Speculators

Have you noticed how many different entities are (apparently) the cause of the current economic downturn? Banks, credit card companies, mortgage companies ... the federal government (devaluing the dollar by overspending), the state government (overspending), the counties (ditto) ... the Fed (for not regulating enough), the FCC (for not regulating enough), the FBI (yes, I really did see that) ... unscrupulous buyers, unscrupulous lenders, unscrupulous decorators ...

Everyone is getting blamed for this except the actual cause - The American Way.

No, not the charity (that's the United Way) but the concept - a chicken in every pot, a Lexus in every driveway, and the Constitution-given right to the pursuit of happiness. You know - wealth, even if you don't have it to start with.

I'm not against money - that would defeat the whole purpose of my quest - and speculation is indeed the way to get it. Every time we buy a house, a stock, or any other non-consumable item we are trading a liquid asset (cash) for another, more solid one in the hopes that the elves will grow our pot of silver into a pot of gold - organized gambling on a global scale. And there's nothing wrong with it! Everyone who's anyone has succeeded because of it!

It's when we go into the deal with a pot of lead and expect the elves to become alchemists, or when we walk in with silver (knowing it's trolls at the helm) that we get the straw instead of the gold. And we know this! The Great Depression was all about "leveraging" - the foundation for a house of hay that blew down with little more than a hearty guffaw from the Big Bad Wolf. The turbulent 'sixties and the deprivations of the 'seventies was because we built and overbuilt like there was no tomorrow after WWII. And the "Oh-My-God!" 'eighties led to the "Where's-the-Ramen?" 'nineties.

Don't expect (much of) a lecture - this is commiseration, not judgement. I've rolled the dice more often than I've rolled a T-bill, and I have the callouses and debt to prove it. But I had an "oh-crap!" moment this weekend, and I'm still feeling the reverbs today. It had to do with a little pink stone.

Here's the backstory ... hunting was pretty
good on Friday - an estate sale in the morning yielded some pretty jewelry and a bunch of signatures on a "farewell" thing, while a trip south (I really am stretching my wings!), armed with an internet search and a nose that told me to drive twenty miles farther down a state highway instead of the interstate, gave me some of my better finds (the gold chain, moth pin, rock bracelet, turquoise ring, and sterling cake server). By Saturday I was pooped, and as hunting was good at only one yard sale (onyx and sterling ring, silver bracelet, and a bead necklace) I knocked off early and veged out - the Texas trip had finally caught up with me.

Those were good. Sunday was the problem. In the past two weeks, I have learned that all Goodwill stores are not created equal. The only one I'd visited here was more Dollar Store than happy hunting grounds (which they need to be where they are, trust me), so Sunday I decided to visit more of them.

In one, I found The Ring: a polished pink stone hot-glued onto a craft-store adjustable form, cranberry pink, intriguing. And for $2.99, what budding rock hound could resist? I bought it, went home, and headed for my black light, where it fluoresced orangy-red. Hmmm. Nothing in my book really matched that combo of stone color and fluorescence. So I pried it off the mounting, peeled off the glue, and looked again. No fluorescense at all, except in this one place ...

Okay, must be the polish. I took it to the kitchen and tapped it with a hammer - I swear, it was just a tap!


You saw that coming, didn't you? Yep, pink dust.

I believe that it was a "reindeer stone," very brittle (duh) but also quite collectible for a rock hound. Or maybe raspberry quartz, very flawed (so broke easily) and also kind of cool. Now it's pink crumbs.

I speculated, I was foolish, I lost my asset. But how much did I really lose?"

Enter the geek.

Tap tap tap

I spent under $40 this entire weekend (on things that may or may not appreciate in value). That pile of rock powder is, essentially, nearly 8% of my "investment" for the period.

Tap tap tap

Wait, one necklace (not shown - already given away) and one ring are gifts, and a piece of marquetry (not shown - glued in place) is mostly for decorative purposes ... so, really, that pebble was ... tap tap tap ... 11% of my potential assets.

A pretty big loss for such a small stroke of a hammer. Or "just" a leverage on a buy (with a small margin) of oil futures. Or a house "flip." Or an equity cashout. Or a credit card buy (knowing that I will have the business to pay for it later). Or just about anything else that many of us call - or once called - "speculation."

So there I sat, Sunday evening, and I realized I'd scheduled a replacement window estimate for Monday knowing that I have neither the cash nor the hard-and-fast income in the next six months to pay for it. And Monday, when I wanted it so badly I could taste it (all $26K of it - top of the line, two extra holes, etc.). Yes, it will increase our equity. But this kind of thing is not the speculation that earned Carnegie and Buffett their millions - hubris and greed are ingredients for a cake of Titanic proportions.

Been there, done that, got the blood sugar to prove it.

Will I get the windows done? Maybe - no bells and whistles, and only when I have the cash. Will I continue to buy? Will I be able to?

I'm betting on it.