Last day of 2013, time to focus on finances.

Its the last day of the year and me and the Mrs. have decided to focus on increasing our net worth..... We are at the point in our lives where we need to add to our investments so we can make sure we are able to afford the retirement we would like. A little background.... we are both early, early 50s. Our current net worth is slightly over 1 million. Now don't start thinking we could write a check for a million because we can't. About half of that net worth is in houses, our residence and a rental. About half in cash and investments. Of those investments, most, maybe 65% is in retirement accounts so its not really available. One more point, that net worth number does not include a lot of assets, cars, furniture, jewelry, etc. that are hard to value. It is just stock investments, bank accounts, house values, from Zillow, etc. Numbers that I can put into a spreadsheet in about 3 minutes. I am sure if we were to liquidate everything, our net worth would be substantially more but I want to be ultra conservative. So that is where we are. My hope is that I will post updates to how things are going on a somewhat regular basis, every few days, maybe when I have some from time or the mood hits. Probably more when something happens such as I am thinking of buying or selling a stock. That is all, it should be an interesting year.

Meet Jay Inslee supporter, warrior spirit Ramtha

Jay Inslee and the WA state Dems are getting large donations courtesy of 35,000 year old warrior spirit Ramtha channeler JZ Knight. I would try to explain what that means but you would not believe me.

So the question I have is this... does Mr. Inslee believe in what JZ Knight is selling? Seems like a good question for tonight's debate.

Update: Since this was linked, thanks Orbusmax, I thought I should try to explain Ramtha. Emphasis on try....  From Wikipedia

Ramtha (the name is claimed to be derived from Ram and to mean "the God" in Ramtha's language) is an entity whom Knight claims to channel. According to Knight, Ramtha was a Lemurian warrior who fought the Atlanteans over 35,000 years ago.[17] Ramtha speaks of leading an army over 2.5 million strong (more than twice the estimated world population at about 30,000 BC) for 63 years, and conquering three fourths of the known world (which was allegedly going through cataclysmic geological changes). According to Ramtha, he led the army for ten years until he was betrayed and almost killed.[18] Ramtha says he spent the next seven years in isolation recovering and observing nature, the seasons, his army making homes and families, and many other things. He later mastered many skills, including foresight and out-of-body experiences, until he led his army to the Indus River while in his late fifties. Ramtha taught his soldiers everything he knew for 120 days, he bid them farewell, rose into the air and in a bright flash of light he ascended before them. He made a promise to his army that he would come back to teach them everything he had learned. JZ Knight says that in 1977 Ramtha appeared before her and told her that he had come to help her over the ditch. JZ Knight became his first student of what he calls the great work

I kid you not.

I sent a tweet to @jayinslee asking if he thought @jzknight and @ramtha were a fraud. No reply. Found out later that Knight has also contributed to President Obama. Sent @barackobama the same tweet. No reply.

Seattle University's Socialist Econ Professor / Candidate

An article in the Seattle Times talks about a lawsuit by Kshama Sawant. She filed to run in the 43rd L.D. position 1 and was endorsed as a write in candidate for the 43rd L.D. position 2. She finished 2nd in both primaries but can only be on the ballot in one race. So she picked position 2. State law says a write in candidate can't show the political party. Ms. Sawant is a member of the Alternative Soclialist Party. Ms. Sawant also does not think the current rules should apply to her and wants the party affiliation listed on the ballot and has sued. Now I will skip all discussion on the sanity of someone thinking that listing Alternative Socialist Party on the ballot will actually help them because, well it is Seattle after all so maybe it would help.

Here is my issue with the story. Ms. Sawant is an econ professor at South Seattle C.C. and Seattle University. The Alternative Socialist Party candidate is an econ professor at Seattle University, the school where I earned my degrees. OK, whatever, as long as I guess you understand econ and is not promoting some wacky ideas, like privatizing successful businesses that have created substantial wealth in the area...

•Break the power of Wall Street and Corporate America! Take the giant corporations that dominate Washington state such as Boeing, Microsoft, and Amazon, into public ownership under democratic workers' control to be run for public good, not private profit.

Oops... guess not.

Is Jay Inslee a Tax Cheat?

Jay Inslee released his tax returns... and by released, I mean he let accredited reporters see some documents, not the voting public.

What the reporters have permitted us to learn was that Jay Inslee does not appear to be much of a manager of his own money. While reporting a household income of $237,000 in 2011, putting him in the top 2% of households in the country, he had to borrow from an IRA to replace his roof. Anyone who has an IRA knows that withdrawing money early from an IRA incurs a penalty. So Mr. Inlsee withdrew $45,000 and paid a penalty of $10,000 as a result. Seems like someone who is 60+, an attorney, has been bringing in a significant amount of income for a number of years should have other ways to come up with the money. Especially when it was used to replace a roof, an expense that is almost always anticipated many years in advance. But poor money management by someone who wants to run for Governor of the state of Washington is not the point of this post. Also included in the Seattle Times article is a mention of a loss incurred on a membership in a country club.

They also reported a loss on a membership in the Wing Point Golf and Country Club on Bainbridge Island. The tax returns show the couple acquired the membership in 1988 and sold it in 2009, reporting a $5,500 loss.

Now I am not a tax attorney but I am curious why exactly would a loss on a country club membership need to be included on a tax return? Did they take a deduction from the loss? If so, the question is under what circumstances would a loss from a sale of a country club membership qualify as a legitimate write off? If it was for personal use, I can't imagine that it would be allowed. I called the Inslee office but nobody has got back to me. I emailed the Seattle Times reporter but no answer. Its impossible for me to know the answers to my question since the tax records that were "released" are not available to the voting public.

Update: The Seattle Times reporter replied that he had to go to get a copy of the return and did not know of any restrictions on what he could do with the copy. He had not scanned what he has as of yet. Has not had the time to look into anything regarding the country club loss.

Update2: I called the country club and asked about membership and they only have equity memberships. To join you buy an existing share and pay an initiation fee. I was told there are a number of current members selling shares at no cost. Initiation fee is $5500, which of course is the same amount listed as the loss on the tax form. Which makes you wonder if the amount listed as the loss was on the stock, which just happens to match the initiation fee, or if it was in fact the initiation fee. If they are claiming a loss on an initiation fee, then that would raise even more questions as it should have been clear that was not an amount they would ever receive back and would in no way be seen as a capital loss. As I have said, I am not a tax attorney, I don't know the answers to these questions. I do think they are legitimate questions that should be answered.

Update3: Dori Monson covers the story. Thanks to Orbusmax for letting me know and for the link. Mr. Inslee's spokesperson seems to be confused between the concept of a country club membership and what Mr. Inslee has, an equity membership. Some country clubs are equity clubs. When you buy a membership, you are buying ownership, stock, in the club. Some clubs are non equity, your membership does not include any ownership. Some clubs have both membership options. Mr. Inslee's club is an equity club. As I stated previously, those current members who are selling their stock are doing so today for $0. As I also mentioned, for this club, to buy stock, you also need to pay an initiation fee to the club which is currently $5500. The amount of the loss Mr. Inslee stated on his tax return... wait for it... $5500. Sure, it could be a coincidence but it seems like there is a reasonable chance that Mr. Inslee deducted his initiation fee from his taxes and not a loss in his equity ownership stock. So once again, I am not a tax attorney but my best guess regarding the probability of legitimately deducting an initiation fee from your taxes is somewhere between 0 and 0. Now if the loss really was from an equity ownership, the probability in my opinion of that being a legit deduction on personal taxes would be approximately 0.

Andrew Breitbart

He inspired me to stick up for what I believe. It was a shock to hear this morning of his passing. This afternoon I was dropping off a package at UPS here in Seattle when another customer was ranting to the help about how it was "the bankers" who were behind all of the global financial problems. And by "bankers", I am fairly certain what he meant was "the Jews". And I said nothing. After I was out the door, on the way back to the office, I thought what I should have said was..."well maybe what we should do is find all of those "bankers" who held a gun to everyones head and forced them to borrow money... oh that's right, none of them did." And I felt horrible that I did not have the guts to confront him and ridicule him in public like he deserved. Because I did not want to put myself out there. Never again do I want to feel that way.

Never again, Andrew, never again.

You will be missed.