K.O.'d: Good Money Gone Bad

For most of us, having millions of dollars is a pipedream. For others it's a dream squandered.

Recently released at http://illicitohio.illicitohio.com/tyson are pictures of one of the former houses owned by heavyweight champ "Iron Mike" Tyson. Having earned a reported $300M over his career, he lived quite the lavish lifestlye and spent money like there was no tomorrow. The pictures from the site, however, show how the mighty have fallen. Falling into bankruptcy the "Baddest Man on the Planet's" house went from bachelor pad to plain empty. His residence in Ohio was abanadoned years ago, but suprisingly still looks well preserved. Check out the pictures after the jump. One of my favorite views is of the 10,000 sq. ft. indoor swimming pool complete with a sundae bar.

O the parties they must have had… Anywho, if you were rich would you want a mansion like this? What would you do with $300M?

Mo' Money, Mo' Problems.

One Love,

Look

Game Day at Shea

Went to the Mets vs. Cardinals game tonight, with the Amazin's coming out victorious of course. Of course it's the last season at Shea stadium (and at Yankee Stadium incidentally) and its a bit sad to see them tear down the stadium. Citi field looms in the background of Shea and beckons a new era for the Mets.

Its sad to see that sports are so often referred to as a business. Whatever happened to "for the love of the game?" Undoubtedly the new stadium will offer less seating and more luxury suites for those who can pay. That means more revenue for the team, but less accessibility for average fans.

What happens if the economy doesn't rebound in the coming years? Less luxury purchasers? Companies cutting back on client outings. Ill timed I suppose. Also how is Citibank feeling about paying all those millions for the naming rights to the new Mets stadium? After all the pain its been going through, wonder if the person responsible for that decision got the ax.

S'all for now.

One Love,
Look

Financial Crisis: The Broken American Dream

It's been quite some time since my last post and much has transpired. The housing market in the U.S. has collapsed with Countrywide Bank being bought by Bank of America, BearStearns the fifth-largest investment bank collapsed and was absorbed by J.P. Morgan, Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae have tumbled as a result of the housing debacle forcing government guarantees, IndyMac was taken over by the FDIC, Lehman Brothers is facing the way of BearStearns, S&L's like WaMu and Wachovia have had their balance sheets come into question. So where does this leave little investors like us?

They say don't panic. Easier said than done. Since the turmoil began last August, my portfolio has seen double-digit percentage declines and the bleeding has still not stopped. Following the "buy low, sell high" adage, I've bolstered these falling positions by purchasing additional shares. While I'm getting these shares at a "discount" this strategy will only bear fruit if a rebound occurs. So since I'm young I'm holding my breathe and blindly sticking to my guns. That's not to say I'm totally exposed to the market. I still have a considerable cash balance and just recently invested in a bond fund to diversify away from my stock exposure. Jumping ship and selling shares seems like the wrong thing to do. Interest rates are at all time lows so there leaves growth possibilities very low. I guess the only thing it would do is to stop the losses. This may be good for someone at/near retirement, but my time horizon is too long to have my money just sit and do nothing. No risk, no reward right?

So what happens if a rebound doesn't occur and we enter a prolonged bear market recession? Well the buy & hold strategies, the dollar cost-averaging and the long term views will end up destroying my retirement plan. No social security to count on, a fledgling 401k. What's a boy to do? Time will tell. I'll suck it up until I can take it no longer and decide what my next plan of action is.

So for those rate chasers, a mini-update. IndyMac failed so I wouldn't recommend pouring cash there (seeing that it might be a process to get it back), but here's the latest rates:

• HSBC - 3.5%
• WaMu - 3.3%
• ING Direct - 3.0%
• EmigrantDirect - 2.75%
• Citi - 2.65%

Good luck investors!

One Love,
Look

2008 Honda Accord

Wasn't planning on buying a car anytime soon, but unfortunately wrecking our 2001 Acura Integra = me purchasing a 2008 Honda Accord for the folks.

Parents are going with the top of the line EX-L V6 w/ Navi trim. Lucky me!

Been using some online sites to get some quotes including: http://www.edmunds.com/, http://www.autobytel.com/, http://www.cars.com/ and have gotten the hassle of salesmen calling me at work all day.

Current outlook is for a pricepoint of ~$29,000 OTD, including all fees, destination, other junk. Hopefully the price will come down in a bit with the summer driving season and the intro of the new 2009 models.

I'll keep ya posted.

One Love,

Look

Interest Rate Freefall

Long story short. Fed cuts overnight interest rates from 5.25% to 4.75%. Result: Interest rates fall off a cliff.

Glad I locked in a 5.36% 12 month CD at E-loan before the carnage, but kicking myself for not locking in for 18 months. Unfortunately 2 CDs expired after the freefall and blah. My Wamu CD i rolled into a 4month CD @ 4.65% APY (They were offering ~2.7% for all other maturities!). My Emigrant Direct CD I transferred into my savings account earning 4.75%.

So there's little options out there as all banks seemed to have followed suit. There are higher rates at Countrywide and IndyMac, but their exposure to subprime worries me. Although they are FDIC insured, I don't feel like the small bump in rate would be worth the headache should they fail. So for now I'm going to sit tight and see how the rates play out in the coming weeks.

In other portfolio news, I'm roughly 50% cash which is way to conservative for my age bracket. Sadly, this is probably the lowest cash ratio I think I've ever had for my porfolio showing my uber conservativeness. I've been ramping down this cash number, however. I set up an auto-investment with Vanguard into my VTRIX mutual fund. I'd invest more, but with the market so hot right now and everything trading at all time highs, I'm hesitant to do more.

Well I guess we'll see what happens in the coming weeks.

One Love,
Look

Pearly Whites

So in an impulse buy to get me to $49 for free shipping on Drugstore.com, I decided to get some Listerine Whitening strips. All the years of soda drinking has been catching up in my old age, and I've noticed some yellowing in my teeth. I've been wanting to do something about this for a while (started with drinking more water instead of soda), but I finally made the plunge to actively reverse the yellowing. I was going to spring for the Crest Whitestrips, but I was a little hesitant about hurting my gums after reading some of the reviews, so I went with the less drastic choice.

Some pros for the strips: easy to use, no trays and stuff to mess with, subtle change in teeth coloring

Some cons for the strips: as with all whiteners - possible damage to enamel, sensitivity in the gums, questionable noticeable difference in shade

My order's been processed and the package should be on its way soon, so I'll let you know how it goes.

One Love,
Look

Bowflexin'

So since switching jobs I haven't had much time to go to the gym. Paying $80/mo. @ Equinox didn't seem like a worthwhile investment so this weekend I visited Sports Authority to get some gear.

Long story short, I went with the Bowflex Selecttech 552 dumbbells. The major appeal being a compact, multi-weight option that saves space and is easily interchangeable. I pondered getting plated weights but the spinlock never seems to stay locked and its a bit cumbersome to change weights. Other options were similar Bowflex-style quick changing weights, but none of the options had the same quality as the Bowflex ones. In the end paid $399 for the weights + tax, but I also got the "free" stand thrown in. Some possible worries however is the quality as the salesperson tried hawking the 2 year extended warranty because of problems with the spinlocks...

Seeing that I also needed a bench I went with the Bowflex 3.1 Bench. Kinda regretting this pick up as I could've probably gotten a cheaper bench for about the same price, I just kept it within the Bowflex family. O wells.

A review to follow after I put together the bench and start workin it out.

One Love,
Look