One service is MediaFly and my favorite is the Business channel for Cramer's Mad Money and Consuela Mack's in-depth interviews. There are also:
- Videos (e.g. YouTube)
- TV clips (e.g. PBS, CBS clips)
- Music (commercial free Jazz)
- Also you can transfer downloads from the internet via USB key.

Seems my wife had an argument with her mom the other day. My mother in law wanted to know why we haven't moved up into a larger house the way the rest of our relatives have. She was well intentioned, but could not see our point of view. Truth is, two years ago my wife and I seriously considered upgrading, but after lengthy discussions stayed put for several compelling reasons.

- we love our neighbors and are friends with many of them
- we love our location
- we have all the room we need right now
- we are not interested in raising our expenses

I am happy to be clear of the trend towards a bigger home. I prefer using our money to buy Assets such as investments, not Liabilities such as a property tax, utilities, maintenance, furniture. The reversal in cash flow moving from Investments to Big House would cost our family as much as fifty thousand dollars per year. Not a good move!

Maybe part of the answer too is that you are not in a race to keep up with the Jones's and your other goals are more important than a bigger home . You are living exactly the way you want, nothing wrong with that!!!!!!!!!

The Dividends that have reinvested into more stock started coming in March. Some benefits:
A. The average costs of the stocks reinvested were less than their current market prices.
B. No trading commissions on DRIPs.
C. The additional stock provided an increased dollar value of dividends for the next pay date. The magic of compounding!

Some drawbacks:
A. Getting the DRIPs recorded to my brokerage account took about a week longer than if I received simply cash.
B. Getting cash into my accounts to buy a NEW company stock will require cash from an outside source since I would no longer access dividend cash for this purpose.

Overall, I am a fan of DRIPs, and I wish I started doing it sooner.

As of this writing, these are the types of businesses that my family owns:

One energy marketing company.
One construction company.
One oil & gas company.
Two information technology companies.
One railway services company.
Two major Canadian banks.
One pharmaceutical company.
Five restaurant royalty companies.
One consumer products company.
One aviation services company.
One casino / hotel company.

I've worked hard to diversify into many industries. What remains the same? We love owning companies with enduring competitive advantages which demonstrate high returns on equity, steady sales, cash-flows, dividends, low debt levels, managed by great people.

They were two good books to read while sitting in the sun at SPF60.

..the first was Peter Lynch One Up On Wall Street. I learned Peter was a great investor. He taught me:
- the Ten-Bagger which is a stock that goes up ten times in value.
- to avoid stocks that are "the next blank".
- Look for companies with boring names.
- In low-growth or no-growth industries.
- That are not followed by Analysts.
- That are not significantly held by institutions.
- That do boring stuff. He said get a house before getting stocks.
- To forget about stop losses.
- To wait until the business proves itself before investing.
- To avoid companies that diversify.

the second was Your Money Or Your Life. I learned:
- Money is what I exchange my Life Energy for.
- Computing an hourly exchange rate of income less income-related expenses divided by time.
- there are diminishing marginal happiness returns to money that can turn reductive
- there is a way to expand on the happiness - by giving

The quarter ended with the following highlights:

- Our family net worth is at a new high
- Investments are at a new high
- Dividend income is growing through DRIPs
- Blackjack profit is at a new high
- Craps profit is growing year to date
- Family vacation in Mexico with another family was enjoyable
- Read two investment books
- Learned from reading several Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders' Letters
- Responded to a Canada Revenue Agency letter on behalf of my in-laws
- Learned to cook and shop for groceries and reduced restaurant spending
- Trimmed four inches off my waist and keeping it off
- Eliminated junk food
- Cancelled Cable TV
- Cancelled home telephone

From the small pile of five dollar bills from last Chinese New Year, I took the cash to the bank to deposit it to my child's trading account which I control in trust.

This account is invested in dividend paying stocks and today I bought more of one of them currently paying a dividend of seven percent. I believe it will grow in cashflow as it announced a new Iphone Application that enable users to order pizza deliveries.

Ricklee - your journal is quite interesting. I hope to learn more from investing from your journey. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, Saro.

I had made a lucky purchase a few years ago. I bought a hundred ounce bar of silver back when silver was selling at ten dollars USD per ounce.

When the spot price of silver climbed to $34.50 USD per ounce, I decided to sell it at $35 USD per ounce. I put an ad on craigslist and kijiji and got dozens of interested responses.

The first respondent was going to get the bar. He asked me to send him photos of the actual bar rather than the generic stock photo I culled from the internet. He asked me where to meet. He did not have a car. He asked me to drive over to him. I asked him to cover my gas and time. He asked me when I was available. I gave him two dates. He was unavailable. Two days later, the price of silver jumped higher. I took the bar off sale. He complained that "we had a deal". I ignored his insulting and immature emails after that.

The other offers from buyers were below spot and were also ignored.

The price of silver today sells for $40 per ounce, which is a four-banger in Peter Lynch parlance. I'm keeping the silver.

I dunno, I disagree with you Ricklee, I would sell it due to the fact that you have made such a big profit and research for the ten bagger.

What is the likelihood silver will continue to rise?

I'm in agreement with Fantasma. While it may continue to rise for awhile, how will you know when is the right time to sell?

And I am putting my money where my mouth is. I also bought a bunch a silver (mine was around $15 per ounce) and just sold it all on ebay recently.

Buyers tend to pay a premium for silver on ebay. After taking out the fees charged ebay and paypal and the shipping cost (I offered free shipping), I netted just under $44 per ounce.

Fantasma and Bpqui, you may be right. To me, the right time to sell something is whenever the market is willing to pay more than its intrinsic value. And I just don't know what the intrinsic value of silver is. We may be at that moment in time right now. And congratulations on using ebay for selling your bullion at above market.

Selling when Silver is at an all-time high doesn't seem like the worst idea. If you consider the initial purchase of the silver to be "lucky," what is driving your interest in keeping the silver outside of speculation? If you have a longer-term thesis (i.e. currency debasement, the dollar continuing its plunge, money printing by the fed, industrial demand) as to why silver should trade higher, I might understand holding onto it. Good luck regardless of your choice.