Budapest - Days 2 & 3

What a past few days it has been here in Budapest! I must say that from my experience, I highly recommend you coming to this Hungarian city. The amount of activities to do here can easily fill up 3 full days of sightseeing - not to mention the guided, bus and boat tours that are available (which I did not even have time to do!).

The past 2 days have been solid walking from one side of the city to the other - I have woken up the past 2 mornings with legs and feet that are super sore and stiff. There is mass transit, but keeping with my tradition of purposely wandering around the city to see more of it, I decided to walk everywhere. Now while it is time consuming, it did allow me to run into several buildings, sights and situations that were memorable.

One of these building I came across was the Synagogue near where I was staying. This synagogue is the largest in Europe - second only to one in New York City. It was also the only building that I saw that required people entering pass through a metal detector. Although I did not tour the building, I found it to be an impressive structure from the outside.

Another great place to make sure you see is Heroes' Square and the surrounding museums and Vajdahunyad Castle. The Square is a large (at least a city block) open space flanked by 2 large museums. In the back middle of the square are the monuments to Hungarian Heroes'.

The castle has a pretty good museum inside of it. In fact, if you were pressed for time and had to choose the National Museum or the Vajdahunyad Castle Museum, I'd say go to the castle. The castle also has one of the most bizarre rooms I have ever seen. It is full of deer skulls and heads and the like. I literally laughed when I walked into the room. It would be a redneck's version of heaven though.

The Museum of fine arts I decided to skip - since they wanted the equivalent of $10 to get in - what nerve! I did stop by and go into the Art Hall museum, which was housing a modern art gallery of the Cluj Artists. These are the artists that have grown up in a post Communist world and their works are influenced by it. There were also many films, but the one that I found most interesting was one called Dog Luv.

After that I walked down the main road (Andrassy) walking past a lot of Embassies (including the Russian one, which they had left the front gate open. I was tempted to walk into it and knock on the front door and see what happened!), saw a guy eating lunch and smoking on a hookah, and got rained on.

Now on a side note, the weather in Budapest seems to be bipolar. You are walking around the city, not a cloud in the sky and by the time you've walked a mile it is pouring down rain on you. Now I was able to meet some Americans working in Budapest (the wife is a plant manager for GE and the husband appears to be a free loader - must be nice!). They said in the past 2 months it had rained maybe 3 times. It has rained at least for an hour or more every day I have been here. It must be me.

Also, you know when you are out in town and you can immediately know if someone is European by how they dress? Well, I am assuming it works the same way here too - you can tell an American (or foreigner) very quickly. I've gotten some interesting looks by what I can only assume is from my wardrobe. Now being a little experienced in travelling, you have to realize that it isn't a personal insult if someone does laugh at you - use it as an entry way to say hello and talk to them. Especially here in Budapest, people are very friendly once you begin speaking with them and are more than willing to help you out or even invite you to come with them.

Continuing on, I also stopped at the House of Terror museum. This building housed both the Nazi party of Hungary (more specifically the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party) and the Soviet intelligence and police units up until 1956. This museum highlighted mainly the Soviet occupation and brought to life some of the horrors of Communist rule. It also brought to light some very interesting - and even timely - topics on political intimidation, propaganda, creating a God out of a political figure and other social and political weapons that were used to seize and consolidate total control. It included (what I am guessing are the original) "detention rooms" that were underground cells, and they designed it to replicate how it looked when in use. Sadly, they do not allow for photography there. A great museum to visit if you are ever in Budapest.

Anyhow, I have made it to Vienna and will be posting those stories soon. Until then...

Budapest - Day 1

My first thought when I was going through the cities in Hungary on the train was "What the hell am I getting myself into?" As the train rolled along I was able to get glimpses of the cities and towns along the way and was not sold on this going to be too good of a time. But so far, it has been nothing but a great experience.

Things didn't start off incredibly chipper though. The directions I had to get to my hotel were wrong. I came to find out that there are 2 main train stations here in Budapest: 1 for domestic trains - which was designed by the guy who did the Eiffel Tower - and 1 for international trains. I Google Mapped from the wrong one but luckily I wrote all the street names down correctly. The people here in Budapest were very helpful in pointing me in the right direction and withing 90 minutes I found what I was looking for. Not quite the 10 minute walk I was expecting, but alls well that ends well.

The hotel I stayed out was fairly impressive. Nice room with a queen sized bed, large windows, flat screen tv. All for $33. The only downside is that there was a shared bathroom for each floor with 1 shower and 1 toilet. The hairy Russians were all over the shower this morning.

I was staying in the Octagon area - which is just named for the way the street doesn't quite make a roundabout, but works in a similar fashion. I hit up a few restaurants and met some Budapestians who were out celebrating their finishing high school - which here made them 19 and 20. They were friendly enough and wanted to talk with the foreigner. So I was invited to hang with them the rest of the night and we ended up having a good time and I got to see first hand what Budapestians do. All and all it was a good first night here in Budapest.

Today I have made it to the hostel that I will be staying in the next 2 nights. It seems like it will be an interesting time. Kind of reminds me of what a hippie commune would have been like. This place has very high ratings and the staff is incredibly friendly and it is in a great location.

Today I plan on doing the tourist thing. There are a lot of different sights, museums, castles and such to see. So far, I am liking Budapest - and I see things continuing to get better. You should come visit.

Until next time...

Prague - Day 2

Where to begin at today. Today was full of walking for me. I am exhausted from the amount of walking (and stairs!) I've done today. But I will get to that later.

First thing, for the most part last night I slept incredibly well. Minus the midnight outside yakking of a bunch of foreign speaking girls who just talked incredibly loud and were screaming and everything else. I actually opened my window and asked them if they forgot their keys and wanted to get in. They replied they were leaving - which was fine enough for me.

Anyways. Today I started by going to the top of the Astrological Clock. I took the 50 or so stairs up (they have an elevator for an option) and was able to see the city fairly well from that viewpoint. Was even there when the top of the hour came along and the trumpet guy played his little piece.

Next I wandered around and ended up going to the National Museum. Now first, I must say that I may have missed something, but it was the lamest, poorest of an excuse museum I have ever been to (minus 1 thing that actually made it an enjoyable experience for me). To my knowledge, they only have 2 levels of things to see. The first level is a poor attempt at a science (and a bit of random Egyptian) stuff. The second level has just a single room you can go into, but it is full of middle ages era cross bows and - what made it all worth the hassle and walking - a skull with an arrow still in the top of it. Even has pictures of the X-Ray. Pretty awesome. Did I mention that they charge the equivalent of $2 to allow you to take pictures? Moving on...

After that I walked around a few streets I haven't been to before. I ended up back around where I am staying at lunch time and ate at an excellent British themed restaurant called George & Dragon. I spent probably close to $30 on lunch (a third of that being from 2 Cokes - oy), but it was the most excellent food and so much that I could barely eat half of it. I would recommend it.

Next I hit next door to the National Gallery in Prague. This was actually a pretty cool exhibit. What were on display were the State collections of Egyptian, classical Greek and Roman and Asian art. I do think that this was a good choice to go see. It didn't take too long - maybe 45 minutes - to see entirely, but it was full of a lot of good high quality pieces.

After that I went and took a Boat Tour from the company Venice of Prague. I try to take a boat tour wherever I go if they offer one. I've taken one in Ottawa, Hong Kong and other various places and I always end up happy I did. Again, Prague seems to have let me down on this. It wasn't that the tour was bad - it wasn't. It wasn't that it was overpriced or overcrowded - it wasn't. It is just that the tour was not really all that informative and it didn't span much of the area (although due to some river drops - which I assume are man made - boats are limited on where they can go north of the Charles River. There was ONE good thing about this tour though. On the way back, a paddle boat with 2 people came by and the girl in the boat totally flashed out her boobs. Tradeoffs I guess.

Finally I went to go see Prague Castle. Now I have seen a lot of things in my travels to date, so it is hard to find something that I think is breathtaking - but it really is. One of the most ornate churches I have ever seen on the outside. It covers multiple architectural themes and has very ornate details all around. From the stain glass, to the spires and tower, to the detailed masonry, it is a sight you must see. But you will have to be in quite good shape if you plan to walk there. One of the ways you can go is straight up a street for about a mile. And I mean straight up. Another way is by taking a terraced staircase up for about 10 minutes. Again, you are going straight up, but not only is Prague Castle a breathtaking sight, but you will be able to see most the entire city when you're up there. Amazing sight to see.

And still speaking of Prague Castle, you can buy a ticket to go to the top of the Bell Tower (and they give you a token coin as well!). But the thing is, there is no option of taking an elevator. You must take (and I counted) 295 stairs up, 295 stairs down. And these are very narrow, winding stairs all the way up. Again, if you plan to do this, join a gym AT LEAST 6 months ahead of your visit.

Now it's recovery time for me. I'll be getting some dinner shortly here. There is a small change of plan tomorrow. Instead of leaving via an overnight train, I will be leaving in the late morning to Budapest. I figure sometime's it is better to not risk any potential issues when it comes to travelling in and to an area for the first time via an overnight train. So tomorrow I will be writing to you from Budapest, Hungary.

Until next time...

Welcome to Prague - Day 1

I made it - but it was a loooonnnngggggg flight. First, it was about an 8 hour flight. Second, there was a undisciplined 2 year old behind me. Thirdly, there was a mother who couldn't give two shits what her undisciplined 2 year old did to the person in front of him. For 8 hours, I had my seat kicked. You know, that part about moving ahead 6 hours - which means when we left at 8 PM, it was already 2 AM. And the stupid kid decided for 6 of those 8 hours to kick my chair. Yea, so no sleep for the weary on that one.

But it ended - with me getting zero sleep. And when you arrive at a place at 10 AM and you have been awake since 6 AM the day before (ok, my body thought it was 4 AM when I landed but still), you can't just fall asleep and wake up and start your day. So here it is, 7:40 PM Prague time, and I have yet to sleep (thats 31 hours I believe. But I could be dilusionally wrong).

Don't get me wrong, it's not all bad. My impressions of the city is this: If you wanted to see what a European city looked like at the beginning of the 20th century, look no further. From the clock giving Big Ben (and Ottawa's Parlament building) a run for its money to the St. Charles Bridge. Large gothic influenced and large Eastern Orthodox (I think) influenced, there is a wide variety of architecture that will keep the nostalgic occupied for a long time.

One thing that does stand out is the vast amount of graffiti that seems to plague the city. I can't say for sure (since I don't live here) that it's a nusiance, but I am making a hypothesis that it is. Also, the people here are not the nicest I've ever met. Now they aren't douchebags, but they are far from the Asian experience of Taiwan. But that could just be part of their charm.

Today was also a huge hockey game for the Czech Republic. They were playing a huge rival in Slovakia in seeing who would advance in the World Hockey Championships. Last I saw, they were down 3-1. But they had put out a huge screen in a public square and there were thousands of people waving flags, honking horns, drinking and having a national moment together. It was a very interesting scene, even when they were down.

I managed today to probably overdo my recon of the city. I was able to meet up with a college friend who just happened to be in Prague. He was able to take me to a place where I could get some authentic Czech food. Being I have had no sleep, been stationary for the better part of a day, dehydrated and generally groggy, I won't be surprised if I wake up tomorrow very sore. Also, I have noticed 2 things about liquids in this city: 1. Water is more expensive than beer. 2. It is hard to find water in stores. There are no convience stores. Also, I'm fairly certain that there are no gas stations here in Prague.

Here are some additional pictures from day 1. Until next time...

Inherit Risks in Decisions

The biggest hindrance that I seem to face - and have seen in many other people as well - is the fear of the unknown. The fear of not doing something because of the risk of just not knowing what it could mean if you fail. Or even if you succeed.

People are unique, and as they are unique so are their goals and dreams. For me, the idea of settling down in suburbia and knowing I must do something responsible to pay the mortgage for the next 30 years is like giving away my freedom. The freedom to take a risk and do something I would want to do. The freedom to live in another city, state or even country. But to others, a place to call home is a dream.

We all are different. Some people's goal is to get married and raise a family. Others are to move as far away from home and get out and do something with their lives and on their own accord. Others to start a career and work as hard as possible to get as far up the ladder as possible.

We are all different. We all have different ideas, goals and visions. But how many people follow them and why? We all want to be successful, rich and influential. And as important as these things are, are the things we give up - such as time, emotion, stress, life - worth it in the end. The risks associated with even a simple "I will work hard and climb the ladder" are many. Not getting promoted. Having the company you work for downsize. Getting sick and having to pay for treatment out of pocket. If we spend our whole lives just working for a goal that may or not be reached with the only hope at the end being richer than the other people you went to school with (or whatever), for me that is just a waste of a life.

Now, for those of you making $100k + right now, you may feel different. And good for you. But for the rest of us, and especially for myself right now, are we considering our own selves in the decisions we make?

In my personal experience, I have taken on some very risky decisions: start a business, go to Asia, be a business major during the collapse of society as we know it. But all of these decisions panned out in such a way that I would not trade them for anything. And not all of them were successful. But the journey brought me so many great memories, friends and experiences that I could never of had if I would have been logical in deciding what to do.

For instance, who goes to Taiwan? Would you advise a 23 year old recent college grad with absolutely no interest or knowledge of Asian culture to just choose one afternoon after a lunch with a friend talking about their relative who teaches there to just decide "OK, that is for me"? Talk about short sightedness. But in truth, the experience of doing something completely unknown - with all its inherit risks - was the absolute best decision I could have done at that time in my life. I am convinced that NOTHING else I could have chosen would have beaten that experience.

Back in - oh I would say 2008ish - me and a buddy of mine came up with an educational software idea. We took that idea and molded it over the next 2 years into something not just theoretical, but actual. A creation of a great idea tied together with a business model that made sense (at the time at least). Low overhead costs + maximum possible exposure to potential clients + a visually stunning and easy to use interface = Biomagine Software. During the life of the company (which still exists), we were accepted into the USC Business Incubator, had a semester where we were used in the science labs at USC, and taught me and my business partner invaluable experience, knowledge, advice and warning that can only be taught by the experience of actually having done it. Although not everything went - or goes - to plan, even a failed venture and all its time and money is one of the best experiences I had during my college and immediate post college years.

Now I am faced with the biggest challenge of all: What to do with my life. It's a great challenge that seems to grow larger with each passing day. I have a friend who I talked to about this awhile ago and he told me that no matter what I choose, it will be the right decision. Stick with what I am doing now, I gain experience. Change career paths, I learn new skills and can combine things that I have learned. Go back to teaching overseas, you will create networks and see parts of the world that people usually only see on television. No matter what, you can't go wrong.

But that is where the fear comes in. That fear of failure. Of the unknown.

I thought I was immune to that. Hell, who does what I did? I am in a very fortunate position to where I financially can do realistically what I want to do - no student debt, car debt, mortgage debt, ex-wife debt. The only debt I have is the time I have already spent trying to figure this whole thing out.

The best decisions are not decided for you. The best decisions are the ones you make.

Stocks and Finance - Checkup

So on January 3, I wrote a post about my thoughts on some stocks. Now, it's time to check up on my predictions. So if you would have taken my advice and purchased the companies I mentioned on January 4, how would you have done?

First, let's break it down into 3 categories: Stocks I said to buy, hold and sell.

The buys were: HBAN, PBCT, GE, CHK, HPQ, MSFT, BA, YUM.

The holds were: DUK, AEP

The sell was: BAC

So lets take a quick look at the overall percentage change on these as of the close of the market on 2/17/12.

For the BUYS:

HBAN has a gain of 7.22%. PBCT has a loss of 2.89%. GE has a gain of 3.88%. CHK has a gain of 3.56%. HPQ has a gain of 11.24%. MSFT has a gain of 14.05%. BA has a gain of 1.37%. YUM has a gain of 10.65%.

For the HOLDS:

DUK has a loss of 2.88%. AEP has a loss of 2.86%.

For the SELLS:

BAC has a gain of 38.04%.

Ouch. Well the good news is overall, you would have done very well had you invested in these on January 4. The bad news is that you would have really missed out on one hell of a run up from BAC.

Looking forward, I do believe a market pullback is in the cards in the next month or so. Currently, all the major indexes are at highs unseen for several years. While it is true that the US economy seems to be doing a decent recovery and people are getting back to work, the year end numbers for a lot of companies came in very underwhelming. The estimates were very low - so expectations were that there would be a lot of surprises in companies beating estimates. While several did, many more either just made estimates or missed in either sales, profits or both. This is a material weakness in the overall economy and shows that although things are improving, we are still a long way off from where we can say we have a strong and thriving economy.

With that in mind, the unemployment numbers seem to be coming down - which means more people are applying for credit and spending. Obviously these are things that must happen and be sustained for the corporate earnings to get back to where higher stock prices can be sustained in reality - and not just in future expectations.

So I do have some changes in my overall views on the following stocks - and some new additions to the list. I still believe that HPQ will continue its upward momentum. Meg Whitman is really a great CEO and her leadership alone adds value to the company. GE is expected to raise its dividend again in the fourth quarter of the year. It's financial wing should also start paying internal dividends again - which could add some serious value to the company. As the economy improves, yet housing prices staying fairly flat in most regions, I would like to add some newer buys to the list. Home Depot (HD) and Lowe's (LOW) should see improving sales in direct correlation to the improving employment situation. As improvements/repairs/additions to peoples homes have been either delayed or patched during tough times, with more people getting back to work but still unable to sell their homes, I see a lot of positive momentum for these home improvement leaders. Also, both of these companies have P/E at 20 - which might be seen as a little high, but with increased sales, the 20-times correlation stays with an increase in share price.

With this same line of thinking, banks should be making more loans to people who now may qualify for personal and consumer loans with the additional household incomes. I am keeping a buy for HBAN and PBCT and upgrading BAC to a hold on the news that they are selling it tower in the Boston financial district, cutting its CEO's compensation and making it correlated to the company's performance and it's settling its legal action with the US in the robo-signing fiasco. With all these in mind, I believe its incredible run up YTD will maintain, but probably will not keep its momentum for much further gains.

Utilities such as DUK and AEP seem to have been flat or decreasing so far this year - much as I said in the past post. With a mild winter and record low prices for natural gas, I would maintain a case-by-case review for each company, but with the two I am more familiar with (DUK and AEP) maintain a hold. I do see them holding their current values though. As for CHK, natural gas prices can't get much worse. I still see a lot of potential upside for this company - especially if things with Iran get worse. I am keeping a buy on this stock.

As for the fast food arena, YUM has made a run up to a 52 week high. Adding to this list I will be putting both YUM and McDonalds (MCD) as holds.

Again, I believe that in the next month or so to be a pullback in the overall markets. Personally, I am keeping my powder dry and waiting to buy anything else until this happens. Again, only time will tell if these predictions will hold or not - but I'll be sure to do another checkup on these predictions in around 6 - 8 weeks.

Getting Back To It

Will be getting back to the blogging shortly.

A Day in the Life

As with every job, there are things that you like and you don't. Days that fly by and you leave feeling like you've accomplished a lot and helped many people out and days you leave just pissed at everyone and everything. But within any day, there are always little moments of time where you can't help but to laugh.

Last week an older guy came into my office and wanted to talk about his account. He was noticeably shaken and was concerned that someone had gotten access to his account. So I ask him to tell me details about the situation. You see, he had gone to an ATM machine to withdraw money. Being an older guy, he usually doesn't do anything "new" like that. For him, the drive-through teller window is about as Ritzy as it gets. After his transaction at the ATM it printed him off his receipt - which included his balance. What he thought it said was that he had withdrawn his balance. So he said he waited a few minutes for his money to come out and when it didn't he was concerned that someone who came up after him would have gotten his money. I told him - trying not to just break down laughing - that his account was fine. The only recent transaction on his account was the $100 withdrawal and no one came up after him and took his money. The funny part of this is the fact that he had around $19000 in that account and the visual of an ATM chugging out that amount of cash - and the time it would take to do that - is fairly amusing.

Another story is about a guy who called up and wanted to know about a certain check that he had written. He wanted to know, that since it has come back as a NSF, if the payee of it would try again. I looked it up and saw that in fact they had tried to cash this check 3 times in the past week. He then wanted to know if I would put a stop payment on this check. I asked him why. He said because he didn't have enough money to make the check good - yet. I told him that first off, if you write a check to someone knowing there is not enough funds in the account, it's illegal. Second, I would not put a stop payment on the check. To me, it's like going to Wal-Mart and buying a 55 inch TV and a bunch of other random crap, putting it on your credit card then calling them up and say "Don't charge me for this. I can't pay it back." Third, the payee was the government. Um, yea. They are going to get their money from you buddy. And like hell if I'm going to be putting a stop payment on a check that you wrote KNOWING there were not sufficient funds in your account.

Third, a lady came in to update her account information. As part of our security procedures, when you open your first account with us you have to answer 6 security questions. These questions are used for when you call up a branch so we can verify your identity and also for online banking for when you log in from a computer that wasn't the original computer used to create your online banking. I ask her why she wanted to change her security questions and she proceeds to tell me that she had a nightmare that someone had stolen her identity. I'm like oooook. So as she is creating her new questions and answers she is like "I'm trying not to lie too hard." I ask her if she will remember these answers and shes like "No, I'm trying to make them random because in my dream someone I knew stole my identity and they were able to steal my money." I told her it was not a very good idea to do that and so she agreed and refilled out the paper. At the end, she had only changed two of the six questions.

Finally, I had a guy ask me if he had credit with us. For starters, most questions about credit don't start with a "Do I have it with you?". I asked him did he have any loans or credit cards and he says no. I look him up and verified he didn’t have any credit with us. I say well then you don’t. Hes like, I have credit with someone but I don’t know who it is. He proceeds to tell me that hes looking to get $800 to buy a truck from his friend. Im like well, we can look at doing that just need a recent paystub. He pulls out a piece of paper where a check would have been on the bottom. On the top is printed hours worked and how much the check was for. No deductions. No gross. Nothing. I'm like, we need something that shows the deductions for taxes and other things such as medical, 401(k) loans and things like that. He's like, well they wont give it to me. I'm like, ok how about tax returns for the past two years. He looked at me like I had just insulted his dead grandmother.

So little gems of comedy and gross lack of common sense do exist still on this earth filled with smart phones, search engines and social media.

Swamp People

A goal of mine this year is to do a little more outdoors type activities. Now I have never been one to avoid being outdoors, but working in an office setting has depressed me enough to be determined to avoid 4 walls and a roof during free sunlight hours as much as possible. (A side note, when the time changes back March 11, these goals will be easier to maintain.)

For Christmas - which my family decided to celebrate on MLK day - I got a lot of what I'll need to start up some weekend outdoorsiness. Items ranging from a 2 person tent to an all in one whistle - oh yea, it's got a compass and a place to put your matches - to a ground sleep mat, I am ready to make the most of some camping opportunities.

But being its January, it seems a bit early to think about spending the night outdoors. That's why I've coordinated with some friends a nice one night camping trip in February. I figure by then it's got to be at least 80 degrees or something like that...

Now for you fellow South Carolinians - where it's always a beautiful day - there seem to be quite a few good places to go camping at. The one which I will highlight is the Congaree National Park. At Congaree, there are 3 different options for outdoor camping - and all of these are free.

First, there is what is called the Longleaf Campsite. This campsite is for up to 8 people and is set to be a primitive campsite with fire rings and grills and even portajohns. So I guess it's quazi-primitive. The second site at Congaree is the Backcountry camping site. This site is a bit more primitive with no amenities. Finally, there is the Bluff Campsite. It's the largest of the campsites and can accommodate up to 30 people. Again, this is a primitive campsite with no amenities.

Now what I am hoping is that while we are there, the "once in 4 or 5 years" kind of floods don't happen. As I do own a kayak, I do not plan on bringing it on my first camping trip there. But one of the free services that the Park does offer is a guided canoe tour. Also the park offers what they call an "Owl Prowl" in where you go out at night and listen and find owls.

A fun fact also about Congaree National Park is that in 2003, it became the first and only national park in South Carolina. Congaree is also designated as a Globally Important Bird Area. So if you were inspired by the recent movie The Big Year and want to become professional birders, you know where to come. In addition to that, Congaree has the largest intact expanse of old growth bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the southeastern United States. The average canopy height is over 100ft tall. Also, if you want to head out for a hike, Congaree covers a lot of area. There are over 20 miles of hiking trails and 2.4 miles of boardwalk loop trail. Not bad for a swamp.

Finally, as long as you have a South Carolina fishing license you can fish at Congaree (with the exception of Weston Lake). So why not start preparing to do something that doesn't involve getting your tan from your TV.

Stocks and Finance

So I was originally going to write this last night BUT when I got home, the power was out so I couldn't. So instead of today looking really smart, I am going to write and hope you believe me.

One of my many interest, as I've said, are finance and business. Now I am no day trader and don't think I will be a "buy today, sell today" kind of person, but I do like to see returns and cash them in when they hit certain levels. And the longer I hold on to a position, the higher I expect my return to be.

For this year, I expect the markets to still go through a nauseating amount of turmoil. Weekly gain wiped out in a day and heavy losses broken by a rally. Volatility is the word for the year - again. The one thing we do have going for us is that among the "modern economies" we still seem to be the safest. But I mean, artificially creating heavy demand for the greenback by infusing hundreds of billions into foreign banking systems will have a stabilizing effect on our currency and lack of coordination and agreement will continue (theoretically) sending government investors our way. Until it doesn't. But putting all of that aside...

What am I looking at this quarter and year?

First off, my core investments are in the financial sector. There are a lot of regional banks with no exposure to Europe and improving balance sheets and growing lending ratios that I believe will begin to see a sharp rebound. Banks like Huntington Bank (HBAN) - which raised its dividend from 1 cent every quarter to 4 cents every quarter recently - to Peoples United Bancorp (PBCT) - which has raised its dividend every year for the past 16 years and recently acquired Danvers Bank, not to mention it's current yield of 4.86% - seem to be in line to begin posting very strong earnings. Now PBCT with it's high yield acting a bit as an anchor may not make you as much if you are looking at straight returns, but as a longer term stock, it's hard to pass this one up.

General Electric (GE) is one company that everyone wants to hate. "They don't pay taxes. They are too politically connected. They are 1%-ers." What more could you ask for then?! GE's finance arm is expected to begin paying "internal dividends" to the parent company again this year. GE has also raised its dividend 3 times in the past year - from 14 cents to 17 cents per quarter. Yes, it has some exposure to Europe and to contractions in military spending, but it's a conglomerate which has so many different business sectors that even a downturn in Europe may not stop this stock from rising further.

What wouldn't I touch with a 10 foot pole? Bank of America (BAC). I expect BAC to fail to be honest. I expect it to be split up among the larger regional banks who have the balance sheet to take over its operations. Warren Buffet couldn't save the stock and their CEO Brian Moynihan does not seem cut out to be running a company of this size.

A sector that I was a champion on last year - but have completely gotten out of as of the last week in December - are the utilities. I still believe there is a lot of money that can be made in them. As a whole, there are some huge winners that pay great dividends. Duke Power (DUK) and American Electrical Power (AEP) being two of them.

Now DUK is currently buying Progess Energy (PGN) and that deal should be closing sometime this or early next quarter. The word on the street is after the merger, DUK is going to be doing a reverse split on its stock at a 1:3 rate. Now a $65 stock sounds great, but I don't see much in the way of support for it. Find me a utility that is even in the $50's. PGN is because it's being purchased, but others like Excelon Corp (EXC), AEP, SCANA (SCG) - they are all in the low to mid 40's.

My warning is that DUK is being bought up so when it splits, it will have a nice price but it will not find support. Maybe in the mid 50's. Even at post merger $55, that would make it an $18.33 stock right now. Currently it's at $21.62. I just don't see it.

Other utilities are showing great returns, but a more mild winter so far is going to weigh on earnings. Not to mention costs due to EPA regulations and state regulators not allowing the full price increases that the utilities are requesting to offset these increased costs.

But one utility is very interesting to me. And yes, it popped today but I have been looking at it as a huge buying opportunity for a little while now. Chesapeake Energy (CHK) is a natural gas producer. It went up 5.88% today and I still see a lot of room for growth. It had been near its 52 week low, and being a low yielding stock, it has a lot of opportunity to reinvest its profits within itself and grow by exploration and acquisition. I don't see CHK as strong after today as I did before today, but if you are looking for something to buy and hold a year, I would definitely grab some at this price.

Other companies that I have either invested in or am watching very carefully include Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Mircosoft (MSFT), Boeing (BA) and Yum Brands (YUM). And yes, these stocks may not make you rich, but HPQ has a very good chance with Meg Whitman as its CEO of popping into the low 30's by the end of spring - currently it's at 26.62.

Now the markets go up and down all the time. Tomorrow all of these may go down. A lot. But as I have learned from 2011, one month can really make your portfolio or break your portfolio.

There are a lot of good buys out there right now. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) offer insanely high yields (but are taxed at your personal income rate) and as long as the interest rates are low, these can offer some great value. Just be careful and do your research. And keep an ear to the ground for possible rate increases.

Hopefully you all weren't too bored and hopefully I won't be too wrong. It's easy to be judged a moron when you go public with an opinion...