It’s also time for lots of students to plan out their housing situation for next year. As for me, I’ll be living in a house with a few good friends. Turns out it’s a lot cheaper than dorming and a lot more room .

To be honest, I live 15 minutes away from college so I could have commuted. However, I felt that the intangible assets I would have gained from living on campus were worth greater than the monetary assets I would lose.

Now since I’m practically paying for college on my own from here on out, I’ve got a little thinking to do. Here’s the plan:

Originally I was going to work the entire summer to save up for $6000 worth of rent.

Now I feel it’d be a better idea to get a private college loan for the house and work the entire summer to invest in a particular stock that I absolutely want to invest in. This stock is one I’ve kept my eye on for a very long time and I predict at least a 100% return. I know some of you are shouting “what is this crazy kid thinking” in front of your screens. Well yeah, I wasn’t going to refute that.

So say I earn $5000 over the summer. 100% return on that over say 5 years yields my rent practically being paid for on it’s own. I start paying off my loan after college probably from some other means (not a job, hopefully), or if it comes down to it by selling the stock if it has already achieved enough of a return. The loan will be at close to 8% so it shouldn’t cut into the return too much on the stock.

As for my stocks, I made a few changes yesterday. I sold two of my stocks at a loss only because I needed the funding for Walamu and I knew I wasn’t going to make much anyway considering my position in both stocks was very small. If I had at least $1,000 invested in each company I probably would have held on. Nonetheless, one of my stocks FMD is nearing $60 as I had predicted in one of my previous posts. I am still holding on to this stock as I believe it has the potential to go a bit higher.

I also just finished reading The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding, by Al Ries and Laura Ries. The book is a must-read for anyone wanting to start an Internet business. I’ve learned a lot about what to do and what not to do from this and have even been talking to the authors about my own business. That’s it for now, but stay tuned because Walamu is going to be a heck of a ride.

Company: MIDDLEBY CORP, (MIDD) designs, makes, markets and services a broad line of equipment used for the cooking, preparation, serving and storage of food in commercial and institutional kitchens and restaurants throughout the world.

• Sales were up 18.1% for the quarter and 16.8% for the year.
• Earnings improved from a $660,000 loss in Q4 2004 to a $7.2 million gain during the same period in 2005.
• More diverse menu among the restaurants it serves and a demand for more energy-efficient ovens.
• Recently, group president Phil Dolori exercised options for 3,000 total shares within two weeks, even though his combined return on those shares would result in more than an 11-bagger.
• March 8^th: Middleby met analyst expectations of $0.91 per share.
• 10.42% increase in Net Margin from Q4 2004. 44.9% increase in accounts receivables. Long-term debt decreased 1.7%. Accounts payable increased 55.6% although we think that their increase in accounts receivables and increased sales will make up for this.
• We believe MIDD has a current value of around $115 per share. Therefore, we believe it is undervalued at the price of $85.92 per share.

Short-term

Set up merchant account to allow credit card purchases on CampingCook.com
Start thinking of other niches that I could get into to further my online presence.
Link to other blogs.
Look for ways to promote my online business.
Look for a good web designer for one of my bigger upcoming projects.
Read Think and Grow Rich.
Read as many books on start-ups as I can.
Have at least $1000 a month coming in from my business ventures by the end of summer.

Medium-term

Become a “yopo” or young professional on okdork.com
Have at least 4 different sources of income, balanced for diversification.
Pay off student loans within 3 years of graduation.
Accumalate at least $1,000,000 $3,000,000 in assets by the age of 27.

Long-term

Create as many investment vehicles as possible and generate positive cash flow each month.
Save as much as I can towards retirement.
Retire by the age of 35.

Cryptologic, Inc. (CRYP)
Drew Industries (DW)
Fuel Tech NV (FTEK)
First Marblehead (FMD)
Yamana Gold Inc. (AUY)

My total purchase was $1,000 and I am definitely long-term on these picks.
I will continue to add more to my holdings as I bring in that paycheck from my new job.
Speaking of which, I will be working at a corporate consulting firm in Edison, NJ for the summer.