I really don't have a plan, but that's only due to my expected short life span. Everything I make now is going to my son for when he is older. He'll have a nice place to start once I die.

Rotorua, 3 days ago this all went down. I angered some folk, but I'm happy not to own the 251st vacant rental in this town

Oh well stiff shit, the bank should be working for you, not the other way around.

I really don't have a plan, but that's only due to my expected short life span. Everything I make now is going to my son for when he is older. He'll have a nice place to start once I die.

I've never had a plan, just done what seemed right at the time.

No matter what I attain in this life, Death won't let me hold on to it. So, I just try to enjoy what I can while I am alive.

So what you girls are saying is, although his mind and body are horrible, there's still a certain legal tenderness about him.

Cha-ching!

Kyle, please take my advice. The only reason you're "up" a little at the moment is because you were either too smart or too slow to sel your stock holdings in the crash. You had a moment of good fortune, not astute buying, lock that good luck in.

I wish I had put the money I plowed into real-estate into stocks, I could sell out now and buy 3 times as much property. Lesson for me is to think outside the books I've been reading. I'm opening an e*trade account to make sure this doesn't happen again.


Ian - banks don't care. It were lawyers, accountants and property finders that were in line to make some cash. Disappointing them doesn't upset me too much.

I've done well out of the recovery, I'm up roughly 75%...

Again, they should be working for you, not for themselves.

Yeah, don't get me wrong... I'm happy to have the real-estate with the 30% deposit on both locations. What I'm not happy is that buying the second one in Feb hamstrung me from buying any shares or options during the biggest share bounce in a generation. I could see it coming and was stuck on the side-line.

However, considering what has happened to a lot of folk, including some members here, coming out of this recession with a couple of blocks of flats is a result I will take. Especially considering what my wife is up to.


The bigger lesson I've learned is paying off my Mac. I bought a souped up Mac Book Pro for about $4K, split over 24 months. I could have paid cash but decided on the split payments for some reason. I'm glad I did because it rubbed a few lessons in:
1. It feels stupid to be paying $250 per month for an asset 20 months after buying it when I could rig up a linux box for free
2. #1 when I'm watching the biggest share rally in 40 years.
3. Paying a premium for an asset that depreciates is retarded. Kyle knows this.
4. All of the above again and again.

3. Paying a premium for an asset that depreciates is retarded. Kyle knows this.

Hence my purchase of a 2 year old car. Most of the savage depreciation is done... I'll have it paid off next year, and it'll do me for a decade.

I bought a souped up Mac Book Pro

There goes my appreciation for your manly heterosexuality. Right out the window...

Nick - I was in your situation, I went ultra risk and chose 120 day CFDs. made less than I would have it I had the credit free. Now I have the cred there's only long term stocks left to buy.

There was a point to this, I started a company that was doing small-business IT, one of the main things was Filemaker pro development. Filemaker is at it's best on a mac, and the company founder is a huge apple-head. In my entrepreneurial glee I let myself be persuaded into buying this thing.

The company still exists, and has a couple of clients but I'll likely never see the $25K I plowed into it. Yet another failure, Nicholas.

Nick - I was in your situation, I went ultra risk and chose 120 day CFDs. made less than I would have it I had the credit free. Now I have the cred there's only long term stocks left to buy.

at the time you feel soooo smart, right?

Hell no !

wait...You mean smart being in RE ? or smart doing CFD ? no matter. I felt safe in RE (still do) and I knew the lenders would give me time to pay is the CFD gamble went south. But its still a huge risk...I had no guarantee the lenders wouldnt hit me hard. yeah anyway. that will do for an answer.

not sure what RE is, some kind of margin?

and I haven't really checked out how CDF's move, are they any different from a warrant?

Real Estate. Your game.

And fuck CFD's. They be the sort of shit that got us into trouble in the first place.

thought it meant that, but I didn't know he was in RE.

CFD - certificate for difference. I guess it's leveraged margin trading huh. I prefer vanilla options.

and I haven't really checked out how CDF's move, are they any different from a warrant?

Yep. Full obligation to buy on expire.

but wiki is better at this than I am.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_for_difference

and Ian is right. 'cept I would add it was people that didnt have the assets to cover their investments is the ture root of the cfd issue...almost all fiscal issues infact.

I was having a go at derivative financial instruments in general... But it's a personal preference of mine to know I actually own a piece of something outright instead of a vauge concept. Yeah yeah, very 20th century of me.

@banal

not so different, a lot of warrants available by retail are essentially CFD.

The margin part is scary, I assume you protected yourself with stop-losses etc. The thing I don't like is you can be triggered to sell by a bounce that has nothing to do with the value of the underlyer. I prefer an option because a) no margin, b) unless you're writing you know your maximum loss (and you can hedge if you are writing) so stop-loss isn't needed so much and c) you can exercise at any time you want.


@mosh

Good way to be.

I day traded with a stop loss inplace incase of internet dropouts. Crazy ? In my case not really. I spent a few weeks doing the math and only exposed a 1/3 of the gravy I had made durring the housing boom. Which is still kicking for Oz.

I chose cfd due to its easy set up and my bank managers ignorace to the real risk. He hated the idea of borrowing for 'traditional' derivatives. Didnt have a clue about cfd.

and I admit knowing next to fuck all about call/put trading.

I invest pretty much all my money into living well and taking nice holidays.

Yeah man, I'm about that too, but I need a future where I can go to NZ at the drop of a hat incase something happens back home.

Yeah like OMGZ IT'S A SHEEP EMERGENCY!

Nick, I didn't sell my stocks during the crash, because then you lock in your losses. With the potential for a rebound I kept everything I held before it. It's money I don't need right now, so I might as well keep it in stocks. I also of course acquired more stocks as the shockwaves hit the markets and it dropped. It dropped some more after I bought, but then I bought more. Now that it's going back up, I'm happy I stuck it out. I have a tough stomach for the ups and downs. I also only invest what I can afford to lose, that won't make me want to kill myself for becoming a destitute schmuck.

I do like your ideas about real estate, and many things I have read say it's THE WAY to create huge wealth and your fortune, but I am also afraid of having my money locked up in something like property. I don't know what the fuck I am doing with real estate, so I am afraid of venturing too far into it with little knowledge. Paying my condo down is a good idea, and I have thought about it, but I don't want to wipe out my savings completely, when paying off the chunk of it. You know the motivation problems I have, and owning more rental property... fuck that scares me.

3. Paying a premium for an asset that depreciates is retarded. Kyle knows this.

Yes. That was a big $37,500 mistake. I can only imagine what that would be worth now if I had done something else with that money 5 years ago, instead of buying the car.

I invest pretty much all my money into living well and taking nice holidays.

Me too. I don't barely get by because of the money I throw into stocks, 401k, savings, whatever. I still enjoy life, while saving. I mean two trips to Japan this year, a whole range of new gadgets and electronics, going to as many concerts as I can stand, eating out nearly 100% of the time. Taking my gal pal out.

A monetarily stress-fee life is good for your health.

Black Sheep - The Movie

So Kyle, what is the % of mortgage that you pay vs. your salary?

mine is like 37% from take home pay.

i'm really not sure what i can do to save more money. it seems impossible to be able to save a significant amount of money out here and also be able to have a good social life. just to go out one night here, probably will set you back $60-$100.

 I used to go out all the time, and still put money away. Carolyn can witness how much I used to blow in bars on whiskey and whatever my friends were drinking. If you're spending only a third of your income on shelter living in North Jersey, you are doing good in that regard.

 Google "pay yourself first" and try that for awhile.

Will do.

Oh yeah, C says, when is the wedding?

 Saturday, October 17th.

 The wedding is in Scotch Plains, and I think the reception is in Berkley Heights.