Stars above................................................

Yardbirds......................................................For Your Love

 

Opening paragraphs........................

One Saturday in 2000, some unsuspecting moviegoers showed up at a suburban theater in Chicago to catch a 1:05 p.m. matinee of Mel Gibson's action flick Payback.  They were handed a soft drink and a free bucket of popcorn and were asked to stick around after the movie to answer a few questions about the concession stand.  These movie fans were unwitting participants in a study of irrational eating behavior.
-Chip Heath and Dan Heath,  Switch:  How To Change Things When Change Is Hard

Unsteady as she goes........................

......But the truth is that America's whole public sector still operates in a financial never-never land.  Uncle Sam offers an array of "entitlements" that there is no real plan to pay for.  Barack Obama is on his way to joining George W. Bush as a president who did nothing about that, while Republicans in Congress imaging they cam balance the books without raising taxes.  The government spend more on health care than many rich countries and still does not cover everyone.  America's dynamic private sector is carrying on its back an unreformed Leviathan.  Detroit is merely a symptom of that.
-As excerpted from The Economist, The Unsteady States of America

Fifty years ago.....................................

The Beach Boys.................................Be True To Your School

33 Guidelines for investing in real estate..........

Guideline #14:  Cash flow sometimes equals deferred maintenance.

If you are buying an asset from a seller who is boasting about the cash flow generated by the investment, be very careful.  Another word for "cash flow" is "deferred maintenance."  It is fairly important to maintain your investment.  Deferring maintenance may save money in the short term, but it deferring it too long often leads to rent reductions and lower quality tenants. It is a bad spiral to be in.  The fixes don't get cheaper.  Yes, it costs money in the short term, but regular maintenance extends the life of both real and personal property and preserves the quality of the asset.  It is a discipline that really pays off in the long run.

It Was A Very Good Song...............

Frank Sinatra...........(in the studio).....It Was A Very Good Year

 

A classic that has been posted before.  A wonderful 7:10 minutes.  Thanks for the reminder Ann

A national pastime......................

     Building alibis with which to explain away failure is a national pastime.  The habit is as old as the human race, and is fatal to success!  Why do people cling to their pet alibis?  The answer is obvious.  The defend their alibis because they create them!  A man's alibi is the child of his own imagination.  It is human nature to defend one's own brain-child.
     Building alibis is a deeply rooted habit.  Habits are difficult to break, especially when they provide justification for something we do.  Plato has this truth in mind when he said, "The first and best victory is to conquer self.  To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile."
-Napoleon Hill, as excerpted from Think and Grow Rich

Opening paragraphs...................

If you leave Savannah on the coast and travel on the only U. S. highway that goes almost straight westward across the state of Georgia, you will cross the Ogeechee, Oconee, and Ocmulgee rivers, all of which flow to the south and east and empty into the Atlantic Ocean.  After about three hours you'll cross the Flint River, the first stream the runs in a different direction, and eventually its often muddy waters empty into the Gulf of Mexico.  Unlike the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains, our "divide" is not noticeable, because the land was all part of the relatively flat bottom of the sea in the not-too-distant geological past.  It is still rich and productive, thanks to the early ocean sediments and the nutrients it has accumulated from plants and animals since that time.
-Jimmy Carter,  An Hour Before Daylight:  Memories of a Rural Boyhood

Fifty years ago........................................

The Beach Boys..............................Catch A Wave

 

Perspective..........................

"I think it is just terrible and disgusting how everyone has treated Lance Armstrong, especially after what he achieved, winning seven Tour de France races while on drugs.  When I was on drugs, I couldn't even find my bike."
-Willie Nelson

thanks eman

33 Guidelines for investing in real estate.....

Guideline #13:   Budget for vacancy/credit loss

We often see investment property owners prepare pro-formas on their property without a line item for vacancies or credit losses.  "My property is never vacant," they say.  Right.  If you have a long term lease with a "credit" tenant, that might be true for a while, but for the overwhelming number of investment properties, rent loss is a fact of life.  Few are the tenants that you can count on renting from you forever.  And, just because a tenant occupies your space, it doesn't necessarily mean you will collect all the rent due you.

In the old normal times (whenever those were), we normally used a vacancy/credit loss factor of 3% to 5%.  In these new normal times, a range between 5% and 10% should be considered.  Markets do vary considerably.  Your market may have an extremely low vacancy rate today.  What that most likely means is that in the not-to-distant future developers will be doing what developers do, adding more units to the market place.  Those newer units will tend to bring the market back into balance, i. e. vacancy rates in the 5% range.

Do yourself a favor, budget for vacancies and credit losses.  You'll be glad you did.

On letting go................................................

     All day long the mind and soul are enmeshed in countless relations and contacts, truths and errors, virtures and vices, the din of the market, the folly and fury of the streets through which we pass, and it becomes soiled, jarred, shocked, fevered, often exalted and often sinking into despair.  In short, what happens to the hands and body also happens to the soul;  it becomes soiled, worn and disfigured and needs cleansing and renewing, and to do this the soul must have to "let go" what it is doing, what it holds and open itself, uplift itself unto the source of its Life, which is God.  But it cannot do so unless it learns to "let go."
-John S. Bunting,  The Secret of a Quiet Mind


cartoon via

On letting go.........again..............

“Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.” 
-Ann Landers

via 

Up in arms...................................

Mason Proffit................................................Two Hangmen

 

Fifty years ago...........................

Jack Lemmon/Shirley MacLaine.......................Irma la Douce

 

As long as I can remember anyway.........

33 Guidelines for investing in real estate..............

Guideline #12:   Budget for management.

Always.  It is a temptation when making a small investment in real estate, such as a single family house,  not to include the cost of management in the original income and expense projections.  We think this is a big mistake.

Successfully managing real estate investments take time, discipline, and some acquired learning.  If you are managing your own investments, pay yourself for your time.  Not only are you earning it, but that way, once you get tired of it, there will be money budgeted from the cash flow to pay a professional.

On reading self-help books.......................

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing—that's why we recommend it daily."
-Zig Ziglar

Speaking of workable philosophies........

via Ka-Ching!

Ponder this one for a while.....................