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In a conversation with an attorney friend of mine, who happens to be a woman, she asked for some general financial guidance. During the course of the conversation it occurred to me that women need to save more than men. There are many reasons for this, here are a few:

The first and most obvious reason women need to save more than men is that they live longer -- often without the support of a significant other. Living longer and living alone cost more money.

Second of all, women still do not have complete earnings parity with men. Some of this has to do with job type and some with history. But nevertheless, we are not there yet. If there is a 15% disparity, then a woman is starting at a disadvantage whether saving for her retirement in the future or for buying a gallon of gas today. This can only be made up by saving more and investing more. This is a worthy goal except that with less resources the difficulty is exacerbated.

Well, things played out as I thought and Apple, Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) closed on Friday August 1, 2008 at a price of $156.66 and opened pennies down today. I will be the first one to admit that a few of my calls have been terrible, but this one was right on target.

Quoting from one of last years posts, "However, I thought Apple might be worth up to $150 and a month later was willing to consider $160 and that is where I stood." So I'm on record pegging the stock between $150 and $160. Having made the call on the money I will now tell the world that a lot of this game is luck, but that is all I thought it was worth.

Why two rights? One of our brighter commentors, Beltway Greg had pegged Apple around $200 a year out and it made the number in December 2007 long before even he thought it might and I gave him credit at the time. I was looking farther out and as the current price evidences I was correct also. But what's wrong with this picture? When I wrote, I tried to figure what I thought the stock was worth as did Greg.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I own shares of MBI.

After the market closed last night, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounding from Monday's notable drop and ending the trading day at 11,397.56, up 266.48 (+2.39%), I posted Serious Money: 10 finance stocks as the market bounces. This is the follow-up post listing the full pool of speculative stocks that as a group I believe will beat the overall market in the next 12 months.

The prediction business is thankless and the speculative business is even worse; it is often painful. I usually refrain from this activity but today I play the contrarian in a Sir John Templeton (RIP) sort of way, jumping into the stock market's worst performing sector with both feet. I believe the market is at or near a bottom and this summer is the time to buy.

Looking for a break in the clouds, yesterday I started choosing ten stocks knowing that three or four may go to zero, a few more will survive with modest gains, and three or four will rise, not returning to their old glory soon but more than covering the ones that fail. The first four picks have been bleeding all over Wall Street for a year now and the blood-letting is not done yet.

Initially I was looking for stocks that had fallen at least 70%. After reviewing my figures, I have compromised and changed that to 63% so that I could include some of the major companies like Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) that are broadly held and have strong reader interest. Prices are as of July 29, 2008.

Today the Dow Jones Industrial Average bounced back from yesterday's poor showing. It ended the trading day at 11,397.56, that's plus 266.48 (+2.39%) returning more than it had lost only 24 hours ago.

There are plenty of prognosticators explaining why this happened and so I am not going to join the crowd this afternoon with my own version. Leave it to say we are in a period of uncertainty where investors and traders alike are a bit jumpy. We did have a 5.4 magnitude earthquake today in Southern California, only fitting for this type of market.

In the meantime I have been wondering how to take advantage of the lousy situation in the financial sector of the market. How can I maximize my gains and control risk at the same time? I guess we are all trying to do this, but few will appreciate my contrarian, 'no guts no glory' approach.

I think you have to be buying banks and investment companies and I have decided that ten is the right number. Sir John Templeton (RIP) is the catalyst for this notion. I am already on record (Serious Money: More signs the market has bottomed) that this is the time to be selectively buying and 'my pal Warren' said as much at the Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) annual meeting when he suggested the financials have seen the worst of the storm.

My favorite company, Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG), the maker of the da Vinci Surgical System reported earnings Tuesday afternoon that creamed Street guesstimates by 10 cents per share. Intuitive posted earnings per share of $1.28 versus analyst consensus of $1.18.

For the 23rd quarter in a row, just like clockwork and without missing a beat, Intuitive's top and bottom line growth simply ignored the global economy, blazing its own trail. I wonder how ISRG would have done if the economy was not in the dumps?

Overall, second quarter revenue shot up 56% from $142.2 million to $219.2 million. Instruments and accessories revenue increased 61% to $73.6 million from $45.8 million. Training revenue increased 44% to $29.4 million from $20.3 million during the second quarter of 2007.

Lonnie Smith, Chairman and CEO of Intuitive Surgical, said, "We are pleased with our second quarter revenue and earnings growth. These results reflect the continued adoption of the da Vinci Surgical System platform across a broadening group of surgical procedures."

When you watch your kids playing war games on their computers, it must have occurred to you at some point that this might all be part of some grand scheme to get the next generation well-versed in a new set of skills. Hand-to-hand combat (except with their siblings) is out and unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs are in.

The AP (7/20) reported that Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) recently unveiled "its new control system for unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs." Raytheon's "Universal Control System,...uses some hardware from the gaming world," and is expected to "shorten training time and help prevent crashes of expensive unmanned drone aircraft by providing a more interactive experience for the pilot." The company focused on "making the system more intuitive -- replacing keystrokes with a game console -- after consulting with experts and discovering that thumbs are the most energy-efficient and accurate way to control an aircraft."

Given Iran's recent missile tests and all the saber rattling that goes on around the world, it should be no surprise that governments have been seeking Raytheon's Patriot Missile technology for years, but RTN is also a leader in a wide range of radar systems, guidance systems, airport monitoring and control systems, and of course the latest in UAV technology.

Giving some thought to what in the world Mr. Gramm was thinking about (or not), it seems to me that his angst last week about Americans being a bunch of whiners was quite self referential. He obviously has lost his sense of balance and is spending too much time with the country club crowd to realize that some folks are feeling true pain.

Unless he is getting free gas or his limousine driver is not speaking with him then how could he have missed the fact that everyone in our country has seen a rapid and significant rise in prices. Ask anyone driving a truck for a living, just as a sampling. I would not consider their plight frivolous.

For some reason he has also missed the fact that all three of our major automobile manufacturers Ford Motor (NYSE: F), General Motors (NYSE: GM), and Chrysler (now privately held) are teetering on bankruptcy.

I have been fortunate enough to have traveled to the four corners of the United States, Alaska and Hawaii and I would actually say we tend to be overly optimistic at times in the US. By comparison many of the 25 countries I have had the chance to visit can be some what negative. I would place us somewhere in the middle.

If Bush's change-up marks the bottom, then WFC is the slugger that hit the ball back over the fence. Can one report from one bank make a difference? Yes it can, if people read it as a sign of things to come. At the same time, the capitulation I describe in IndyMac (IMB) turns to dust is another sign that we may be at the turning point.

Last Friday, June 11, 2007, the Feds basically put IndyMac Bancorp (NYSE: IMB) into receivership, even as they reminded customers that their deposits were insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) covering each individual account up to $100,000.

When I posted IndyMac (IMB) turns to stone on June 8, IMB had shut down lending. Now, as they have turned to dust from a shareholder perspective, customers are still lining up to withdraw their funds despite government assurances that there is nothing to worry about.

Some fret that this bailout will cost taxpayers money but most of the money will be coming from actual deposits as company assets are liquidated. However, while a majority of the costs are covered, the process will incur significant costs nevertheless, since this is only the tip of the iceberg and other banks are sure to fall into the abyss as well.