Weekly Roundup - October 26, 2013

It's been a pretty crazy week for me and my wife.  The joys of home-ownership started quickly as a one of the main branch roots for a tree at the new house busted out water line.  When I got home I dug out the water line where the leak was coming from and there were some pretty squirrely things going on.  There ended up being 5 PVC pipes all on top of each other and of course the bottom one was the one that was broken.  Long story short I ended up having to get a plumber out there because just repairing the broken area wasn't going to solve the problem of the tree being the "root" cause.  Get it? Root cause?  So the plumber came out and we got everything lined up for a trench to be dug and a new water line run.  It's a flex pipe, I think it was PEX, and based on what he had said about it it seems to be really good.  So the new water line is now away from tree roots and shouldn't have any issues.  But I'm still curious what's going on with the other 4 pipes.  When they had dug the new trench and I went and looked in to see if those pipes were running to the water main.  And they weren't, they didn't even go straight to the box and you could see that they ran past the meter box.  They're too small and too close to the water line to be sewage so I really have no idea what's going on with those.  All the more reason I want to design my own house and be there for construction.  There's so many hidden things when you purchase a house that's already been built.

Other than the fun of the first plumbing issue, it was fairly relaxing but I did have to head back to work.  In portfolio news, I added to my IBM position by purchasing 11 more shares and sold a put option on Cisco.  Fairly light in the portfolio update department.  I'm sitting on a decent amount of capital right now, but the opportunities are few and far between so I'll just sit and wait for better values and possibly more option plays.

I also stumbled across this article on Yahoo! Finance talking about athlete IPOs.  The new company, Fantex is about to issue the first athlete IPO on Houston Texans RB Arian Foster.  They gave Foster $10 million up front in exchange for 20% of his future earnings.  The rights to that 20% will then be split into shares and they will run an exchange where you can buy and sell ownership stakes to earnings streams of your favorite athletes.  Obviously there's moral/ethical issues at play, but it's always interesting to see what some people will come up with to try and make a buck.  If more athletes get on board, this would take fantasy football to a whole new level.  I won't ever participate but I wouldn't mind getting a piece of Andrew Luck's future earnings stream.  If celebrities join in on the fun, I'd be shorting Miley, if I was in to that sort of thing.  Hypothetically, what athlete/celebrity would you want to have an ownership claim to?  And what amount of up front cash would you need to give away 20% of your income every year?  Assuming this is just income from using you or your likeness, not investment income.

I just want to say thanks to everyone that has stopped by, commented and shared Passive-Income-Pursuit over the past weeks.  Thank you so much for joining in the conversation and if there's anything you'd like to see me cover here, please let me know.  Now on to the links.

How to travel for free: 4 cities in 8 days by I Heart Budgets

My retirement strategy for tax-free income by Dividend Growth Investor

Here's proof that starting that starting a blog helps you build fruit-bearing relationships by Young, Cheap Living

The mission of Dividend Growth Stock Investing by Dividend Growth Stock Investing

A balanced portfolio (own it ALL!) by FI Fighter

Three reasons I enjoy watching stocks I own decline in price by Dividend Mantra

Recent buy - Kinder Morgan, Inc (KMI) by Captain Dividend

You need five dividend investments that will be untouchable your entire life by The Conservative Income Investor

CSX: DRIP Investment Intitated by Retire Before Dad

Dividend Growth - The only metric that matters by The Dividend Guy

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  Enjoy the cooler weather.

Comments

  1. Sorry to hear about the pipe situation! My fiancee and I are going through the home search process now and it is crazy to see some of the half-ass'd jobs contractors have done over the years.

    The athlete IPO is simply crazy, especially with an NFL running back like Arian Foster as the first to go. As an investor, this would crazy risky. Takes one bad tackle for the mans future earnings to plummet, especially in a league filled with non-guaranteed contracts. For Arian, this is a great deal. Tremendous amount of downside protection with this deal. He gets hurt, boom, still has his $10 million.

    Enjoy your weekend JC!

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    Replies
    1. PIP,

      Thanks for the mention.

      I guess thins Athlete IPO kind of reminds me of what Buffett always tells students, when he talks about purchasing 10% of the lifetime earnings stream of their fellow students. Actually, i would not be surprised if in the future, you would be able to buy and sell future earning streams of people. I know it seems far fetched though, and kinda crazy too ;-)

      Delete
    2. w2r,

      There's definitely some shady workmanship depending on where you're at. A lot of places the even fall under city building codes have issues because the inspectors sometimes don't even get out of their truck at the locations. So you just have to hope that you picked one where they did and that they actually made them correct anything.

      The IPO is pretty surprising to me, especially with an older running back being the first one. That's a no brainer for Foster as he's getting $10 million up front. You always take the upfront money. Especially since all he has to do is decide that he doesn't want to be in the limelight anymore and then is earning no more income. A younger player like Andrew Luck would be intriguing because there's so much potential for his future income stream. Should sign a new contract soon, lots of endorsement possibilities. But there's not many older players that will continue to have a reliable income after their playing days are done.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
    3. DGI,

      It depends on the terms of the agreement. If it's all earnings streams then yes, if it's just from someone's work or in the case of a celebrity personality using their likeness then no thanks. It's too easy for them to just walk away. There was another guy a few months back that sold shares of himself in order to raise some capital. He was keeping majority ownership, as I would too, but was having a voting system on his website to pretty much run his life for him. The owners would get to decide what he does in a lot of situations. I'd be up for that if I could raise a significant enough amount of capital. Maybe even have the owners written into the will to split your estate after you happen to pass away.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  2. PIP,

    Thanks for the mention! Home ownership can be a drag on the budget for sure. That sucks about your plumbing issues.

    -RDB

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    Replies
    1. RBD,

      No problem on the mention. Home ownership can definitely inflate the expenses and I hope to try and get as much of those in check as possible. I just wish there was a realistic way to have fixed it for good on my own. It would have been much better to have spent the $30 in parts but I wasn't about to dig that trench by myself. The gas line was too close and I'm not taking responsibility for that one.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  3. Thanks for the roundup PIP,
    I hadn't heard of some of these blogs, so it's good to see what's worth looking at. Have a great weekend
    -Bryan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bryan,

      There's so many great blogs out there and I love the growing DGI/FI blogging community. The roundup is my little way of trying to say thanks.

      Delete
  4. Pursuit,

    Sorry to hear of the plumbing issues. Looks like you're hitting the ground running in regards to home ownership! I'm sure things will smooth out once you get some kinks (shoddy workmanship) worked out.

    Thanks for the mention. Appreciated as always.

    Best wishes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DM,

      Not exactly what I was wanting to do to get started with owning a house. At least not this early. All the more reason I want to design my own house and be there for the construction. At least that way I can stop a few things before they get covered up.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  5. Tree roots can be a real pain. I used to have a plumber out at the house every few years because the two sweet gum trees in my front yard would get their roots in to my sewage pipes and clog them. I had the trees cut down years ago and the roots were still a problem for a few years after that before they finally died off.

    p.s. - Thanks for the mention :-o

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Captain,

      Love the trees and the shade they provide. Hate the roots. They can wreak havoc on so many things from foundations, driveways, sewage pipes, water lines, sprinklers... The issue of cutting the tree down and still having the roots grow was what I was afraid of. Especially given the proximity to the pipe. Glad yours have finally been finished off. No problem on the mention.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  6. That's Murphy's law that one with the pipes, hehe. If something can break, it will...
    Nice links in your post. I didn't know some of them. Will check it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Martin,

      Definitely agree on Murphy's law there. All the more reason I want to be there while they build our house sometime in the future. At least that way I can know of the issues and how everything is laid out beforehand.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I would love you to check out my website,and give me some feedback!
    Plumber Birmingham, Al

    ReplyDelete

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