My Situation

[Stephen]

Re: My Situation

They need to create a device that prevents drunken ramblings.

Cnecki - Maybe I shouldn't have taken that last shot at the bar. You are absolutely correct - and that your home is already worth another 60K - that's awesome. I posted under a new thread that we have reconsidered the "absolute" move and are going to try O'ahu on a 6 month trial basis. I appreciate your feedback - and the eye opener. I figure a 6 month stay will allow us to get to know the island(s) better and see if we will be in a situation to find jobs, suitable housing and the like. I'm usually an optimist, but I think I was just a little to liquored up last night.

I do look forward to living on O'ahu - even if it ends up being for just 6 months. The experience will be more than worth the money we'll spend doing it. I tend to find ways to make things work, so hopefully we'll have the opportunity to find a nice fixer upper and be able to build a life in Hawaii.

Question for those who have built/looked into it. . . What are the costs per square foot for new construction? The Big Island seems to have some very reasonably priced land (less than 100K) - I know that the employment opportunities will be even more sparse, but if you find a deal you just can't pass up, you've got to jump on it.

Maholo and again sorry for the drunken stupor!

[Cnecki]

Re: My Situation

Sometimes we need to tie one on, especially with the apparent stress your under! Don't give up before the miracle!!! If you and your wife are patient and look, look, look, you will find what you are looking for. Don't give up on the island yet. A good friend told me that the people that are successful on the island are the ones that show alot of Aloha and alot of love. In the mainland it is a very cut throat environment and people will try to get over on you every where you turn but from what I have found and what I remember continue to do what you are doing (network) with island people and doors WILL open.

I was talking to my realtor the other day and we were discussing the foreclosure market. From what I was told: they have a date in the newspaper for the auction, at the court house they post the different properties on poles, the lender that owns the property stands in front of their property (on the pole) with interested buyers, the lender starts the bidding usually with the owed amount, than the interested buyers can bid. My realtor says usually the forclosed property owner is their to too bid to get their propery back. You have to have a cashiers check or money order for 10% of the house you bid on, so if the house is 200,000 you will need 20,000. Also if that house goes for 205,000 and your cashiers check is only 20 thousand not 20 thousand plus the 10% of the extra 5,000 you can not bid. ALSO- this I found really interesting-if the house is sold in auction, the old owner (the one that was forclosed on, has the right to get their self together and can (TAKE BACK THE PROPERTY WITHIN ONE YEAR) so even if you bid, you win, and you purchase the property, it will not FOR SURE be your property until after ONE year. CRAZY huh!!!!!!!! I am sure there are laws that make the forclosured give back the costs to the new owner, but I was shocked at this piece of information.

But this is the difference between the mainland real estate market and the Island. The island cares about their peoples well being and understand people hit ruff spots in their lives. But the mainland has the mentality, you loose, next!!!! Good for homesteaders, bad for investors. Go figure?

Any who, there are alot of ways to set up shop on the island, this is just another route.

Take care and keep looking, good things will come!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cnecki

[Cnecki]

Re: My Situation

The real estate bubble dwarfs any past stock market bubble and tens of millions of homeowners and investors who bought at the top will have foreclosures and bankruptsies in their immediate future.But certain regions will be hit the hardest including CA,FL,Las Vegas,and my area outside NYC Bergen county NJ.Real estate appreciated in my area 23% last year but real estate appreciated only 7% in Honolulu.
And with the limited amount of space on the islands and many new retirees and the solvent-again Japanese coming,I plan to acquire as many condos as I could afford.
My real concern is the US dollar collapsing,but have Singapore dollar accounts with Everbank and Chinese yuan and euros in my safety deposit boxes as well as gold bullion coins and Perth Mint gold certificates.

Aloha, we have some investments in Exxon-Mobil and Morgan Stanley. Worried about the Morgan Stanley stock. Have any good stock tips? We are interested in investing in some Hawaii goods or services. We want to transfer everything to the island so we can have access to stock holder meetings and so on. Thanks

Cnecki

[ahola]

Re: My Situation

Aloha, we have some investments in Exxon-Mobil and Morgan Stanley. Worried about the Morgan Stanley stock. Have any good stock tips? We are interested in investing in some Hawaii goods or services. We want to transfer everything to the island so we can have access to stock holder meetings and so on. Thanks

Cnecki

Unfortunately don't know which publicly traded companies are based in or mostly do business in Hawaii.Most large companies do business in Hawaii but not exclusively.I made some profits on a few smaller oil stocks like Harken(HEC) and Ivanhoe(IVAN), but feel oil will be go back down so cashed out and only kept some China Petro(SNP).I am bullish on uranium and unfortunately only Cameco(CCJ) is one of the few uranium miners not traded exclusively on the Canadian exchanges.My junior gold mining stocks are down
at support levels and think they will be going back up fast soon.Tech stocks like Lucent and Sun Microsystems are only a few dollars per share and they may have good appreciation value.
My wildest and most riskiest investment now are my 40 million new Iraqi dinars which cost about $40,000.Many of our friends and associates also have tens of millions and one friend is betting $100,000 with his 100 million dinars. One can get a million for $1000,about 1/10th of a penny per dinar, now and that million was worth $330,000 before we invaded Iraq and was worth 3.4 million dollars before the first Gulf war.If they can get things stabilized and get all their oil flowing I may have won the lottery and will be set for life.Would be happy if it just went up to a penny per dinar as $40,000 would be $400,000 instantly.I dream of it going up to a dime or a dollar per dinar so it can be Mediterranean cruises on the Celebrity Millenium forever.

[Miulang]

Re: My Situation

Aloha, we have some investments in Exxon-Mobil and Morgan Stanley. Worried about the Morgan Stanley stock. Have any good stock tips? We are interested in investing in some Hawaii goods or services. We want to transfer everything to the island so we can have access to stock holder meetings and so on. Thanks

Cnecki

One of the most profitable Hawai'i stocks is Alexander & Baldwin (www.alexanderbaldwin.com). They just issued a 22.5 cent dividend for their 2nd quarter. They're the ones who own Matson Navigation Co., HC&S Sugar and Kauai Coffee, and lotsa lotsa land. They mostly have stuff in Hawai'i, but I think they also have real estate holdings on the West Coast. Ticker=ALEX on NASDAQ. Not saying that they have any social conscience, but hey, they are making money off people in Hawai'i bigtime.

The other one that's local and that's kinda interesting is Maui Land & Pine (AMEX:MLP). They issued a 36 cent dividend in their 4th quarter. They own lotsa land too, and they're the ones who developed Kapalua Resort on Maui. They're tearing down the old Kapalua Bay Hotel and putting up multimillion dollar condos and timeshares. They've had a bit of controversy over some of their decisions (plus Steve Case of AOL fame is a majority stockholder) recently, but they're also making money. They are marketing boutique fresh whole pineapple up here on the Mainland because growing pineapple for canning in Hawai'i is too expensive. Most of the pineapple you get in cans now is from Thailand or the Philippines.


Miulang

P.S. I think these are still privately held companies, but if they ever go public, another sector to watch is the bottled Hawaiian seawater (desalinated, bottled and sold in Japan for $3-4 a bottle). The handful of companies that are embarking in this venture are planning to market the water as a health food up here on the Mainland soon, too.

[Cnecki]

Re: My Situation

We diversified our stock portfolio about 6 months ago against my better judgment. We had all of our stock in Exxon-Mobil and have had for over 30 years. This was old money with old money planning. When my father passed and I took over control of the estate he told us neaver ever, diversify because Mobil Oil has always been good to us but when I reviewed the portfolio I saw nothing wrong except the rate of return. When I took over the estate I completely restructured the investments and today it is growing faster than before.

With my fathers age bracket, life style and income he used the stock as a toy not a money maker (although he invested well). He always told me to think of stock as paper not money and you will be alright. Mobil Oil has a sentimental value as well. Both my grandfathers and father were major stock holders and life time employee's. Today I am looking into some risker stock to increase our rate of return. Although, I am still going to keep our Mobil Oil Stock which has been very stable.

We do have some other investments in Van Kampen-Midstock/Cap, Morgan Stanley (an investment firm) and Real Estate. (Which all pay dividends with the exception of the Real Estate/rental). Even though these are good investments, we are now more interested in energy and raw material. We are also looking deeper into the companies you mentioned and will research them further.

For me if I was to give any kind of stock advice, it would be to buy Exxon-Mobil. Although the market has split 2 times in the last 30 years and has fell out once when the trade center was bombed it has recooperated nicely and is almost up to its high. When it did split we just had to be patient for the values to go back up and they did!!!!!!! Patience paid believe me!

Thanks and Aloha

Cnecki

[Stephen]

Re: My Situation

Mahalo for the advice Cnecki - that's an interesting quirk on the foreclosures. I think it's a good quirk though too - I hate to see people lose their homes.

On the stock advice - I'm surely not the best person to ask, but if you're looking for a lot of risk, these are currently in my portfolio

WFR - MEMC - silicone chip manufacturing company my Dad worked for in the US and Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.

MCLD - McCloud(?) they're a phone company and they're stock is in the tank (15c/share) and I bought in around 11c hoping for a buyout.

PKZ - Petro Khazikstan - I'm not currently invested in this one - I got out just before it tanked. It should be ripe for a rebound - they are involved in some type of lawsuit (I believe with the Russian government) and it has deflated the stock's price. I'm guessing it's about $10/share undervalued.

I will say that I'm not an investor for a living though - just some ideas.

Aloha.

[Cnecki]

Re: My Situation

Mahalo for the advice Cnecki - that's an interesting quirk on the foreclosures. I think it's a good quirk though too - I hate to see people lose their homes.

Sorry for the off the wall message, I was responding to Miulang post, but we all can play!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the most profitable Hawai'i stocks is Alexander & Baldwin (www.alexanderbaldwin.com). They just issued a 22.5 cent dividend for their 2nd quarter. They're the ones who own Matson Navigation Co., HC&S Sugar and Kauai Coffee, and lotsa lotsa land. They mostly have stuff in Hawai'i, but I think they also have real estate holdings on the West Coast. Ticker=ALEX on NASDAQ. Not saying that they have any social conscience, but hey, they are making money off people in Hawai'i bigtime.

The other one that's local and that's kinda interesting is Maui Land & Pine (AMEX:MLP). They issued a 36 cent dividend in their 4th quarter. They own lotsa land too, and they're the ones who developed Kapalua Resort on Maui. They're tearing down the old Kapalua Bay Hotel and putting up multimillion dollar condos and timeshares. They've had a bit of controversy over some of their decisions (plus Steve Case of AOL fame is a majority stockholder) recently, but they're also making money. They are marketing boutique fresh whole pineapple up here on the Mainland because growing pineapple for canning in Hawai'i is too expensive. Most of the pineapple you get in cans now is from Thailand or the Philippines.

Sorry, I responded to your message, but I pushed the wrong button, see Stephan page 2. Cnecki