65 years, the great flood, family reunion and even some trades

[selkirk]

been a busy summer.

June
my oldest aunt and uncle celebrated their 65th wedding aniversary. that is incredible. they were married at the ages of 16 and 17. the odds of staying married that long and being married that young.

quite a few showed up, though if it was a funeral the crowd would have been doubled :shrug:

best line, local and provincial and federal rep, made presnentations...however the local mayor said when she mentioned this a fourteen year old girl said "65 years to the same guy?"


Great flood

a few weeks later after a wet april and may it rained, poured one night. 8 times what was predicted. so there was a flood. where I live they declared a state of emergency, and nearby people were going to be evacuated....

kind of scary when you hear on the radio but are not there.... anways the rain stopped and no one was hurt. just some damage to the roads and people busy keeping their houses dry... only one person left their home...could have been worse...

August
went to a family reunion, on my mothers side have gone now to 3 reunions, representing 3 different families...about every 2-3 years.

this was the biggest, people from Alberta, BC, PEI, US, Manitoba, and oraganized from soneone in the Yukon.... just shows what people can do if they organize..... great food and good time.

AFAM is now at 42.35 and is holding up well.
Calm is now up to 47.65+1.82 even heard it on a confernce call about resources.

not sure it they are fully valued but will hold them until they stop acting well.

own no spec stocks.

sold more than 75% of my position of WFC.. good bank but will wait do not understand the sector, so will sit on sidelines.

have covered calls and even some uncovered calls on all of my energy resource plays, sold 50% of my energy plays..... will wait until sept. and see then.

been a very good year, would have been better if not for retail CTC.a (cdn. tire), and Home depot, and my how to lose 20% on VLO.

oilexco oil on toronto looks very cheap however will wait.... and see if I can get it cheaper.

have a great summer.

thanks
selkirk

 

[dawgball]

Great stuff, kirk.

The most important thing to remember in investing is WHY we are investing! Thanks for the personal updates. Fantastic stuff!

I have adopted a general rule from an older gentleman I grew up looking up to:

Weddings are optional; Funerals are mandatory

Congrats on the profitable year.

 

[selkirk]

true Dawgball, know a handfull of very wealthy indivuals and they often live quite normal lives, and give a large amount of their money to charities that they find worthy. the most important item is quality of life and health...money helps though..


Weddings are optional; Funerals are mandatory

that is true at least in my family, they will go to a funeral even if they did not meet the indivual.

thanks
selkirk

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

You had an interesting year Kirk

Been busy as a beaver of late myself.
Don't generally venture off into large cases at this stage of life but had KY group that I've had insured for years consolidate other businesses they had in Neb-NJ-Tn and Virgin Islands.
They wanted to put them all under one umbrella and working on it for 2 months and just finished it Friday.

Will be doing update China Stocks 5 year anniversary in a few weeks--Asia probably hit hardest of countries in past years global downturn but portfolio has not had big as hit as most stocks.

As always taking your advice served me well--in taking some off table when stocks double--in this instance.

--more on that later.

 

[selkirk]

good luck on the new business dtb.

many emerging markets have been getting crushed, seems to be some cheap stocks getting ignored, will look at them in sept.

all this year trying to take some gains, and write options, and make sure most of my holdings have dividends....(safe and growing dividends).

thanks
selkirk