Archive for June, 2012
My Personal Workout Challenge: The Introduction
Jun 30th
I’ve been hesistant in sharing this part of my life but I believe it’ll help in encouraging me to stay committed and dedicated to my long-term goal. Two years ago I hit my all time highest weight of 145lbs. I’m not particular tall, I stand at about 5’5 on a good day or 5’4 if you ask a doctor 🙂 Given my small frame, my ideal body weight is 114-127lbs. So at 145lbs, I was definitely above my ideal weight and it showed; I wasn’t happy and set out on a path to tone up and lose the weight… More >
Monthly Investment Portfolio Update: Still Outperforming DJIA & S&P
Jun 16th
My investment portfolio keeps beating the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and the NASDAQ which I’m overly happy about. The act of investing in certain industry-specific ETF’s has developed a diversified portfolio that at the same time can be some-what aggressive.
Although my portfolio has done well as the stock market overall hasn’t been having a great time these past couple of months, I wonder if my portfolio will keep outperforming the major indexes as the stock market recovers. My current hypothesis is that the performance of my portfolio may not outperform the indexes during a time of significant growth due to my hedge strategy holdings in the utilities sector. About 30% of my portfolio is in the financial sector which has attributed to a good portion of my gains these past couple of weeks, so that’s been encouraging and may keep my portfolio in a state of outperforming the indexes during a growth period.
FedEx Marketing $7.99 Square Credit Card Readers via Email = Wrong Demographic
Jun 12th
I received an email today from FedEx featuring a “special”…
$7.99 for a Square Credit Card Reader, discounted from their regular price of $9.99.
Hmmm, let me think about this… why not just get it for free from Square.com?
Square distributing via retail locations is nothing new. They began this strategy late last year in 2011 but my question is more that of Fedex advertising the availability of Square at their storefronts for a price via email. Being an avid internet person, I find it almost distasteful and disrespectful that FedEx would try to influence me to purchase a Square credit card reader when I could easily obtain one at an incredible price of $0. Even if I could get over the fact that they’re trying to sell me something that is essentially free, even $7.99 is a bit steep for it and I can only imagine that this item is carrying a very large profit margin for them.
It’s all about intended demographics. You do not try and sell ice in Alaska nor sand in the Middle-East; you’ll only end up getting “that” look.
Bad Customer Service at Academy Sports + Outdoors
Jun 9th
Rarely am I so motivated by bad customer service to take additional time and energy to write about it… but my recent experience today at Academy Sports + Outdoors is one of those events that I feel compelled to speak about. The manager at Academy Sports showed blatant disregard to the notion of taking responsibility for the confusing price signage placement for their weights. You tell me, if you walk up to this display, what would you think the prices are for the weights…
