I’m still on my “save gas” kick now that gas prices are going back up.  After scrounging through the internet last night, I found a way to significantly cut back on fuel usage.  Unfortunately, it only works for diesel powered cars and trucks.

Instead of filling up with regular diesel, throw some French Fry grease in the tank too!  According to GreaseCar.com, you can use vegetable oil in your fuel system along with regular diesel.  In addition, using vegetable oil reduces emissions by 30%.

Since I don’t have a diesel car, I can’t vouch for this one, but if anyone out …

For a number of years, I’ve been in the habit of keeping my change.  Primarily because it’s very inconvenient to spend it.  When is the last time you whipped out a handful of pennies to pay for that can of Coke?  Exactly.

Bank of America is pushing their “Keep the Change” program, in which they round up each of your transactions and throw the difference in to your interest bearing checking account.  It’s a nice idea, but it’s too convenient.  I can still get at that money if I want to.

With my method, I throw my change into a 5 gallon water jug and forget about it.  I never see a balance on how much I’ve got in the jug, and it’s so inconvenient to take the change out, that I rarely do.  It’s also a good place to throw your left over dollar bills, and I can tell you, they are even harder to get out than the change!  What ever you need those bills better be worth the hassle of getting them out of hock.

I use stock discussion boards primarily for research.  To get the overall feel for peoples opinion on a stock.  I also use them for entertainment.  Very rarely do I participate.

It’s really interesting to see the influence that a discussion board can have on a persons trading strategies.  Then I got to thinking: “How can anyone base their buy and sell strategies on sentiment from anonymous discussion board users?”

Jim Cramer talks about the same thing in his book, “Confessions of a Street Addict“.  Since reading his comments on website discussion boards, I’ve pretty much vowed to stay away from them so I don’t get …

I’ve read on a few blogs about people thinking of starting their own business, but in limbo about how to do it and which type of corporation to form.

I’ll explain why and how I did it with an oil company I started last year.

First of all, you need to understand why you need to incorporate.  It’s all about asset protection.  The idea is that you want to protect your personal assets by isolating your risk.  You place your risk in a business entity to isolate it from your personal assets (i.e. your personal checking and savings account, your own home, etc.).

I bought an interest in some oil production in Oklahoma, and realized that there could …

I did a stupid thing the last time my wife and I went to the movies: I bought water.

It didn’t seem stupid at the time. I wanted something to drink, but I didn’t want caffeine or a lot of sugar, so water made sense.  I asked the guy behind the concession stand counter for an ice water, and he offered me a bottle instead.  Surely it must be cheaper than buying a Coke? 

When I did my first real estate deal, I had the house insured through the same insurance provider I have for my primary residence.  Boy did that turn out to be a mistake.

USAA writes insurance policies for rental property based on replacement cost.  If the house burns to the ground, what does it cost to rebuild the exact same house, using the exact same materials and techniques as when it was originally built?  It’s a lot. 

What would a stone foundation cost today?  How about plaster walls and hardwood floors throughout?  It’s a number about 4 times what I bought it for, and I …

I made a textbook investor screw up last week: Buy High, Sell Low.

I sold both Chesapeake Energy (CHK) and Valero Energy (VLO) at the bottom of a dip.  The problem was that I couldn’t justify selling the stock, I just got impatient.  My brother convinced me to sell, even though I knew he had just done the same thing, and sold for a huge loss.

I didn’t stick to my trading plan, and it burned me.  I really didn’t lose much, but if I’d have waited a week, I would have executed my plan today, and ended up with about $1,000 profit.

The oil …

When I bought my first rental property, I knew that the money I put in to fix it up would have an effect (i.e. they’d be a deduction) on my taxes for this year.

What I didn’t realize was that I could deduct the travel expenses going to and from the property while I was working on it.  Stupid me!

The property is about 20 miles from my house, and considering the fact that I was working on the property for about 28 days in January, I failed to record a lot of mileage that could be used for tax purposes.

I’ll have to go back and see if I can piece together …

I’ve been a big fan of the oil stocks for the last year, and I’ve made pretty decent money trading Chesapeake Energy (CHK) and Valero Energy (VLO).  It is a pretty volatile market, so it’s not for the faint of heart, but long term, it depends on where you think oil prices are going.

I’m also a big fan of ETF’s, primarily those that look at an entire sector.  It alleviates the risk of owning a single security and gambling on the fundamentals of the business structure.  With all the corporate fraud going on these days, it’s tough to trust management.  ETF’s virtually eliminate this risk by investing in a bunch of different companies in the same sector.

I just got my notification in the mail about the merger between Ameritrade and TD Waterhouse. It outlines the changes to my trading account upon the completion of the merger.

It’s all fairly benign stuff, with the exception of one statement:

“You’ll receive the new commision schedule and margin rates for TD Ameritrade in late April.”

I certainly hope the commisions go down, as Ameritrade has one of the highest commision fees of all the major brokers…

Sure, I like good trading tools, but I have to protect my bottom line first and foremost. …