The Dividend Pirate

My old car (ironically which I have nicknamed Old Faithful) finally bailed out on me. I left my car at the mechanic over the weekend and he said that

- my rear brakes need replacement(~200 bucks)

- so do my front ones(~200 bucks)

- my radiator needs to be replaced(~400 bucks)

- my oil gasket is leaking(~150 bucks)

- my oxygen sensors need to be replaced(~250 bucks)

- my door handle needs to be fixed(~350 bucks)

Grrrr… and this just after I replaced my tires with 4 new ones a couple months back(cost me 400 bucks). How ironic that the tires come with a lifetime warranty . Not to mention that I replaced my car’s starter last week for 250 bucks. How could my car do this to me? Oh and why did this have to happen at this time? I am leaving for India next week and wont have much time to fix the problem or shop.

We are just going through a “bad car phase” in life. My wifes car’s radiator started leaking 2 weeks back and we had to do a bunch of things that cost us 450 dollars.

In a way I am not surprised that my car gave up. It is 1995 made Toyota Avalon XLS with 170K miles on it and very poorly maintained by me. I had purchased it 4 years back for 5500 when it had 137 miles and at that time the car looked new. The previous owner had cared for the car very well. The car looked like it was 2000 built when I purchased it.

Anyhow I am confused about what to do at this point,

I happened to be searching for some funny videos and I came across this one. Make sure you check it out. I promise it will make your day…

Yes, he is the most eloquent American President until now (extreme sarcasm)

And some more bushisms…..

And if you are interested, Stephen Colbert best summarizes my views on the Bush administration in the two videos below. This guy has guts. No wonder he was named “The Person of the Year 2007″

Part I

Part II

Popularity: 3% [?]

Exhibiting at the Communic’Asia trade show this week in Singapore, Garmin finally started to show up a fully functional Nuvifone and it looks pretty cool.

And to see some more features, look at this cheesy ad.

Popularity: 8% [?]

“The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.”
John D. Rockefeller

“We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”
Warren Buffett

Below I am giving a few stocks that I am considering to buy. I am doing research on these stocks and will post in details about them as my research comes along. All the stocks that I am considering are for the long term and not for momentum investing. So here go the stocks,

1. UNH (United Health)

   Current Price: 33.87

   I think this stock is undervalued right now. Its at a 52-week low and has shown good EPS growth. I think it might be a good stock for value investing. I apologize in advance for the lack of details but a detailed post on UNH is coming really soon. So hold on to your seats till then.

2. NOK (Nokia)

   Current Price: 26.78

   Great company. It owns Navteq. Going big on mobile phones with GPS. Kind of hedging against Garmin if gps on cell phones is the future. Pays a dividend of 3%. Its at a 52-week low. Low institutional ownership. Zero debt. I think the price will go lower making this stock very attractive at around 22 dollars. At 22 dollars I know I will buy atleast some. Great EPS growth. Good profit margin. A lot of good things happening for this stock except for the negative price momentum. I think there are concerns around the competition with Apple and RIMM but Nokia phones are extremely popular in India. Excellent Return on Investment and Return on equity. Terrific fundamentals overall.