AutomaticPersonalFinance.com

Archive for May, 2008

Welcome to the first installment of “Stocks I Like” Segment that will be a regular topic on AutomaticPersonalFinance.com.

**Disclaimer** - The information here is for informational purposes only, please do not invest your hard earned money into a stock I highlight here without doing your own research and consult a professional financial consultant or broker. Never ever go by what someone writes on a blog or talks about on one of those crazy financial shows on CNBC as something that is good for your personal finances.**

Ok now that we gave you the “warning” message, lets talk a little HOG.

Warren Buffett says: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful”?

Is this the time to be greedy with Harley Davidson?

HOG’s 52 week low according to Yahoo Finance is $34.10, right now the stock price is at $38.05. This is just about the lowest Harley Davidson has been since prior to 2003.

1st Qtr results were posivtive(this is taken directly from the Qtrly report):

“2008 first quarter net revenue of $1.31 billion was up 10.8% compared to the first quarter of 2007 driven by a 6.1% increase in shipments of Harley-Davidson® motorcycles over the same quarter last year”

In the same report the company notes and understands the economic downturn in the United States right now. They also state that they expect to ship fewer motorcycles than in 2007.

I think given this news the price will fall down to about $34-$36 per share and may be a good time to buy if it fits into your personal financial picture.

Please let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

Personal finance blogs are awesome reading.  Some of my favorite blogs are ones where people are deeply in debt and working to pay it off all while detailing the journey on a blog.  This really puts the personal in personal finance.

The one thing I find lacking is they very rarely determine what got them into debt in the first place.  Sure they may be out of debt now but if they did not determine what was the cause of debt they very well may find themselves back into debt once again down the road.

Personally I have never really been in debt. Sure I have a car payment and a house payment but I could pay off the car right now if I needed to and my house payment is less than most people’s rent in an apartment.

I should be debt free including the house in roughly 3 years maybe 4.  Not bad for a 26 year old.  Likely I could slow down the 401k and IRA contributions and become debt free much sooner but I like knowing I am putting money away for when I retire.

Just remember know what got you into debt to not have to face the same issues later in life.