Update

Yes, it's been a while, almost too long to really be worthwhile to post anything. Maybe I should just dump this and go over to Wordpress. Just maybe...

Anyhow, a quickie:

- The North Hills, CA isn't shaping up too well, which fits squarely with the real-estate timing engine that is *still* being developed (just needs a nice web front-end and we're ready to rock). MT continues to stumble by not hedging his losing positions appropriately. Frankly, I could've been the greater asshole and just dumped the property regardless of MT's significant capital loss from the down payment, but I'm too nice, even though I realized MT would have no legal recourse against me if I pulled off a sale without his consent. And the only reason I'd care for his consent was, don't know if you remember, but the down payment came out of MT's pocket. Anyway, I could've been a jerk about this whole "gentlemen's" deal is: 1) the property is fully deeded to me, and I'm the sole borrower on the loan, and 2) I know too many kickass lawyers to be messed with, and 3) I have the funds to retain such lawyers-- MT doesn't.

My biggest fear is MT, as with many other habitual overleveragers, has now run out of cash. He's attempted to assuage me by saying he's got a baby-momma moving in with him by December which would surprisingly provide a monthly income surplus for his household which should translate into tangible benefits for me. Why would I care? Well, because the renter MT found for North Hills, CA, one of his friends, is only covering *half* the debt service! Moreoever, MT's slumlord ways have royally angered the tenant, whose lease expires in 3 months. So basically, at any moment now, MT can decide to walk away from this and the $70K down payment he coughed up for the down payment, and I'd have to bear the brunt of this purchase. Do remember that this was what I now know is typically called a "straw buyer" arrangement, and I'm pretty worried that 1) I'll have to start feeding the alligator myself one day, and 2) my excellent credit profile might be compromised. I can see all of this heading towards some cataclysmic financial and relationship event horizon where everything blows up spectacularly between me, MT, and the tenant.

- North Richland Hlls, TX, continues to be rented fully, at least covering debt service. MT's dire cash position as of late has him in a bind where, well, he wants to sell off our "best" property ASAP. Problem is, our "best" property still has quite a number of issues before it's make-ready for sale. Moreover, MT prefers to sell the property at a loss in order for him to quickly liquidate. I'm not as hot on the idea.

Meanwhile, although I can only fault myself for my share of lack of due diligence, I'm resigned that MT did *not* do a complete walk-through when representing our behalf in purchasing the property. A simple mistake with which I should've known better and may cost my further down the road, but for the time being, it's fully renting, it's cheaper than comparable properties, so the renters + me are happy.

- The penny-pinching continues and all I can say is I'm happy with my fiscal progress so far this year. I'm building up my cash and booked capital positions at an aggressive rate and am close of my goal of $100K in cash this year. Knowing that my consulting practice has a high risk of uncertainty, I'm just putting it all in a money-market fund for now until I have time to sit down and flush out a strategic high dividend CRT (Canadian Royalty Trust) position.

Penny pinching examples include: Driving a stick-shift late-model $5000 Honda (saves me approximately $1000 / yr on repairs and maintenance thanks to its mechanical simplicity, $1000 on gas, $1000 on insurance), having a 100% no-dry-clean work wardrobe (spent nearly $300 on it but saving around $1500 / year), attending free or heavily-discounted entertainment venues or knowing the right people to go to the right events, and drastically curtailing all liberal shopping habits of yesteryear. I did have the urge to get myself back into an AWD car to drive in a sporting manner but after realizing I'll be spending $3K / year extra to support that drug habit, it's a decision that's difficult to go through with.

- What's with the "booked" capital position, though? Well, me being the "too-nice-of-a-guy" once again, I entered into a loan with my brother to pay off his credit card debts in exchange for returning to school and high grade marks. We entered into this agreement last September, and so far it's worked well for him. As for me, as long as he pays according to terms (subject to wage garnishments), then his loan repayment will effectively be equivalent to a 5-10% APR variable-rate annuity-of-sorts over the next 8 years-- all of it non-taxed! So far, he's been performing his end of the deal very well-- getting 4.0 at Fullerton College in Orange County.

I'm rewarding myself to this significant progress with no less than two major trips towards the end of this year, one of them already booked.

As for the Retiree MPT Portfolio, it *still* exhibits only a 4% drop from its peak asset value back in 4Q CY2007, so all things steady with that.

Some other things I'm investigating:

- Whether or not I should re-form an S-corporation for my IT consulting practice. Initially I thought my resumption of consulting in my core services should be short-term as I segued into a lower pay but more secure full-time position with more benefits, but with my core services consulting continuing this long, I can't imagine my client having any interest hiring me full-time anymore. Or, I just move onto another full-time opportunity with more decent compensation / benefits.

- Options trading. I'm currently reading up on this. As I was traveling this past weekend I'm noticing more and more people reading up on it. I'm not sure if this is a trend that may become a "bubbling" trend itself, and if so and by becoming so if it'd have negative impact on returns, I'm trying to capitalize on this before the train leaves the station without me.

- I opened up a TreasuryDirect account with the purpose of buying I-Bonds to counter the US dollar inflation risk. I haven't purchased any I-Bonds yet, though, as I'm working to reach my capital goal for the end of 2008 and then deciding how to significantly reallocate my portfolio.

- And that leads me to: beginning to reallocate my and the Retiree's portfolio. I think I'll start investigating rebalancing every 6 months, starting with the beginning of 2009. Ever since I gradually flushed out the Retiree and my retirement portfolios about 1.5 years ago I haven't rebalanced. It surely wouldn't be a bad time to buy up underpriced positions and sell off overpriced ones.

- Find out a *better* way to seamlessly deliver and communicate my various balance and portfolio movements, so that it will stop showing up all ugly in manually-inputted spreadsheet formatting.