December 27, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: December 27, 2024, boiled bananas.
Five years ago today: December 27, 2020, below water level.
Nine years ago today: December 27, 2016, pink-eye.
Random years ago today: December 27, 2002, my zero hour report.

           Tampa says a cold wave is approaching, so I’m not sticking around for the week. This video would make a good comparison to the view from JZ’s hallway if you could ever find the files from 25 years ago. When I first stood on this balcony, the trees had just been planted. They did not form the shady scene you got here. Another beautiful creekside Miami lawn that nobody as ever really used. Snapper Creek. Walking distance to the Dadeland Mall. If you hear referral to the “ghost balcony” this is the location.

           Big discussion this morning with JZ, close to six hours. We share no common background when it comes to money or how money is properly utilized. Let’s just say he is fully aware that having three times my income does not mean he is owning houses, vans, tools, or being able to travel, invest, and (pay attention) not ever having to rely on the mercy of others. He’s fully aware of the gaps in his methods, for example, like millions of others, he has been trying to save up $5,000 since before we met. Why, they’ve been trying for their whole lives.
           This creates a curious situation. You see, he knows all kinds of people who are doing this same thing and failing. From his own admission, every last one of them is a flop—and some of them are quite influential in his life. He knows only one person who does it [successfully save and invest] and that one example is showing him the whole lot of his other people are wrong. (For that matter, too many of them are lying to him.) And time is a-wasting as the spread between silver bid and ask continues to grow and persist. Ha-ha, silver has brought investment or lack thereof into real focus.

           If you’ve been reading me a while, you know the answer is infrastructure—and so does he. Save up all you want, if you do not have a solid framework to invest and protect the money, it fritters away. That means we were NOT talking infrastructure but the cost of instrastructure. The topic was the question he asked that I had not thought out for myself. What does this infrastructure cost? For my best answer, see addendum below Turns out it is frightfully expense BUT is means the methods and attitudes themselves become an asset.

Picture of the day.
Still the record-holder.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           The initial plan was to hit a pub later, but we know from experience there are no bachelor-friendly neighborhood spots left in South Miami. Just plenty of claimants. JZ mentioned Monty’s over in the Grove. But we’ve been there and it is a married people’s hangout and the entertainment is spotty. The prices are okay, but unless there’s a chance of meeting some babes, why bother? I voted to use the money, which was kind of mine anyway, to buy the best rack of prime rib we could find. Bingo, $30 at the market on Dixie. By the time that was baked and eaten, nobody felt like moving.
           Don’t quote me, but I think the Grove location is a second to the original Monty’s down on the beach. Remember, the place I worked next door to for years, the Continuum. Never cared for the place for the same reason—if there ever were any receptive women in the place, they were, shall we say, not as married as they used to be. It was not real tiki bar entertainment, either. Too much keyboards and backing tracks. But Miamians are damn easy to please.

ADDENDUM
           JZ was easily able to rattle off a list of perceived advantages. I say “perceived” because you will never convince me being born poor was what taught me to get ahead. If that were true, we’d be surrounded by rich poor people. I had to learn every notion I have about money from nothing, often from the molecular level, with no help and full opposition. But the rest of the list was easy to quantify. It costs me money to have my bank accounts, personal privacy, and to fly under the radar. One example is how it costs me $21 every time I take money out the bank—but that is a calculation most people could not make.
           Did you include the cost of turning the key in your car to get to the bank, the time, and the lost opportunity? JZ’s last statement says he make 66 transactions last period. I made two, both for the same amount and on a Thursday. Yes, I can answer how much this infrastructure costs and that gives a good indication of why it takes so long—if you follow this next sentence: I invented a new category called a “dollar-year”.

           To make an investment last, I found that other resources have to be allocated at the beginning (from the start), but those costs slacked off as the investment aged. I usually called it “protection” and today JZ had me put a dollar figure on it. We did note that JZ (and most people) have nothing on that list, that is, they don't even know there are such costs.. No wonder they fall flat on their asses. I’m not posting the list, no way, but we totaled up the cost and you can have that info. To launch a new investment from a dead start, for each dollar invested, I require between $10 and $11 tied up for one year. Tricky concept? Yes, because they are totals. Taken a little at a time, it is like your parents supplying the house so you don’t have to—the cost is spread over 30 years.
           What happens once you start is the structure can be used over and over again. But it is a real leap of faith to get underway because beginners can’t tell it from the investment itself and it is just as easy to lose.

Last Laugh