Tag:

family

Investments

Explaining Public Companies to My Son and Calculating How Much of Disney Does He Actually Own

by Evan

A few months ago my 9 year old son asked me a very interesting question, “who owns Target? they must be super rich and live in a mansion” and it led us into a very interesting conversation about publicly traded companies.

I started to explain that some businesses have one, two or 10 owners and being that he knows who I work for he completely understood the basic concept that some people own a company and some people are employees of that company.

Building from there I said that some companies choose to have many, many owners and that anyone in our amazing country could buy a piece of a public company. I said since you would be buying such a small, tiny piece of the company you don’t really have a say in how it is ran but if it is worth more than when you originally bought it you participate in that gain. I then blew his mind when I told him he owned .000000000000000000001% of Disney. While I have tried to explain to him that he basically owns nothing he proudly told The Wife that he was an owner of Disney.

We moved on, and it comes up every once in a while, but I thought it may be an interesting exercise to actually calculate how much of Disney he really owns.

Calculating How Much of Disney Does My Son Own?

Over the course of my son’s 9 years on this planet he has been fortunate enough to receive monetary gifts from friends, uncles, aunts, and grandparents. The Wife and I made a decision very early on that I would invest their money in Bonds and ETFs, however, after a few years of I decided to bail on the bond idea since they had decades before the money was needed and I moved them to entirely to equity heavy ETFs and a few stable companies. Kind of interesting that I wrote the linked post in 2012! My son was 2 and my daughter wouldn’t be born for 2 years – one of the coolest things about running a blog is the ability to take a look through the archives.

My best guess is that the aforementiond transition happened around 2014 since that is where his DIS holdings start:

I am not about to figure out how many shares he owns through the ETFs he owns because that seems like a massive headache! So for simplicity purposes let’s just say he owns 33.943 shares of Disney. The next question would then be how much of an owner of Disney is he?

A company’s outstanding share count can change quarter to quarter, however, according to MacroTrends in September of 2019 Disney had approximately 1,666,000,000 Shares (yes, that is 1.6 Billion with a B).

It is beyond the scope of the post, but I couldn’t help myself and I had to research that uptick. It had to do with the 21st Century Fox acquisition.

So now we know how many shares he owns and the amount of outstanding shares we can now divide the two numbers we know the outstanding shares and how much my son owns we can now divide and figure out the exact amount of Disney he owns.

My Son is a 0.00000203739495798319% owner of Disney.

Look at that he is doing better than I originally guessed!

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Cruise
Random

Activities on Cruise Ships

by Evan

Cruise ships have a lot to offer for a vacation. They can be good for both relaxing couples retreats as well as a fun filled family getaway. The reason for this is the variety of activities and accommodations that are involved. Plus, the idea of what type of vacation you get for the money spent can make almost anyone happy.

Cruise
3D cruise ship in tropical waters

Dining

Cruise ships are known for their food. Most importantly they are known for their all inclusive food! This means you get all you can eat. It comes in the form of buffets, ice cream shops and even formal dinners. Each cruise ship usually offers a variety of options (sit down, quick, food types, etc.)

Shows

There is a lot of entertainment on cruise ships as well. They are known for their singing and dancing. They typically have night time shows that can range from actual musicals to ice skating shows. Cruise ships have band playing in the different bars located throughout the ship. Karaoke is often found in the lounges as well. Games, dance lessons, group events are also popular are on the ships. I was even on a ship one time as a kid that had a talent show. I came prepared with a dance costume and performed one of my dances for the ship.It was quite the experience. 

Slot Games and Gambling

If you like to play slot games than you are in luck on a cruise ship. Cruise ships typically have a whole casino for you to enjoy that has games such as slot machines, blackjack, poker, roulette and craps. International waters allows for gambling to take place once you are not at port and are out at sea. 

Shopping

Cruise ships offer great shopping. You will typically find quite a few options for you to dabble in. Categories most commonly found are jewelry, alcohol, and clothing. Jewelry and Alcohol are common because, similar to gambling, the rules for international waters are different and it allows you to score some great deals. Not only can you get a good deal but you can also purchase new and exciting outfits or activities to use while on vacation.

Spa

Rest in spa salon
Portrait of young female lying in spa salon during beauty procedure

When one wants to relax on vacation, they tend to opt for spa services. The nicer, the better. Well cruise ships offer these services for that very reason. Most offer the typical spa packages like facials, massages, manicures, pedicures of all varieties. Most will pay a premium when they are on vacation, especially when they are faced with overlooking beautiful beaches and the sea.

Kids

When with a family than you are most likely looking to keep your children occupied. Most offer kids services that either offer childcare or kids activities throughout the day and evening. You can basically send your child to camp while you enjoy your vacation. Just like adults like to do on vacation, you can send your kids on expeditions and play games to keep them busy.

So get out your dramamine and sunglasses and look into enjoying a cruise ship vacation.

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House Made of Money
real estate

I May Be Moving Again!

by Evan

I get reminded about it every 6 to 9 months, but one of my favorite things of running a blog for the past 10+ years is the ability to rummage through my archives and put myself back in that situation.  Prior to writing this post it was kind of cool to take a look at some of my older posts about moving from my first home to our current home and all the things that went into it – selling my first home and the emotions thereof, and then subsequently buying our current home (along 5 or so updates during that time when I was blogging a lot more).

Our Current Home and Why We Are Selling

The Wife and I, love our current home, the area we found and the relationships built there.  Tonight, I got home about 6pm since I am only about 40mins from the office in Long Island rush hour traffic.   Sat with everyone for dinner, then had a 25 minute indoor lacrosse catch with my son as it was raining (future Evan may laugh but this weekend we made up a game called DaChrist with very specific rules which only seem to be getting more complicated and it has only been 4 days).  Then got back to our kitchen table for a game of Uno with both kids.  After a quick episode of “Billions” I am writing this post with a glass of scotch.

The home provides us ample space to host a large BBQ  in the backyard or NYE parties inside with probably close to 50 or so people in either situation without being tight.  All while being very affordable with regard to my income and ridiculous Long Island housing costs.  Even if I lost my job tomorrow, I am pretty sure keeping the house wouldn’t even really be an issue.  So why are we even thinking about leaving?  Back in February of 2018 The Wife couldn’t ignore what was happening in the local real estate market, and it started to make us really think about what we don’t love.  There are three reasons as to why we even have given any thought to leaving the home:

  1. Our street is busy – we moved from about 15 miles away which for Long Island might as well be 50 in some parts of the country.  As such, we did not know our street was a cut through street connecting two semi-busy roads.  This leads to some annoyance in having to worry about the kids in the front.  I get there are a portion of people reading this shaking their head.  No, I don’t live in the middle of Manhattan, my kids aren’t playing next to 2nd avenue, and yes, there are kids that survive that – The Wife and I just don’t want to worry about it as they get older.
  2. Property – Currently our home sits on a quarter-acre, and I get that the property may seem HUGE or TINY depending on your experiences.  For us, it seemed massive when we moved here, but when we started to look into adding a pool things got tight.
  3. Upgrading our home didn’t seem worth it – Given one and two on this list, The Wife and I chose to upgrade some things while leaving others alone.  We kept justifying, it wasn’t “worth” doing X because this wasn’t our forever home given number 1 and 2.

So weighing out our love for the home and the above negatives about it and given that early last year The Wife and I noticed a ridiculous upswing in the real estate market where we live it inspired us to take a hard look.  I put my home up on “make me move” but nothing really came of it, however, The Wife and I kept looking.  The problem where we live is there are just not a lot of home within the school district (which was a non-negotiable for either of us much to my father’s chagrin). Since February of 2018 I can’t even venture a guess as to how many homes we saw, but it had to be at least 60 to 70 seen in person (not just shared links with one another).

We put in offers, got counter offers, walked from some and were rejected on others.  One story in particular I have to tell on here, if for no other reason to memorialize it so I can remember it at a future time (like the red ball game):

  • The Wife and I see a house on Gina Drive (I will need this later when I google to see what happened to it lol).
  • The asking is $700,000.  There are a TON of trees on this particular property so I have a tree guy stop by and tell me it is going to be upwards of $40k to get the trees removed.  So I offer $650,000. I then have this interaction with the broker:

  • So we assume that this was dead – I wrote a post about being insulted about a real estate offer and kind of moved on.
  • About 2 or 3 weeks later, we get an automatic notice that they dropped the asking from $700k to $630k! LESS THAN WE ORIGINALLY OFFERED.
  • We contacted them again and offered them asking, $630k.  They turned it down and then took an offer a month or two later at $575k! As I wrote this post, I have no clue whether the broker was just terrible at her job, or if the homeowners were bat shit crazy.

Nonetheless to say this has been a process would be an understatement.

The New Possible Purchase

First and foremost, I say possible because of the date of this post we just have a verbal commitment.  I have my attorney talking with their attorney, and only have a voicemail into my engineer/home inspector.  I haven’t even started the pain in the ass that is applying for a mortgage.  There are probably 10 or 15 things that could go terribly wrong between now and me writing a post about “my new home.”

First the bad.  The home is not an upgrade in terms of actual size and structure. Actually, I would say it is almost the exact same home, maybe even a little smaller! The good, I am fixing all three of my “cons” above without changing much in my life.

  1. The home is on a quieter street.  It is not a dead end cul de sac, but nor is it something I have today.  For you to want to use the road you have to live close by, as it isn’t convenient for anyone else.
  2. I am getting a much larger property.  The lot is one-half acre, which means I am getting about 75% more backyard (assuming the structure and front yard takes up 25% of the total property).  Most of the neighbors have a pool without losing all of their grass.
  3. With the other two things fixed, The Wife and I are more likely to fix things up (and have already started talking about doing things to the home).

My Boss, who is like a friend and mentor to me, said it best – I am getting all the steak but very little sizzle and that should be okay! I am fixing major problems but the home wont’ have that “wow” factor.

The Finances of the New Home

As we started and lived through the process the most important thing to The Wife and I was that our financial life didn’t change too drastically.  We like our life.  Last year we went out multiple ski trips, traveled with the kids to Mexico and even took a trip to Ireland ourselves for our 10 year anniversary.  We just don’t want to feel like I had to take a different job or be house poor.

This house meets that main objective.

While I have never shared my net worth on this site, I have been very open as to my housing costs.  Our current situation is as follows:

  • $485,000 home with an original $385,000 mortgage at 3.375% for 30 years (fixed);
  • Taxes of about $12,500
  • HELOC has about $100 of interest owed monthly

All in I am looking at about $3,100 a month for housing.  The way I figured it is if I found a home for about $700,000 and I sold my house for $600,000 (net of broker’s fees) my life wouldn’t change all that much!

  • Current house, verbal accepted offer is at $685,000
  • I currently have $240,000 of equity in my home ($600,000 minus $330,000 left on the mortgage and $30,000 for my HELOC).
  • If I put $200,000 as a down payment and I get a 4% 30 yr fixed I am looking at a payment of $2,400/mo (assuming $40,000 went to waste, taxes, attorney’s fees, and some upgrades).
  • My Taxes are about $15,000 (up from $12,500)
  • So my monthly nut changes from $3,100 (P&I and Taxes + HELOC interest) a month to $3,650

$550 is completely doable and this doesn’t even take into account that my daughter enters kindergarten next year which clears up $475 a month!

Change is Scary

Any kind of big move like this is such a high risk, high reward type of decision.  I do not like those types of decisions, but we are going to give this one a go! I’ll update accordingly.

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my children with santa
Estate Planning

The Hardest Decision For Most Couples is Choosing a Guardian

by Evan

I have been practicing in the estate planning world for the past decade or so, and I have found that the hardest decision that most people have to make is choosing their guardian for the children. In fact, it is so difficult that prior to meeting new clients with children, it is the only decision I make them come to the meeting prepared to answer.

I am confident I can walk a family through every other issue regardless of family dynamics, net worth or complicated tax matters, however, watching a couple determine/fight over who can care for their young children is often too much of a speed bump in the process.

What Happens When You Don’t Choose a Guardian?

Choosing a guardian is one of the most, if not the most, important decision you’ll make during your estate planning meeting.  If you fail to have an enforceable plan (i.e.  a duly executed Last Will and Testament pursuant to the laws of your particular State) then it is going to be up to the court to listen to your family fight over your children! After all the heartache and money spent to get to the other side then you can only hope that the relationship is strong enough so the losing side will still be able to be involved in the child’s life.

In my particular case, it would be my parents and my wife’s parents spending a ridiculous amount of money arguing over who has the pleasure of raising my minor children.

Things to Consider When Choosing a Guardian

While you are the only person that will know who you want to take care of your children there are some items you should consider prior to naming him, her or them.

Where do they Live?

Is your chosen guardian in a different country? There is no guarantee that a court is going to allow you to relocate an American Citizen 3,000 miles away in a different country out of the jurisdiction of an American Court system. Maybe you want your child to live in a particular location because of roots, lifestyle, etc.  Is the chosen Guardian willing to move to where you are?

Is Religion Important to You?

Are they as religious as you are? Are they more religious? Is that important to you?

Do They Have Children of their Own?

It may not be a great idea to give someone who has never had a child 3 kids under the age of 4.  Similarly, if they have 4 children of their own, can they really take on 3 more? Are there age differences between the children? Do all of the kids get along?

Do they have the Means to Take Care of your Children?

If you have children and no life insurance, then you are being irresponsible!  Recognizing that there are a ton of irresponsible people in this world you have to ask yourself i the person you are naming can raise your children in the lifestyle you want them be raised in.  I am not saying money is the end all be all, but when you deciding whether to raise another person’s children it is going to at least going to run through their mind prior to accepting the appointment.

 

 

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Random

Saving for a Family Vacation

by Evan

I am writing this post right now from my balcony in Mexico drinking a cerveza…fine by the time I hit schedule I should be a few beers deep.  My boy needs a few minutes out of the sun since he was rocking the butt-whiteness of a New York winter before coming down, and my daughter and The Wife are napping by the pool so I have a few minutes to kill to write a post I have been thinking about this I booked this trip.

The Wife and I try to go away on a bigger type trip once a year and we only use money that has previously been put aside for the trip.

Breaking Down a Large Purchase into Weekly Savings Amounts

The Wife and I have two accounts that we save small weekly amounts to without even noticing the balances until they are needed (family vacation and home emergencies/upgrades).  The below chart is not rocket science, it is just taking a total and dividing it into possibility palatable weekly amounts.

Total Amount Weekly Savings
$1,000.00 $19.23
$1,500.00 $28.85
$2,000.00 $38.46
$2,500.00 $48.08
$3,000.00 $57.69
$3,500.00 $67.31
$4,000.00 $76.92

I am not blind to the fact that a family vacation may not be a luxury that some can afford, but when you look at those weekly numbers it should question some people’s priorities.  If you are eating out for lunch 3 times a week at an average of $12/lunch you are right in line of a $2,000 vacation without really making that much of a change in your lifestyle.  This same chart could probably be applied to debt, but I am in too nice of a place to worry about that right now!

The Main Benefit of Saving Weekly for a Family Vacation

Beyond the vacation itself the main benefit for me is by doing it this way I remove all the pressure of actually having to pay for the trip.  When The Wife books our trip I just take it out of that account and there is no four digit bill to come home to, no large amount that has to come out of savings to pay off the amex, and I feel zero annoyance with regard to the large purchase.

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