Dear Shareholders,
We’re pleased to report that the The Samurai Fund (TSF) is up 8.5% year to date! Unfortunately, the S&P 500 is up 9.9% thereby underperforming the broader markets by 140 basis points. On the positive side, there has been 0 turnover in the fund since inception on January 1, 2010 which means no trading fees. Furthermore, we have not had to hire employees to run the fund meaning that we are saving millions more a year in salary costs.
Our outlook for the stock market is rosy, thanks to Ben “Making It Rain” Bernanke and his desire to inflate all asset classes with QE2. We believe in the American consumer’s ability to consume with greed again, and we are strategically positioned with names such as Samuel Adams (SAM, +76% YTD), Monster Worldwide (MWW, +14%), and Lenar Corp (LEN, +24% YTD). Creating bubbles is a good thing, so long as we recognize we are in a bubble. We at TSF hear you loud and clear Mr. Bernanke and will ride your donkey into the sunset!
Thank you shareholders for investing in our fund. We will try and make up for our underperformance by continually doing absolutely nothing. Please revisit our investment philosophy.
Regards,
The Samurai Fund Investment Team
HIGHLIGHT POSTS FROM AROUND THE SPHERE
*Everyday Tips & Thoughts asks “What Would You do With A Letter From The President.” There’s no way I’d ever sell it the letter for money, but I think Mr. Obama would be happy if you could profit from a letter he wrote if it can help a family’s finances. Just make a copy!
* Thousandaire produces a hilarious ROTH IRA music video called, “When I Retire”. All Kevin needs to do is change the lyric “when I get paid” to “when I get laid” in relation to “I’ll have millions when I take it out” for it to go viral at the end! Unfortunately, as old readers might recall, I’m quite against the ROTH IRA. That said, better to have a ROTH IRA than no IRA!
* Roshawn writes a post which needles those who make over $250,000 in his article, “Good Old Middle Class Or Wealthy”. In many parts of the country raising a family on $250,000-$350,000 is not exactly wealthy due to the high cost of living, and the necessity to send kids to private school since the public schools are so appalling. Can we agree that making $250,000 a year in Iowa goes farther than San Fran, Chicago, and Manhattan?
* Daniel’s brother made $1,200 out of thin air thanks to the World Series Giants in his post, “Selling A Product That Doesn’t Exist.” Seriously, with just a little bit of ingenuity, people can make a lot of money!
* Don highlights the “Pros and Cons of Blogging” which many bloggers can relate too. I’ll be coming up with a different spin on this one in a future post, so stay tuned!
* The Saved Quarter has a gritty guest post called, “The Face Of The Homeless.” It’s important to give thanks to life and appreciate what we have, while help others.
* Special shout-out to BuildASign.com who created some awesome bumper stickers for Financial Samurai and Yakezie.com. We’ll be distributing these neat bumper stickers out to Yakezie Scholarship winners as an added bonus!
FINANCIAL SAMURAI AROUND THE WEB
* On AMEX’s new site called GetCurrency.com, I share with readers how “I Barely Survived My Mortgage Refi.” I tell ya, it was a butt kicking, and I can see why it’s going to take a while for monetary easing to take effect. A friend of mine, who has more cash in the bank than the mortgage he is trying to refi got denied for example!
* I’ve always wanted to write for Cosmopolitan Magazine, so here’s my attempt to do so with the article “Online Dating & Income Infatuation.”
* In “The Clock Builder vs. The Time Teller”, I discuss the efforts of building a sustainable organization. Besides describing the difference between the two, I’m trying to stay out of the way.
To read more of the best personal finance sites on the web, come visit the Yakezie Network!
Cheers,
Sam
Hey Sam, your fund still did pretty darn well- and I love your commentary. (Is there any way you could have mentioned Timothy Geithner not paying his taxes somehow? I so like when you mention that.)
Thanks for including my site!!
Sam, thanks for the link. As a former Chicagoan, yes I can attest that the cost of living there is certainly is higher than Sumner, IL or Des Moines, IA. It’s would be disingenuous for me to criticize high income earners. I was only making the case that just like many of us want the gov’t to operate off of a budget (reduce expenses, stop raising taxes, eliminate the deficit), a) we shouldn’t “barely be making” if our income is 6-8 times the median household income in North America and b)a 3% tax increase (while not pleasant and many would argue unnecessary) shouldn’t push us over the edge financially. BTW, I never even said that I was in favor of the tax and got hammered by those who would like to tax high income earners in to oblivion (my words not theirs) too. I just can’t win :)
I personally don’t believe that $200-350 makes you wealthy, but it doesn’t quite make you middle class either. Don (Money Reasons) said it best in his subsequent round up: it kind of makes you other :)
BTW, your fund is performing well. Cheers!
This is very impressive. Not only has the fund performed well, you have managed to keep the overheads down by not hiring.
I am sure the bubble will last for a few more quarters and you will ride it into the sunset.
We should have sold BIG when it was up 30%! How could we not have seen this coming!
I want a Yakezie bumper sticker. I don’t have a car..but they’re still awesome!
Your fault for not selling! Just like Lenzo’s fault for not selling Lennar when it was up 65%! haha.
Ehhh… when you buy a car, I’ll hook you up!
I thought Ben “Making It Rain” Bernanke’s middle name was helicopter?
Thanks for the link, I look forward to reading your version in the not too distance future!
Bumper stickers are cool, but I want to buy a Financial Samurai shirt or baseball cap with a picture of that samurai head in your logo and the “FinancialSamurai.com” URL beneath it…, and then even lower a saying or slogan that says something like “Slicing Debt and Defending Riches” or “Fighting for your Finances”…
I would buy one (if it’s less than $21 dollars). Perhaps a clever shirt maker will see the potential and offer to make the shirt for you, giving you a cut of the sales… (This might even be cool for the Yakezie group too). Even if it breaks even, it’s still good advertising, especially if the URL is on the shirt…
But perhaps I’m too positively biased towards your site :)
No Money Reasons, I agree with you and think the t-shirts would make a big splash:)
Got the prototype shirt we are gonna put up on Zazzle for Members to purchase! It’s coming!
Awesome! I would even make it available to the general public (especially with your URL listed). I bet you’d get more traffic that way (free advertising), plus it would be a great looking shirt!!!
It’s funny, it seems I think of things but you already have it underway… lol :)
Perhaps you could even put the Financial Samurai on one side and Yakezie site on the other side…
Sounds great!
Go Chipotle (CMG)! Apple (AAPL)! Silver (SLV)! and Baidu (BIDU)!
Bidu is my best stock! Netflix has kicked some butt too this year… Too bad I sold it a while ago…
I’m sorry to see your loss in MON! It has been a favorite of mine for years, but got out about 2 years ago when it was well over $120. I have since bought back in, but am holding on to some nice gains. Great company and should continue to do well over the long term!
The fund is up 8.5% year to date but the buying power of the dollar is down 18%. Thank goodness most Americans aren’t going abroad…
Keep making it rain Ben- 18% loss in purchasing power for a 9% gain.
Sounds like the Polish blanket principle, make it wider by cutting off the length and sewing it on the width, only you lose some material in the process.
I guess it will take gas to go to $15 a gallon before people wake up.
-Mike
The dollar could depreciate by 50%, it doesn’t matter since Americans are domesticated folks! We welcome foreign money to buy up our assets and drive prices up!
A weak currency is not a good thing when a country is a net importer!
And the US imports a ton more than she exports…
That’s why Obama’s plan to double exports in 5 years is a joke, I’m sure imports will be trebling over the same period.
-Mike
Again, it doesn’t really matter. The imported goods we buy is only a small fraction of our budget.
That’s awesome! Even though it’s lower than the S&P it’s higher than what I’ve earned in my PA this year! I’m so happy the dow is still over 11000. We’re not too far from 11500 so let’s go 12000!
Sam,
Not bad, not bad. You might want to consider fertilizer and natural textile companies. I’m have a 40% return this year on fertilizer (I can go into this further if you want) and I’m deeply eying some textiles for the upcoming months.
Thanks Sandy, however you do realize the Samurai Fund is an experiment based entirely off the permutations of participants names or blogs right?? If not, click the tab or link :)
Crap, you’re right. I wondered why Monsanto was mixed with Sam Adams and such.
Man my stock (LL) brought down the index! I must suck as an investor. Sorry guys.
Yes, you are a crappy investor. Thanks for nothing!!!
I noticed Monster’s pop in some US stats I was looking at the other day, and I remembered the FS fund and crossed my fingers it hadn’t been ejected. Hurrah!
Taken longer to get going then I thought I must admit, but now the recovery should really start gaining traction and there’s a *lot* of positions to fill out there. :)