444express

Just another post that isn't about much of anything

2015-06-30T23:17:00.000-04:00

We can't all write exciting posts every day, can we? Well, this is going to be one of those posts where you don't get to the real information until and unless you read to the end. Between the intro that is visible on snippet-views in blogrolls and feeds and readers, you'll see some filler, as such:

This is filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading. This is filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading. This is filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading. This is filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading. This is filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading. This is filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading. This is filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading. This is filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading.

This is just some more filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading all the filler. There isn't much significance to it; it's just a space-waster. This is just some more filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading all the filler. There isn't much significance to it; it's just a space-waster. This is just some more filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading all the filler. There isn't much significance to it; it's just a space-waster. This is just some more filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading all the filler. There isn't much significance to it; it's just a space-waster. This is just some more filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading all the filler. There isn't much significance to it; it's just a space-waster. This is just some more filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading all the filler. There isn't much significance to it; it's just a space-waster. This is just some more filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading all the filler. There isn't much significance to it; it's just a space-waster. This is just some more filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading all the filler. There isn't much significance to it; it's just a space-waster. This is just some more filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading all the filler. There isn't much significance to it; it's just a space-waster. This is just some more filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading all the filler. There isn't much significance to it; it's just a space-waster. This is just some more filler. It's to take up space and see if anyone is reading all the filler. There isn't much significance to it; it's just a space-waster.

This is just a last paragraph to throw off people who don't like long posts. Those people may not see what's at the very end of the post. This is just a last paragraph to throw off people who don't like long posts. Those people may not see what's at the very end of the post. This is just a last paragraph to throw off people who don't like long posts. Those people may not see what's at the very end of the post.

While it's been great here, I think it's time to move on. But that literally means: Just moving to a new space. How to find it? If you've been paying attention, it won't be hard to find. If you really can't find it, just send a note. But I will say: Don't take offense if I don't send forwarding information back to someone who identifies themselves as such:

From: Anonymous
Profile pic: (default line drawing of silhouette)
Message: I really like following your blog. Can you give me the address? - A.Nonymous

(many, but not nearly all, of the above-depicted people just happen to be trolls)
I also don't nearly always get mail that comes into this box (I just love that string of confusing negatives, positives, and qualifiers. It was fun to say.) (Now I'm going to start a new paragraph without leaving a break between them. I'm doing all the fun things I always wanted to do. The fun is now.)
Moving on to a more mature sphere of the world where people sometimes show their faces and (gasp) their names. I've got more to say, but as you may have been able to discern, I've got things to say on a couple of different topics, and would like to separate the blog out to some degree. Plus, I'd like to neaten things up, and would not want to undo the work I did creating this beautiful monstrosity. So, just like "moving house," I'll be trucking some elements over, piece by piece.

And now that I think of it, I think I'll update this blog now and then, and maybe even greatly streamline the tabs at the top (with something like quarterly reporting.) What do you think?!?! See you on the other side!

My comments, recycled (two stories in one post!)

2015-06-24T09:38:00.001-04:00

I have a bad habit of posting just about nothing here, but writing stories on everyone else's blog, in the comments following their posts. How dysfunctional is that?

In efforts to improve this blog, I have done two things: 1. Referred financial curiouseurs to grapestrades.blogspot.com where you can read all the gory details, and this blog won't be filled up quite as much (oh, you can still expect some) with what some readers most likely consider inscrutable tedium. 2. Copied my little ditties here, or I'm about to now. If you already read these, well, "Excuuuuuuuuse me!" (a la Steve Martin.)

First anecdote that I love to tell and re-tell, although I have plenty that revolve around childhood stupidity.

When I was a teenager, someone had left half a crumb coffeecake (Entenmann's, I think - maybe a cheese danish) in the freezer, in the box (as pictured on your table, except there was half a cake there.)

I ate it.

The rest of the coffeecake, I mean.

Then I had to start thinking about how to deal with the aftermath. It was presumed to be saved for some other occasion, considering the status of "in the freezer." So I did something I considered ingenious: I bought another identical cake. Ate half of it. Placed the remaining half cake in the freezer *closely resembling the original half cake that I was not supposed to have eaten.* In fact, the goal was that the previous cake and the new, replaced one, would be identical to the untrained, unsuspecting eye.

To this day, I am sure I got away with this stunt, because no one said a word about it.

By the way, I find empty containers with a knife all the time here, too. Why do they put containers back in the fridge with nothing in them? The kids aren't as smart as I was at that age.

Second anecdote, from the present day:

I have tried hard to stick to the rule about keeping my mouth shut so I don’t say anything in anger that I can’t take back. However, I’ve turned myself into someone that others perceive as having the personality of a potato in my quest to not earn enemies. It turns out you can’t earn friends by acting like a cardboard cutout of a person.

Recently during some conflicts with the mister’s friends, (with his blessing) I decided to open my mouth and say what I thought. I would’ve done it without his blessing, too, LOL. Anyway, since these are a bunch of dysfunctional males, at first it looked like I was making things worse (especially with one of their wives who thought I should just stay shut up – doesn’t it figure?) But then it turns out I was the only one to speak up and put the grotesque mess in the light so it could be dealt with. In the end, others admitted to being babies and embarrassing themselves. So maybe it was OK that I spoke up. This might not have to do with your blog entry; sorry if I got off-topic. If we were all 10 years younger, it would have rolled downhill beyond any hope of recovery. As it is, it was astounding that people of the ages I won’t even mention were acting about 14 years old (myself included at a few key points.)

But weight - there's more

2015-06-23T08:43:00.003-04:00

No, not really - there's less (weight.) Just to report back on my resolution a month or three ago that I had to lose three pounds:

I guess I can now declare that mission successful. I think it was 152 on the scale making me angry, and now there have been several scale-stepping-ons that result in 148 point something. So I think I can say "I did it."

I would really like to be 144 like my driver's license proclaims, or even an even 140, but I'll take what I can get, for now.

The method: Eating crunchy granola bars smeared with peanut butter for breakfast; eating less lunch than I would like and cutting out nearly all assorted slovenly grazing, eating 1/2 a P.B. sandwich for dinner... No, really, I've eaten lots of assorted stuff (see the dining-not-at-home confessionals and the depicted cakes) but apparently I've eaten little enough of those that just breathing, worrying, and thinking have shaved off a couple of pounds.

Before any ignoramus-like snarks say, "I wouldn't ever weigh as much as 148," well, that's a judgmental but logically sound statement for someone 4'11" to make, or maybe even one of those average 5'3" types, but I'm pushing six feet, so take your snappiness somewhere else. Do you wear size 10 shoes? Do you actually, now that I think of it, wear men's size 9? All right, then.

Sneaking sack lunches on the sly

2015-06-22T10:50:00.003-04:00

Most people think of food made at home when they think of brown-bag lunches, or as some refer to them, "sack lunches."

However, it should be considered that lunches in a sack may be served outside the home. You know - at the ubiquitous drive-thru window.

Let's not talk about what it was, but on Friday, the kids convinced me that we have not treated ourselves in quite some time, so off we went to drain about $16 from our weekly food budget (and that was with one person not eating anything - being on a health-food diet as he is, and wisely. And another "kid" at work, dutifully eating the lunch he had packed at home, being the only true adherent to the carry-your-lunch-to-work-with-you principle. No, wait - the mister ate PB on bread, as well.) So three people ate part of what we wanted to for $16.

Then on Saturday, the mister and I snuck out for an off-the-books modest treat.

Then on Sunday, I snuck out for one of my own.

At least each time I ate less than the previous time. Hopefully, thus ends the "sack lunch" series. Those people are happy to hand you a sack and a smile every day if you hand over the money.

...and this is the mister's instant messenger avatar:

The best improvement on this blog since sliced bread

2015-06-19T12:04:00.001-04:00

This blog is so old that "sliced bread" was invented here. Just kidding - it was not; in fact, I remember eating pre-sliced bread at a young age - it must have become available at the grocery store some time around when I was a tiny baby.

So, if you don't like seeing options trading updates, or if you like them but would like to see them in a more concatenated format, you may now go right here to see it all. I may update here, but more often I will just point there. Have a great time. I have bills to pay right now, since money (MORE money than yesterday) is in. As for the MORE money that came in yesterday - it was too boring to blog about. I paid the cell phone bill and both car payments and that is IT. Not very satisfying. But today the real fun starts.

No more cake, either. That stuff is gone. Will I make more soon? I've been dreaming some up, so the answer to that is a probable "yes." Can I be any more wordy about nothing much to report? Well, I just wanted to announce the rollout of the blog that keeps all the trades in one place. Enjoy!

Eating the last of the cake

2015-06-18T08:27:00.001-04:00

I tried to pace myself a little, so here it is three days later, and I'm eating the last piece. I was a real "B" about this cake, too - doling it out to others in slices smaller than I served myself, and only upon formal request. I sealed this up with a lid and placed a sign on the lid reading: "NOT self-serve." This is something I do with cake - telling others, "Sorry, there isn't any left," as I cram down forkfuls from a slice the size of Texas and New Mexico put together on my plate right here at my computer desk.

I see that some money (pay) rolled in, so I'm rubbing my hands together thinking about how I'm going to distribute it (perverse, huh?) I'll be back later when I have more details on that. I'm sure everyone is arranging their day around making sure they hear those details before going on with any other plans.

It's been fun, but... Back to work

2015-06-15T14:57:00.001-04:00

On the blog with the flaming dollars, I and the blog owner and some people who refuse to identify themselves in any fashion have had some fun, but while they were making fun of blogs, I was making some dollars. Hopefully, anyway! I have opened up a position to reel in on July 2nd. Otherwise I just have some that expire June 26th, and it's driving me koo-koo to have to wait that long. There are only so many bills I can pay right now, and I don't like sitting on my hands. Sure, I have a lot of other things to keep me busy (leaving the house now, for example - hey, I did not post my spending, but I'll just post the month-end totals) but I've been extremely bothered to be unable to make more money. I think there will be some financial relief soon enough, but it's always a delayed reaction. This post is boring, so I'm going to sign off, and come back when I have something more interesting to say (and after I've baked and eaten an entire chocolate cake, too. Just kidding - I'm going to share it with others.)

Yuck! But then: Ahhhh....

2015-06-12T20:00:00.000-04:00

I never like withdrawing money from the brokerage. Well, I like it and hate it at the same time. I'm glad I'm able to do it. But I'd rather leave the money there. Yet... bills need to be paid!

Withdrew $650.00 just for the purpose of paying down debt.

Gain for the 4+ months I started this stands at $33,180.82, and that's on an account that started with just $25K and now has $49K in it after having $4K added to it and then later, $13K withdrawn. In other words: (I am rounding here)

Started with $25K in February.

Added $4,000, withdrew $13,000, for a total net withdrawal of about $9,000.

But wait - how could my account now total $49,000?

Answer: I have made $33,000 with this small pile of money.

In the next post will detail how much debt I have paid down over the last four months.

Back over fifty!

2015-06-11T16:25:00.000-04:00

It seems I can't lose. I think I've developed "a system," LOL. I just say that because a certain person (who has made his post for the day a lampoon of another blogroll member's blog - it's burn season here in blogland now, isn't it?) made fun of me for having "a system." Really, I don't. I racked my brain all day today and ended up doing nothing. But thinking is free and lots of money coming in two weeks from now is just as good as less money coming in weekly.

$50,351.16 is the pretty figure for today. It won't last, since I need to withdraw money over the weekend and next week for (what else) paying bills. But I'll enjoy looking at it while I can.

Sack lunches all around

2015-06-10T08:59:00.002-04:00

With everyone working and commuting and with the way we're tracking every penny spent this month, to be gone over in detail and explained at each weekly family meeting (see pic in Monday's post), there's no way anyone's going to sneak any fast food or convenience food or even think about buying carry-out pizza. We did buy supplies (sandwich bags) for packing "sack lunches," as some people call them. So here are yesterday's receipts:

I have been separating orders to ensure that food and non-food items are not on the same receipt - I hate circling items and making notes on receipts and jotting down math problems. Apologies to the cashiers who have to complete two orders at a time for me.

June 9th: $19.77 for "sack lunch" supplies, pens, dishwashing detergent, items best not described.
June 9th: $23.33 for food (if you have to know: milk, bread, brown rice, fresh vegetables, cream cheese, natural peanut butter. I will not go into such detail in the future.)

Artist's rendition of a sack lunch. 2015, pen and ink on canvas. "Pack Your Own." On loan by artist. The culinary collection, 2000-2015

Big, whoppin' half-yearly update

2015-06-09T16:50:00.002-04:00

My poor account is around $47,800 now. The figure being lower than it previously was (last time I updated, it was 48,037.99, and now I feel foolish for complaining, as I see it is not much different) is entirely due to shares purchased to secure a transaction. I would like to be rid of those shares ASAP. I've written a contract to get rid of them on June 26th if the price rises high enough at that date.

But here are some quick and dirty figures on which to ruminate and cogitate.

(I have excluded gains booked on stock held over from last summer and last fall/winter. This is all trading from around the end of January onward:

From 2/28-3/27, I booked $3,515 in gains.
From 3/28-4/27 I booked $4,282 in gains.
From 4/28-5/27 I booked $3.557 in gains.
From 5/29- now, which is 6/9, I've booked $2,247 in gains.

And here I am feeling impatient that I'm not doing more. But the contracts that expire June 26th will bring in a guaranteed $1,990.57 more (there's stock that may bring my account total down, but I can keep that; do not have to sell it, therefore I can't project any booked gain/loss on that. The only thing it's doing currently is dragging my account total down, but that does not have anything to do with booked gain/loss as of now.)

So, no matter what happens with the stock, by the time June is wrapping up I can add those two italicized numbers together and I'll be looking at $4,237.57 for the month.

I should not be complaining. This is a tidy amount of money I've been bringing in. Added together, that's around $15.5K for four months, which is a third of a year, and I could project that out to a year and it's like bringing in a $47,000 per year salary.

May I add: If I didn't have to draw from this pool of money to pay off household debts, I would be able to build it up, and with more money to work with, I'd be able to generate more money. This is a truth applicable to anyone and their source of income, though. People generally use their incomes for living. If you can save, all the better. If you have an extra salary with which to build up assets, then you're in great shape. We have debts to pay before we can even get into the black, so we'll work on that At least we have the means to do it now. This is why things are changing in an exciting way around here. We have massive debts and a decent-sized-and-growing pool of assets to set against those debts. In fact, the assets are actually providing a source of income, as I have made it my job to work the assets to generate high returns.

Dough...

2015-06-08T18:12:00.001-04:00

(I just remembered I must include an attractive photo in each post or no one will read it. See below:)

(Now back to the subject of "Dough...")

... Raked some in.

More than you thought you'd ever see in one day

2015-06-08T11:48:00.000-04:00

Here's an example of last week's income and outgo:

Income:
June 2: Income pulled from brokerage: $1,970.29
June 5: Paycheck: $1,594.18

Outgo:
$1,620.29 rent/water
$350.00 next-to-last installment on legal bill
$78.95 internet/phone
$122.32 car/home insurance
$152.66 gas and electric
$1,327.28 debt repayment

If you want something more boring...

2015-06-08T10:56:00.002-04:00

Boring and shorter, is what I meant to say... If you want something shorter to read about, we are going to start tracking our spending. And by that I mean food/household/anything else.

We started two days ago and so far have three receipts. I will total them up at the end of the month. Of course the mister has a spreadsheet, and I have this crude, anecdotal reporting system here.

Saturday: Kitty food, coffee filters (therefore, categorized as household): $11.86.
Sunday: Sam's Club (all food): $98.27
Sunday: Grocery store (all food): $10.87

All of this is stuff we will eat soon enough (nothing like a giant jug of vanilla that will last two years or a bag of flour that may last several months. Oh, but the cat may take months to eat all that food and the coffee filters may last until next winter. I'll separate food from everything else.) On the other hand, when you see the total we've spent when we wrap this up in about a month, it may be inaccurate due to food being around the house right now that we are consuming (some bread, some eggs, milk already in the fridge, for example.)

I've done this before and I remember vaguely what we spent per month on food. Let's see how we're doing now that the kids are a few years older. Are we cooking more, or eating "smarter"? We'll see.

This tracking will make me embarrassed to buy anything that would be considered a luxury (bakery cake, for example. I have ingredients in the house right now with which to bake a cake if urges become irresistible.) And this has already stopped me from buying a few incidentals that are not truly needed, like articles of clothing, when we have enough already.

I chose this one because there are six people. Doesn't look a lot like our family, and everyone is delighted in this photo, which isn't generally seen at our family meetings.

Tracking spending, with receipts and family meetings where everyone reviews and explains the receipts - try it, it's great for both control of spending and analysis of spending!

Big changes around here. Change is scary; change is also exciting.

2015-06-08T09:27:00.001-04:00

Just to let you know, we are at an inflection point today. One of the juniors has started a job, and his income is coming straight in to the family. He is living at home (after living at college for five years.) He is choosing to contribute to the communal family good, financially (not forever, I'm sure, but for some time.) It would take a long time to explain what went into that, but I'll touch on just a few points:

Despite being financially responsible and conscientious, he chose to get into substantial student loan debt for one reason, and one reason only: Living on campus. His scholarship covered all tuition and fees (Who is fortunate enough to get tuition 100% covered through merit scholarships? Well, he and his younger brother, actually), and to illustrate what we have, at times, considered the absurdity of the situation, Mister and Junior2 would sometimes drop things off for him or pick things up as they drove through or studied at the same campus (on the way to Mister's place of employment. The mister has been spending half his life in the car, the last few years.)

I'm trying to catch everyone up in a few paragraphs and it's not working. Let me know if I've been totally unclear. To summarize:

Junior2 commutes, hitching rides with Mister.
Junior1 just finished at the same college, although he intends to get a Ph.D. over time there (a class at a time, worked around full-time employment). While both juniors attended college together for the last year, one commuted and the other paid (got in debt) about the same as the rest of us put together pay for housing, just so he could stay in what is loosely termed an "apartment," also known as the slyest, slickest college-affiliated real estate rip-off schemes I have ever heard of: Charging $4,500 per semester to live in just ONE of four bedrooms in a unit (are you doing the math? That place is collecting $18,000 per semester between the four "suitemates." That's $36,000 per academic year, just to allow four dorks to come and go, make spaghetti in the kitchen, etc.) That's per unit. Imagine how many units per hall, per floor, per building, etc. But I digress. Junior1 is responsible but a little un-seasoned at understanding the true ramifications of financial decisions: He was OK with - no, he championed - the idea of "put it on my bill and I'll deal with it later." I'm not judging. Later has come and he is willing to deal with it.

We never approved of this, but didn't fight him on it; you have to pick your battles, and you have to let kids make some decisions, and this wasn't one of the worst ones a person can make in life, but we tried to explain to him just how long it would take to pay back the debt for enjoying very, very expensive living quarters when your own family is snoring away just a ways up the road, with your bed sitting there empty in it.

He's got student loans to get started paying on (some of which were actually taken on by me) and there are no secrets around here - in fact, we have regular family financial meetings - and he has pledged forever that he wants to help right the family's financial ship. After all, it's not just for me and the mister - it's for him; we're all in the same boat. As Junior2 sagely blurted out during a financial meeting: "You're doing all of this for us." Very, very true.

The student loan situation I sketched out above is a substantial setback, right out of the gate, for Junior1, but our family financial situation is even worse. While we began getting true traction two summers ago, when we are at the top of our game and starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, we got totally upended. I don't want to go into it; you can believe me or not, but a social, legal, etc. disaster we could have written a book about and also produced a movie on got started and didn't let up to any degree until recently. As mentioned before; we are all okay. We landed on our feet; we're different now, but still operational. We're broken in some ways but mended up enough to be able to fight on. Maybe even... stronger than ever? Even if depleted of financial resources during the difficult time that was 2013-2015. Finances were the last thing on our minds, it was so bad. We just kept signing checks and handing over fees. "Four thousand dollars for this? Okay - yes, I can find the money. $200 an hour for that? All right; I'll charge it. $140 every week? That's fine, too. I'll get it out of overdraft. I'll send you my credit card number." It didn't feel good, financially, but there was no alternative; no other choice. It felt good to be able to do it and live to see another day.

Could we, and should we, have declared bankruptcy or done something else drastic? Well, no way would we have done anything but keep the ship upright and keep it from taking on water while this was going on. Have any of you wondered why it's in your best interest to have access to money, even if you don't have any of your own saved up? (The ability to borrow money quickly or instantly, I mean.) Can you imagine being at the mercy of public services (or worse yet - NO services) when a crisis requiring the best professional help arises? I'm just saying: No one will count your access to borrowed money among your assets, and you just might want to borrow money, at times, rather than show up places empty-pocketed.

In the interest of cutting this monologue short, I'll say that we didn't abandon our financial responsibilities, even as they doubled and tripled, and for several reasons: 1. We have long-term plans that would benefit from having good credit 2. We are stubborn enough to want to fix problems, not seek to be excused from them 3. We have gained income-generating skills recently 4. We have held onto and grown assets, no matter what kind of overwhelming imbalance exists in our asset/debt comparison.

We are a stubborn people (determined might be a better word) in this family; we tread forward. We will never earn the approval of all readers through our methods; yet, we're not doing anything that isn't sensible, if you have the means to accomplish it. By that I mean that we are setting out to dig out of a massive debt pile, which we've been trying to do for years and years, and at times we've gotten even more covered in smothering, morale-sapping, lifestyle-limiting debt, due to a higher standard of living than we could support (not lavish at all; just not matching our means) and too little (comparatively) in the way of income. Now, we have a chance to not only win it for once and for all, but to come out on top. That's because we've gone from one income plus an unsustainable lifestyle and unforeseen challenges, to four incomes. That's two paycheck incomes (with Junior making more than Mister right out of the gate - while the mister has struggled for $1K per year raises and would have been ecstatic to be bumped up $10K more per year, that's what Junior is making to start - $10K more than the mister) and two separate trading incomes, all making very roughly the same amount of money. That is to say it seems that if all continues to go well, we may have quadrupled our income.

Follow along and eventually I'll reveal our massive debtload progess sheet. I'm sure everyone wants to see that.

Frugal re-use of crumbs

2015-06-05T09:40:00.000-04:00

You know those crumbs that collect in a box of Cap'n Crunch (or the budget-brand equivalent, which is what we buy) cereal? I saved up the remnants from several bags of Cap'n Cheapskate and eventually realized I had no intended use for them. Then I dreamed up a cheesecake crust to which no sugar needed to be added; with cereal this sweet, the sugar is pre-supplied. I did, however, have to add some pulverized graham crackers. The proportions I used were about 1.25 cups cereal leavings and .75 cup cracker dust. I think there were about 5 tablespoons of melted butter mixed in for a greasy, indigestible delight. Just add several pounds of cream cheese and a heap of sour cream and assorted other things like eggs and vanilla and bake it, and eat it for days and endure the stomach aches.

Then, last night, attempting in vain to walk some of the calories off, the mister and I went out for a rainy walk in the dark. Eventually he just had to mention casually that he was going to start packing sack lunches.

Then he coldly walked on while I doubled over with tears squeezing out of my eyes and I seriously thought I was going to have a bladder incident (and keep in mind, I'm not normally incontinent.) I laughed so hard I could not catch my breath. I know this does not make sense unless you were there for the original "sack lunch" incident. I had to stomp a foot on the concrete several times to try to get my lungs to inflate. I'm sure any passersby thought I was having an episode.

I hated to do it, but it had to be done

2015-06-04T14:01:00.001-04:00

I pulled out just under $2,000 to pay the next-to-last installment in a legal bill and pay rent. Did I already mention this? It's been so long since I posted ("so long" being two days ago or something) that I can't remember. I remember complaining that I was about to do it.

What I've been rubbing my hands together about, though, is paying all the "bills," which means really any amount of debt-paydown I can manage along with the monthly household maintenance like utilities, cell phones, and everything that is not rent/water. Money does not come in until Fridays now and I hate it so much that I've actually taken to paying bills on Thursdays just like the good old days, but scheduling it all for Friday.

There is an image to be found for anything you can think of.

I think I'll make some big tankards of tea and coffee and get on that pretty soon.

In the meantime I have moved around some debts, and by that I mean consolidating smaller ones by balance-transferring as able and as prudent. Wouldn't you love to see the day that I create a tab with all my mess of terrible bills laid out for gratuitous inspection? I know a few people who would love it. That day is coming. Maybe pretty soon. Wait for it!

Just let me have my fun

2015-06-01T17:54:00.000-04:00

I see that Friday's end figure, which would be the last official figure for May, was $49,970.98. Today I get the glory of bumping it up over $50K again, but not with any permanence. I'm going to have to pay rent and other bills, and the nice, round figure will get run over forwards and backwards, and end up in the 40s once again. Well, if I can keep my head above water, that's the goal. Can we "get somewhere" before 2015 is over? Let's take things one step at a time.

Friday's total: $49,970.98
Today: $50,288.27

That's what I mean about having my fun. I wanted to post that nice figure before it gets frayed and fractured.

I also put myself in a situation that may see ups and downs during June. I have positions expiring June 19th and June 26th. This doesn't sound very exciting, does it? I'd like more money to work with. I'd like to do more things (trading-wise). I'd like to be biting my nails (only an expression - I don't do that - although I have other bad habits) every day.

Well, one day at at time, as I sort of said above. One trade at a time. One paycheck spent on bills at a time. One step closer to seeing our way out of the quagmire.

Oh - This will get the bills quacking - I mean the lips flapping. We took out a 401K loan. WHAT? Aghast, I'm sure all of you are. Look, I feel about 401K's - well, let's just say in our situation it's not our favorite thing right now. We had an account worth less than $10,000.00 that we (the mister, I mean) stopped contributing to a while back. What - no 50% match? Yes... in our situation, and with the money we've been making elsewise, we really thought that investing in the "Cycle 100 Dog Food Fund" - (that's an inside joke - does anyone remember the brand of dog food that was numbered based on your dog's age? Has anyone heard of the mutual funds based on the decade you anticipate retiring?) Well, we thought that retiring debts would serve us better right now than putting much-needed paycheck money - even with a match and the government's generous [sarcasm] tax-deferral scheme - into the Stock Market Crapola 4000 Fund or similar. I'm pretty convinced that 401K participation is something people should consider AFTER paying off costly consumer debt. And we still have loads of that.

So we took out a loan (from ourselves, at 4% interest paid to ourselves - what a funny concept) for nearly $5,000, the entire amount eligible, and paid off:

Two gasoline cards totaling $1,149.50
a VISA totaling $1,436.63
a Mastercard totaling $1,662.80
a store card with deferred interest that would have been added on, accrued, in July if not paid by then, totaling $530.00

Those debts are great to be rid of.

A certain extremely grouchy blogger who does not allow comments on his blog (due to "trolls," LOL) should have a field day.

I'm sure he's going to devote about a book-chapter's worth of repetitive drivel to saying that those who can't contribute to a 401K because they have consumer debts should just get pushed off on an iceberg or jump, bound, into a funeral pyre right now, and give up. Does anyone know what blogger I am talking about? Well, he's the one who has "got it made" and wants everyone to know that literally no one else does - not like he does, anyway. In fact, he takes things so far as to deny that anyone can do anything he hasn't done - seemingly to discourage anyone from trying and, inevitably, failing. So I'll say in advance: No, we don't have it made. But guess what? - I'm enjoying the claw-fight out of this mess. I really don't like cleaning up the kitchen as much as I like cooking, either, but once you've made a hellacious mess, you might as well make a lot of soapy dishwater and roll up your sleeves and get to work. I like a challenge, and I like the feeling of accomplishment, even if it's an accomplishment someone else might denigrate. I found a mess - {who cares how it got this way? - I don't even think in terms of "I made a mess" or "life dealt me some stinkbombs" - I just work from where I am and don't analyze} - and I'm going to clean it up so well that you could eat off the kitchen floor. Or I'll at least enjoy trying!

And what about $247? (Can I pretend it's $250?)

2015-05-29T17:37:00.001-04:00

Today I closed something for $247 (it was expiring today, and I closed it before expiration so that I could keep the stock securing it.) As mentioned in the parentheses, I have stock - and this is atypical. Sometimes it's advantageous to have stock, but this time I bought it at a bad price to limit potential loss, and it turns out I'd like to keep it and sell more contracts against it. So on paper I am down $1,100 for the stock, but this could and oftentimes does change by that amount within a day. In other words, the loss could grow greater; the loss could evaporate; that stock could eventually provide a gain.

At any rate, I would never want to waste a good opportunity, so I already wrote calls worth just over $1,000. I can cash that in, and small profit on the stock, on June 19th. If the stock goes down instead, I can still cash in the option, but the "paper loss" on the stock would simply be greater than it is now.

That's about it for today. No big change in balance, due to my mismanagement and purchase of stock at a bad price (as of now.) This is a stock that I believe will provide gains sooner or later, so this does not bother me at all, and I'm putting it to work in the meantime.

*edit: I realize how spoiled I have become, complaining when I'm not raking in thousands by the day. After completing the accounting for the month I see now that notwithstanding the setback in the stock position, I've brought in enough that gain in the account is now over $31,000. Not bad. Maybe I can accelerate this for the rest of the year!

How do you like $62.59?

2015-05-28T16:59:00.002-04:00

It's not like it's that great, but since it's another one-day trade, I'll take it. I had originally set out to make about $450. But that is never guaranteed, of course, and instead of waiting until June 12th to try to rake that in, I thought I'd take the one-day profit of what was looking like $100 or so. Things happened, and it became $62. But I had to make room, and I was happy to take that much money in one day.

Big profits, small profits - I like them all!

Big losses and small losses - not so much.

:o)

$143 in one day

2015-05-26T17:03:00.002-04:00

If you remember from last week, I griped a little that I have a trade open that will close this Friday for a guaranteed loss of $100-something. To be technically accurate, there is no guarantee on that loss; it's more complicated than that. That's true as far as the loss goes if scenario 1 unfolds; but part of the trade is stock I bought to secure the whole scheboozle, and, if allowed (based on the price of the stock on expiration day) I'm going to hold that stock no matter how far it goes down (this would be scenario 2 I'm describing now), both because I hope and expect it will go back up, and even if it does not go back up as far or as fast as I want it to, I can still make money by selling calls against it. The prior sentence is all IF it is not "called away" from me (scenario 2).

If it's not "called away" (hint: Writing calls gives other people the right to take stock, which is referred to as calling it away), the scenario (2) I described just above unfolds. If it is called away (1), then it will be a loss of $163 for the entire attempt.

I am OK with either one of those. And guess what? Totally unrelated to that, on Friday the 22nd I opened a different position, hoping to keep it through mid-June. But today I decided it would be acceptable to just close it out, so I had it for one day, and I made $143. So I sort of, almost, made up for the loss I may take on Friday. Wow - not bad, huh? I wish I could do more every day, but I just don't have enough money. With unlimited funds, I think I could generate... well, not unlimited returns, but a lot more money.

Ten days after I crossed the $30,000 line...

2015-05-23T09:31:00.002-04:00

Well, I'm still above it. I guess I'm getting spoiled here. I had been above $31,000 and slipped back. I screwed up on a few things this week, but it's nothing that's going to cost me, I don't think - more like slow me down.

I looked for a picture of "spoiled" and this is what I found. I had to share it because this is EXACTLY how our dog sleeps! Our little, one-year-old rescue dog. He is king of the house! I never believed it when I heard that dogs could be so spoiled, but I'm living it, now!

Here is my latest from yesterday, although don't be too quick to think it's great. This is the bottom half of a strangle, and I closed it early to "make room" in my account. The top half is going to be somewhat of a mess. As it stands now, due to some fancy maneuvering I did to mitigate loss, the top half will close next Friday at a guaranteed $100 loss (and could even be worse than that, but it's unlikely). A $100 loss is not so bad in the grand scheme of things, though, right? And I have two other irons in the fire right now and should start some others next week (thus the move to "make room.")

Off to pay lots and lots of bills and drink lots and lots of coffee.

Oh yes, and the mister is also pedaling in place this week. But that's what makes things exciting - you can keep checking back and see if he recovers from having broken his a$$, trading-wise. :o]

Can't win 'em all, but I still sort of won this one

2015-05-22T17:36:00.000-04:00

I'll spare everyone the story of how I intended for this to come out better, and it might have, had I stuck to my interim plan (see how I bought shares a week ago but then sold them yesterday instead of holding them through today?) and how I gambled today and took a bad price on the calls, but would have ended up in roughly the same place, had I just sold the shares and closed the calls together any earlier day this week (hey, I just told the story and said I would not) -

So anyway, I didn't spare everyone the story, but the point is that I opened a "short strangle" and then put some shares in partway through, and as of today (the expiration day - it would have closed automatically) it's all closed out.

If you can do math even a little bit in your head, you'll see that the pluses and the minuses in the last column add up to be a plus, which you see at the top.

Well, pay has come in and it's time to pay bills. Drinking coffee but it's not working. May just put the sofa to use for some horizontal snore-time. (It's not that I'm lazy... Do you stay up past 1 and get up around 7?)

Halfway Through

2015-05-20T13:16:00.001-04:00

I am halfway through cleaning my bathroom, which had become an inhospitable abomination. (I say that, but there are no words to describe the mister's bathroom.)

I am pacing myself. Work a little, loaf a little. Think about eating a little, work a little, loaf some more.

I'll update later in the day.

It's not a winning day every day!

2015-05-20T11:25:00.000-04:00

Hmm... that should get some views. I've noticed that misfortune gets lots of views, and prosperity does not (just like in the media. Bad news sells.) The mister tried to do the same with with Target as he did with Wal Mart, and with pretty bad results. I think he may have learned to just stick with what we have been doing. I can see why people have negative views of trading and investing. "Water cooler stocks" are not for me - and I don't know how anyone can consistently make money from them.

Today is a day that features exciting things like cleaning the bathroom and cleaning the kitchen. I am out of chocolate, too (but that's good, since I am trying to peel off one pound and maybe two pounds.) I may reward myself with a sandwich from one of my favorite establishments later today (look for my weight goal to NOT be met this weekend.)

Well, every post cannot be exciting or full of mystery and intrigue. Maybe a better post will be coming soon.