brass Blog

It’s been a while since we’ve added an entry in our financial lexicon, so here’s one for the b section: buyback.

Basically, a buyback is the repurchasing of shares on the market by the company offering them. About.com has a simple sketch model of how a buyback might look.

Companies may buy back shares for a variety of reasons. Often times, the value of the shares of said company see an increase in value if some or most of the shares are removed from the market (supply-and-demand sort of thing), so a buyback can be a way of boosting share values for current investors or spurring more interest in the company.

Buybacks can (by limiting the amount of shares on the market) also regulate shareholders whom may be inching in on a controlling stake in the company.

A company may buy back shares by proffering a “tender offer” to shareholders (an offer from the company to return some or all of their shares to the company for a price usually reflecting market value), or the company may simply buy the shares from the market just like you or I (if I wasn’t a recovering poor collegian) would do.

Got buybacks down? Good. Now go out there and start a business so you can put it into practice (once you go public of course).

-Jennie

Katie Kacvinsky, our brass|STUDENT PROGRAM Curriculum Facilitator, was recently in a car accident just down the street. Luckily, she was not severely injured and wanted to share her experience with you. Here’s what she had to say:

My car was totaled about two weeks ago. My tiny two-door Pontiac Sunfire was T-boned by a “wide-load” semi. Yeah, good times. I felt like I was starring on Myth Busters without previously being warned. Yes, a semi going less than five miles an hour can take out an entire car and not have as much as a scratch to show for it.

Having recently “been there, done that” in the world of automobile collisions, I’d like to offer my knowledge to you on four things I learned.

1. Keep quiet. When you get in an accident, your body is flooded with adrenaline. With this mindset, it’s easy to point blame, to yell, to be angry. Take deep breaths and if you don’t know what happened or what to say, be quiet. If the situation takes a legal turn, it’s better to not have said anything! When I got hit, I was so shocked I could barely speak. This turned out to help me because later, as the accident was investigated, the other driver tried to change the story. Since he couldn’t quote me on “saying” anything, it was easy for me to be honest to the investigators.

2. If you have the ability, take pictures of the scene of the accident with your cell phone or camera. This evidence can help in case there’s a question as to who is at fault.

3. Call work and let them know what happened; it’s a good idea to have work contact information (your boss or a co-worker) handy. Also consider taking the rest of the day off. Believe me, you’ve been in a traumatic experience and you need to take care of yourself first.

4. Go to the doctor (no matter what). Your body can be jarred tremendously in an accident and because of the adrenaline it produces, it can take a while to feel the full effect. I went to the doctor just to be safe because my neck was stiff. It took my body almost a full week to feel the repercussion of whiplash and muscle soreness.

Accidents are exactly what they are — an accident. Nobody intentionally wants to run into you (I hope), destroy your car, ruin your week. You need to accept it and put it behind you. If anything, accidents remind us all to be cautious drivers and maybe realize there is something to be said for speed-limit signs and traffic lights. I recommend keeping in contact with your insurance company throughout the entire process; they will guide you through everything you need to do (that’s why you pay them the big bucks), and, when you’re up for it, take some time to go out with your friends and relax afterwards. You’ll probably need it.

-Katie

Extra! Extra! Want to know more about handling car accidents? Check out Fender Spenders: Coping with car accidents in the upcoming (February ‘08) issue of brass.

If you happened to hear about us from this morning’s interview with Bill Handel, first let me say welcome, and thanks for visiting our site! If you didn’t hear the interview you can listen here if you’d like.

You may have also heard we’ve been working on a TV pilot for quite some time based around brass. Long story short, we were approached by a production company about creating a TV pilot in hopes of it getting picked up by a network. It is currently in the editing stages, but we’ve included a brief trailer and description below for the brass|TV pilot. If you happen to know anyone in TV or at a network, please help us get in touch to get brass|TV picked up! Thanks for the support!

brass|TV Pilot Description

brass|TV is a magazine-style TV show about young adults, money and real world stuff. It is not a financial show, though it contains plenty of financial content. It’s not a reality show, though it’s rooted firmly in reality. It’s a lifestyle show, with making, managing and multiplying money at the core of that lifestyle.The show takes a narrative approach, following the activities of brass|MEDIA and its son/father owners, 24-year-old founder and CEO, Bryan Sims (recently named #2 on BusinessWeek.com’s list of Best Entrepreneurs Under 25) and COO/co-founder 56-year-young Steve Sims. Using feature stories, short-form segments, and interstitials, brass|TV mixes relevant information about money that the audience can use with the straightforward, younger voice brass is known for.The pilot episode documents the launch of the brass|STUDENT PROGRAM and a tour through five New York state high schools. The feature story goes behind the scenes of a brass cover shoot in Portland, Oregon, with 26-year-old jazz saxophonist and Katrina refugee Devin Phillips. Throughout, brass|TV is interspersed with usable information in short segments including StartingLine and the brass MoneyMinute. Part Mad Money brashness, part Orange County Choppers family business, and part Neil Cavuto interview, brass|TV will create an innovative way to inform, yet entertain young adults all while packaged in a quickly digestible MTV format.

-Bryan

What are you doing for the new year? I am going to grad school, starting January 7^th.

It’s kind of intimidating, mostly because I am starting a Master’s of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program, and I’ll be in a high school classroom on day one. When I graduate in December 2008, I’ll be a certified high school English teacher coming to a freshman English class near you.

I filled out my FAFSA, and the government determined that I am now “independent,” which means my parents’ income is not factored into my ability to pay for tuition and other expenses (read: there’s a good chance I’ll be getting some grants and other forms of aid that I don’t have to pay back). Apparently, going to graduate school versus doing more undergrad work makes me independent. I’ve been filling out FAFSA every year since I started in fall of 2002, and all I’ve received so far are loans. Also, my grandparents offered to help with the cost of attendance , so there’s a chance my measly teacher’s wage won’t all be spent paying off my student loans.

I’m not totally sure if I want to teach high school English for the rest of my life, but I have some good opportunities right now, and I love learning, which I assume will happen as I teach. I also want to make a difference in my sphere of influence, and I’m still young and marginally attractive. I would be wasteful, I think, if I passed these chances up, and so might you. Get after your dreams or what you want to do in life because you’ve been afforded them now. After all, this is your life, not anyone else’s. Check out any of our brass cover stories if you want more inspiration.

- Jeremy

So we’ve been doing some Secret Santa action here at brass over the holidays. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, one of our eight departments collectively slips gifts in the 36 or so stockings we’ve got here, with the goal of spending as little money as possible. We started last Wednesday, and should finish up next week. So far, everyone has received a coffee mug (orange/black for OSU Beaver fans and green/yellow for UO Duck fans), a mix CD, a computer repair kit (also known as a hammer), scratch-its (which are not to be used as an investment tool and should be played solely as a caveat for entertainment), personalized magnets with each department’s staff pictures, and some zany Pez dispensers with accompanying candy (which have been known to cause cavities, but are nonetheless surreptitiously delicious).

I also caught Katie, the Curriculum Facilitator for the brass Student Program, peeping into someone else’s stocking, whilst I conveniently had a camera in my hand.

Happy Holidays to you and yours. I’m off to get my ugly holiday sweater ready for the brass celebration tonight…

- Jeremy

The United States Postal Service expects to move 275 million parcels of mail this coming Monday, December 17. They are predicting it to be the busiest mailing day of the year. Think about it, even if all these parcels were just holiday cards (and not fruitcake) sent at 41 cents a stamp, that’s $112,750,000 Americans will spend on postage in a single day. The real shipping costs are much more. Whoa, I hope everyone recycles those envelopes … and not the fruitcake.

Source: USPS Press Release

Welcome back. This is another installment of our surprisingly exciting hit series where I define an investment or money word I have come across in my daily dealings here at brass.

This week, we’ll be looking at expense ratios, as I saw on iwillteachyoutoberich.com.

I discovered that an expense ratio is the operating cost, given as a percentage, of a particular mutual fund. An “operating cost” is basically the money it takes to maintain the fund (like overhead for running a business). The operating costs are taken out of the fund’s assets, thereby lowering the return to the investors in the fund.

In short, higher expense ratios does not mean higher returns — you’ll definitely want to know how high those ratios are before you invest in a fund, because they cut into your profits.

Questions? Answers? Let us know what you think about expense ratios or what your experience with them has shown you. Until next week…

- Jeremy

Hello again. To get you thinking more about your money habits, we’ll periodically be asking money-related questions — which of course we’ll want you to answer:

How do you keep a handle on your Christmas spending? Do you set a limit for each person, or do you just withdraw a wad of cash and spend until it’s gone?

We look forward to your feedback…leave your comments below!

Just 39% of consumers keep a close eye on expenses.

Whether you fall on the right side of that 39% or not, it’s vital that you keep a close eye on your cash flow. My suggestion: consider making a budget to better measure your expenditures. For some budgeting tips and tricks, check out our article on budget building.

Source: NFCC Financial Literacy Survey

I’ve never been a big sports fan in the past, but today I’m tempted to become one. Fans from the website MyFootballClub.com just purchased controlling power in the pro soccer club (”football” to these guys) Ebbsfleet United — ranked ninth in the fifth tier of English soccer. And they have the option to buy 100 percent of the team later.

A fan club purchased a pro sports team. It’s just amazing. They’ve got 53,000 members that pay an annual fee of roughly $72, and have a kitty of $1.5 million. The money is used to run the club and for purchasing new players. It’s like the ultimate fantasy league, except…it’s real life.

Here’s the kicker: the club was launched in April 2007. It took these guys only eight months to go from new online soccer fan club to team owners.

Operation “Democratic Sports Team” commence! Members will have a say in anything from buying and selling players to the general running of the club.

The moral here? A lot of people means a lot of buying power. What could your friends, your school, or your city do with just a few dollars a piece? MyFootballClub proves that nothing is outside your buying power when you join forces around something you love.

- Jennie