Now may be time to use tax refund to buy stocksStill bullish on real estateOil futures

Last fall a Fox reporter featured me – thank you very much – on a segment about flu vaccine. I came prepared and talked about the 1976 Swine Flu vaccine and how it was such a fiasco for President Gerald Ford and it was only a way for vaccine makers to become rich.

That part got cut. I was portrayed as buffoonish because I was saying it is not wise for people to purchase flu shots at grocery stores as “impulse buys” while the health officials – not a one a doctor – were all saying, “get your flu shot.” We’ve seen this year’s vaccine was ineffective and now we have an outbreak of Swine Flu. The very thing I discussed with the reporter and it was cut!

Yet the reporter played up the marginally educated female government health officials in preference to a well educated Marketing Sociologist. As author Williams James said, “Any new theory is first attacked as absurd. Then it is admitted to be true but obviously insignificant. Finally, it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they, themselves, have discovered it.”

Imagine if that reporter had run with the 1976 Swine Flu vaccine. Today he’d be the most lauded reporter in the nation.

So in a dream this morning I had a premonition that now is the time to buy stocks. I have held off and held off. I wouldn’t advise betting the farm yet, but I would advocate using those tax refund checks to go out and buy stocks. My prediction on Revlon last month panned out.

Do your research and find a good stock. No recommendations from me. I’m not a “broker.”

I’m still bullish on real estate. Another strong sign was yesterday’s announcements that last month home prices nationally fell by 18 percent if annualized – I’ll take that loss for future growth. That’s about a 1-and-a-half percent loss for the month.

I also have a “gut” instinct about oil futures, if you’re able to get into futures. Never, ever go with “gut” instinct when investing. If you do, become a “broker.”

Two years ago oil was trading around $70 per barrel. A year ago $140 per barrel. Today it is trading around the $52 per barrel mark. Five years ago, around $30 per barrel. Looking at this historical data – again, never go with a gut instinct – it is a safe bet oil will go up this fall. Now is the time to buy futures in this commodity.