Best family outing - toss up between Yellowstone and Goblin Valley/Little Wildhorse Canyon/Calf Creek Falls trips. Best family adventure year yet, and those outings were easily the overall highlights of the year.
Most fun races - in order of rank: CX races, Adventure race, then 12 hours of Mesa Verde.
Best performance - I didn't have one that went well enough to qualify - but Annie's Mtn bike leg at the adventure race and her cyclocross season most certainly do.
Most painful mistake/lesson - Eating a stupid lite breakfast (as in 1 pack of instant cream of wheat stupid)at Park City Point to Point and getting into a fuel hole too deep to get out of early in the day. Lesson - by the time it hit me and I realized the problem, it was too late to get it fixed. Better to stay well ahead/overdo it on the fueling, than risk getting anywhere near a deficit. Close second is thinking I could run a half marathon on the back end of a half iron man distance tri more or less cold turkey and be ok. This actually hurt worse than the PCP2P situation, but the suffering lasted only about an hour vs. a whole bunch more than an hour at the bike race.
Favorite race - Iron Horse Classic
Favorite new race - had to create a seperate category as favorite race was a draw between the Iron Horse and the Moab Adventure Race with Annie, so we'll call the Moab Adventure Race the favorite new race due mainly to partnering up with my wife for it. 12 hours of Mesa Verde get's honorable mention for favorite new race in 2010.
Monopoly Adventures:
First year I've indulged in what we'll call borderline fanatical behavior - Did some sniffing around about good, stable, and promising places to live and give my kids a good launching pad into their adult lives in a favorable environment to reap what they choose to sow......... outside the US. I'll call this fanatical behavior because I'm a fairly optimistic guy, and think we've got a good chance of things working out ok here in the good ol' US of A - but... certain views and attitudes that seem to have come to the surface during this cycle in numbers I was nieve to bothered me enough that we started to think as deep as plan E and plan F and put some non-local locales on a short list of places that might be favorable in case the preferred place we've planted roots for said lauch pad becomes a less favorable option at some point. No, I'm not calling for John Galt to come and get me and the clan, and that's why we'll call this fanatical behavior, but if it reached that, I've got specific dirt, in a specific valley well clear of the blast zone on the radar.
Top biz enjoyment - seeing some of the high pucker factor decisions made back at the real scary part of this cycle working out ok. These were all relatively small in regards to capital outlay, but did it's intended job of limiting/eliminating damage taken during the initial violence in which the bottom fell out of everything back in 08', so far at least... with an emphasis on so far...
Top biz frustration - aside from going through the weird burnout/funk that seemed to hit 85% of the workforce - mine was spending a significant amount of time doing DD on potential business acquisitions (non bank related) only to not find the right one to pull the trigger on. Not certain that I wasn't just a little late to the game and maybe missed a period of once in a lifetime type opportunities in this regard - but not certain all the opportunities have been missed yet either. Have a few friends who swung at a few pitches we saw and hope they prove me to be a little gunshy, and that they hit it out of the park. Continuing to keep the ear to the tracks in this regard, but maybe not as intensly in the new year as we think we can get back to growing the biz I babysit at the bank, which makes the day job a little more stimulating and fun than the mind numbing water treading it's been through this recession. Close second here is the larger(relative term)investment in the commercial RE project that still looks to be a ways out from getting unsideways. Still thinking we may be able to make it work out real well, but the holding period is, and will continue to be for a while, longer than I'd prefer. Also dealing with some misjudgements on some competencies I thought we had in the group/management that have taken more time/attention than the passive investor position I intended my role to be. Valuable learning going on though, but it's the kind a guy bitches about until your done with it.
Overall the year felt more exhausting than I think it actually was, which I'll attribute primarily to that weird workforce funk I mentioned - weird in that during a period where a guy was happy to have a job, there sure were a lot of us who went through a phase of hating them. And aside from the abnormal amount of time spent in the burnout cave, have to call it a fine year of health and happiness, one we'll look back on as a good one.
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Recession refinements and silver linings
Silver Linings from the recession:
Mortgage rates - Refinanced at 4.60%, fixed for 30 years. Awesome.
Gas Prices - Ok, they're creeping up, but it was good while it lasted, and it still feels kind of cheap compared to where we'd been.
Good reminder to me to keep in mind how my grandparents viewed finances - whole different concept than my generation, and probably a much healthier and wiser view in my opinion.
Phenomenal entry points into positions in the market, happy to report we're back to outperforming the health savings account, still don't feel home free, but made up for what were some ugly losses there for a bit. Not sure what they look like in 5 years, but pretty sure I like it in 10.
Stuff, in general, has been cheap. From cycling goods to things for the kids, to travel, to everyday items, we've been getting more bang for our buck and picking up some fun things we wouldn't have otherwise bought, were it not a screaming deal.
Stuff we learned:
Scary how fast everything went sideways. Thought we'd been prudent in regards to savings levels, diverse investments, etc... decided I want a bigger cushion. I knew things had been too good and easy for the past 10 years, but dramatically underestimated and was nieve to what the breadth of the pullback would be like. More money allocated to savings as a result of this ride, not sure what the new target is, but will know when I get comfortable again.
Biggest investment/business venture is the one that's still sideways - and probably will be for a while. Thought I was abundantly prudent with exit strategy on this one, and long term prospects may actually work out better than what I went in anticipating. But calling a spade a spade, would have been significantly less worried had that cash been sitting in the bank vs. deployed during this cycle. Hopefully get away with getting both the benefit of the lesson learned and the ROI, will feel like I stole home base if it works out that way.
Really good time to reassess the mindset we want to teach our kids in relation to luxuries, necessities, hard work, and where a dollar comes from. Especially grateful for this one as I don't want to screw it up.
We did implement some cost cutting measure's in order to get the Whitehouse leaner and meaner coming out of this recession as follows:
Whitehouse layoffs:
Lifetime Fitness - even at employee pricing it got cut, just couldn't drag myself there with Corner Canyon in the backyard - hence, it got the pink slip.
Cleaning lady - Kids are now learning to be more efficient at cleaning up after themselves and collecting allowance. And, maybe even Dad here and there, minus the allowance, although consistently at the bargaining table for an increase in other currency related to marriage.
Some travel expenses - was an automatic last year to book decent hotels for trips. Opted to camp at Durango this year, and low and behold, we had more fun. Have gone back to hotels for the last several long weekends, but due primarily to weather. Camping is now on the radar and will be part of the rotation when practical. Much cheaper, and more fun. A win/win moreso than a cutback, really.
Restaurants - We're doing a better job of planning and preparing meals vs. going out. Another win/win. Most nights it's better, healthier food, and cost difference is significant.
These are just a few. We've been able to divert cash that was being spent on this stuff to savings, and I'm ashamed at how much money we were capable of wasting and for how long we did it.
Overall - don't feel like we're out of the woods by any means, still spooky, but have stepped back from the ledge a bit. Feel a little bit smart and a lot lucky thus far. No 180's in regards to how I look at things or how Annie and I run the Whitehouse, but it's ingrained certain ideas much deeper than what they'd been. Think this shake out has been really healthy in the big picture, scary as hell with lots of good lessons to learn in the less big picture.
Mortgage rates - Refinanced at 4.60%, fixed for 30 years. Awesome.
Gas Prices - Ok, they're creeping up, but it was good while it lasted, and it still feels kind of cheap compared to where we'd been.
Good reminder to me to keep in mind how my grandparents viewed finances - whole different concept than my generation, and probably a much healthier and wiser view in my opinion.
Phenomenal entry points into positions in the market, happy to report we're back to outperforming the health savings account, still don't feel home free, but made up for what were some ugly losses there for a bit. Not sure what they look like in 5 years, but pretty sure I like it in 10.
Stuff, in general, has been cheap. From cycling goods to things for the kids, to travel, to everyday items, we've been getting more bang for our buck and picking up some fun things we wouldn't have otherwise bought, were it not a screaming deal.
Stuff we learned:
Scary how fast everything went sideways. Thought we'd been prudent in regards to savings levels, diverse investments, etc... decided I want a bigger cushion. I knew things had been too good and easy for the past 10 years, but dramatically underestimated and was nieve to what the breadth of the pullback would be like. More money allocated to savings as a result of this ride, not sure what the new target is, but will know when I get comfortable again.
Biggest investment/business venture is the one that's still sideways - and probably will be for a while. Thought I was abundantly prudent with exit strategy on this one, and long term prospects may actually work out better than what I went in anticipating. But calling a spade a spade, would have been significantly less worried had that cash been sitting in the bank vs. deployed during this cycle. Hopefully get away with getting both the benefit of the lesson learned and the ROI, will feel like I stole home base if it works out that way.
Really good time to reassess the mindset we want to teach our kids in relation to luxuries, necessities, hard work, and where a dollar comes from. Especially grateful for this one as I don't want to screw it up.
We did implement some cost cutting measure's in order to get the Whitehouse leaner and meaner coming out of this recession as follows:
Whitehouse layoffs:
Lifetime Fitness - even at employee pricing it got cut, just couldn't drag myself there with Corner Canyon in the backyard - hence, it got the pink slip.
Cleaning lady - Kids are now learning to be more efficient at cleaning up after themselves and collecting allowance. And, maybe even Dad here and there, minus the allowance, although consistently at the bargaining table for an increase in other currency related to marriage.
Some travel expenses - was an automatic last year to book decent hotels for trips. Opted to camp at Durango this year, and low and behold, we had more fun. Have gone back to hotels for the last several long weekends, but due primarily to weather. Camping is now on the radar and will be part of the rotation when practical. Much cheaper, and more fun. A win/win moreso than a cutback, really.
Restaurants - We're doing a better job of planning and preparing meals vs. going out. Another win/win. Most nights it's better, healthier food, and cost difference is significant.
These are just a few. We've been able to divert cash that was being spent on this stuff to savings, and I'm ashamed at how much money we were capable of wasting and for how long we did it.
Overall - don't feel like we're out of the woods by any means, still spooky, but have stepped back from the ledge a bit. Feel a little bit smart and a lot lucky thus far. No 180's in regards to how I look at things or how Annie and I run the Whitehouse, but it's ingrained certain ideas much deeper than what they'd been. Think this shake out has been really healthy in the big picture, scary as hell with lots of good lessons to learn in the less big picture.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
-- = +, or, Addition by less subtraction
Everything is relative. You ask your neighbor (or yourself) a few months back what it would feel like if his house, retirement and investments took a 15-20% hit at the same time that having a steady paycheck was becoming a source of stress and nervousness, and it would have put a knot in your gut. And for a lot of folks, here they are a few months later wondering if/when that knot is going to go away, and thinking that the idea of only having lost 15-20% of their assets wouldn't be all that bad, if only the hemoraging had stopped there.
Or like back when gas was $3 bucks a gallon. $3 bucks a gallon sucks now, but when you'd paid $4 bucks a gallon last fill up, it was kind of exciting, right? James Paulsen said it best, "hell, I wanted to go dump out the $4 dollar gas I had in the tank, just so I could refill it with the $3 dollar stuff".
Then you've got folks who are in a race against time with this thing, slowly burning through reserves each month, hoping this turns before they finally hit the end of the rope one month when outflow finally breaks the back of inflow and savings, then it's game over. Sad prospect to think that having to start over from scratch may actually be a relief relative to watching years of work get ravaged by this cycle and trying to hang on, but knowing the security you thought you had was dying a slow, cruel death.
Hopefully you've been able to hang in there and have managed through it, and even better, take advantage of some pretty fantastic opportunities. Here's the deal from my perspective..., for what it's worth. Things still ain't good, but the trajectory at which their getting worse is flattening out just a bit, and that folks, is a pretty thrilling prospect, as you've probably seen in your investment accounts over the last month. Is your house gonna be worth less than it is today next month - probably, but it's starting to feel like it's a little less probable that a couple more of your neighbors will lose their jobs, which means a few less foreclosures, which means it'll only drop 2% instead of another 5%. Does a 2% drop suck - yep - no doubt, especially relative to what it was doing back in 06'. But it feels like a big relief today right? Sure does to me.
So things don't even have to get good to run the fear out of the room and loosen up those knots in you and your neighbors stomachs. Less bad is the order of the day, and it seems to be here. If housing prices have been a 2% suckhole to the GDP number, that number leveling off to only sucking 1% will get the cash on the sideline excited. It ain't a gain, but it's a positive. It's a screwy math they didn't teach you called addition by less subtraction, and if you've hung in there, it will be worth your attention for the next little bit.
Or like back when gas was $3 bucks a gallon. $3 bucks a gallon sucks now, but when you'd paid $4 bucks a gallon last fill up, it was kind of exciting, right? James Paulsen said it best, "hell, I wanted to go dump out the $4 dollar gas I had in the tank, just so I could refill it with the $3 dollar stuff".
Then you've got folks who are in a race against time with this thing, slowly burning through reserves each month, hoping this turns before they finally hit the end of the rope one month when outflow finally breaks the back of inflow and savings, then it's game over. Sad prospect to think that having to start over from scratch may actually be a relief relative to watching years of work get ravaged by this cycle and trying to hang on, but knowing the security you thought you had was dying a slow, cruel death.
Hopefully you've been able to hang in there and have managed through it, and even better, take advantage of some pretty fantastic opportunities. Here's the deal from my perspective..., for what it's worth. Things still ain't good, but the trajectory at which their getting worse is flattening out just a bit, and that folks, is a pretty thrilling prospect, as you've probably seen in your investment accounts over the last month. Is your house gonna be worth less than it is today next month - probably, but it's starting to feel like it's a little less probable that a couple more of your neighbors will lose their jobs, which means a few less foreclosures, which means it'll only drop 2% instead of another 5%. Does a 2% drop suck - yep - no doubt, especially relative to what it was doing back in 06'. But it feels like a big relief today right? Sure does to me.
So things don't even have to get good to run the fear out of the room and loosen up those knots in you and your neighbors stomachs. Less bad is the order of the day, and it seems to be here. If housing prices have been a 2% suckhole to the GDP number, that number leveling off to only sucking 1% will get the cash on the sideline excited. It ain't a gain, but it's a positive. It's a screwy math they didn't teach you called addition by less subtraction, and if you've hung in there, it will be worth your attention for the next little bit.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Fear is the wildcard
I spent the latter part of last week in Dallas at some bank meetings with a few of our business execs, and you'd better believe that the tension/excitement levels at these meetings is pretty high quality in an economy like this. We had a few folks there who are pretty sharp cats, one of whom you might recognize from the occasional CNBC appearance or WSJ quote. Guys with a good macro view of the situation the country's in. Lot's of data, lot's of ways to interpret the fundamentals (data), and a few scenarios of ways this thing could play out. Will say that this one's pretty darn similar to previous rounds dating way back, in a whole bunch of ways. But it's very, very different in one regard in particular - Fear. Some of the fear is certainly warranted, some of it probably inadvertantly manufactured in various ways. But it set in pretty solid last quarter, and set in deep enough that we've now got a problem with negative feedback loops, fancy lingo for the risk of that fear overtaking the fundamentals and turning itself into a cycle of self fulfilling prophecy - and it got out of the barn.
My personal stance? In the words of a pretty damn good businessman I know - "Don't waste a good crisis" - and I think my grandpa, who's no longer around but from whom I used to ask for stories about the dust bowls and the depression, would have been pretty impressed with this one.
My personal stance? In the words of a pretty damn good businessman I know - "Don't waste a good crisis" - and I think my grandpa, who's no longer around but from whom I used to ask for stories about the dust bowls and the depression, would have been pretty impressed with this one.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Yep - I'm one smooth cat
Late post tonight, Tony and Shannan scored $500 courtside tickets to the Jazz vs. Raptors game which was being aired on ESPN so it started late. OK, I'm exaggerating on the ticket price, they were only $477 a pop. Whole different animal watching from down there vs. the seats I'm willing to pony up for, and instead of the $3.00 hotdogs we were fed like kings both pregame and at halftime - on the house with those tickets. Annie and I had a blast, thanks Tony!
Couple of random items:
1 - I've been buying back into the market slowly since October, some days feel smart, some days feel like I'm rolling the dice poorly with cash I should be more careful with. But, I'm optimistic that I'm gonna pay for my kids college education with a relatively small cash outlay over the next year. Does this economy suck, yep, and I work in an industry that's ground zero for the mess. But really, I'm serious in that I think I can get the 800 pound monkey of expensive tuition off my back with just a little dry powder being used in the near future. And if it continues to go the other way, well, dry powder probably ain't gonna matter a whole lot then anyway.
2 - Here's the smooth cat story. I got new tires for the cross bike yesterday so took it for a spin at lunch today over at the draper course where the race will be held tomorrow/this morning. It's at the equestrian center so it's common to see a few horsetrailers in the parking lot as the cyclists share the phenomenal corner canyon trail system with the folks riding horses. I grew up on a cattle ranch so happen to have a built in fondness for horse folks, mostly because I is one. So, the events leading up to my smoothness were entirely natural. It starts when I come around the fast corner on the pavement on the easternmost section of the course - the corner straightens out and transitions from the blacktop to a loose gravel/dirt surface. I come around the corner pretty fast, and there's a gal - late 40's/early 50's coming across the parking lot with two horses. It's not what you think - there was plenty of distance. I didn't spook her or her horses and cause a big wreck there, nor did they spook me - it was a very controlled and warm encounter as we made eye contact and acknowledged each other. And being the gracious people that most horse folks are, she followed the eye contact with a wave. This is where it got a little ackward. I'm still going pretty fast, on an uneven gravel surface. So when I sit up, pull a hand off the bars to wave back, and hit a hole with my front tire, I have absolutely no shot at recovering. I can save some pretty out of control situations on a bike, but no way it was happening here. Right smack in the middle of my hi, it's a beautiful December afternoon, parade style wave, I go down - hard! And then skid for a bit. I get up, dust myself off, and this nice woman proceeds to take some responsibility for the incident by apologizing to me for waving. I fake laugh to hide the pain grimaces, and explain that it's my first ride since taking the training wheels off, and that I need more practice before attempting advanced tricks like waving with only one hand on the bars.
She makes sure I'm alright, I make sure she retracts her apology, and we go back to what we were doing before the ridiculous afternoon drama. I ride off absolutley baffled at how she could keep her composure and not fold over laughing after seeing that. So a bit later I've got a couple of more laps in and am coming up to the crest of the little climb up the road just as she's pulling out of the parking lot. She waves again. I look at her, look down, brake until I come to a stop, put a foot down, and then take a hand off and wave back. She finally gives in a cracks up.
Couple of random items:
1 - I've been buying back into the market slowly since October, some days feel smart, some days feel like I'm rolling the dice poorly with cash I should be more careful with. But, I'm optimistic that I'm gonna pay for my kids college education with a relatively small cash outlay over the next year. Does this economy suck, yep, and I work in an industry that's ground zero for the mess. But really, I'm serious in that I think I can get the 800 pound monkey of expensive tuition off my back with just a little dry powder being used in the near future. And if it continues to go the other way, well, dry powder probably ain't gonna matter a whole lot then anyway.
2 - Here's the smooth cat story. I got new tires for the cross bike yesterday so took it for a spin at lunch today over at the draper course where the race will be held tomorrow/this morning. It's at the equestrian center so it's common to see a few horsetrailers in the parking lot as the cyclists share the phenomenal corner canyon trail system with the folks riding horses. I grew up on a cattle ranch so happen to have a built in fondness for horse folks, mostly because I is one. So, the events leading up to my smoothness were entirely natural. It starts when I come around the fast corner on the pavement on the easternmost section of the course - the corner straightens out and transitions from the blacktop to a loose gravel/dirt surface. I come around the corner pretty fast, and there's a gal - late 40's/early 50's coming across the parking lot with two horses. It's not what you think - there was plenty of distance. I didn't spook her or her horses and cause a big wreck there, nor did they spook me - it was a very controlled and warm encounter as we made eye contact and acknowledged each other. And being the gracious people that most horse folks are, she followed the eye contact with a wave. This is where it got a little ackward. I'm still going pretty fast, on an uneven gravel surface. So when I sit up, pull a hand off the bars to wave back, and hit a hole with my front tire, I have absolutely no shot at recovering. I can save some pretty out of control situations on a bike, but no way it was happening here. Right smack in the middle of my hi, it's a beautiful December afternoon, parade style wave, I go down - hard! And then skid for a bit. I get up, dust myself off, and this nice woman proceeds to take some responsibility for the incident by apologizing to me for waving. I fake laugh to hide the pain grimaces, and explain that it's my first ride since taking the training wheels off, and that I need more practice before attempting advanced tricks like waving with only one hand on the bars.
She makes sure I'm alright, I make sure she retracts her apology, and we go back to what we were doing before the ridiculous afternoon drama. I ride off absolutley baffled at how she could keep her composure and not fold over laughing after seeing that. So a bit later I've got a couple of more laps in and am coming up to the crest of the little climb up the road just as she's pulling out of the parking lot. She waves again. I look at her, look down, brake until I come to a stop, put a foot down, and then take a hand off and wave back. She finally gives in a cracks up.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Sportscenter now playing a distant second fiddle
Good chance it's just me, and that it's because I got a degree in finance and work in the world of banking (pronounced fin-ance by those who are legit, fi-nance by undergrads or less legit finance folks - forgive the rudimentary pronuciation cues, you'd never guess I also minored in english) but I suspect that it's not just me and it's not just because my career is in the world of finance.
I haven't watched Sportscenter for about 2 months now. It's because any time I've got the tv turned on, I'm glued to channel 23, CNBC, the new Sportscenter.
I heard the World Series may wrap up this week - who cares.. back page news right now for the finance folks, and probably a whole lot more folks.... OK, so I'm not a baseball fan to begin with, but you get my drift. There's going to be a fine line this time around between who gets sunk and who makes a bunch of money coming out of it... remember the mantra of the stud swine of the pen - pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.
I haven't watched Sportscenter for about 2 months now. It's because any time I've got the tv turned on, I'm glued to channel 23, CNBC, the new Sportscenter.
I heard the World Series may wrap up this week - who cares.. back page news right now for the finance folks, and probably a whole lot more folks.... OK, so I'm not a baseball fan to begin with, but you get my drift. There's going to be a fine line this time around between who gets sunk and who makes a bunch of money coming out of it... remember the mantra of the stud swine of the pen - pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.
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