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The Time & Money Group Celebrates 1 Year Anniversary

March 31st marked one year for me sans 9 to 5.  I can hardly believe that year has come and gone so quickly. I am happy to report that my wife and I are still driving the same cars, living in the same house and going on the same vacations as we did when I had the 9 to 5.  The only noticeable difference is that I don’t have nearly as many miles on my car, since my commute to the office has been reduced to a walk down stairs. 

If you are not familiar with my story – one year ago I chose to walk away from great job in all aspects excellent pay, high quality of work and great people to pursue my dreams of financial independence.  Many people shook their head in disbelief as a walked away from a job that had taken me to Hawaii twice and all over North America.  A job where playing golf and dining at fine restaurants with customers is expected.  I must admit that THIS is the only thing that could have taken my away from that place. Continue reading “The Time & Money Group Celebrates 1 Year Anniversary”

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Subprime Mortgage Problem Contained? Give Me a Break!

I think that some heads are going to roll when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are forced to admit that the subprime mortgage problem is not contained.  In my previous professional life, I worked as a sales person for a software company.  We as sales people were often referred to as “feet on the street.”  In addition to our sales responsibilities, we were responsible for gathering competitive information, surveying the landscape, detecting trends and most importantly feeding this data back to headquarters.  Through formal as well as informal channels, the “feet on the street” ensured that the executives always had the most current field data. Since the executives were constantly speaking to Wall Street or in Industry forums inaccurate data could be very costly in many ways. Continue reading “Subprime Mortgage Problem Contained? Give Me a Break!”

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Sayonara Gold Stocks

I have sold at the bottom far more times than I care to admit.  However, if this is another occasion so be it – Sayonara, Au Revoir, Adios Gold stocks.

I purchased my first gold stock, Royal Gold, in May of 2002.  At the time, I really didn’t know much about gold or gold stocks and had no idea that it was the beginning of a bull market in gold.  Royal Gold met the criteria of a screen that I was using at the time and it simply was one of many stocks that popped out.  The trade didn’t work as I had hoped.  After a quick 20% haircut, I sold it three weeks later.  This didn’t discourage me.  As I read more about gold, I realized that something special was in the makings.

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We Are Not a Subprime Lender!

On March 15, IndyMac released a rather lengthy press release claiming that it had been inappropriately categorized by many media sources as a subprime lender.   IndyMac stated that it is primarily a prime/Alt-A mortgage lender with minimal exposure to subprime.  With the subprime lenders in melt-down mode, it is quite understandable why IndyMac would want to differentiate itself.  However, in doing so it brought more attention to itself and was featured in an article by CNN Money called “Liar loans: Mortgage Woes Beyond Subprime.”  Sometimes it pays just to be quiet.  

What is Alt-A?

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The Real Estate Market: Why “Bottom” is a Dirty Word

Last week, CNBC reporter, Mari Bartiromo was quite appalled by the language Don Tomnitz, CEO DR Horton, used in describing the state of the real estate market:  “I don’t want to be too sophisticated here, but 2007 is going to suck, all 12 months of the calendar year.”  I think that Maria over reacted a little.  Since, when did suck become such a bad word?  It is definitely not on my list of banned four letter words, but I do avoid using it around children.  They have enough issues to worry about without having to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable four letter words. 

Another word that I refuse to use around kids is bottom. It has six letters, but in my book it is right up there with the most inappropriate four letter ones especially when describing the real estate market.  Maybe this is just a quirk of mine, since it didn’t trouble Maria at all when Robert Toll, CEO Toll Brothers, suggested that the real estate market had bottomed.  “I would guess, and that’s all it is, it would be another four or five months before you finally burn off inventory in most of the markets.”

So, who really used inappropriate language?  Has the real estate market bottomed? Excuse me.  Has the real estate market reached its lowest point?  Each CEO has three character witnesses.  Let’s see who has the stronger case.

Continue reading “The Real Estate Market: Why “Bottom” is a Dirty Word”