Quote:
Originally Posted by GregWeld
I will tell you that you think you're doing "okay" until you come to a world class city (principality actually) like this and then you realize you're just a schlepper...
I'm okay with being a schlepper. I'm happy. Life is good.
Talked to a guy at Mozza (we ate dinner there) last night - he's wearing a shirt with a big MBZ emblem on it -- so I say "hey! so which one do have?" and he says "an S65"... ah ha I say -- nice car! Then he tells me about several Ferraris he has - and the Bently GT his wife drives and the Rolls Royce... So I slink back to my table -- and tell my wife what a prick he is. 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GregWeld
Mike.....
We looked for over a year at buying a house in the Napa Valley... a second home... I started at 2MM... nothing.... and raised that to 4MM... for which you got orange formica kitchen... or so far out that I couldn't take the drive into "town" (St Helena or Yountville) for dinner....
While laying in bed at our hotel (Meadowood Country Club -- you'd love it!) I realized the true cost of 4MM invested in a second home would cost me 200K in income loss (5% that I make off that now in TAX FREE bond income)... so that is "opportunity costs" which one has to calculate to see the true costs! I would need gardeners - and housekeeping - and property taxes and the gutters need cleaning and the windows washed - and more cars to make it "easy" to come and go... and furnishings.... so figure at least another 100K per year... so the income off another 2MM....
To which I said to the Misses.... "Ya know.... we could stay here a MONTH and our room is ONLY 60K".... so if we ate out every night for the month - we might spend 100K. Sounds ridiculous - until you compare the "loss" of ownership costs to just traveling and not owning or worrying about diddly squat. We're traveling.... I gave her a yearly budget (HA!) and we'll just blow that messing about rather than having a second house we'd rarely use since we're traveling anyway.
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I'll slink back down in my chair on the porch and to tell my wife "what a prick this guy on the forum is "

Monoco sounds like an experience. Not sure I'd be down for more than a couple days of it though. Great shots.
Schlepper out