QotD: Happy New Year!

It's New Year's Eve! How are you celebrating tonight?

I'm finishing off a portfolio analysis for my grandmother. Her son had told her to concentrate 85% of her holdings in the real estate and financial sectors [1]; as a result, her portfolio has dropped by 50% in the past year. Those holdings that aren't financial are just as bad. For example, she has GMAC bonds [2].

So I'm researching the companies and deciding which ones will survive and which ones should be dumped [3]. And I'm trying to come up with a way to get her the money she needs to get by. Right now, it looks as if her best bet is a reverse mortgage, but my uncle is against it [4]. I'm also trying to find out what happened to her eTrade account that my uncle started for her. I convinced her to buy some municipal bonds that increased by 30% after she bought them, and just hope that that hasn't been raided or left to founder as well.

So that's my rockin' New Year's Eve. Ah, well - at least there's pizza [5]!

John

[1] What truly shocks me is that the doofus claims to be an insurance agent but has never tried to convince her to take out an annuity! Had she converted her holdings into an annuity five years ago, she'd be set.

[2] Which I have been begging her to sell for the past five years. Instead, she sold the Ford bonds. The GMAC bonds have droppedfrom $40  to $2.50 (on a nominal $100 bond), which tells you exactly what folks think of GM's chances (they are in the dictionary, right beside "snowball in hell"). Meanwhile, Ford's bonds have dropped by a mere 35%, and are looking to go up next year.

[3] She has one stock in a ocmpany with a negative net value, and another in a company whose stock is worth less than the next dividend. And those are in the "might be worth keeping" list!

[4] I think he plans on inheriting the house and keeping the proceeds from its sale for himself.

[5] Which I'm not supposed to have but will anyway.