randomep Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 that is a very comfortable life in the midwest. Just the midwest? LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james22 Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 Good question. I'm FI, so a lot of it is because I enjoy investing. But a) can never be too hedged against any market crash or black swan, and b) while returns diminish, I'm pretty sure more wealth will increase my happiness level - some experiences are simply expensive (track days, poker runs, $100 hamburgers, etc.). I'm willing to work several more years and take some investment risk for those experiences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgis Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 Crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their women! I hate to disappoint you, but I think you're in the wrong profession. You should take up investment banking instead. Sure. Just crush a man's dreams why don't you. Well, he can also invest in BAM I guess: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/investment-ideas/too-teekay-offshore-partners-l-p/260/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hjorth Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 ... b) while returns diminish, I'm pretty sure more wealth will increase my happiness level - some experiences are simply expensive (track days, poker runs, $100 hamburgers, etc.). ... James, on behalf of Sharad, Jeff, [DooDiligence] and I , I simply have to ask : This hamburger price, is it about quality or quantity? We're genuinely interested as NVO investors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjs111 Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 The $100 hamburger is an aviation term. It's what you do on a nice Saturday afternoon. Rent a Cessna, fly for a couple of hours to another airport, grab a bite to eat at the airport diner, and then head back. Mike (has gone for the occasional $100 hamburger) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregmal Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 Work a couple more years and then get a municipal job and just invest my own money and live life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hjorth Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 Thank you for elaborating this term, Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DooDiligence Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 Thank you for elaborating this term, Mike. The last $100 hamburger I had was in a PA-18-105. It would practically leap into the air & was pretty good on gas. You could land it nearly anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hjorth Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 Work a couple more years and then get a municipal job and just invest my own money and live life. Greg, It reads a bit funny to me. Personally, I'll bet it's no-go for you, based on your posts here on CoBF. I think of it - in general - that this may be below your margin of boredom. Naturally, I may be wrong, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spekulatius Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 Work a couple more years and then get a municipal job and just invest my own money and live life. The LI railroad pays average salaries comparable to engineering salaries. You probably can nab while waiting for your pension. As for myself, I just want to the richer than my neighbors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG2008 Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 This is going to be a lengthy answer because I will include the WHYs 1) Financial Independence - There were two events that really stood out in my life/career that puts me on the path to want to gain financial independence. During 2008/2009, I was a RE investment banking analyst at Citigroup when Citigroup's stock went below $1 per share. It had traded in the $40-50 range when I started in late 2006. There were a lot of 40-50 year old relationship bankers in the Private Bank and Smith Barney side who had really long faces during that time. I was a young guy in my 20s who hustled and worked hard. The 40-50 year old guys/gals never really developed tangible skill sets such as investing. But they did develop soft skills like catering to wealthy millionaires. Their jobs were pretty much glorified concierge services to the millionaires and billionaires that Citigroup served. In late 2008, a lot of those guys on my floor realized that their skills were worth $200-300k a year only if a large financial institution like Citi continues to exist. Without the various fiefdoms of Citigroup or another large financial institution, they really had no stock picking, investing, or "profit generating" abilities. As Citigroup continued to lay off people, I realized that eventually they will get rid of me as well. But I was in my mid 20s, young, hungry, and hustled, and I had just discovered this guy named Buffet. So I decided that I was going to the Berkshire meeting in May 2009 if I got laid off. The 40-50 years old on my floor were terrified of what might happen. What I learned is that they never really saved and invested. They became accustomed to the expensive lifestyles of eating out and renting summer houses. Many of them pay up for rental apartments in NYC. But no one owned anything really. They mostly spent their $200-300k salaries. Plus their Citigroup stocks were junk paper at this point. I made up my mind that day that I will continue to invest in myself and my ability to invest. The second incidence is more of the cumulative experience of my teenage years. I have shared my experience of how a Chinese take out restaurant works and how slim the margins are. I have tried to analyze why my dad behaves a certain way, I believe that if someone is willing to get on a boat and come to the US from China, he's probably got a bit of risk taking genes in him. Anyway, my dad in his 30s were rather quick to take risk. We opened a second restaurant when we could've focus all of our energy in our first restaurant. The 2nd restaurant winded up being a complete flop and we lost about $100k in 90s term. That was actual monetary loss and about 2-3 years of dividing between an original restaurant that performed decently but lacked attention and this new venture that never took off and sucked the soul out of us. We finally cut our losses and focused on our first restaurant. By the time, we came around to that realization, the first restaurant was about 8-9 years old and it needed a refresh. Given that we just lose $100k, we did not have the cash laying around to invest another $50-70k into a restaurant refresh. So my parents being the scrappy immigrants that they are, decided to play a bit of game of working capital maneuvering and delay paying our vendors and milked the cashflow. What they did not understand at the time is that you can kind of work with your suppliers and draw out the payment terms by up to 3 months. But you can't really mess with your home mortgage, restaurant rent, and various utility bills. This is kind of common practice in China at the time. Sometimes you don't pay for 3-6 months and then you pay the entire bill in one fell swoop. I was about 12 and the best English speaker in my household. I got a knock on my door one day and a guy from our bank giving us a service notice for home foreclosure. I was 12 and learned a very early lesson on what happens if you don't pay your mortgage in two consecutive months. I asked the guy "why would the bank do this to us? We are good for it. I found out how much legal fees we now accrued etc." I remember we paid $240k for the house and we had a $180k mortgage on it at about 8-9% interest (yes, early 90s interest rate). I was terrified that we might lose our house and we maybe homeless. The worst thing is having to explain this to my parents. I grew up really fast that day because I learned how foreclosures work. The terrifying thing about my teenage years is that it was in essence going from one chaotic shit storm to another chaotic shit storm. Home foreclosure, building department citation for illegal construction without proper permit, health department citation, rent past due, improperly installed HVAC system which may cause pilot light to go out and create an explosion. My wife and I have talked about how if we buy a house, I want to do what Buffet did and either own it 100% equity or set aside 3-5 years of cash mortgage payment to service the mortgage. I have a 2 year old son and I never want him to get a knock on the door when he's 12 and have to learn from a stranger what a foreclosure is and why it is a terrible thing. Surprisingly, my family somehow manage to own a few buildings now. Due to luck, we correctly bought some rental units in Queens when only colored folks lived in Queens. Rent has gone up quite a bit and interest rates have dropped. In short, all my siblings own a rental building each. Over the years, I have grown to appreciate the economics of owning a rental building in NYC. I used to look at it from the perspective of earning a yield. However, when you can leverage with 30 year fixed rate fully amortized non-recourse debt, it creates very interesting opportunities. In short, my cost stays largely flat. But I get to extract 1/3 of a tenant's monthly income for each unit that I own. It sounds diabolical, but it is the economic reality of owning real estate. I will provide part 2 of my goals in another of my updates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woltac Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 1. Independence 2. Independence 3. Independence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DooDiligence Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 To play piano in a whorehouse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LC Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 To play piano in a whorehouse. Screw my previous goals, i’m all in on this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG2008 Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 To play piano in a whorehouse. Screw my previous goals, i’m all in on this one. Screw my previous lengthy rationale for financial independence, I just want to play the triangle in a house of pleasure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkbabang Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 As for myself, I just want to the richer than my neighbors. If you shop around for the right neighborhood I'm sure you can accomplish this immediately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgis Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 To play piano in a whorehouse. Screw my previous goals, i’m all in on this one. Screw my previous lengthy rationale for financial independence, I just want to play the triangle in a house of pleasure Hey guys, no cutting in line! >:( http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/berkshire-hathaway/another-charlie-classic-for-all-time!/10/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgis Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 As for myself, I just want to the richer than my neighbors. I'd rather be poorer than my neighbors. They'd less likely rob me then... No, seriously. And the neighborhood is nicer if they're richer than you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 The reason i invest is i absolutely love it. And i always have. As a kid i used to roam the neighbourhood looking for empty bottles so i could turn them in for $. Today i love everything about investing... the intellect, learning the eternal truths, the change, the challenge, the wins, the hard lessons (usually only many years after the fact), the emotional challenges, the camraderie, this board... and the financial payoff (my investment success has allowed me to live a much more rewarding life). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jobyts Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 My 10th grader daughter loves to work with special need kids. It's not going to be a lucrative job. I would like to provide her the financial independence so that she can do the job she loves. Back in the days, I really loved theoretical physics and math, but had to go for an engineering career. Couldn't really love the engineering job, even though I could make some decent sum of money that I would have never dreamed it I had stayed with pure sciences. Happy with the money part, but missing the opportunity to pursue the dreams still haunts. I do not want my daughter to make the same mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james22 Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 Thank you for elaborating this term, Mike. The last $100 hamburger I had was in a PA-18-105. It would practically leap into the air & was pretty good on gas. You could land it nearly anywhere. Yep. I'm looking at a Tecnam Astore. Hard to justify today given other activities competing for my time (golf, boating, traveling, etc.). Very expensive when could only use several times a month. Greater wealth would make it possible to enjoy the flying experience rather than worry if the cost per hour was worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DooDiligence Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 To play piano in a whorehouse. Screw my previous goals, i’m all in on this one. Screw my previous lengthy rationale for financial independence, I just want to play the triangle in a house of pleasure More cowbell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DooDiligence Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 Thank you for elaborating this term, Mike. The last $100 hamburger I had was in a PA-18-105. It would practically leap into the air & was pretty good on gas. You could land it nearly anywhere. Yep. I'm looking at a Tecnam Astore. Hard to justify today given other activities competing for my time (golf, boating, traveling, etc.). Very expensive when could only use several times a month. Greater wealth would make it possible to enjoy the flying experience rather than worry if the cost per hour was worth it. Holy cow, I just looked up Super Cubs on Trade-a-Plane. I thought they'd be a fun & affordable option with little or no AD's to service since they're so friggin' old. https://www.trade-a-plane.com/search?make=PIPER&model_group=PIPER+SUPER+CUB+SERIES&s-type=aircraft&user_distance=1000000&user_zipcode=32507 Turns out they're more expensive than a loaded SUV (a lot more fun though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petec Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 To play piano in a whorehouse. Screw my previous goals, i’m all in on this one. Seriously?! Surely you can think of better things to do if you're ever in a whorehouse ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DooDiligence Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 To play piano in a whorehouse. Screw my previous goals, i’m all in on this one. Seriously?! Surely you can think of better things to do if you're ever in a whorehouse ;) If you're a competent pianist in a whorehouse, you will be hip deep in free poon. I could draw you a map of Brasil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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