Tobin Family Website

Well, the year is nearly half over, so it is time to check in on the investments. 

As far as stock holdings/purchases, I have seen the following year-to-date returns as of Friday’s close (without counting dividends):

• Idear (IAR):  +26.1%
• Verizon (VZ):  +13.9%
• Merck (MRK):  +13.1%
• AT&T (T): +10.4%
• HP (HPQ):  +6.7%
• Microsoft (MSFT): -0.6%
• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): -3.6%
• Sirius (SIRI): -15%

I am holding all stocks with the exception of HP and Johnson & Johnson which I continue to buy weekly.  As it turns out, they have not been as good of performers as I had hoped (at least not yet).  I will have to study them a bit more and see if I want to adjust my buy strategy for the remainder of the year.

As far as my Thrift Savings Account, I have seen positive returns across the board….but nothing earth shattering:

• I Fund:  +10.4%
• S Fund:  +8.4%
• C Fund:  +6.7%
• G Fund:  +2.6%

As far as the kids’ mutual funds, they are slugging along at +3.6% growth year to date.

By comparison, the following is the market year to date growth as of Friday:

• S&P 500:  +5.94%
• DJIA:  +7.37%

So, all in all, with a few exceptions, I have managed to outperform the overall market. 

I have not posted here in quite some time as I have been out of town on business.  Last week I flew to San Diego on Sunday.  When I got there, I decided to go to one of the local casinos and play a little blackjack.  It turned out to be a very wise trip!  I went in with $200 to play blackjack and left with $5000 in winnings!  I returned on Wednesday night with some coworkers and ended up winning another $2000!  So, needless to say, luck was on my side.

Interestingly, before I left for San Diego, I had placed a bid on a truck on eBay.  I was hoping to get a nice used truck for about $5K for utility purposes around the house.  Well, as it turns out, I won the truck (pictured below) for $5449.02, which in light of my winnings, turned out to be FREE. 

 

It is a very nice truck for the money, and it is very clean inside and out.  It is a 8L V-10, 4×4, which probably explains how I was able to land it for so cheap, given the cost of gas these days.  It is a Laramie edition Crew Cab with 155,000 miles on it, and is 10 years old.  The tansmission seems to work fine, and I could not see any significant indicators of any mechanical issues.  It does have some fairly minor cosmetic issues (small dent on rear panel by exhaust and some rusted paint chips on the hood that are only observable by close inspection).  The Private Party blue book on the truck was $7300, and retail was over $9000.  Although I am not a fan of vanity plates, I think I may get vanity plates for this truck that says BLKJACK.  I thought that would be funny given how I essentially won the truck, and the truck is also black.

I picked up the truck on Friday, fueled it up and brought it home.  It was running fine until Saturday morning when it wouldn’t start.  It would crank just fine, but would not start.  As it turns out, I think the fuel pump and/or filter needs to be replaced.  My neighbor, who is a jet mechanic, suggested hitting the bottom of the fuel tank while cranking the engine and sure enough, it started right up.  The theory being that the pump (inside the fuel tank) was stuck just enough to not push the fuel to the engine, and a little rap on the tank would unstick it.  Sure enough, it worked. 

Foolishly, I assumed that once the truck was started, it was not an issue.  So, last night at about 10PM, Delaney and I ran out for a little ride in the new truck.  We opted to drive down the main drag past the mall in our town.  When I was coming back past the mall, the light was turning red, so I let off the gas and applied the brakes.  Well, the truck up and stalled on me!  I was in the middle lane of a three lane busy highway!  And, of course, it would not start again.  After nearly being rear-ended three times, I was able to get Delaney out of the truck and off onto the sidewalk.  Fortunately, there were two police cars in the mall parking lot attending to a call, and I was able to have one come over and set up flares for me and call a tow truck.  My luck from earlier in the week had clearly run out!

I had the truck towed to the local Dodge dealer, so that they can inspect and fix it this week.  I am 99% sure it is the fuel pump, which is not too surprising on a 10-year old truck.  The challenge is that the pump is inside the tank and they have to drop the fuel tank to replace the pump.   I expect it may cost between $400-600 for the repair (parts and labor), but we will see.  All in all, I am still very happy with the truck if this is the only real issue I have with it.  When all is said and done, I still have not had to take a dime out of my own accounts to pay for the truck.