esrosedotblog

Today was a day of financial mishegas.

Somehow we have missed the first payment on the new Volvo. I don't think we ever got the bill.

It is one of those things that, by definition, they are right and I am wrong and there is no point in debating it one way or another.

I walked the check for the first payment to the mailbox today.

I don't like it when shit like this happens. I am worried that it will "tarnish my reputation". The fact is that my reputation and credit rating is sterling. We bought the car "on time" as an alternative to leasing. I have not bought something on time for many years.

But when one is on the wrong side of the credit folks it is irrelevant that years have gone by since the last time there was a problem.

They were nice and so was I.

Perhaps that is the end of it.

Labels: finance

TAKING MY MEDICINE

Our new financial guy is coming today to meet us and to talk about our financial "future" or at least the financial present.

I spend as little time as possible talking with these people. They always want to do something.

I do not want to do anything at all.

But every once in awhile, I have to take my medicine and sit through a "talk" about my money. It is not tasty and it is not nice. But it is necessary.

The call, set by me, at our house is precipitated by the fact that our old financial guy, a woman, moved on to greener pastures. Or away from worn out pastures for her.

She wanted us to go with her but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

We have been with who we have been for many years. 20?

My finances, though not very complex, are complicated enough that I do not want to muddy the waters and simply leave one fund which has been churning out very good returns (12%) for a firm that, while nationally known, is terra incognita for me. To say nothing of the potential of mistakes all around in making the change. IRAs, bonds and other time rated issues are involved.

So, here I am. Making a new aquaintance.

It is like changing doctors. I don't much look forward to that either. When it happens, which it will, I will be as reluctant to go through it all again. The history, the current state of affairs and so on. The same thing I will have to do today.

I have already had my brush with the new team. It is actually a team of three and not an individual manager. I like the two people who I have actually worked with. This is the head guy. No rapport as yet.

We will see.

I am always suspicious that new brooms want to sweep clean. Overtures have been made that would indicate his interest in telling me about annuities or mutual funds. I am not interested. I got out of all that years ago.

I do not fear the markets. Shit, I have been through the two worst downturns of my life and still face the wind of the market. It is bracing. It is clean. No middle men.

We will see.

At least I am not in the same state as Jim Kramer when the meltdown began.

Labels: finance

BIZZY WEEK

No movie today. I am going to an early supper for someone who is celebrating 20 years of sobriety. Unusual for me, but I like this young woman a lot and have learned a lot from her in Meetings and by being my grandsponsee for a period of time.

Tomorrow is calm. A movie day for sure.

Tuesday is the tough one. A no nap day, perhaps.

First thing a short meeting with a sponsee. Then, the Apple service guy is coming in the morning to transfer the new iMac from John to me. John is taking his old one back. The 18 incher. It turns out he is not impressed with the big new one with the newer operating system. When his machine poops out we will get it fixed and then, eventually, he can face the music of change. Or not. Deferral is always to our advantage in matters such as this. There will be more changes but, who knows, they might be better ones.

And I will have what I wanted in the first place. A 2011 iMac that still has the DVD player as the new one will not. And when will the new one be out anyway? Doesn't matter now.

After all this computer stuff, I have a haircut in the afternoon. Always a bit of stress there. Don't know why. Not my favorite thing.

Wednesday, we meet our new financial guy. Our long term manager from Smith Barney, now Morgan Stanley, moved on and we didn't move on with her.

The new guy is a bit like the guy we had long ago who you can hear wanting to sell an annuity program or a mutual fund. No dice.

It is too late. I have been with Smith Barney longer than he has. So long that it is still Smith Barney to me. I like my plan, a managed fund of 2/3 equities and 1/3 bonds and I am sticking with it. I am paying them well to manage it that way.

But, he means well and I will be kind.

We do need to meet him as he is John's link if anything happens to me. When something happens to me. And he should hear my "philosophy" from the horses mouth.

Face to face is better. We have already had a few small skirmishes. I do not want to alienate him but he is at our service, not the other way. Hard to let these guys know that I like the clang and clash of the market. To see that I own a piece of the Riverside California Water Authority. Things like that. I own about 200 stocks. Spread out in teeny pieces. P&G, Apple, the bigger ones. Some companies I don't even know what they do. But it works. This managed fund has stayed ahead of the market right along even in the crash.

Thursday, it gets quiet again. Perhaps a movie.

Meanwhile, the clang and the clash.

Who wouldn't want to be in the middle of the melee. In a second life, I am coming back as a commodities trader.

Labels: computer, films, finance, life

LITTLE POSTS

I went to Doctor Jim today for my semiannual checkup. This is not the big on with the EKG. It is mostly a finger job for my prostate cancer. Even after 16 years. Twice a year. Also a PSA.

He also does other touchy feely stuff. A blood pressure. There will be some lab tests on top of the PSA. Tomorrow. So far so good. I told him about my goal of living until 90. He says 93 would be a better guess and that only because it is his experience that even the long lived begin to fall apart after that. That said, he has several 90+ year olds and they haven't started on the feeble thing yet.

Incidentally, if you think that time passes more quickly as you get older, you are right and the 90s claim it has continued to speed onward.

That means that the fast living people live longer or is it the other way around. The longer you live the faster you are.

Never mind.

I got my 2011 tax returns from my accountant today.

I don't have to pay any tax because they owe me money.

Oddly, or not, it feels like I don't owe them anything. That I am home free.

Even if it is my money that they have. I already paid it.

It is the old funny thing.

This goes right along with the people who have their tax withheld and hope to get a refund. They are so happy! A gift!

Never mind that they have already paid that money and got no interest on it.

But the illusion of a bonus somehow makes them happy.

It just shows how accessible happiness really is if you strike the right attitude. Even if it is based on an illusion.

The weather has gone to shit here just as my ex-business partner is here to play some golf. We are seeing them tomorrow for dinner.

It shows how long I have been here that I actually care that they get the right impression of how great the weather is here compared to Florida where they have chosen to retire. Where summers are unlivable at the humidity at any temperature. Dew point disasters.

It is the old sun-spot rivalry. Our heat is better than yours.

We don't have heat this week. In fact they are predicting 3-6 inches of snow on the mountains above 5000 feet.

Well, they don't have THAT in Florida.

But there were a bunch of rainbows this morning. That rain and sun type of rain. Showers just making it over the mountain on the west while the sun rises in, well where else, in the east.

Labels: finance, health, weather

DATA DUMP

I did the collection of tax data today.

It gets simpler every year.

Last year there was a lot of flotsam and jetsam as a result of the selling and buying of the house/condo transactions.

This year, none of that.

I am pleased to discover that we were able to cut our annual expenditures to just about half by moving. Maybe even a little better. And we are not living frugally by any means. More in the upper middle of the middle class life style.

We are still in the process of trying to secure joint return status for the three years plus that we have been domestic partners (marriage has nothing to do at the fed level).

It is still a vast mess within the IRS. Lost papers all that.

But we are patient and when that clears up we will be in even better shape on what we pay on what we "earn".

Earnings now are all Social Security and spinoff of our mandatory IRA annual withdrawal. That and income and interest on the nut. The market is as good as it has been for three years and we are back where we were when the financial collapse started. In those golden Bush years.

I only look at this shit once a year and this is it.

There are some minimal maintenance that has to be done during the year but this is the big look.

The ex-chequer is in pretty good shape.

Labels: finance

SAGA CONTINUES

I posted that I had a fraudulent use of my AMEX card in Las Vegas while I held the card in my hand here in Palm Springs. So weird.

They said it was swiped through the reader in the store. They can now transcribe from one card to another without touching yours. Mostly gas stations which don't have secure readers on the pump. My friend Youssef who owns three Gulf stations in town spent $60,000 to get them after Citibank came and opened his pumps to find readers installed. Easy to do. People have the keys to the pump and just set them up. They read remotely.

It was very upsetting. I won't have to pay any of it and in CA you only have to pay $50 dollars max. They went to Macy's, $900 plus and then to Burberry where they spent over $2000, having made it through Macy where we have a history of some bigger purchases. I got the fraud alert while I was at my machine and we pulled the card immediately. I had to change at all the sites where I have an automatic payment set up. Not too many.

I figure that I got mugged at a gas station so today when I got gas, I paid cash and intend to do so from here on out. It is 5 cents per gallon cheaper for cash anyhow. Since this happened almost every other person I told has had a similar experience. It is epidemic.

Labels: finance

JINGLED DAY

The boys put up the LED icicles today.

One turns out to be one of the flashy ones, at least three programs as I could count them.

So much for my arch assessment of the carnival glow of the house down the street, although our glow in three flashes and cascades of light are more tasteful.

I think. We are waiting for dark to see how they look. There is always the plug to pull.

Also today my favorite card holder in the shape of a abstract nordic deer that looks more like a swan.

We got our first card yesterday. They beat us.

No other holiday developments although I see John getting more stuff out of the storage.

I have had some hassle as I used the wrong checkbook to pay out some big money. The big money should have been written on a different account.

A quick run to the bank quickly took care of that problem and they did not bounce the check. Fortunately the one that came up short was a check from me to me at the other account. I could explain this but the fact is there is no explanation than, as John reminds me, we are getting OLD.

Shit.

But most days are good and a little more self monitoring is called for. Slowing down. Easy does it.

It has been busy for two weeks and I am tired. One more interview tomorrow and then I expect a longish break between events.

It didn't help that I got "the people's" cold. Everyone we know has had, is having or, it seems, will have it.

This is what happens when you hang out with a crowd that hugs and kisses more than is healthy for them.

But that is a small downside, one cold a year, for the hugs and kisses.

Is it news that gay people tend to kiss and hug a lot? Men and women.

My belief is that we generally lacked enough of the right kind of physical contact through our adolescence and are still catching up. Or, having caught up, we like to hug and kiss and do it as much as possible.

I kiss men in the gym and in the supermarket and don't think much about it anymore. I can sense when the other won't be comfortable and pull back a bit but that is not very common.

Of course, I can kiss lesbians as often and wherever I want and no one will wink an eye. Strange world, eh. All that shit on the surface. It is like La Bachman said yesterday. Gay people can marry as long as it is with the opposite sex. Well, of course! That is exactly what she has done with Marcus!

Labels: finance, gay life, holidays

LIFE DEATH AND OTHER SURE THINGS

I got all my paperwork together for the 2010 tax returns.

It was a brilliant year. Sold a house, bought a house. A lot of paper.

But it didn't take it too long.

I am on Quicken and I am good at saving the receipts.

Right down to the last minute I could not find the work sheet for buying the condo.

Shit.

And then it appeared in a folder within the folder where I keep the quarterly return paper. A slip of the hand.

Now it is a matter of photocopying it and sending it to the accountant.

It has been bugging me for a few days so the best way to debug is to just do the work.

Done.

Labels: finance, life

BEANTOWN NO LONGER A BACKWATER

I still have some Boston pride.

It is good to see that the city is in the running along with New York, of course, for most busy financial fraud.

Boston emerges as a major hub in insider probe

A highly photoshopped night view of the Boston Financial District.

When I was a kid, I came to Boston in 1958 and the tallest building on the east side was the Customs House seen on the right, the clock. And in the Back Bay, there was the old John Hancock building with the weather light.

All the rest is since then.

Well, that was almost 60 years ago.

Labels: Boston, economy, finance

I TOLD YOU SO updated--link to Weill's Wikipedia listing

I have been a long time customer of CItigroup, particularly the Smith Barney division.

Over the years, I had a front row seat to the carnival wrought on the company by Sanford (Sandy) Weill, the founder and maker of the company and now, one of the founders and makers of the economic collapse.

I don't know what caught my attention many years ago. It was quite early. About the time that he wed the Travelers with the Salomon.

It might be the fond self regard, the arrogant empire builder who gloats in his victories, the anti-regulation stances, his reputation as the man who smashed Glass-Steagall, the Depression-era legislation that contained core financial regulations. The repeal allowed for the creation of Citi and helped feed the Wall Street boom.

Or maybe it was the sly look. The panache.

I saw a bullshit artist.

But a very good one.

Soon Salomon gobbled up my broker, Smith Barney.

I watched and commented frequently to my Smith Barney friends who even, from time to time, forwarded my diatribes to management. Or said that they did.

The company grew and grew. It took in Citibank and became Citigroup. Wow. More more more.

And then he was out. Gone but not forgotten. Still connected but not heeded. His decisions about his successors were as bad as many of his structural ones. They shut him out.

How do you spell hubris?

Sandy Weill was not only a pirate but an incompetent one.

He walked the plank.

This profile in todays NYT helps give some dimension to the enormous damage that Weill and his ilk perpetrated. And will never pay for it beyond their own financial losses. Half of a billion dollars is how much?

And, of course, the damage to his infinite self regard which will never be seriously dented. He is still pointing the finger.

What a shit.

Citi’s Creator, Alone With His Regrets.

Labels: evil bastards, finance

STAYING THE COURSE

I stayed with my stock portfolio. Or, to put it another way, I stayed in the market. I didn't run.

Now, I feel vindicated.

Patience, Please, With That Investment Plan

Actually it wasn't much of a decision to stay with the market. I had no place to go.

I cannot understand anyone's going to cash. Or bonds. My financial constitution cannot digest interest rates that low.

And I believe that what goes down must come up. It is nature's way. Cycles.

I didn't know how fast it would happen but I knew it would happen.

In the early days, I believed in TARP and other federal steps to assuage the panic.

When Obama came in, I was politically committed to believe that his actions were the right ones to take.

If these Bush/Obama actions were meant to maintain confidence, it worked with me.

All this added up to staying with what I had.

And now, I have more than half of it back.

For two years or less, I took out expensive dollars from my IRA. The values had dropped so I was taking out dollars that were close to or less than the dollars I had put in many years ago. That is as good as cash or bonds. At least the bonds that let you take money out and cash them in early without penalty.

But, as it turned out, I was only using these "deflated" dollars for a short time.

A lot of this is also luck. Luck that I have financial coaches who said to stay. Luck that I am too lazy to think too much about the market and over analyze it. Luck that I have the kind of managed fund, not a mutual fund, that I think optimizes return although I don't like paying the fees every quarter. They are relatively small compared to the kind of money we are talking about.

I am also most lucky in being in a market that believes in the future and has rebounded faster than anyone thought it would at any time before it rebounded.

It could, of course, go all to shit in a short time. But so can I.

Labels: finance

SPENDING WHILE GAY

This isn't a whine but I have always believed that it cost more to be a gay couple than straight.

Not because of the extra clothes required or the entertainment demands of "the gays" who are known to frequent more broadway shows and spend their time in fancy restaurants.

I mean the hard day to day business of living. For example, John and I do not enjoy the benefits of joint Social Security and when one of us dies there will be no survivor benefits.

But even early on in life, there are costs. Little things add up. No joint tax returns, although we do file jointly in California now. That means two prep bills. Not much but you get the idea. Also all the legal documents we have to prepare to make us as much a couple as "the straights".

Finally, here is some data. A study. Not exhaustive, a little boring but instructive nonetheless.

The High Price of Being a Gay Couple

There are a few savings. We do not pay as much federal tax as couples do. The so called "marriage penalty" which has never been fixed.

We guys also don't have to put out for the more expensive clothes that women require especially when they work. I am reaching.

It isn't a big deal. We are not the average. We have been very fortunate. I have never worried about the cost of being gay in dollar terms or, quite frankly, in social terms. At least not once I came out. I didn't and haven't looked back once.

I would do it all over again and would be married to my man no matter what it cost. The result is priceless.

Labels: finance, gay life, gay marriage, gay rights

EXACTLY MY POINT

Where Did All the Wealth Go? To Our Kids.

And I never really had the money in the first place.

I might even get some of it "back" before I die.

I will have to sell the house at the same price I bought it plus some improvements before I really "lose" something.

And I will have to use up all my retirement funds before I, maybe, hit a point where I came in.

The chances are very good, if I live long enough, that I will get back the money I never really had in my portfolio.

Think about it. It will make you fell better as this particular rally subsides and the market falls back some, or more, before it begins its inevitable return to where it was before.

Now, there are some people that bought at the top of the market. That is a whole different story.

They expected the real estate and the stock markets to continue to increase. They will. But there will be a longer period for them. In which case, maybe it is the kids who will get the bennies.Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan

Labels: economy, finance

MINIMAL

I got the word from my accountant this morning.

My quarterly payments were pretty much on the money (so to speak) and any money I have to pay or get refunded will be "minimal".

A good word, "minimal". I like it.

I certainly do not want to pay more than I have already paid in and, as a long time quarterly payer, I don't want the government to have one cent more than they are due one second before they are due it.

They do not pay interest on that money.

Some people I know still say to themselves "OH! I am getting a refund".

Just like they won the lottery!

Shit. It is your money!

Interest is not too high anywhere these days but still.

I must say that the IRS and the State do pay interest on a settled claim after the fact.

On two occasions, I have submitted revised returns and they have paid me interest even though the reason for the delay was really my lack of diligence in declaring certain deductions.

And they pay pretty good.

This also happens if you have an audit and come out on the positive side.

But not on withholding or prepayments.

Anyway, this is good news and I am glad to have it.

For 2009, I don't know that I will have any impact from the new tax reductions. I will let that evolve like everyone else who is not sure.

The wage earners will see it in their checks in April I understand. Not the prepayers. Well, maybe. I gotta ask.

Labels: finance, life

TAXING TIMES

You may remember that I got a bill from the IRS in December. Said that my money manager had a different number than I reported for income.

They thought I owed them over 15,000.

Yikes!

We went through the paper and found that either the IRS misinterpreted my manager's report or the report was misleading. Whatever.

We filed a revised tax return that explicitly showed no gain on the big dollars. So, 6 weeks later I have a letter that closes the case. They think I may still owe some money. Five dollars. But I must wait for a bill.

Sooner or later they will figure out that it is costing them more than it is worth.

Anyway, it is nice to have this off my mind. I never thought I would endup having to pay the dough but I didn't like the feelings I had during the process.

I was audited once.

Years ago, an auditor showed up unannounced at our company. He went over the corporate books and, because we were closely held, he had to do one of the partners. I stood up for it.

Both the company and I got a "no change audit" meaning that we were exactly in compliance. Not over or under the amount owed.

Such outcomes are rare. We were the first for this auditor.

As a result, I think, I was not audited ever again even though, at times, I have had a quirky return.

I have always done my taxes on the basis of doing it right. Pay no more nor less than I owed.

We never managed our company to the tax code either. Many have but it is a fool's errand. The wrong end of the bat.

We surely did manage our compensation so that it was to the maximum advantage but never took a step beyond that.

Same now.

I hope this glitch doesn't mean I am going to be looked at routinely. It is OK if they do. I am really very simple now. Easy to see. No place to hide. And I don't think that I am worth it.

But if they have me down to 5 dollars, I guess there is no amount too small.

Labels: finance