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Mostly I'm rather tired of the profundities and hype. Maybe you're getting a bit tired of them too, and if so, relax -- I promise not to mention the M-word.
I won't even mention New Year's resolutions except to say that whenever you need to make changes in your life -- don't wait! If you've been waiting for the right time, though -- it's here. Now. Even if you are reading this from the archives next July.
Our stocks are moseying along not doing much. The big event of this week was that Dow newcomer SBC Communications <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: SBC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: SBC)") end if %> has replaced JP Morgan <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: JPM)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: JPM)") end if %> on the Foolish Four list. SBC will be an interesting stock to watch. Of course, we can't tell whether a portfolio started last week with JP Morgan or one started this week that includes SBC will do best. One will undoubtedly do better than the other, especially since they are in such different industries. Either the official one will be best or the end-of-the-year portfolio, which we will also track here, will do better, but over time, differences based on starting dates should even out.
There isn't much to say about the markets this week, either. Everyone on Wall Street went skiing apparently. Maybe if they would all stay in Austria or Aspen or Banff, we Fools could move in and clean the place up. Nah, what would we do without full-service brokers to kick around? (I can kid them because they won't see this -- they're all in Vail.)
I do have one suggestion for closing out the year with a good feeling. There are scant hours left to participate in our Foolanthropy drive. This year we have selected some charities that you don't hear much about but provide unique services to people that just need to get one hand on the first rung of the ladder. They encourage the kind of grassroots, low-tech, one-person-at-a-time approach to making the world a better place that I think makes the most sense. For example, the Heifer Project International provides domestic livestock to families in developing nations and trains them in caring for the animal and developing her offspring into a commercial venture. Grameen Foundation provides micro-loans with similar goals.
If you are inclined toward such efforts and you haven't checked out the Foolanthropy pages, take a minute to click over there and see if these efforts are something you would enjoy supporting. I've raised rabbits, and I got a huge kick out of sending a trio of rabbits through Heifer Project to a family that will hopefully use Bugs and friends to make their lives a bit better. (At Heifer's website, you can choose the fauna -- or flora -- you donate.) Rabbits, as you've probably heard, multiply quickly and are amazingly efficient at turning roadside weeds and table scraps into protein and fur -- and high-quality fertilizer, too.
Or perhaps your personal satisfaction comes for supporting an organization like FoodChain that "rescues" food from caterers, restaurants, grocery stores, etc., and gets it to those who need it -- providing both food and valuable employment training at the same time. Or there's the Make-A-Wish Foundation that makes wishes come true for terminally ill children and the Polycystic Kidney Research Foundation that searches for a cure to a devastating disease.
Whichever organization you support -- one of the above or some other -- or however you chose to give back to the world a bit of what you've gotten out of it, the important thing is to give. When you give, you give yourself a gift.
Fool on and prosper!