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Have you ever been in love with a company? There are names out there like Apple or Google that would make fanboys drool if you’re in tech. And with the recent sell-off, they might be good buys.

But at last, that’s not for me as I’m trying to build my portfolio on boring but steady blue-chips.

For some reason, I’ve always had a girl crush on Kimberly Clark… health care products.

I first noticed the name a few years ago in public bathrooms. And no, it wasn’t scrawled in graffiti in a derogatory fashion.

The name was on all the dispensers: toilet paper, soap, paper towel. So I looked the name up and I found these brands under its umbrella: Kleenex, Scott, Cottonelle, Huggies, Depend, Kotex.

Some pretty recognizable names there. I’ve also seen the brands abroad as well.

With the recent decline in the markets, I decided to check how Kimberly Clark (NYSE: KMB) was doing.

Just quickly eyeballing the price, P/E and yield, it is starting to look interesting.

KMB is also coming out with its fourth quarter earnings report today. The analysts think the stock is a “buy” and rated the company as an “outperform”.

I’m definitely keeping this company on my radar. Like most companies, it’s feeling a margin squeeze by higher commodity prices. In turn, the company raised prices on its products. But folks, we’re talking about toilet paper. I think it’s a staple for most of us

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It has often been said that the rich don’t play by the same rules as you and me.

Take for example Charles Prince, ex-CEO of Citigroup, the largest bank in the United States. I’m sure he’s heard of subprime seeing as it forced his bank to write down $18 billion in devalued mortgage-backed securities.

But I’m also sure he personally doesn’t have to worry about any of his properties foreclosing. In fact, he’s selling his posh Greenwich, Connecticut property for a cool $6.15 million as reported by Bloomberg. I guess the housing meltdown doesn’t apply to luxury homes.

And it’s not exactly like he’s selling the house because he’s hurting for money. Rather than being fired for the massive losses at Citigroup, he chose to retire (*cough* forced out). In doing so, he walked away with $60 million in stocks and pension benefits.

It must be nice to be able to get that type of package. You know if it were you or I with this kind of screw up, we’d get our butts kicked so hard that our grandchildren would be feeling it.

In my more philosophical moments, I wonder with somewhat aghast admiration how someone can get a gig like that.

Reading Prince’s bio, it seems that he is a bright lawyer if not strictly from a banking background. But honestly, a lot of bright investment bankers got caught up in the subprime meltdown.

It also said that Prince is hard working. Er, I know a lot of hard working people but they don’t get this kind of payout.

Could networking be the key to this type of “success”? Maybe, as he rose to the top by the side of the previous CEO.

Perhaps it is ambition as he “elbowed” his way to the top.

So we have intelligence, work ethic, social skills and personal drive. Other than the paycheck, this guy doesn’t seem so different from the rest of us… I just don’t get it. Why does it seem that the rich play the same game but with different rules?

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Okay, let’s face it. When you have Jane Q. Blogger like me writing about the state of the financial markets, it’s probably worse than it appears.

What’s the latest scare in the U.S. markets these days? Big bad bond insurers.

Whaaaat?

That’s all I’m reading about. Bond insurer Ambac Financial Group just got its triple-A credit rating downgraded to “AA” from the Fitch Ratings Agency. Competitor MBIA is also in trouble of a downgrade.

What’s the big deal?

Bonds are generally regarded as safe investment vehicles - more so when they are insured by triple-A rated bond insurers. These insurers are scrutinized for their ability to pay claims in case the bond issuer defaults on payments.

With Ambac being downgraded, it signals that the second-biggest bond insurer does not have enough capital to guarantee the billions of dollars of debt.

How did this happen?

It’s the word of 2007: subprime! Instead of sticking to the traditional municipal bonds, bond insurers looked for new business in the subprime industry and underestimated the risks they were taking.

What’s the fall out?

According to an article in the Washington Post:

Ambac and other bond insurers play an obscure but crucial role in capital markets by essentially transferring their ratings to the securities they guarantee. The downgrade of Ambac means many of those securities also will be downgraded, Fitch said.

This could spark a substantial sell-off by institutional investors such as pension funds that can only invest in top-rate securities, causing their value to drop. (. . .). The banks, which have already suffered staggering losses, have relied heavily on bond insurance to reduce their exposure to subprime mortgage debt and other complicated securities linked to these loans.

In other words, don’t be surprised to see more write-downs from banks and other financial services players.

And not to pile on, but this also causes problems for municipal issuers seeking to fund projects for roads, sewers, schools, etc. The cost of borrowing will go up as there are not enough credible insurance companies. But just one guess on who is there to pick up the slack: Warren Buffett and his new bond insurance company.

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Another week, another round of link love for the Entrecard folks. Here are the blogs that appeared in my widget from the past week.

The Mountain - This is Scott McKinnis’ blog about real estate and community in the White Mountains of Arizona. He had a pretty interesting article on land and mineral rights. Apparently, there is separate ownership which would never have occurred to me.

High Stakes Living - This has been one of my favorite Entrecard finds. It’s basically about the cool stuff you can buy if you’re rich. Some items might leave you scratching your head but other items are attainable for us mere mortals. How about a $1000 pizza topped with lobster, smoked salmon and caviar? I love, love seafood and I might be crazy enough to give this a go

Ez Rich Project - This site is in the Make Money Online niche. I checked it out and it has informative articles on the multitude of Internet opportunities out there. The next thing to hit? How about Audio services help bloggers bring in Ads income.

Jokes at jDonuts - This is a humor blog that produces a lot of chuckles. My favorite post? Geisha Dog. My head nearly ’sploded from the cuteness.

Online Money Dot.com - This is another blog in the Make Money Online niche and from reading Custodio Fernandes’ About Me page, it looks like he actually does. He works full time on the Internet and rakes $12000 a month from all his projects. My favorite article of the week was his plug for a banner rotation plug-in that we see from the infamous John Chow blog.

Thoughts from Down Under - These are the random thoughts of a New Zealander. So what does a New Zealander think of granting a public holiday for the famous mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary? He’d rather not so find out why and who he thinks would be a better candidate.

Over at the Proficient Investor, James Wilcox lays out an interesting review of the home movies war. The analysts got it wrong between Blockbuster and Netflix. Can they be wrong again in the upcoming battle between Netflix and Apple? Well, what battle? As James explains, they can both be good buys.

And that concludes the Entrecard link love for the week of Jan 13-19. Thanks guys.

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I think I’ve mentioned before that I like watching poker on tv. Anytime I see it while channel surfing, I am likely to stop. There’s something compelling about seeing what cards the players hold, how they calculate their odds, and then throwing caution to the wind, go all in.

They win some days, and they lose some days. They just hope their skills at the table gets them more winning runs than losing ones.

However, according to this Bloomberg article entitled Top Poker Players Sometimes Short on Cash, it seems that perhaps, these poker players aren’t as successful as they seem.

Well-known players we see on TV can blow through millions of dollars a year. Some of them are broke or in debt. To finance their play and to offset some of the risks, they have financial backers in return for a stake in the prize money.

Others get sponsorship to pay their way in tournaments but when everyone thinks they are a “pro” there’s not enough money to go around.

And it’s not the fact that they lack skill. It’s just not many players have the discipline. They are poor money managers. Instead of taking their money off the table, they invariably bet on other things.

Does this sound in anyway familiar?

Perhaps we can see these bad habits in our own investment decisions. If so, then we are truly gambling.

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