Lexus, NYC, Houses

I should’ve mentioned with the Lexus purchase that even though I’m a thoughtful financially literate person, I drove like the worst deal possible on this car.  Just got caught up in the moment, and the car sales process is just really designed to leave you feeling used up - especially on a lease, where understanding what the actual cost is nearly impossible.

I have no idea why I’m leasing, since I’m not paying a $1000 a month only to return it after 3 years, plus I’m sure I’ll blow through the mileage limits without a doubt making a turn-in more or less impossible except at great cost.  All in all, I could afford it so I did it, and all my pricing discipline I practice all day long just flew out the proverbial window.

But two things I learned over the last two weeks of owning it - 1, love the car and definitely made the right choice among the contenders and 2, the 36 mile plug in electric range is cool.

In NYC as we speak, and just bought my first pair of $200+ jeans.  I didn’t mean to, but I went past a jeans store, and tried some on and they felt pretty good and then realized the price which wasn’t $500 but wasn’t $45 either.  I haven’t bought a pair of jeans in a long while but was sort of forced to since Lucas seems to be borrowing and not returning items from my wardrobe, so I’m not sure what the going price for a good pair is (I guess depends on how you define ‘good’ - brand, material, value, etc…).  They’ve come a long way since I last bought a pair - with stretchy light-weight material.

Can't say this is our best father-son photo on the tarmac at Haydan Airport, the nearest airport to Steamboat Springs, and a straight shot from Newark.

New road/driveway going in for a Big Barn on a lake in North Branch.

New Ranch in New Paltz, but we had to demo a mid-sized shack first.

We got a bunch of houses coming up - a Ranch in New Paltz, a big barn in North Branch, another big Barn in Kerhonkson and continuing at warp speed building the farmhouse in Parksville NY.

Interestingly, I spent the last year slowing the ship down to a crawl or stop.  Not easy to stop a barge or boat or locomotive since what’s in motion tends to stay in motion, and from a business standpoint, if you do come to a near stop, to get back up and running again takes time and cash flow/cash reserves.  But I did bring it to a halt, after 24 years of finishing and starting overlaps, sometimes with 25 houses in some stage of construction or pre-construction.  And by bringing it to a halt, I could realistically recalibrate since you can’t really make the best decisions when your needs are now - you don’t have the mental, strategic, operational bandwidth to get it done.  For the past 2 years I was working IN the business, instead of ON the business.  Had no choice, but 2 years later I’m exactly where I should be.  Powder dry, excellent staff, pruning of deadwood, clear mind, great team of subcontractors and vendors, and a little bit more purchasing and authority power since the economy is definitely slowing.

Part of the Museum of Natural History.

All in all, entering the Spring of 2025 poised for great things (defined as stability, life/work balance and fully funded profit share and retirement contributions for the team).

The media’s coverage of the stock market gyrations recently has been a degree of hyperbole usually reserved for their weather coverage and holiday airport crowd projections.  The market going up 200 points isn’t ‘soaring’ or doing down 600 a ‘crash’.  Everyday some over the top headline and not just from one source uniformly from NYTimes to Fox to Barrons to Investor Daily.  I mean considering all the proposed economic plans coming out of the Trump Admin, the market going down 7-10% after a bull run of 8 years is hardly unexpected.  The only thing is shows is how nervous investors really are generally and how long they have been willing to circle the chairs hoping there is one available when the correction comes.  I’m dying for a good 20% sell off so I can get in at more comfortable levels and we could get rid of some of the dry kindling on the forest floor (overvalued stocks) which will make any blaze burn hotter (correction) creating a healthier and more sustainable investment environment.  I’m just happy a good portion of my dough is in other things that than the market since I find the stock market a real mind f%4k in terms of proportionality when it comes to evaluating wins, losses, risk and reward.  I mean, I’m not going around valuing my real estate holdings weekly and feeling good/bad about them.

I’m in the city, and took a long walk which I like to do.  A deceivingly chilly day.  Walked by the Dakota, which reminded me of the James Paterson book on John Lennon (singer) and David Chapman (assassin) I read over the winter.  Paterson, the well known writer of thrillers, wrote a book that went back and forth between the paths of the two men leading up to the murder on the door steps of the Dakota as Yoko Ono looked on.  Then walked through Strawberry Fields in Central Park and did a big loop in the Upper West Side.