Post Your Wins

[disneysteve]

We shop at Target a lot and especially since COVID, do so largely online. My wife got an order the other day which included a new Contigo water bottle that she wanted. When it arrived, she realized that it was actually metal, not plastic like the one she already has. That wasn't to her liking so she asked me to open a return so that I could ship it back. We just went through the process only to have them say the refund was approved and we don't need to return the item. We can keep it or donate it. It was $24.50 so that was a nice little win. She will keep the bottle and if it doesn't hold up well, at least she won't feel she wasted the money.

[jenn_jenn]

We shop at Target a lot and especially since COVID, do so largely online. My wife got an order the other day which included a new Contigo water bottle that she wanted. When it arrived, she realized that it was actually metal, not plastic like the one she already has. That wasn't to her liking so she asked me to open a return so that I could ship it back. We just went through the process only to have them say the refund was approved and we don't need to return the item. We can keep it or donate it. It was $24.50 so that was a nice little win. She will keep the bottle and if it doesn't hold up well, at least she won't feel she wasted the money.

Nice little win!!

I have a friend that has a strategy at stores that do this and will mark to initiate a return to see if they’ll give it to her for free or at a discount. Morally debatable there.

[disneysteve]

I discovered tonight that I’ve had a mistake on our portfolio spreadsheet for many, many years. We own Disney stock. I have down that we have 70 shares. That’s true in our Schwab account. What I had completely neglected to account for is that we also own some shares directly in certificate form that were purchased 30 and over 40 years ago. 39 shares currently worth $4,373. Not an huge amount and certainly doesn’t move the needle but it’s a nice bit of “found” money.

[QuarterMillionMan]

How do you sell those Disney stock certificates? And what fees or commissions do they charge?

[disneysteve]

How do you sell those Disney stock certificates? And what fees or commissions do they charge?

When you own a stock directly and hold the certificate, there is still a holding company involved. There just isn't a broker. In the case of Disney, it's Computershare. We own a few other stocks held by EQ Shareowner Services. I inherited those from my cousin. If we want to sell any of those shares, we can log into our shareholder account and do so. We would need to surrender the paper certificates by mailing them in. I don't know what fees are involved, if any.

Years ago it was quite normal to hold the certificates when you purchased stock. Companies designed really beautiful stock certificates. A lot of people would buy one share of Disney just to get a certificate. There even used to be a company that facilitated single share purchases for that purpose. I don't know if they're still around or if most companies still produce paper certificates like that. Apparently Disney stopped making paper certificates in 2013 but if you look on ebay you can see them. Here's one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/29691165323...3ABFBMzJTEvpZl

[disneysteve]

I'm going to North Carolina in just over a week. I just checked hotel rates. The rate for the first hotel night hasn't changed. The rate for the second hotel night came down by $14.86 so I cancelled and rebooked.

Then my wife and I are going to Atlantic City later in February. That rate dropped by $10.23 so I cancelled and rebooked that one, too.

Total savings $25.09 for maybe 10 minutes of my time.

Always recheck hotel rates at least once as your trip gets closer. I've saved hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the years by doing this.

[james.hendrickson]

Great move DisneySteve - now why didn't I think of that?

[QuarterMillionMan]

I'm deciding which Sunday & Monday in February to check out Tuesday to book comp'd nights in Las Vegas at Gold Coast hotel. Last week I used the same comp'd nights and came back home with a small $100 profit overall which basically paid for my gas round trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. So last week basically I had to pay for my meals (ie, South Point buffet, Chinese food, Subway, etc).

[james.hendrickson]

All, I got like a bunch of these shares at like $3.50 and $6, its nice to catch a win with a concentrated position.

The company is a small cap called ALLT LTD, an Israeli cyber security company, recently became profitable.

[kork13]

A couple months ago, I was discussing with the boards here about a couple Real Estate Limited Partnership development fund projects I was looking at to serve as mid-term growth opportunities (estimating 2-2.5x growth over 5-7 years). I went for them both, put $250k into each, and anticipated them to sit "dormant" (for me) while the projects get rolling.

Turns out I was wrong -- one of them is kicking out quarterly distributions already! Last week I received a deposit for $612 off of 4Q24, which was totally unexpected, since neither are expected to cash flow for at least a year or so. The Investor Relations partner mentioned that my money earns a portion of my guaranteed return (7%) from the day of investment (19 Dec in my case) .... But I figured that was just qualification for future distributions. Oh well, no complaints from me!

[disneysteve]

Two wins today, both related to my Turo rentals for the trips to North Carolina.

1. The guy I rent from messaged me and asked me to give him a call. After I returned the van yesterday, I let him know about a minor issue with the vehicle. He already knew about it but I wanted to tell him that it had gotten worse since I had rented it in October. To compensate me for having to deal with it, he gave me a discount on the mileage charge. It should have been $213 but he only charged me $175, so he saved me $38.

2. Turo has a rewards program and you get a free day after renting 10 days in a 90-day period. This week's trip took me to 10 days so I got a discount code for $57 off my next rental (good until May 15). I don't know yet when my next trip will be but it will definitely be before then so I'll get that savings too.

Total of $95 in savings between this trip and next trip.

[disneysteve]

I just got an $11.13 payment from Rakuten. We really need to use that more often. I have the browser extension on my desktop but my wife does much of the shopping on her ipad and doesn't have it there. We could get way more cash back if she would use it regularly.

[james.hendrickson]

All - I'm sure this is a marketing gimmick to get me to spend more at Chase, but my card company increased my credit limit by $5,600.

I'm counting it as a win.

[disneysteve]

That’s a win, James. Being given a higher limit indicates that you’re a good credit risk. It also helps you have a lower debt to credit utilization rate.

[ua_guy]

We just got an unexpected $1.11 check from our insurance company. Apparently the company was audited by the state and it was determined they overcharged us on one of our policies from 5 years ago. Deposited that one right away!

I also saved 25% or about $1500 on a new lawn tractor yesterday. Buying a lawn tractor was ultimately an expense but I expect to make up for it in saved time and other expense of maintaining our property. It came with a "free" trailer too.