Chapter 4

Tom was into his usual routine of surfing the net, reading, golfing and household chores. He was enjoying prepping for and teaching this investment class as it was something different for him to do. His students seemed to be appreciating his teaching efforts.

In having lunch before the class, one of the ladies asked him what his plans for this winter were since he said he didn’t plan on spending his time here in the cold weather.

“I haven’t firmed them up completely but initially I am going to be in Clearwater, Florida for a few weeks. I probably will drive down further south and explore more of the Florida which I haven’t seen. Actually where or when or for how long is still up in the air.”

Linda said her and Ray have a condo in Naples and they in early February were going to be taking a cruise which transits the Panama Canal and ends up in San Diego. They were then going to be visiting with some friends in California and would be gone from Florida for a total of about twenty three days. Tom could use their condo if he wanted to while they were gone.

Mel then chimed in and said he and his wife were going to be taking a sixteen day tour of South America. Tom was free to use the condo they had in Fort Lauderdale while they were gone. He said they were leaving close to the time when Linda and Ray were returning from their trip.

Tom thanked them for their offers and said he would accept them. “It looks like I have firmed up my plans for the winter” and laughed about doing it.

In teaching the class he started off with a quick summary of last week’s class on stock selection them asked the students to report on what were their findings on the individual stocks they owned. Overall the student’s findings were pretty similar. A number of the stocks they owned did not have good financials. Sales decreasing, net income decreasing, dividends staying the same or being reduced and the number of shares outstanding increasing were all areas of concern. Rachel brought up that some of the stocks she owned seemed to be in jeopardy in making their dividend payment as the dividends they paid per share were close to their earnings per share.

The commonality for owning these stocks was that they were on the brokerage firm’s recommended list. Tom thanked them for their reports and gave them a ten minute rest break.

In second half of the class he covered stock mutual funds and etf’s. He talked about open and closed end funds, types of funds and the associated expenses. He gave them the assignment of finding one stock they would recommend for purchase based on the positive items they wanted to see in a stock’s financials that had already been discussed.

Tom gave them a hint on how to find a stock when he advised them to, “Goggle Dividend Aristocrats or Dividend Achievers.” He said next week’s class would be on income investments after the homework was discussed.

Tom was still getting those looks from the red-headed Rachel. Those obvious open leg shots she was now giving him told him she probably was available for some ‘special instruction.’ He wasn’t sure if he should pursue that possibility but he had to admit she was very attractive and had a tempting body for her age that he would like to spend some time getting to know better. She just oozed sex appeal and should be an exciting bed partner.

The weather was turning cooler which made golfing not that much fun. With Carrie being away the weekend was a big bummer. He did call her and enjoyed listening to her talk about what was happening in her life. It warmed him when he heard her say that she missed him. Besides reading one of the current best sellers he spent some time in preparing for his upcoming investment class.

Tom started the class by asking each student to give him the name of a stock they would recommend for purchase. He said he didn’t want to take away for the time they had to talk on income investments and if they would give him their email addresses he would get back to them on their stock selection. He also encouraged all the students to write down these stock recommendation names and for their homework see what their analysis showed of the mentioned stocks.

Tom then went into income investment instruments covering individual corporate and municipal bonds and their ratings. Tom did give a detailed explanation of what laddering bonds meant. He also covered preferred stocks, bank loan funds, high yield bond funds and etf bond funds. He concluded by saying he thought there would only need to be two more classes. Next week’s class would cover estate planning as well as a review and he would give out a final exam problem that would be discussed at the last class.

The students thanked him for his instruction and said they would see him next week.

He was having more thoughts about Rachel. She brazenly was still giving him those open leg shots but this time he didn’t see her white panties. Tom could only conclude either that she was wearing flesh colored panties or she was going commando. He thought he caught her giving an innocent smile on her face when she gave him a shot.

In his weekly phone call with his son and his family Tom said he had accepted their invitation and would fly down to Kansas City for the Christmas Holidays. He also made a note to himself to get his Christmas shopping done early wondering what he should buy for Carrie. He thought he should purchase some sort of a gag gift as well as something nice and expensive to show her how much he cared about her. He quickly put the idea of a big vibrating dildo out of his mind as he knew that would go over like a fart in church. He settled on an almost transparent baby doll outfit and a large gift certificate from ‘Coach.’ A woman could never have enough hand bags was his thought.

He now had his student’s email addresses and knew they would have his when he responds to them. All of the stocks they selected met the criteria he had discussed with them. He responded back to them with a short comment as “a good pick” or “a stock I own.” He made a note to consider some of the stocks that he didn’t own for purchase when the opportunity arose.

The one exception he made in commenting on the stock selection was the comment he sent to Rachel. In his comment he said, “I was impressed by the nice spread I saw in increased earnings and the large gap between those two pillars which lead to one’s goal; earning per share and dividends paid. Your analysis showed me a lot and gave me a good indication of what your ability can be.” Two could play the same game he thought as he clicked on the send button. He wished he could see her reaction when she read his comments.

An early snow probably put an end for any further golf for the year. Tom did spend some time writing out a problem as the final test in the class. The problem asked the student to put themselves in the position of being a financial advisor when a lady came into the office asking the advisor what to do with the two million dollar life insurance benefit she had just received. The problem then went on to give specifics about this lady as her age, investments owned, other income and her needs. If the students thought they needed more information on formulating an investment plan they could e-mail Tom and he would respond.

At the class Tom covered estate planning explaining how titles could pass and the advantages of a living trust and a pour-over will. He did dwell on only having a will and the costs and problems of probate. Giving out the final exam he asked that the ladies have enough copies made of their recommended plan so each student could receive a copy and the students should be prepared to discuss their plan in class. He could see that some students were not enthused with the possibility that they would need to verbally justify their recommendations in class.