Dusty

Bank of America Buyback Announcement: Who Cares?

I am a small investor. I bought BAC because my advisor said it was a good buy. $1K is a lot of money to me; I am trying to create an additional small income stream from dividends. I bought $1K of BAC a little more than a year ago and another 'unit' in October '07, both at about $52. Notice of the buyback arrived a few days ago and I checked with my broker. Special large commission (relative to my personal finances), $1.50 a share back to BAC special fee, repurchase only good for the next NYSE Business Day with BAC shares listing at about $15.00. I did, and do, feel insulted.

Before all of you start telling me how stupid I am or how everything I am doing is wrong, listen to my "strategy."

Chuck holes in the market come and go. Bear Markets come and go. "Unrealized P&L's" are mind games. All that matters is the cash of the dividends and at the moment I have a little more income than needed to pay the bills. For now the dividends get reinvested. I am trying to prepare for eventual problems.

If BAC and some others survive this mess then all is well. That is even if some dividends are reduced or even stopped for a while and then resumed. I do the best I can with the information available to me (necessarily mostly what I can find for free). FWIW, my dividend stream is currently averaging 8.20% of my initial investment. If any of the positions ends in a bankruptcy or compete shutdown kind of failure, I have a tax write-off.

My bottom line is that I feel insulted by the offer BAC made.