The Reluctant Financial Voyeur

Foreclosure From The Great Recession

Over the past two work weeks, I helped financially counsel a fellow officer whose residual financial issues from the Great Recession stood to impact his career. There we were, almost 10 years from the start of the downturn, looking at foreclosure documents starting in 2009. He’d only settled the foreclosure within the last year, and the DoD wanted answers. In some ways, I could hardly believe it. In other ways, it was a sobering reminder about the lasting impact that event will have on American society for years, possibly generations, to come.

It also proved an interesting glimpse into another financial way a life. I found a life almost alien to mine because decades ago my fellow officer chose to build wealth through rental properties. Despite my personal negative history with a 2004 property purchase (as related previously on this blog), I hold no ill will for those who choose property investment as a method for building wealth. If it works for them, that’s great. However, my comrade-in-arms had specifically chosen a highly leveraged method for acquiring rental properties. As I questioned him on the simple details that he should’ve known from using this strategy, I quickly realized he lacked the acumen for it.

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You Can Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

Posted on 12-August-17 by Grumpus

Grumpus, the Elderus Caninus?

The other day Mrs. Grumpus tried to kill me … twice. She sent me an email while I was at work, asking if our budget could support her joining a new community center with gym, childcare, and pool akin to the YMCA. The price tag attached to her query nearly gave me a heart attack. Fortunately, my bike commute has paid off, and my heart withstood the initial shock. To put this in context, since our marriage I’ve adamantly refused to pay for a gym membership since all military bases, big and small, have gyms — many with the type of classes she likes to take. It is an expense that does not make sense in the overall context of the benefits that the military affords its members. With that said, we’ve paid for outdoor exercise classes before, and at the time she asked about the possibility of joining the new community center, she had just stopped going to her latest outdoor class due to the summer break. In her email, she also listed several other memberships she was willing to let lapse. When I did the math though, the memberships she proposed to let lapse did not add up to the cost of the new community center. I sent her an email stating such. I expected much foot stomping and toy throwing when I got home.

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An Unintentional Meander Up Grumpy Avenue (Part 2)

Posted on 30-July-17 by Grumpus

Grumpus the Story Teller

Gather round the campfire kids. Did I ever tell you the story of how I lost $766K?

If you are one of my three avid readers, then you may have wondered if I was ever going regale you with more (true) stories about my rather substantial money mistakes. Well wonder no more, the time has come. And while this story does not have the “I sold 300 shares of Amazon in 2004 to buy a house in the height of the market in Southern California” hook that An Unintentional Meander Up Grumpy Avenue Part 1 did; it does have an otherwise avoidable $20,000 dollar tax bill waiting at the end of it. Not as memorable as my $750,000 opportunity cost? Fair enough, that sum still makes me light-headed. However, what if I told you I paid someone for the privilege of the $20,000 tax bill? And it was potentially avoidable? Stick with me and by the end of the story if you are not busting out the tried and true “Man that Grumpus is an idiot” line, then I promise you a full refund on your time and a beer next time we meet.

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An Unintentional Meander Up Grumpy Avenue (Part 1)

Posted on 02-July-17 by Grumpus

“You only have to do very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.” — Warren Buffett

Learning Lessons the Hard Way

In the fall of 2004, I sold 300 shares of Amazon stock as part of a down payment on my first, and to this point only, home. Wait, before you say “Man, that Grumpus is an idiot” there is more to the story. I bought a home in Southern California (SOCAL) only eighteen months before the height of the housing bubble. For those of you unfamiliar with historical SOCAL housing prices, I’ve posted the below chart of what housing prices did in San Diego from 1987 to 2015:

Yep, that’s bad. So bad, in fact, that my home’s value only recently passed the original price for the first time since the bubble burst. In the meantime the amount of Amazon stock I sold in 2004 would have done this: