Monthly Wrap Up

As November comes to a close, its time to take stock of where things are. It has been a long month.

For one, my net worth is in a very nice place. I finallly broke $80,000 in net worth. It has been a long journey. The next target is 90K.

My latest options play is starting to come around as well. Back in October I put in a option spread on January heating oil futures. With only a few weeks left until expiration, the trade has started moving in the desired direction. Woo hoo! I'll continue watching it today, as I may have to close out the spread soon. After I get my credit card completely paid off, I'll start moving funds back into my commodities trading account.

I made a small but successful trade on SUNW. I will continue watching that one, because I do believe there is more upside there. Maybe once I get equity options trading enabled on my brokerage account, I'll start trading calls on SUNW as well. That's the plan right now. Keep watching as I detail my adventures with SUNW.

The next big move I plan to make is on the startup front. I've got a great idea, and I think I've found the perfect partner to help me make it reality. We'll sit down tonight to discuss some of the features of our product and how to start building them together. I think this one may require outside investment in the near future, but we'll see. I plan to hold onto as much equity in this venture as possible, as the potential of this idea is, in a word, obscene.

All that said, let's keep moving and growing. I've been listening to Earl Nightingale's "The Strangest Secret" since yesterday. This came as part of a kit of materials from my membership in a local real estate investors group. I plan to continue playing this whenver I am at home, to embed its lessons into my mind. Good stuff!

Until next month...maybe...

Hmmm...

Is this it?

Status

This is just a quick status update.

Busy week. I came back from Atlanta on Tuesday. The drive was far longer than it had any right to be, but oh well.

This Millionaire Mind Intensive (MMI) was good. Although I preferred Harv's style and method, the trainer (ha!) for this MMI was good. Very relatable guy named David Wood. For those who aren't familiar with T. Harv Eker and his MMI, I would simply point you to his web site at www.peakpotentials.com as well as this post I made over on Single Ma's Fabulous Financials. (I couldn't actually find a permalink to my post, so I linked to the entire thread. Just scroll down to my comments.) While I would never consider the MMI to be an advanced course in financial management, it sets out some nice simple ways to reframe your thinking about and relationship with money. I found it helpful to focus my mind when I first took it in May. Of course, Peak Potentials is a business. I reckon that Harv has made as much, if not more, money training people to manage/invest their money than actually doing it. However, I would not say it is without value. As anyone familiar with the MMI will recall, its about taking and applying in your life the pieces that work for you and leaving the bits that don't. Eventually, I plan to take more of the courses Peak Potentials offers, but that will be at a much later time. Right now, I am focused on applying in my life what I have learned from the 2 MMIs I have attended this year.

On Wednesday, I had my first closing on an investment property! Woo hoo! Now its a matter of wrapping up some details. The process was fairly straightforward, but OMG my hand was killing me from all the signing. I need to get a stamp, because handwritten signatures are clearly not feasible over the long term if I'm going to do real estate in any volume (which I plan to do).

In the coming days, I plan to start setting up a new business. While I'm not at liberty to go into details right now, I expect that to change over time as I build it out. It looks very promising so far, so my main objective is bringing in the proper resources to make it as viable as I think it can be.

So I go now. I have to finish reading John Mauldin's latest e-mail. As well, I'm tired. Just saw Alex Bugnon live at Blues Alley in Georgetown. Good stuff, man! I have a new appreciation for his work, and I plan to keep up with him in the future.

Until next time...

Recommended Reading

I receive Michael Nystrom's announcement list and it is always an interesting and brief read. (The importance of brevity cannot be understated.)

Here's a nice collection of stories - 1, 2 and 3 - that he has published recently. Fascinating stuff to a part-time history buff like me, and it always helps to maintain perspective in times like these. History does rhyme, as Mark Twain apparently did not say.

Out of Town

I have to apologize for the long lag in posts. I have been in Atlanta attending T. Harv Eker's Millionaire Mind Intensive for the second time. Maybe I'll report on that later. But for now, I've got a long drive back home tomorrow so I need to get some sleep.

Until next time...

Net Worth Update

Time for a breakdown.

First, I've finally broken $80,000 in net worth. It has taken a loooong time to get here, so its even sweeter! I was on a roll last year and then hit a wall around 70K, as detailed in Net Worth Hump.

Anyway, even factoring in about 2K in credit card debt that I put on for basic household expenses and my California trip, I am currently just shy of 81K in net worth. This coming Tuesday, I'll be paying off a third of that bill so that should enhance my position a bit more. Things are coming along nicely. Too bad I'm going to take a short term hit due to a car accident on Thursday night. Some woman decided to hit me instead of taking a hit, or *gasp* slowing down, when someone was going to hit her. So now my driver's door won't open on my car, and I will need to rent in order to get a vehicle to drive to Atlanta this coming Thursday.

*sigh*

Its not that its a problem. I have emergency funds for this reason. But its a damn inconvenience. I do know that that her insurance company (USAA) will be paying for all of my damages and expenses. I made sure to call the police so that there is some objective record of the events. No witnesses pulled over to give statements, however. Considering that she apologized profusely to both me, my passenger and the cops, as well as the extensive damage to my vehicle and minimal (non-existent) damage to hers, I think its clear who is at fault.

What a waste of time.

The Little Book of Value Investing

Something that was sent to me by a friend. Being a value groupie at heart, I enjoyed it. Hopefully you will too. I'll have to add this to my reading list.

http://tinyurl.com/yyemse

Balancing Act

Spent some time this morning working on my portfolio rebalancing. I used to do this almost monthly, if not more often, but I've scaled it back recently. I don't want to incur additional trading fees, even in the tax-deferred accounts, for constantly making portfolio changes. Just not worth it.

Its a bit funny. The old 401(k) (aka the good one) is approaching 30K on nothing less than market action. Since moving into this new 401(k) (aka the bad one), the old/good one has languished. I'm thinking about rolling it into a self-directed Roth IRA but I'd like to avoid those additional trading fees as long as possible (or reasonable anyway).

Anyway, most of the action will be in the taxable account. I'm looking at picking up some PRMSX and eventually some TREMX. These will be long term holdings to round out my international holdings. I'm a bit torn on the TREMX though and there's still a chance I will just move onto the FI side and avoid the TREMX altogether. We'll see. I'm looking for a bit of weakness in the near future to help make the purchase more palatable. But again, these aren't trades.

Speaking of which, it looks like I have to call my brokerage AGAIN and get the options trading stuff re-sent. *sigh* This is why I hate moving.

Until the next time...

Goodbye SUNW

Closed out the SUNW trade. Yeah, the trade that was supposed to be a covered call play. Not a huge profit, but a profit is a profit (after taxes, too!). Now the proceeds will get shuffled into an international fund. I have one in mind, but I need to revisit my selection to make sure it is still reasonable. The fund has gone up about $5/share since I started looking at it. They only have a $2500 minimum but it may be wiser to spread the funds around to some of my other investments first. We'll see.

And the SUNW calls didn't do enough to make it worthwhile anyway. Oh well. Maybe at the end of this quarter.