Car Loans, iPhones, SPRT — and Founding Flubs January 10, 2018January 9, 2018 G Hammond: “I am reading your investment guide. If offered a choice between a 1.5% interest rate or $1,500 ‘cash back’ on a $19,500 car, your advice is to take the cash (page 25). Why?” You may think I’m posting that question to plug my investment guide, but no. No, no, no! I’m posting it because I love G Hammonds email tag-line: Talk without being offensive; listen without being defensive; always leave your adversary with their dignity, because if you don’t, they will spend the rest of your life making you miserable. Wise words I too often forget. (I answered: “So let’s say you put $2,500 down and borrow the $17,000 balance at 1.5% for 48 months = $365/month. That compares with borrowing $15,500, after the $1,500 cash back, at perhaps 2.5% for 48 months, which works out to $334/month. Or at 3% — $343/month. Or at 5% — $357/month. And while I have you? Buy a used car. “That new-car smell is the most expensive fragrance in the world.”) If you have an iPhone 6 or 7, “run, don’t walk, to replace your battery for $29,” $50 off the regular cost. According to the Washington Post, you’ll get added battery life and your phone will run faster. (According to Apple, when I showed up on time for my 4pm Genius Bar appointment for this today, I’d have to wait half an hour for a Genius to put me on the wait list of at least two weeks for the battery; then make another appointment and wait however long past my appointed time for her or him to install the battery.) No guarantees of success, of course, but as an SPRT shareholder I was heartened to see a new, sophisticated investor has filed with the SEC to disclose the 6.7% interest acquired last year. On top of the previously-reported 4.98% stake acquired by value-themed BML Partners. Also, for what it’s worth, the company’s web traffic seems to have spiked sharply in the last few months. That could be a good sign as well. And now, for extra credit, from the New York Times: The Constitution’s Blooper Reel.