This forum isn't meant to be a political one, so I refuse to bemoan this issue for any length of time. I just needed to say out loud that I paid $2.95 a gallon for gas this morning. I pumped half a tank of gas (about 8 gallons), and it cost me $30 dollars. My 2004 Volvo S80 is just over one year old and when I bought it, I believe I could fill up the tank for less than $40. This really bothers me and it didn't just start bothering me today. There is only one thing to do when you are upset about the the rising cost of a consumer good or commodity - invest in a mutual fund of the same runaway product and offset your losses. Case and point.....On 2/9/05, I invested $2,000 of my daughter's custodial fund in a Energy Mutual Fund. At the time of this posting, she has a return of $532.23. Annualized, that more than a 50% increase in value. Some time around June of 2003, I invested $1,000 in a real estate mutual fund and at the time of this posting, that investment has returned $736.69. That's almost double in 2 1/2 years. That also about the same increase in value of my condo in that same period of time.

Now as circumstances would have it, I haven't had the resources to invest more money in these mutual funds, if I had I would have done so. If I had done so at the rate to which I am accustomed to investing, I would have enough money for a down payment on a house in Brentwood or Santa Monica and if I didn't work nearby, I'd have enough money to pay for the extra gas expense of comuting. Something to consider.....

If anyone is interesed in know specifically which energy and real estate mutual funds I invested in, please e-mail me or leave a comment. I'm not posting it openly for two reasons, past performance of a mutual fund (or any investment) is not a predictor of future performance and as I monitor trends, at any give time in which a person might read this post, I may not any longer consider these funds a good investment and may well have moved on to something more appropriate for the current economical climate.