Brook Reef

BUY 1% PNW @ $76.75 BUY 1% NWE @ $58.69 I mentioned it in my note on early retirement & securitization of fossil plants , but I'm buying PNW and NWE on the theme that they have upside in a scenario where their fossil fuel power plants are shut down early. Starter positions to build into full positions. *This is how I'm going to approach this website's trades now. No more day-trading. Just showing how I evaluate, enter, build, and exit REAL investment ideas.*

I wrote about getting a new job but didn't share many details. I don't necessarily plan to share much - I like the modicum of anonymity that I have - but let's just say I'm learning a lot about the electric energy sector and carbon emissions. One of the themes I've been exploring is a bit on the cusp of being on most mainstream asset manager's radars - but it's the early retirement of coal power plants and the subsequent early retirement of all fossil fuel power plants. You can accuse me of being a greenie all you want, but it's coming and makes economic sense! In the proposal, utilities would shut down their fossil fuel power plants earlier than planned. They'd be paid for the remaining book value of the asset by a ratepayer-backed securitization. This would create room in a customer bill for the utility to spend a ton of money on renewable power assets to fill the earnings hole created by the early retirement.  It's a win for all parties! Custo

My wife came up with a plan to give herself 9 goals this month that she had to achieve each day. As is wont to happen with wives and goals, I got roped into doing 9 goals of my own. One of my goals is to write an article or blog post OR create a video on on of my YouTube channels. That's why I'm writing about such wide ranging things as how I make coffee and rental properties. My other website is a family blog, so those topics really don't fit. This is an investing blog, so only the coffee article is out of place.  Don't worry! I plan to get back to writing about stock investment ideas sometime! It's been a hectic few months. And RV internet service isn't ideal. I've also said a few hundred S&P points ago that I think stocks are overvalued. So I'm not exactly making investments behind the scenes right now.  Speaking of stock analysis - Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has agreed to buy Interpipeline Group for just over $10 billion dollars. The larg

In the town we just moved away from, our hometown, owning rental properties never made sense to me. I couldn't make the math work. If you need to make 6-10% on an investment, I couldn't get there. Property taxes were too high. In rental real estate there's the "1% rule" which says you should be able to rent a property for 1% of its value on a monthly basis. So if you buy a $150,000 property then it should rent for $1,500 per month or more. The next "rule" is that expenses are about 0.5% per month. So that same property should see expenses of $750 per month. These expenses include property taxes and repairs. And this is where the problem came. Property taxes in our town would be about $6,000+ per year on a $150,000 property. That's $500+/month. So that would leave only $250/month for repairs and other expenses. Throw in vacancy and it's tough to break even. And in our old town, you can't get bailed out by higher property values. Our house sold

We investors need a morning pick me up. The days of using hard drugs on Wall Street are mostly over, so the typical investor drinks a caffeinated beverage. I prefer coffee. I've gone through a litany of ways to make it and have come across the absolute best way to make a cup. Let me explain: 1) Most folks begin their coffee journey with "drip" coffee.  It's an easy way to make it! You put in the proper amount of ground beans, pour coffee into the thing, press a button, and in a few minutes you'll have a pot of joe to share. The ease of this method is unquestionable. I make it from time to time when I want a large quantity and don't care about maximizing flavor. But the downside is that flavor is not maximized. 2) Instant coffee: yuck.  Hot water and crystals that dissolve. No thanks. 3) Keurig/Nespresso: makes a decent cup, but is expensive and has so much plastic waste.  I find it too watery, overall, but not bad. I'd rather make drip coffee. 4) Espresso

At my prior 2 jobs, I had big restrictions on my personal trading/investing. And had to disclose all positions when I started the roles. They had ongoing surveillance of our accounts. We had to get trade approval before trading. And had a slew of rules regarding holding period and types of companies we could buy. My new job has no restrictions. No disclosure requirements. Nothing.  Because it's not at a financial institution, and I'm not doing anything with financial markets, I can invest in anything and everything! I'm quite excited to be able to invest in stuff I know well, with a paycheck, and write about it here. I've been circling around on the California utilities. They used to be the creme de la creme. Lowest yields in the utility space. Now, you can buy EIX with a 3.5-4.0% yield! That's crazy to me. Sempra is still a top pick. Even PCG looks very appealing. NEE is a tough one as well. It's probably the best positioned and best run company. But trades wit

When I left my job at a major global bank at the end of 2016, I'd planned to retire. Possibly forever. I never thought I'd get back into the financial world - I thought I'd become a handyman, Realtor, or *maybe* a financial advisor.  We had an RV adventure. My wife went back to teaching, and I was the stay-at-home parent. For 3, nearly 4, years! With covid, we've rethunk a lot of our life choices and setups. We obviously sold our house, which meant my teacher wife had to quit her job. And she's burnt out. So it's my turn to get back to work for the family. When I started looking at job postings, the ones that caught my attention were financial, investing, and in the utilities and infrastructure world. Basically, something related to what I'd been doing before as an equity analyst, focusing personally on utilities, for a listed infrastructure mutual fund. Somewhere along the way, I decided to join a company, not a money manager. That way, my work would be mor