The first thing that I noticed was that there weren’t that many people at the gym, even though there were cars all over the outside of the building. Bear in mind that the size of this building is no larger than your typical Verizon Wireless store, so when I say that cars were “all over” the outside of the building, I mean that there were 6 or so cars. Honestly, I expected that because I assume that a lot of people workout early in the morning. However, when I walked in the door the place was near empty. The owner was there, someone he was training, an older woman, and some guy working out. That’s it.

This is in line with what I’ve seen in my general observations of this place – namely that there aren’t too many people who go there during the off-peak hours. I suppose an extension of this observation would be that the 6:15am hour is considered “off-peak” at this place! Weird.

So here I am at about 1:00pm today and I’m feeling alright. Most people believe that working out in the morning is a good idea. I guess I could get into it, but my schedule is so weighted towards not going to sleep until midnight or later that getting up early each morning would be a challenge. We’ll see what happens…

Yet, whenever I check what the online financial media is saying about Sirius XM, I always find that the loudest negative voices are spewing from the Motley Fool website. I have no problem with an analyst saying that a stock is not worth buying (at this point, unless you’re a long-term investor I wouldn’t suggest buying Sirius XM either), but the group at Motley Fool is viciously against this radio company and I can’t figure out why? Maybe a bunch of their writers got burned on the stock – who knows?

The latest article was posted up on MSNBC’s website and it talked about how Sirius XM is the worst stock of 2009. Bear in mind that 2009 isn’t even a month old yet! What bothers me, though, is the complete one-sided opinions that they put out there and the implied stance that their ideas are obviously applicable to the rest of the country. An example:

Satellite-radio competes for my ears with my Apple iPod and its dedicated car jack, my custom-burned CDs, and with a host of new mobile applications, including Ford and Microsoft’s Sync. And with other automakers experimenting with putting routers in their cars that could stream free Internet radio, Sirius’ competition for luxury dollars is increasing.

And satellite radio is very much a luxury. A past subscriber myself, I found my use waning in the months following a cross-country trip. As use fell, I found defending the monthly cost difficult — and that was before the economy cratered, when luxury spending was easier to justify.

First, just because your ears have multiple listening options, that doesn’t apply to everyone. I’m glad that you can afford a car with a dedicated jack for your iPod. I – and a great deal of Americans who are struggling in the current economy – cannot afford this luxury. Second, I’m glad that your new, expensive car has either a router or Ford/Microsoft’s Sync program. The 2000 Civic that my Mom just gave me doesn’t have those options. Neither did the 1999 Chevy Blazer that I donate to charity at the beginning of the month. Maybe the next used car that I buy will have a fancy feature or two, but again – the vast majority of Americans can’t afford these cars with all of these bells and whistles that you apparently can afford.

Need proof? Isn’t the domestic car industry in the crapper? Exactly.

It’s a shame that this writer’s cross-country trip is used as one of the driving factors in his purchase of Sirius XM. That was his dumb choice. For me – someone who drives more than two hours per day – I enjoy the variety that I get from Sirius XM. Sure, sometimes the lack of original content on Howard Stern pisses me off and yes, even with dozens and dozens of commercial-free music channels there is sometimes nothing to listen to, but that’s no different than cable television with hundreds of channels with nothing to watch!

For me, Sirius XM is the perfect companion during my daily commute and drives around the state. It’s also nice to turn it on in the office and be able to listen to commercial-free music. For some people, Sirius XM isn’t right.

However, as a shareholder I have a serious problem with Motley Fool publishing around 10 negative articles on Sirius XM this month alone. That’s ridiculous and an obvious show of bias. I wouldn’t care what Motley Fool does with their webspace, except that Google Finance uses their updates in their news feed so every few days I get another death story from these bias folks. If the rest of Sirius XM‘s investors are getting the same reports, then what does anyone expect besides a huge sell off?

If this company dies, it will be in no small part thanks to the one-sided, arrogant comments by online groups like Motley Fool.

1. Shop Earlier! By far, the best thing that you can do to lower your expenses during the holidays is to shop earlier. Yes, there are Black Friday sales and Cyber Monday deals, but if you want to save the big bucks, then you need to start shopping extra early. How early? Try the days following Christmas! After the holiday has come and gone, most retailers slash their prices up to 75% (and sometimes more) on holiday items. This is the perfect time to pick up next year’s holiday cards and decorations at bargain basement prices. You can even stock up on some smaller, generic items like gift tags and bows. If done right, you can spend a few bucks at the local Wal-Mart and come home with enough of these minor items to last a few years – eliminating these costs for the foreseeable future.
2. Shop Smart. We are blessed to live in the age of the internet – so use it to your advantage! While it is unnecessary to make all of your holiday purchases online, doing so might save you some cash. The real money-saving lure of the internet, though, is the ability to “shop around” from the comfort of your own home. Use the internet to create a shopping strategy and to compare prices. Check to see if the electronics super store can beat the wholesale club or the big box discount store for the digital camera that your brother wants. Once you’ve found the lowest prices on all of your gift list items, map out a strategy for your shopping day. Remember, saving money also means eliminating redundancy in your traveling. There’s no reason to spend more on gasoline because you didn’t pre-map your shopping excursion.
3. Make a list. And check it twice! One of the textbook strategies to reduce your expenses at the store is to make a list of what you want to pick up at the store and stick to it. If you are going to a store to buy a specific video game or DVD set, then retrieve the item, pay for it, and move on to the next store. The longer you stay in one store, the more likely you are to pick up an extra few items. As an additional point on lists – be sure to ask those who are on your gift list what they want the most this holiday season. There’s no use in buying Mom a new set of lamps for the living room when she really wants a new luxurious bathrobe and spa set from JC Penney.
4. Re-gift. I should have named this point “have no shame in your game” since that’s the core point. Remember the under the kitchen cabinet combination CD player and radio that you won at the office party? Since you’ll never have a use for such an item you may as well wrap it up and send it off to Aunt Tillie. The point here is that if you have unopened, unused items that you really don’t want and are worthy of being given as a gift, then you can save considerable amounts of money by using the art of re-gifting. Be careful, though. You need to keep your re-gifting worlds separate. Take items that you receive from co-workers and give them to family members and then use items from family members as gifts to friends, etc. When re-gifting, always be sure to maintain a separation between your various social groups.
5. Pay in cash. While the economy continues tying itself into knots, the major financial institutions are becoming more restrictive with their credit card policies. Some people are waking up and finding that their interest rate has jumped while their credit limit has been decreased. If you are paying for your gifts in cash or with a debit card, then you do not run the risk of having to pay an increased interest rate over the next few months while the market figures itself out. Part of being aware of which items you can pay for in cash is understanding that you may need to restrict your spending this holiday season. In these uncertain economic times, it is important to keep your financial house in order. Sometimes, to keep your own house in order you need to restrict your spending – even during the holiday season. If there is a silver lining in restricting your spending this year it is that there is a strong chance that the people who are buying you gifts are doing the same thing.

These are just a few of the many ways that you can save some money this holiday season. When all else fails, though, remember that this season really isn’t about fancy gifts or expensive trinkets. Family, friends, fellowship, and faith – those are the only things that most people need to enjoy the holiday season. And we’re in luck because they all come free of charge!

Bear in mind they also took off the first two weeks of July. Ummm…that’s four full weeks off in the summer months. I know that Howard’s brainwashed fans will say that he’s earned the break, but there are many millions more of us who are just fans of the show and feel like they’ve been sold a bill of goods with the Howard Stern gang. We were told about commercial-free radio before he made the jump – we now get frequent 15-minute, non-live content breaks in the middle of his shows.

We were told that the show would be in the studio on the occasional Friday to surprise the audience. Bullshit on that! He spent a few Fridays in the studio when he started Sirius – more than two and a half years ago now.

Then we were told about all of the great content that we’d get after Sirius XM and Stern bought back his tapes from CBS Radio/Viacom. What do they give us? A completely randomized selection of shows from all over Howard’s history with no rhyme or reason as to why they were playing certain shows. This crappy “Master Tape Theater” was so poorly received that the Stern folks were forced to move it into some weird Sunday afternoon time slot when no one is listening anyway.

Before he made the jump, Stern sold us on something like 33 cents per day or 45 cents per day to hear him on Sirius. Okay – then let me pay just the 45 cents on each day that he’s in the building. In August, I would have paid $3.60 to hear Howard and his crew.

I can’t tell you how happy I am that the merger went through. I really do like satellite radio and I really do enjoy listening to the Howard Stern Show. But paying the $14 that I pay each month (tax included) is not worth what I’m getting in terms of service. I hear that with the merger there will be an option to get 50 channels of your choice and pay $6.99 per month. Let’s get that figured out and in motion already!

This is a great interview and one that fans of mixed martial arts will definitely appreciate. Click here if you want to listen to the interview, but bear in mind that this page takes a minute or two to load and once it loads it will begin playing immediately (you can then pause it after it starts).

Enjoy!

Earlier this week I received an e-mail from Verizon telling me that my “new every two” has kicked in. For the non-Verizon readers out there, this is a plan that the company has where after two years the customer has the option to get a $50 – $100 discount on a new phone. Now I have a decision to make – which new phone should I get? There’s no chance in hell that I’ll get one of those crappy smartphone/PDAs that caused me so much trouble. Let me state emphatically once again that the Palm Treo 700p is a complete disaster of a phone! Stay away from it!

Right now I use my 4+ year old LG VX8000 phone, which I really like. The camera phone is only 1.3 megapixels but it takes great pictures whenever I use it and the call quality is crystal clear. The speakerphone works perfectly as does the video recorder and voice recorder. In it’s old age (4+ years is more than a life time for cell phones these days) it has become a little stodgy and unresponsive at points, but it’s still better than that overpriced piece of crap Treo 700p.

Anyway, what I’ve learned is that I like the LG brand of phones and that I’d prefer to stick to their brand. The problem is that looking on Verizon’s website, I don’t really care for the LG phones which are being offered. There is one phone that is only a slight upgrade from the one that I currently use (I think it’s the VX8350 or something like that). I figured that if I get that phone, I can still keep my current phone on standby just in case the new one sucks. Plus, with the “New Every Two” discount, the new phone would be free. Can’t really say no to that deal, can you?

At some point this weekend I’m going to go for the new phone. I just hope that everything works out better than when I got the disaster Treo 700p “smartphone” two years ago. Of course, after the debacle that was the Treo 700p, I don’t think anything could be worse!

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