents U.S. would have bought you CAD$1.00. If you were to choose to sell those stocks now (and I don't know why you would) every CAD$1.00 now does not buy only 69 cents U.S. ... but within a couple of cents either way of $1.00. Which would have meant an additional 1/3 - 1/2 growth of your invested asset. In addition to the growth over those years. I've written recently of a guy's mixed Canadian and U.S. system that, running for 16 years, has produced 5 year growth rates averaging 16 - 36% (a difference of 20) ... and 10-year growth rates averaging 19.6 - 29.3% (a difference of 10): note the lower rate of volatiity over the ten-year periods, please. The longer you leave quality stocks ... the better they do. Remember how the skilled advisors say to invest your dollars in good stocks, watch them a little in case the company gets crippled, but don't sweat blood if a $20.00 stock goes down $1.00 ...or $2.00 ... or $3.00 or more. If it's a quality stock, it'll likely recover. In fact, while the market is dropping, remember what a mutual fund manager told a group of us sales people almost 25 years ago ... "I like to buy a Dollar for 60 cents". During a substantial drop in the market, recruit some extra money in addition to the regular investment program that you follow. As you don't know when the bottom will appear, invest some funds from time to time, in a regular fashion. Would you rather buy coffee that's worth $1.00/lb. usually ... ... for $1.20 ... ... or, after a drop in the market - for 80 cents. As long as the quality is there, I like the last scenario the best. How unfortunate that so many investors buy a stock for a Dollar ... and when the market goes down, they get upset, angry and scared ... and sell for 60 cents! Good wishes for learning more about how the markets work, every month and every year. It's a hobby that pays well. Maybe use mutual funds for a while in the early years of your investing program, for diversity, but later learn how to buy various stocks from time to time, building your own diversity? The fees that you pay to regular mutual fund managers are substantial - comparable to the rate of income tax that you pay. And, if you put the money into the bank in "guaranteed" financial products, you must take some of current ernings to add to the principal to keep the purchasing power of your dollars even. When you put $20,000. into the bank 15 years ago, the bank would pay you (rather slim) interest every year, as agreed. If you need your $20,000. now and go to collect it, they'll pay you exactly $20,000. - which would have bought a nice car, 15 years ago ... but not now - cars are more expensive, as are most things. So, you must pay income tax on the current income, and at the top rate, by the way. You must put part of it with the principal to maintain purchasing power. I don't like earning interest! Good wishes to you and yours. And teach your kids about how money works, O.K? Please! They'll use that information every day of their lives! ole joyful

May I suggest that you keep things in perspective, folks? If you spent years in post-secondary education and had some interim jobs before getting on career track and really hot (I thought that I wrote "got") going at 30, and now at 60 are looking at retirement, whether voluntarily or forced ... you've had a 30 year career. Take it from this guy who was 90 last year ... you may be retired as long as you worked! Have you heard which segment of life has been the fastest growing, in our part of the world, in recent years? The folks over 100! (Granted ... the calculation started from a not-large base). The early years of retirement are expensive, what with all of that pent-up energy being released in kicking up your heels, running around and having fun ... then come the middle somewhat quieter, more relaxed (thus somewhat less expensive) years. Possibly somewhat enhanced, finance-wise, by downsizing from major house to more modest digs, thus freeing up some meaningful assets for investment. Usually there are substantial costs associated with the latter years of our lives, living in a retirement home, then assisted care, and then nursing homes ... and while one can sing while there, if one chooses - you don't get to stay there for a song! Many advisors suggest that a substantial portion of money which you don't expect to need for about ten years or more can well be invested in qualty eguities. Eating my own cooking, as I do - well over two thirds of my investments are equity-based. Most of the mutual funds, most held for a number of years, charge about 2% a year as management fees. ETF fees are substantially lower. Over half of my portfolio is in individual stocks owned directly. One that I bought over 50 years ago for $4,25 a share, paying 10 or 12 cents a year dividend, was (supposedly) "worth" $107. in 3007, paying $3.08 dividend. I don't know what "worth" is - what I mean is that that is the price for which I could have sold it at that time. The price available in 2008 dropped to $40., as that company was heavily involved in the financial fiasco operational at the time. Should have had the courage to buy more (at what precise time, pray tell?) ... but didn't. Some said they'd cut dividends: they didn't, but there was no increase for 4 years. Share prices grew to around $120. a few months ago, payng $5.76 annual dividend - recent offer is about $68. Estimate cost in a year just over $100. Over those 50+ years of ownership - haven't paid a nickel to any manager's fee. May invest some soon, some more later: no one knows where the bottom will be. In what I think to be a more valuable company for the price. Many advisors suggest to invest equal number of dollars on a regular interval, called "dollar cost averaging": one gets fewer shares when prices are high, more when prices are low. Good wishes for making wise use of your dollars in a long-term plan. Better to have dollars left at the end of the years ... than years left at the end of the dollars! Who'll then pay for the funeral/plot/headstone? ole joyful