Cleaning house and owning up

Even though the weather was so nice on Sunday evening, I opted to clean out my closets and drawers....a little spring clinging in the winter if you may. Of course, I was watching the football games, so I had reason to stay in. I'd have to say, I was pretty productive. Here are some pics:









Here it all is: 9 bags of clothes and other stuff including a bag of curtains and two pairs of shoes.













In addition to those clothes, I had 5-6 coats that decided to get rid of. This one on top is a classic and I'm sure it will fetch a pretty penny. Click on the picture and blow it up to see why it's valuable. (Hint: I may be the last member.)





Here are the funds that I recommended last year and how they did in 2007. The last entry is the S&P 500, which returned 5.5% in '07, slightly better than a money market account.

Weitz Hickory WEHIX (-13.1%)
Dodge and Cox International Stock Fund DODFX +11.7%
Dodge and Cox Income DODIX +4.7%
Mairs and Power Balanced MAPOX +4.3%
Mairs and Power Growth MPGFX +4.9%
Stratton Small-Cap Value STSCX (-2.02%)
Oakmark Select I OAKLX (-14.04%)
Oakmark I OAKMX (-3.6%)
Oakmark Equity & Income I OAKBX +12%
S&P 500 5.49%

As you can see I had some double digit gainers and double digit losers. In 2008, I'd still recommend almost all of them. The only iffy fund is the Oakmark Select fund. They had a large exposure to Washington Mutual and some other bank stocks associated with the sub prime mortgage fiasco. It's a good time to buy the fund, but not everyone is up for that kind of concentrated risk.