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Charles Soderquist

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    • Very good article, right on point. I always think of Mark Manson's comment in his book "EVERYTHING IS F*CKED: A BOOK ABOUT HOPE" where he

      wishes to write the following on every Starbuck's customer's cup.


      "One day, you and everyone you love will die. And beyond a small group of

      people for an extremely brief period of time, little of what you say or do will ever matter. This is the the Uncomfortable Truth of life. And everything you think or do is but an elaborate avoidance of it. We are inconsequential cosmic dust, bumping and milling about on a tiny blue speck. We imagine our own importance. We invent our purpose, we are nothing."

      Post: Forget Me Not

      Link to comment from February 17, 2024

    • First things first, you do not need to buy a timeshare, it’s totally optional. That being said, the way the timeshare sales people tell you is that you are going to take a vacation and you are going to have to stay somewhere and that is going to cost you some money and would it not make more sense to pay for the vacation lodging up front and secure that price in perpetuity rather than pay as you go and cost you a lot more. Makes sense until they hit you with the cost of their product of the moment which is usually 20K-30K for one week.   The timeshare market has changed from the early days when you purchased a week in one location and were stuck with that particular week at that particular location. Then came RCI which converted the week to points which were exchangeable for other weeks in other locations. This is what the industry has settled on as the standard and is used by all timeshare companies.  So, what you buy are points exchangeable for time where and when you want it. The points are backed by the actual piece of property you buy. For instance, I own one week at the Flamingo in Las Vegas. I have never stayed there, but have used the points to stay in Hawaii, Myrtle Beach, and next week in Miami Beach.     So, what I am describing is for Hilton Grand Vacation Club (HGVC), but others by Marriot, Wyndham, Hyatt, etc. are similar. I like Hilton because I can use my HHonors points along with my HGVC points. Explain that later.  Anyway, the basics are this. You are joining a club, not unlike a country club, where you must first pay an initiation fee (the purchase price) and then a yearly membership fee (the maintenance fees). The kicker is the initiation fee (purchase price). It’s hard for me at least to part with 20-30K. But 1.5K is more like it. So, I join the club for 1.5K (purchase price) and then pay the yearly maintenance fees. So, it works out I get to stay for 7 days at some fairly ritzy resorts where the rooms are $300 a day for a total of the annual maintenance fees of about $800. Having stayed 3 times so far, I have recouped my initial 1.5K investment which I still own. My plan is when my wife and I get tired of doing it, we will just give it to our kids and let them use it, sell it, or whatever. It's real property and is treated as such. Well, so how do you buy them for 1.5K? On the resale market. Buyers quickly learn that their purchase is worth about 1/10 of what they paid for it and you can buy them direct from the owners just for that amount. Go to www.myresortnetwork.com and look at the listings. Check the HGVC at the Flamingo as an example. You will see several listings for $1500 for 3400 points for one week in the gold season.  One thing to keep in mind is the point/maintenance fee ratio. Some resorts, particularly the ones in Hawaii have higher maintenance fees and those of let’s say Las Vegas or Myrtle Beach, so it pays to buy the ones with the lower maintenance fees because that is what you have to pay every year. It doesn’t make any difference, because you can always stay in Hawaii without actually owning it there.    Look for offerings directly available from owners, they are usually cheaper than the ones through brokers.  

      Post: Paradise Lost

      Link to comment from January 29, 2023

    • My father was of the opinion that the stock market was a casino and you placed your bet and if you were lucky, you won. If unlucky, you placed another bet. His investing expertise came from his drinking buddies at the local VFW. Most of this advice was for penny stocks which in the 1980's were traded on pink sheets. Dad was always changing penny stock brokers according to the latest from the pundits at the VFW. Dad at one time was a customer of Meyer Blinder of "Blind'em and Rob'em" fame. On one occasion, Dad invited me to go with him to the latest penny stock broker recommendation and we went to meet this man. I nearly tripped over the thickness of the wool carpeting in the office where this stock broker was located. While we waited for the broker to appear in his office, my father commented on how luxurious the furniture and appointments were. I said " Dad, who do you think is paying for all of this?". Dad had no comment. My father lacked the inability to pull the trigger on a financial transaction. My mother and he had blueprints drawn up for a house they wanted to build. This is back in the day when they were real blueprints, rolled up into a tube. They had the plot of land picked out. When the time came to get a loan to buy the land and obtain a builder's loan for the construction of the house, he balked and would not commit. I found the blueprints when I cleaned out his garage after his passing. Dad was convinced that the only way to get ahead was to have your own business because businesses scammed the government on taxes and he wanted in on that scam. Visiting the local donut shop daily led him to believe that a donut shop would be his ticket into owning a business. One Sunday, all four of us kids and Mom and Dad drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming to look at equipment from a donut shop that had gone out of business. The owner wanted $10K for the equipment, mixers, fryers, display cases, and all the stuff to open a donut shop. Again, Dad balked and would not commit. I inherited some of that hesitation. When my wife and I purchased the home we live in today back in 1984, it sold for $72,500. A new development a half mile away had larger new homes with more modern floorplans selling for $100,000. I could not visualize making the stretch. Today our home would sell for $650,000. Not bad. Homes in the other development are selling for $1.5M. So, the things I have learned are:

      1. Don't take stock tips from your drinking buddies.
      2. If things look too good to be true, they probably are not.
      3. Make the stretch for things you really want.

      Post: What financial lessons—good or bad—did you learn from your parents?

      Link to comment from August 6, 2022

    • The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason. Introduced me to the concept of paying yourself first back in 1986. Been following that advice ever since and have reaped the rewards of doing so.

      Post: What’s the best financial book you’ve ever read?

      Link to comment from January 1, 2022

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