Championship Hopes Dashed and Investment Advice

Well, the race last weekend was highly disappointing!! Gordon crashed while trying to avoid a spinning car and finished 38Th after running very well up to that point. Then several more championship chasers wrecked which minimized the points damage but probably not enough. One of the highlights of the weekend was the Colts game. Fourth quarter and 6+ minutes left in the game, score is 10-27 Texans. Colts fans say it all the time and last week proved, "It not over until it's over!". What a come back! Even we had said their 'done', right before they sacked the Texans quarterback, made him cough up the ball and ran it for a touchdown! Twice!! Sweet!! Colts win 31-27 :)

The state of the economy is still spiraling downward. Not just here but the world economy is failing. News is out that AIG took the $85 billion bailout and 4 days later treated their top executives to a Spa over the weekend for $440 thousand. Now lawmakers are thinking about making them pay them back the $440...ya think!?! Geesh!! The stocks keep falling and our 401K retirement is dwindling. It's beginning to look like those of us 50 or over can kiss retirement goodbye until we hit 90, if we live that long. Here's some valuable investment advice I came across that maybe we should have taken:

If you had purchased $1,000 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago, you would have $49 left.

With Fannie Mae, you would have $2.50 left of the original $1,000.

With AIG, you would have less than $15 left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all of the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would have $214 cash. Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.

Here's an interesting story for you to read while I go drink beer to raise money to retire...

October 8, 1871

Fire rips through Chicago

The Great Chicago Fire begins on this day in 1871. It goes on to kill 250 people, leave 100,000 people homeless and destroy thousands of buildings. All told, the fire was responsible for an estimated $200 million in damages (more than $3 billion in today's money), approximately one-third of the city’s entire worth. At the time, slightly more than 300,000 people lived in Chicago, which was quickly becoming a transportation hub for goods and people traveling between the East Coast and the burgeoning frontier.

The fire began near the home of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary at 137 De Koven Street in southwest Chicago at about 9 p.m. Legend holds that the fire started when the family's cow knocked over a lantern, but it is unknown whether this is actually true. What is known is that within 90 minutes, the fire was completely out of control and rapidly moving toward the city center.

Blinding hot ash and dust swirled as the blaze grew—at its height, it was as much as a mile wide. The winds were so strong and unpredictable that firefighters found it virtually impossible to establish safe positions from which to battle the blaze. Lake Michigan proved to be the only thing that could halt the fire as it raced four miles west. The fire continued to burn wildly throughout the following day, finally coming under control on October 10, when rain gave a needed boost to firefighting efforts.

Of the 18,000 buildings that were destroyed by the fire, the most notable was the city’s courthouse, which had cost over $1 million to build. The Field and Leiter department store was also lost, with an estimated $2 million of merchandise inside.

The fire prompted an outbreak of looting and lawlessness. Five companies of soldiers stationed in Nebraska and Kansas were summoned to Chicago and martial law was declared on October 11, ending three days of chaos. The military stayed for two weeks restoring order. Meanwhile, refugees filled the beaches of Lake Michigan, waiting until they could safely return to the city.

The following month, Joseph Medill was elected mayor after promising to institute stricter building and fire codes, a pledge that may have helped him win the office. His victory might also be attributable to the fact that most of the city’s voting records were destroyed in the fire, so it was next to impossible to keep people from voting more than once.

Chug, chug...until next post...