sarganaga

Having a living trust, durable power attorney for healthcare directives, & financial durable power of attorney makes you safer. A complicit judge can choose to disregard these in some cases. Having 5 or so successor trustees makes it more difficult for the courthouse lizards to have all of them disqualified. The only surefire way to be completely safe from professional guardianship predators is to be completely broke. No money to steal, no problems for you.

Once guardianship has been awarded, it can take years to get it reversed (if ever) even if there was never a need for a guardianship to begin with. Also, the guardian is allowed to use the ward's money to hire the guardian's lawyers & expert witnesses. So, the more you fight, the more your assets are depleted.

If you get to become a ward, there's not really any hope for you. This is the worst thing next to an immediate death penalty & almost no one is talking about it. Young people "know " it could never happen to them.

This New Yorker article https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/09/how-the-elderly-lose-their-rights just scratches the surface of an absolutely evil scam perpetrated by lawyers, "professional guardians", judges, & other courthouse lizards on the elderly. Yes, they can really take your property without due process and with almost no recourse.

My wife still unfortunately has a business in California, but we have managed to physically to escape to another state. The California politicos truly live in a mental fantasy land.

Gazprom (OGZPY) Singapore Telecom (SGAPY)

Crosstimbers Royalty Trust (CRT)

This is what I'm using for Emerging Market exposure ... First Trust Emerging Market Small Cap AlphaDex (FEMS) , which blends value & momentum factors. Not especially pleased with the .8% management fee, but I don't think I could come close to duplicating this on my own & it's cheaper than what the hedge fund/mutual/private account wizards charge. Nice metrics according to Morningstar http://portfolios.morningstar.com/fund/summary?t=FEMS&region=usa&culture=en_US mid 6 figure position fwiw

I had a new 79 Jag XJS back when they still had Lucas electronics. v12 fast and smooth ...when it ran at all. Biggest pos I ever owned. It caught on fire (again electronics) in the dealer's lot when I was trying to trade it in. I think they're supposed to be better now, but styling isn't that great.

Our last indoor cat lived to 20 1/2 before she departed for the great cat house in the sky about 18 months ago. She ate Purina "Kit & Kaboodle" dry food, Friskies Pate (also by Purina), as well as the occasional purloined piece of shrimp or fish. I believe that experimenting until you find food that your kitty actually likes is as important as nutrition labels. We continue to care for a cat herd consisting of one stray and 6 ferals who seem to be thriving well on mostly dry Kit & Kaboodle with wet Friskies 4 or 5 days a week.

In most divorce cases, especially if there are children involved, you start off with the wife getting half. Then they figure out how much more the guy has to pay. Not a judgment, just how it is. maybe/probably even a good thing. Spousal support, child support, maybe they can find a few more things. If Eric could pay 60% and be done, he should probably do it, but he can't. I really think they are angling really large spousal support in addition to child support, which, BTW, is no longer deductible under under the new tax law.l If Eric's wife was still working while he was retired, I would hope his "tiger lawyer" would do something like ask for sole custody of the children and spousal support and child support from her. She was the main breadwinner. Their investments just happened to do well while he was retired. If this were done, the risk in the litigation game would be more evenly spread.

I agree on the pissing contest aspect, but I think passive lawyers can stretch the process out just as much. I also agree that a female attorney could be very effective if she mostly represented males. I do think the gender asymmetry in family law would favor having an attorney that was mostly experienced in advocating for your particular side, regardless of their individual sex. As to the tiger, I want an attorney that will vigorously represent my interests. This means looking for and exploiting weaknesses in the opposition, giving them something to lose especially if they thought there wasn't much at risk for them. I previously wrote that I would offer a lot if negotiating with the wife to avoid court & lawyers as much as possible. I would want my advocate to take a much harder approach if direct negotiation with the wife were unsuccessful.

I agree with this, but it may not matter. I think Eric's wife and her attorney want to convince the court that Eric's income during the bull market should be used as a baseline for spousal support. It doesn't matter what he wants to call it or that it would be almost impossible to duplicate. Their position is that this is what should be considered. They want the money.

FWIW I've been through this a couple of times. If there is any way possible, Eric should try to work out something with his wife. Find out what she wants most & give it to her if you can get some of what you want. Be willing to give more than you take. The way the divorce system works works, the man will be disadvantaged anyway. Don't fight about custody; be concerned about visitation. Even if a separation starts off amicably, the process mostly leads to open warfare. It's obviously in the best interest of the attorneys for it to be this way. This going to be very expensive in terms of legal fees and the aftermath. The wife is trying to establish Eric as a professional investor and use his income from such during the bull market as a baseline for spousal support. If successful, this will be a disaster. The absolutely most important thing for Eric is to get a top notch local attorney who specializes in family law, ideally one whose primary practice is representing male clients. He should be familiar with the local judges and know their biases. He should be a tiger. Until you go through one of these things, you have no idea of how much power domestic court judges have. When my #2 ex-wife decided to court to get more money out of me, the judge hearing the decree modification request interrupted my attorney (on the record) saying that he didn't care what our agreement said or what the previous court had ruled, he was going to decide whatever he wanted to.... and he did. My attorney was not very good. There is a lot of money involved here, judges don't have to be logical, and there is a big difference in attorneys. From what I've read here, I don't have much confidence in Eric'S current attorney. Best of luck to Eric during this difficult process. There is no sugar coating on this.

I've been sitting on this damn thing for more than five years now. [very small position]. I suppose TwoCitiesCapital does, too. Waiting for the gas to flow into China in 2018. We should discuss it more in depth in its separate topic in the Investment Ideas forum. Great idea

Gazprom (OGZPY) I think political and associated "klepto" risks are more than reflected in the very cheap price. While this could have some really nasty surprises, it also has multibagger potential. The ~6% dividend shows at least some shareholder consideration. About a 2.5% position.

Finished buying a 2.5% position in Compass Minerals (CMP)

It looks like they had $130 million in long term debt come due this year, $11 million in 2018, $11 million in 2019, $10 million in 2020, AND $919 million in 2021.Interest expense going forward is a $35 million or less. If they had a 30% drop in EBITDA, I think They'd still be OK for the next few years. The $919 million that needs to be refinanced by 2021 is more concerning if you look at it from a diminished cash flow scenario over the next 3 or 4 years. They also have several tax disputes with the Canadian government, but have already posted deposits that would cover a good portion of the dispute, but worst case could cost them another $50 million +. My misgivings about this are the same as yours. I worry about debt ... a lot. I'm buying it because I think the salt business is a simple wide moat cash machine. I think Produquimica was a good fit for them, although obviously in a more competitive business than salt. It's near multi year lows. Management spells out what is to me a convincing plan going forward, added efficiency in the salt business & growth in the specialty plant input business. I believe them when they say they're going to lower debt. They seem to be shareholder friendly. This will be about a 2-3% holding for me when I finish buying. I will watch the execution of their stated plans going forward very carefully.

Just had a glance out of curiosity. Are you not worried by the debt-to-EBITDA levels? That is concerning to me as well. The increased debt due to the acquisition of the rest if Produquima coupled with the poor relative performance of the salt business due to warm winters have made things a bit tight. They claim to be at the end of an intensive capex cycle. They have also done some restructuring, that along with the improvements at Goderich salt mine, will save $50 million a year. According to their last conference call, they expect to be back at their targeted leverage by 2019. I really like salt business and especially the non correlation aspect of it.

Bought small amount of Compass Minerals (CMP)

New York Realty Trust (NYRT) ... looks like the liquidation of the bulk of the properties will be accomplished pretty quickly.

Originally from Texas. Now 60% Nevada, 40% southern California

A bit more Pardee Resources (PDER)

Here's an excerpt of Grant's article about Bridgewater.http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-11/bridgewater-fraud-here-are-troubling-questions-posed-jim-grant

Here's a good article just posted in the New York Times discussing reactions to the Equifax data breach. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/your-money/equifax-breach.html?mcubz=0