Just learned on the history channel last night about the guano (bird poo) war between Chile and Bolivia in the 1870's. Evidently guano was worth it's weight in gold for fertilizer and those two went to war over bird poo.

Chile kicked the (bird)sh*t out of Bolivia and took the entire Bolivian coast and this is why Bolivia is a landlocked country today....ya I know, useless info but I love that stuff

 

Yes, Bolivia is worse off than Ecuador and Peru, partly because they lost their coastline to Chile. There is a current dispute between Peru and Chile regarding ocean water boundaries, lawsuit filed over it in the U.N., etc.

 

Peru has had a lot of trouble with it's neighbors. I didn't know that but from my wife of course and then I had a repairman come to my house from Chile and he was telling me a bunch of stuff.

I defenitely wouldn't say that those countries have nothing though. I'm not sure Redclay about the town where your wife lives but for instance in Ecuador I did see a lot of poverty but I also saw money. I have a very good friend from Peru, the capital Lima, and that kid has money too.

Red Clay, do you speak Spanish? I would love to establish a second home in Ecuador. Well actually my wife's mother still has the house there (she lives with us) but Ecuador uses the US Dollar as it's currency so it's not so cheap there. The food is, but I went into the mall and you would have thought you were here in the States.

I love useless info too geomon by the way

 

Merrick, Lets say for example you are averaging $1.48 on every mile driven. I belive you mentioned that # earlier in the thread. At a glance, you think that if your cost to run is roughly $1.00/mi. But isn't your 48 cent profit just about 100% tax-free-net? .

You are going to be deciding how fast to depreicate your $58k startup cap-ex, and even the slowest, most conservative rate is going to protect you from paying much income tax . If this was not true, your accountant would have you set up paying quarterly to IRS to avoid underpayment penalties on April 15th.

What worries me is that the in-frame is going to come due, and a set of rubber, etc, and then you will have to amortize that on top of the buck a mile number. The good news is you should be in line for at least a 20-25% decrease in your insurance premium, and you have become more efficient, and may also work into some of the FSC monies, and up your cpm rates 3 to 6 cents in '08.

Also, you may want to invest some cash in the USO fund, to hedge against fuel price spikes, but that threat seems to have subsided for winter, and with our economy dragging the world economy south, I see money leaving the fund now, and going into the bond market, so Im not advocating that move for now. In fact Oil has been selling off the steadily since Jan. 7th, and is testing the support level right now. If it punctures support, we are in store for some much needed relief on fuel prices. If not, I dont see what is going to drive it much higher for 90 days. Somewhere, I have an overlay chart of the strength of the US dollar, vs. the spot price of crude oil, and you can see how they are directly linked. Dollar strength is much more of a factor in oil price, than global demand fluctuations, contrary to popular belief.

Safe travels

 

Thanks Orange Andy. I actually don't know much about investing. Actually today I opened up a Roth IRA. My wife has her Series 4,7, & 24 but she's into compliance and doesn't know much about trading. This year we are going to start paying more attention. Plus she is learning more and more. Her company is about to start a hedge fund so she will be learning plenty.

I only have 380,000 miles on the truck so I don't think an in-frame will be any time soon. Also the tires are all still basically new. I just had a flat repaired and he said that tires can go down to 2/32nds I think it was and mine were at 13 or so. Plus I got the cat's eyes and this has been a GREAT decision. It takes nothing to walk around the truck when you stop to use the rest room and see if the tires are all properly aired.

Those things have saved me a couple of times already.

As for oil, my neighbor works for this company http://www.wfscorp.com/wfscorp/servi...anagement.html, pretty intresting but I don't understand much of it.

I am kind of a monomaniac. When I want to learn something I go crazy til I learn it. I personally love learning for the sake of learning and now am trying to learn the market and finances. My wife just got the WSJ online so I'll be reading that a lot now. I use to subscribe to the Economist, but like I said I learn just for the sake of learning. Now I have a business I need to be more disciplined in my learning.

That is I mean before I might go from reading some history book about the ancient Egyptians and the next day I could be reading some Mark Twain book. Now it's all about building this business.

Anyway thanks for all your comments and advice I appreciate it.

 

I forgot to answer your original question, I'm not sure about tax free but I have had some expenses that I don't plan on having again. I paid $1800 for that guy to dispatch me. I paid $900 for a tow bill, I had to buy a refridgerator, an inverter and a whole bunch of other stuff to get this going. My expenses have basically been dropping month by month as I have what I need now. The cat's eyes were like $800 too.

Of course there is always some expense, breakdown etc but I am doing my best to keep up on the maintenance.

 

Yo no puedo hablar perfectamente pero mas veces yo puedo hablar que quiero decir. :lol:

My wife grew up in Lima mostly, her family is middle-class in Peru, which would be considered upper-end poverty level living here. We would also like to retire to Peru someday, beach property is still cheap there but I bet that will change. The US dollar is also widely used in Lima, along with their currency. Most food, housing, clothing, taxis are cheap except in the few large dept. stores/malls in Lima which are like ours. Lima has a few nice areas and ALOT of extreme poverty in many areas.

Where in Ecuador is your wife from and how did you meet?

 

That company World Fuel Services I belive supplies to airlines, fleets, etc and based on their clients needs, guarantees them stability in fuel price and delivery up to 12 months out, (maybe even longer) so that those larger companys can price accurately, and ensure positive cash flow, without any surprises.

Dont worry about not knowing a lot about investing, just the fact that you admit it darn near saves you completely from rookie blunders. An easy topic to research, lots of info available. You will enjoy reading the Wall St. Journal, and one other that you may try a short subscription to is Investors Business Daily. IBD is very helpful to new investors. They used to have a 2 month free subscription.

And one more thing. Ive known and seen a lot of self-employed people in my 55 years. And many were not geniuses in their actual profession, just good, and consistent, but they made solid investments with a portion of their earnings, usually in real estate, and sound young businesses, and usually their portfolio out-earned their own work, after a few years. You seem like the type that could fit that pattern.

have a good weekend.

OH< ps, I was getting a trailer welded on, and a guy pulled up in a blue Mercedes powered rig hauling citrus from Ocala, Fla. Said he took something (forgot) to south TX, then brought oranges up here, to Fresno. Kind of surprised me, since this area grows the most next to Fla. But last years freeze hurt some of ours on water content. He said the bill instructed to run his reefer at a constant 39 degrees. Forgot the name, but he was a company driver. Trailer was an old dog, with half the lettering on the side wiped out! Thought of you when I heard Ocala, Fla.

 

merrick, I've been reading up on the market as well. If you have sirius sat radio (or tv) go to CNBC. Three shows I like are Fast Money, Cramer, Kudlow, at 5, 6, and 7 o'clock, respectively.

It's been real interesting lately, the bottoms dropping out, which is really what's needed.

 

Do you speak Spanish with a Tenn. accent? I remember one time I was using the word "cargar" which of course is to carry, but my Boston accent slipped in and I dropped the "r" and said "cagar" which is to defecate

Anyway my wife is from the capital, Quito. And we were actually introduced by a Peruvian. She was a supervisor where I was working, and basically she just introduced us. Best thing that ever happened to me. At the time, I was sort of new to Florida and was somewhat down on my luck and starting over again, and she was recent to this country and spoke little English and was starting over again too.

By that I mean she studied in her country but I've met doctors from other countries that basically need to start over here. She started working at a broker/dealer basically as a copy clerk for like $6 an hour. But as mentioned above she went on to get numerous licenses and is doing quite well. I am very proud of her.

How about you, how did you meet your wife? Can't imagine a heavy Latin population in Tenn. A lot of Peruvians down here. A lot of them have money too. As a matter of fact a lot of the Spanish have money here.
I listen to CNBC all day long. I've actually bought one of Cramers books and just ordered his new one. It's wierd now being home and watching the channel, I'm so used to just hearing it. I need to darken the screen so it seems the TV is off and just listen to it like I would the radio . Actually I despise TV anyway and wouldn't even have one if it wasn't for my wife and her mother.

Actually I use to read the WSJ and did have a short subscription to IBD but like I've said I really was just reading just for the sake of learning. I always enjoyed the side stories they had but I really didn't get into the numbers side of things.

I'm the type that unless I'm actually doing something, it's hard for me to learn. For example, I can pick up languages very fast, but I could never just go to school and learn that way. I need to be in the mix of things. You really could drop me into downtown Moscow and I'll pick up Russian, or enough of it to get by in short order.

So with these numbers, now I have a direct reason to understand it, and hopefully I will pick it up quick.

It is wierd why they would send oranges to a area where they grow it. Maybe they originally came from Brazil which now grows more I think than the U.S..

Orange Andy, I'm sorry if you mentioned this before, but do you run reefer?

Anyway so now I'm home. I called the shipper I need to meet and he told me to come by next week. The wierd thing is my neighbor had a baby while I was gone, and yesterday some of their mail was in mine so I went over to give them their mail and see the baby.

To make a long story short, I got to talking with her and she is Brazilian. She works in exports/imports and again to make a long story short, she is about to start working with this shipper I need to meet. Small world.

She was telling me that she use to do a lot of business of bringing in things from Brazil but now with the rate of exchange and the economy that she is doing more of sending stuff there.

She told me to let her know if I find shippers that are exporting to Brazil. It was a short talk but I will talk with her again before I go as if she knows of people that are bringing in stuff here .. . She said a lot of the stuff that comes here goes on train as it is cheaper but eventually it goes on a truck. She doesn't deal with the transportation side but if I can get contacts.

I went into a WAMU branch today to ask a question and that place is wierd. There was no teller per se. There was just a big circle of podiums. I'm thinking this is the dumbest thing I have ever seen, that they are just begging to get robbed.

Well come to find out, the bank reps at each teller don't handle cash. They take care of the transaction and if you need cash they give you a piece of paper which you take to an ATM like machine on the back wall. The teller said he liked this system better as they don't handle cash.

You know probably since banks have existed they have been set up the same way, and really just when you think that you shouldn't recreate the wheel or that it isn't even possible someone goes and does it. It's kind of like "damn why didn't I think of this".