Archive for May, 2010

Quick tip of the day: Block unnecessary paid services when you have a curious toddler

Parenting, Personal finance

Our now 22-month-old loves playing with his dad’s cell phone. In the last three months, I discovered that his button-mashing fun had resulted in two downloads of some sort of Family Guy game at $3 a pop, a download of a Michael Jackson song for $2, plus associated taxes and fees.

Forcing myself to review all bills is actually one reason why I have never opted to go onto any auto-pay plan for any bills.

Amazingly, Verizon was very willing to deduct the charges and then disable all download services going forward. If you also have a curious toddler who loves cell phones, be sure to check your bills and consider doing the same to avoid any unnecessary expenses. The same goes for your cable bill — there’s usually an option to add in a PIN number to prevent accidental access to any paid content.

Feel free to leave any other comments on other things to watch out for with curious toddlers!

Special situations investing: Boss Holdings (BSHI)

Value investing

I periodically write about , a type of value investing that I occasionally find worth partaking in. In the last year, I mostly focused on traditional net-net value investing since there have been relatively few opportunities for going-private transactions in the last year or so.

One that I did find was (BSHI, now BSHID.PK), a pretty simple company that distributes gloves, boots, and pet supplies to retailers, and which someone listed at (of which I’m a subscriber). Back in October 2009, they announced their intention to perform a reverse/forward split for all shareholders holding less than 100 shares in order to delist the company at $7.65 a share. After researching the company a bit more and noticing that it also met net-net value investing requirements a few times in previous months as well, adding to its appeal.

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