Name That Company

Based in Charlotte, N.C., I’m the third-largest bank in the United States, with 4,400 domestic branches, 134,000 employees, and customers in 150 nations. I serve more than one in four households in America, more than 150 customers per second. More than 1 million people pay their bills online through my Web site. I’m the No. 1 small-business lender. (I lent Walt Disney the money to build Disneyland.) I’m also the No. 1 debit-card issuer in the United States, with nearly 17 million cards outstanding. More than 3.2 million American families have mortgages through me. Who am I? (Answer: Bank of America)

Know the answer? Send it to us with Foolish Trivia on the top and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a nifty prize! The address is Motley Fool, Box 19529, Alexandria, Va. 22320-0529. Send questions for Ask the Fool, Dumbest (or Smartest) Investments (up to 100 words), and your Trivia entries to Fool@fool.com.

Home Depot hits new Lowe’s

Home-improvement honcho Home Depot (NYSE: HD) recently capped off a dreadful 2002, with share prices unseen since 1998. With the chain having opened its 1,500th store in December, the company is going through some growing pains. It expects to post a fourth-quarter decline of 10 percent in stores open a year or more.

While Home Depot can attempt to hide behind the orange apron of a sector slowdown, rival Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW) is its most obvious problem. The No. 2 home-improvement retailer is moving into Home Depot’s strongholds — and is doing well.

While Lowe’s has roughly half as many stores as Home Depot, its refined store layouts and high-end marketing campaigns are pulling in new business. In recent months, while Home Depot was warning of earnings shortfalls, Lowe’s was upping its projections and even hiked its dividend.

Perhaps rock-bottom interest rates have lasted so long that the race to refinance is finally slowing, and homeowners are putting off remodeling projects. But Home Depot may want to consider a makeover for itself sooner, rather than later.

If you own shares of Home Depot and want to get out, or you’re a potential investor attracted to this classic blue chip (sporting a price-to-earnings ratio in the teens), think about what the company has to do to get its act together, whether you think it will, and the potential gains if it gets it right.

The one that got away

Years ago, when my dad first started investing in the stock market, he found a stock he liked. It was selling for $500 per share and he was going to buy 100 shares. It went up to $800 per share, though, and he ended up buying only one share. The company was Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. As I’m sure you know, that stock is now selling at $70,000 per share. He talks about “the one that got away” often. My motto now is, if you like it, buy it — within reason, of course. — Stephanie, San Diego

The Fool Responds: Ouch — that’s a multimillion-dollar lost opportunity. But at least he has his one share, which is still rather valuable. Too often we get burned by waiting on the sidelines for a stock to move just a little more before we buy or sell. Once you’ve researched a stock and are sure that you want to buy (or sell) around the current price, then it’s often best to take action. Berkshire Hathaway has been an unusually strong performer over the past decades, thanks to Mr. Buffett’s smarts and discipline.

Here’s some ways to cut health costs

During the past 25 years, health-care costs have grown more than twice as fast as overall inflation. Here are eight ways to alleviate your health-bill blues:

• Staying healthy can keep insurance costs down. You’ll save on premiums and reduce the risk of being turned down later for pre-existing conditions.
• Two-income couples should coordinate health insurance benefits. It might make sense to opt out of one plan and choose the family option on another. Maintaining coverage with two providers can make sense if one fills the gaps of the other.
• Don’t smoke, overeat or overdrink. These habits endanger your health, and can be expensive, to boot.
• Contribute to a flexible spending account (FSA), which allows you to use pretax money to pay for medical costs not covered by a health plan, such as deductibles, co-payments and even eyeglasses. This could shave a few hundred dollars off your tax bill. These plans generally require you to use the money within a year or lose it, so plan carefully.
• Your employer probably offers you a choice of health plans, so choose the right one. Health maintenance organizations, or HMOs, don’t cost much yet aren’t very flexible. Plans such as preferred provider organizations, or PPOs, offer more flexibility but sport higher costs. For many of us, HMOs are the best bet, financially.
• If you incur extraordinary medical expenses in one year, you can deduct from your taxable income the medical costs that exceed 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income. This can include out-of-pocket insurance premiums and a host of other expenses. See IRS Publication 502 for the complete list.
• Take advantage of free and discounted services offered by your health plan. Many providers subsidize flu shots, gym memberships, nutrition classes and other preventive care.
• Check your bills. According to a Consumer Reports survey, 5 percent of patients found serious errors in their hospital bills. Those who paid $2,000 or more out of pocket for their care were twice as likely to find billing boo-boos.