Tru - renovations are good. One of the two I'm working on now needs a reno, there's a trades person going in Monday, hopefully he's done before settlement date and I can move it quickly.

Why can't you leverage your assets? You have no debt, right?

I wanted to do all the work myself. Thought as a poor useless person when I was young that idea might maximize my profits, saving on labor and all. I'm not fast, but I do good solid work. On one property I did everything, fully replaced all of the plumbing, (cut and threaded every piece of pipe myself, water service and waste, as well as gas)  electrical wiring, (moved the entire electrical entrance from one side of the building to another divided the house up over a dozen separate breakers (it originally had 1, ONE 30A fuse!) all fixtures, all windows, all drywall, painting, tile work in the bathroom and the kitchen counter. Even made new doors for all the kitchen cabinets. A complete hand fabricated re-skin of the original carcasses. It's almost like I built the house from scratch.( that would have been easier!)  Replaced half of the roof on the house and all of the garage last summer, ran out of money and good weather so decided to wait until this summer to finish that. The only thing I didn't do myself was install the new carpets in the bed rooms and living room and the new lino in the kitchen. I can't stand the new renters but they are her friends so I don't really even want to finish the work.

While I'm busy doing all that I'm not a mover or shaker as the term goes.

As to why I'm currently fucked is because I have no real resources of my own except the real estate (I make a few K a year on short outside tech projects which have been few these past few years) BUT, all of the real estate is in both our names! And all of the rental income goes to her, she holds the property accounts. I fucked up at the start and let her be the banker-because I am the builder and don't like dealing with people.

When I started out I fully expected to be able to use our holdings as leverage to move on to bigger projects, that was the whole deal from the start.

But once the proprieties were paid off, as a fifty percent owner she refused to allow any of them to be used in any way as collateral.

When I had a chance to buy a decent property for 55k some years ago she refused to allow it. Told me to get a real job and save the money for the down payment and renovations myself.

Like I could go find a job and save any money in time, and then get any work done on it while working 40 hours a week for someone else.

That property sold for 126k the very next year.

That is actually why I went to jail a few years back on so called domestic abuse and why I still feel completely broken today. Shit I don't really even care about sex or life itself anymore.

But I'm still living in the same house (she moved out and took over one of the rentals) and I really do have little debt, the basic bills are covered so I'm not quite homeless.   

Just poor stupid and sad.

Why don't you divorce her?  You live in a community property state, so the assets should be easy to divide.  And she wouldn't be able to hold the purse strings over you, she'd have to split the cash too.  She may also have to pay spousal support, depending on both of your working situations.

It'd at least be worth consulting a lawyer over, if you're truly unhappy.

Well I'm not happy or really unhappy, I just am.
All of my basic needs are taken care of, the insurances, taxes and vehicle registrations get paid and I have good health care.

The problem with forcing a confrontation is it would force the properties to be sold so while in the short term I would have some money in the bank there would no longer be any steady income from the properties and the lawyers would take a big chunk of any profits.

The properties would be gone and I would still have no real regular income. The way I party any short term profit wouldn't last long so I just go along from day to day with little change to look forward to and not feeling much of anything.

Ah hell, maybe I should try to get a full time job and move on that way but the way the job market is there isn't much opportunity for a broken down oldtimer with a sketchy employment history like myself.

I could still stumble into something so I have some hope.
I was asked if I wanted to go to Alaska and mine for gold a while back! LOL

damn, that sucks... I guess. Can you not even borrow against a house to do something?

50-100K houses. Want. In NZ everything is at least 2-3x that, Auckland is the new Sydney is the new San Francisco. On the other hand if you pick your spots at the foreclosure sales stuff is really cheap so that's my vulture target for this year.

Good plan ...
Flint, Mi (the whole town) iis still for sale!

Auckland is the new Sydney is the new San Francisco.

Does that mean Auckland will be thick with homosexuals soon?

Good plan ...
Flint, Mi (the whole town) iis still for sale!

There's good reason why no one wants to by in Flint.
1. Its too cold.
2. There's no work.
3. It's too cold.
4. There's no work.

They're about to auction off the whole state soon enough ...

My goals for 2012 are:

• To pay off my credit card debt by Valentine's Day. I have $3,700 to pay off. - done 2/11/12

• To add another 1% of my salary to my 401k. That means 11% going into my retirement for 2012. I started at 25, in 2006 at 5% and have added 1% since then. done 1/1/12

• To have my car paid off by the 2 year mark of owning it. That is by Memorial Day, 5/30/2012. I have $5,500 to pay off.

Once the debts are paid, I can move onto other things.

I'm really excited. I only have 3 payments left until the car is completely mine! I will make my goal above and it will be only 2 years of owning it and it will be fully paid off. Making financial goals and achieving them is like a natural high. May 30, 2012 I will have paid off a total of $9200 in debt, in 5 months. I need to start thinking of new financial goals for when I'm done with these.
 

I'm still looking at your investment ideas ...

I'm still looking at your investment ideas ... while doing the crosswords and wondering where the finance section got to.

W3rd ...

My goals for 2012 are:

• To pay off my credit card debt by Valentine's Day. I have $3,700 to pay off. - done 2/11/12

• To add another 1% of my salary to my 401k. That means 11% going into my retirement for 2012. I started at 25, in 2006 at 5% and have added 1% since then. done 1/1/12

• To have my car paid off by the 2 year mark of owning it. That is by Memorial Day, 5/30/2012. I have $5,500 to pay off.

Once the debts are paid, I can move onto other things.

I'm really excited. I only have 3 payments left until the car is completely mine! I will make my goal above and it will be only 2 years of owning it and it will be fully paid off. Making financial goals and achieving them is like a natural high. May 30, 2012 I will have paid off a total of $9200 in debt, in 5 months. I need to start thinking of new financial goals for when I'm done with these.

Start a business to generate passive income and have that money buy your investments. Trust me when I say this is an addictive way to structure things.

Kyle, build up some capital and come build us a bowling alley!

Fuck that; a waterpark!

Kyle, build up some capital and come build us a bowling alley!

And a Lawn Bowls club... for 35 years down the track

Bocci all the way, bitches!

Kyle, build up some capital and come build us a bowling alley!

Caine's Arcade


Do it yourself. If 9 yr old Caine can do it so can you : P

Si, is the demand there for a bowling alley? Or is it just you wanting one? Whatever the case that is a total travesty that you guys are that neglected.

So, the "hail Mary" I posted about Feb 11 is coming to fruition. As I said I put $20k ( nearly all my savings) into Zagg. Currently I am up ~12% ($2400). They post earnings next Thursday, May 3rd and I'll be holding on to my seat for the rocket ride. The $40k margin I used to buy more Apple shares on Monday of this week has made me ~$2600 as well. I haven't sold either Zagg or Apple yet, so the profit is still on paper. But if I do between my LinkedIn trade, my Zynga trade, Zagg and Apple I will be in the black $9000 this year!  So maybe soon I will have some capital I could use for new ventures...

What about your Lion's Gate and that other one you had the boner for a month or so ago?

Lion's Gate is at -$420 and Millenial Media is at -$162. Lion's Gate is one I will be holding long-term so  am not worried about where it is now, but Millenial is a short to medium term play. Both Zynga and Zagg were as well and you fluctuate between gains and losses and I have the patience to wait them out until I can meet my profit goal. Overall I own stock in 12 companies, with 8 being long-term holds, and the other 4 being swing trades. (short to medium term) I don't day trade though. Total current profits if I were to sell my winners including long term would be ~$13000 and if I sold my losers I would lose ~$3000 on those, to come out with a total of $10k profit. I am not selling: McDonald's, GE, Visa, the 10 shares of Apple I bought in 2009, Lion's Gate, Zipcar, Sprint, or Bank of America because these are the long term stocks. Silicon Image, Take Two Interactive, Zagg, and Millenial are my swing trade holdings along with the 69 shares of Apple I bought on Monday on margin.

so i'm going to be poor forever and ever and am going to become one of those old ladies sleeping inside the subway station on a piece of cardboard, probably.

yep, that's what happens when you go into fashion design and go to school in fucking Virginia and not NY.

Bagman tell me how to save money when i don't have much money to save to start with. learning about the stock market seems like an impossible task.

i have roughly $300 a month extra. is it smarter to put a portion of that into paying off my mortgage sooner, or put it all into savings & retirement?

Wait, that depends on the term of your mortgage. The faster you can pay that off the sooner you can relax about being put on the street.

tricky, I'll be your sugar daddy; sex is required.

The simplest way to save money is to not spend it on shit, like clothes, eating out, cable TV, etc. It's not some magic advice, it's just common sense. Do you have other debt besides your mortgage? Do you own a car? Personally, I am paying an extra $50/month towards my mortgage just for the heck of it. But I am paying much more towards my "bad" debts which need to be eliminated first. If you have credit card debt, pay it off first before worrying about saving much. Mortgage is not a "bad" debt to have so that one can wait. Paying it off faster will save you a lot of interest charges over the 30 years, but again there's no rush.  Pay off other debts first, and build up a savings. At some point, you could/should start making money with your savings. Either by buying CDs, earning interest in a "high-yield" savings account (unfortunately there aren't many around right now), investing in the stock market, etc.

Open up an account with http://www.zecco.com in your spare time. You can play in the stock market with "funny money" - free fake stock trades and stuff. That's how I started learning back in the early 2000s.

I am glad my parents were complete and utter fuck ups when it came to money and I had the worse childhood because of our money problems. They taught me how lessons on the value of a dollar and that I never want my life to be like it was back then. If your parents didn't teach you money lessons (either directly or indirectly) it's going to be a little tougher to understand it and make decisions.

Wait, that depends on the term ofPay off your mortgage. The faster you can pay that off the sooner you can relax about being put on the street.

My parents taught me to be extremely conservative and ignore advice from wealthy friends and not make money. However they taught me how to not spend much of it for which I am grateful.

Trix - if you're not interested in the stock market do not put any money into it. Kyle does ok because he likes it and studies it. I do real estate for the same reason. I haven't owned a stock in 15 years.

Here's the advice I gave my sister, who has similar zero interest in the markets and is a school teacher so doesn't make a lot of money. Steps to be followed somewhat in order but obviously some happen at the same time....

• Pay off all your credit cards and consumer debt
• Replace the cards with ones which get you airline miles
• Cook - try to eat out for lunch at most once a week and dinner once a fortnight
• Pay off school debt
• Buy a cheap home & pay if off as quickly as possible so you can rent it out and buy another one
• Figure out a form of passive income that interests you and start working on that
• About here you could start a family without hurting financially
• If at this point you're interested in the stock market or FX and have some spare cash which is not needed for any of the above, take a holiday first and THEN invest

The reason I put the market last is for her losing $5,000 in shares would be a disaster any earlier.

Lion's Gate is at -$420 and Millenial Media is at -$162. Lion's Gate is one I will be holding long-term so  am not worried about where it is now, but Millenial is a short to medium term play. Both Zynga and Zagg were as well and you fluctuate between gains and losses and I have the patience to wait them out until I can meet my profit goal. Overall I own stock in 12 companies, with 8 being long-term holds, and the other 4 being swing trades. (short to medium term) I don't day trade though. Total current profits if I were to sell my winners including long term would be ~$13000 and if I sold my losers I would lose ~$3000 on those, to come out with a total of $10k profit. I am not selling: McDonald's, GE, Visa, the 10 shares of Apple I bought in 2009, Lion's Gate, Zipcar, Sprint, or Bank of America because these are the long term stocks. Silicon Image, Take Two Interactive, Zagg, and Millenial are my swing trade holdings along with the 69 shares of Apple I bought on Monday on margin.

What's your home debt and interest rate?

It's structured so that I have two loans, saving me from having to pay PMI (private mortgage insurance) every month.

One loan started at ~$73600 and is now at ~$68000, at 6.5% interest and the 2nd loan started at ~$24500 and is now at ~22500, at 8.6% interest. I bought the condo in 2006 at 25, when interest rates were of course, not nearly as low as they are now. I can't believe this September I will have been living here 6 years and how I've only paid off $2k of the principal on that loan with the higher interest rate in 6 years. That's sick and sobering. 

I want to pay off the 2nd loan with higher interest rate pretty quickly, and I thought about just using most of my savings to pay it off. But I am now fully invested in the market (minus $2500 I kept in my savings account for emergencies).

I would love to rent my place out, but our HOA has implemented a cap of 20% on the total number of leased units in my community. Which is good because owner-occupied keeps the value of the units up, but bad because there is a waiting list (I don't even know how many people are on it right now but probably lots) that you have to get on if you want to ever rent your unit out. So I'm kind of stuck right now, with not being able to get a second place unless that second place is actually the place I rent out.

Leasing policy: http://io.dyndns.ws/BLVDHOA/?page_id=312

1. Pay off all your credit cards and consumer debt (don't have any)
2. Replace the cards with ones which get you airline miles - i get points on my current CC, which can be used towards buying airlines tix, or towards paying the card off, or towards buying gift certificates. so far i've only done the first two. should i still get one that ONLY gives airline miles?
3. Cook - try to eat out for lunch at most once a week and dinner once a fortnight - yeah, i'm pretty bad about this. need to get better at following this advice.
4. Pay off school debt (parents paid for school)
5. Buy a cheap home & pay if off as quickly as possible so you can rent it out and buy another one - i already bought a cheap home which i'm living in now and am paying off. is paying it off quickly more important than saving money or putting it in 401K or roth ira? especially when interest is tax deductable?
6. Figure out a form of passive income that interests you and start working on that - i have some interest in starting a second hand clothing boutique online, but am not sure if that's what you mean here?
7. About here you could start a family without hurting financially (not really interested or concerned about this. haha)
8. If at this point you're interested in the stock market or FX and have some spare cash which is not needed for any of the above, take a holiday first and THEN invest

the good thing about my situation is i'm at a place where i can sustain myself every month and the only debt i have is my mortgage (which is 30yr loan, 5.4% fixed, and i'm in my third year of paying it), so any raises i get from here on out is just extra money. also i put $50 extra into paying down the principle every month which will shave 5 years off the loan, but could put more down on the principle per month.

oh, thanks bagman, definitely going to try out zecco.

my parents taught me about money. i got bank accounts and a CC pretty early on in life (like 17 or 18, i think). they didn't really teach me much about how to make money off of the money that i have, however.

If I'd saved when times were good, I'd be pretty well off. I didn't.

If my dad had bought several pounds of gold like I wanted him to when it was $32 an Oz I would be pretty well set today. But all he left me were a few old coins an old truck (that I still drive) and massive hospital debt.

Maybe I could have skipped out on the debt but at the time I felt it was my responsibility. Well, that was a long time ago.

Now I have to skip out on my own DUI fines, well sort of, they did confiscate my tax returns this year! I made payments on the fine for over a year and a half but just haven't been able to keep doing it. I still owe a little over 2k.