Subprime Lending Crisis

Man, the IRS does not miss anything.  Check this out, with foreclosures on a record pace due to the crazy subprime lending crisis, the IRS can get their grubby hands on these folks who participate in a short-sell.  A 1099-C is triggered whenever a homeowner does a short-sell.  The difference between the mortgage amount and the selling price of the house gets reported as taxable income.

Here's a scenario, say you still owe $300,000 on your mortgage but the house value has dropped to $275,000. If the bank agrees to a short sale, you'd sell the place, pay the commission and other selling costs -- let's assume $15,000 -- and turn the remaining $260,000 over to the bank. The $40,000 gap between the payment and the amount due would show up on a 1099-C form as taxable income to you.  Even the $15,000 of selling expenses gets tossed in with the amount of forgiven debt on which you owe tax.

The tax bill, however, will be forgiven if the homeowner is completely bankrupt.  But, if the homeowner has other assets, then the tax bill will take affect.

Financial Priorities

Yes, my Financial Priorities are in order !!!

Triple digit drop for the Dow...

"Another triple-digit drop for the Dow" exclaimed CNN.com today.  Opportunity, opportunity, opportunity is what I say.  In spite of my investment's market value dropping by $10,000 in the last two days, I consider days like this to be good news for my overall portfolio over the long-term.  As I do every year, I look for a place to invest my cash I've stored up over the course of this year.  I've had such great success with Vanguard funds ( particularly, the Vanguard PrimeCap Core Fund ), that I will be pumping in another $10,000 into this fund in the next several months.  The lower the price, the better for me.  Bring on the low prices !!!

Optimistic About Texas A&M Football

College Football is about 30 days away.  I'm very optimistic about my Texas A&M team this year in spite of the brutal road schedule.  If we can repeat our road success we had last year, then we'll have a real chance to win the Big 12 South Title.

Rumor has it that Stephen McGee ( our starting quarterback ) has put on about 20 additional pounds of muscle.  A proven quarterback, a potent backfield ( in Lane and Goodson ) and the best offensive line in the Big 12 will be fun to watch.  If our defense continues at its current pace of improvement, then our team will have to be considered contenders in the South division.



Gig Em Aggies!!!

Parker Logan Karas

Parker Logan was born today!!!  He weighed exactly 8 lbs and was 19.5 inches long.

Parker Logan

My Blackberry

Friday at work was my last day for a while.  I'm taking off 2 - 3 weeks for the delivery of Parker which is slated for Monday.  It typically takes me about 2 days to get work off my mind, but since I acquired my Blackberry I'm almost constantly tied to work.  The Blackberry was, by far, the absolute worst purchase I've ever made.  Because of it, I can never get away from work.  However, for the next two weeks I've committed myself to turning it off.  This time is going to be my time with my family without any work thoughts whatsoever.  I work with a great bunch of folks and fully trust they will handle all open issues without any problems.  As a result of me disabling my Blackberry, today was a glorious day with Morgan and Dayna.  I've actually had the Blackberry OFF for a full 24 hours now.  I've also been able to begin catching up on my reading.  Like I mentioned in my previous blog entries, I've been really enjoying Bart Ehrman's work.

Jenks Made Money Magazine's Best Places To Live List

Money magazine has rated Jenks, Oklahoma the 43rd best city to live in America.  Dayna an I enjoy our town very much and think it's one of the better kept secrets.

Jenks #43
Jenks Data

The Theory of the Leisure Class

In 1899, an economist by the name of Thorstein Veblen wrote a paper entitled The Theory of the Leisure Class.  Within this publication, he coined the term "conspicuous consumption".  Conspicuous consumption is the idea of buying things as a symbol of one's earning power, a signal to others that you've attained a certain level of wealth.  Not only do Americans practice this theory, but, according to MP Dunleavey, we've escalated this into an even more aggressive form - "competitive consumption".  This is the desire to have things that not only display your purchasing power, but your ability to outstrip whatever your neighbor acquired - we know it commonly as "keeping up with the Jones'".

The Theory of the Leisure Class
Conspicuous Consumption

A couple additional great quotes from MP Dunleavey's book Money CAN Buy Happiness...

"...the number of storage units nationwide increased from about 22,000 in the early nineties to nearly double that ten years later"

"The average size of an American home has grown from 1,500 square feet in the 1970's to over 2,400 square feet today"

Indications are everywhere in American society that people spend more on "stuff" just to fill homes and storage units so as to attempt to represent the wealth they have achieved.  Yet, at the end of each year, folks are always asking themselves the question "where did all the money go".  Meanwhile, they are surrounded by discarded and broken items all around them that may have brought joy to them very briefly when they first bought it, but now is simply taking up space while their savings accounts are a bit smaller because of the unsound purchases they have made over the year.

Stock Market Soared

The stock market soared these last couple days.  It's always nice to see the ol portfolio riding high, but I personally prefer things to be down for a while so as to take advantage of low prices.  I'd prefer the market to reach its peak just as I reach retirement, but of course that's not going to happen.  Dollar Cost Averaging through these years will hopefully keep things reasonable for my accounts.

There is talk that rising interest rates will keep stock prices in check.  You know, the classic Hank William's song that tells us..."interest is up and the stock markets down and you only get mugged when you go downtown...a country boy can survive".

I finally got around to creating a joint kids page.  Very soon, we'll have some pics of Parker Logan's birth which will be anytime now up until the 23rd of this month.

Morgan Avery
Parker Logan

Origins Of Christianity

I typically adhere to the philosophy of "don't talk religion or politics", but today I'm going to deviate from that rule and discuss religion within the context of a couple books I've been reading.

    
For those of you who show interest in these books, you may be asking yourself the question "wow, has Scott become an agnostic?".  The answer to that question is "no, Scott has not become an agnostic nor an atheist".  There is too much evidence within creation ( i.e. the birth of a child, the changing seasons, the extravagant detail within every living creature ) for me to deny that there is a God that created everything in our world.

If you're interested in understanding the origins of Christianity a bit deeper, then you will find these books fascinating.

Morgan Update

Work has really been crazy lately.  Unfortunately, I've neglected updating Morgan's pages until now.  Here are June and July's pictures.  Hope you enjoy them as much we have.

June 2007
July 2007

I've also brought the Morgan's Page up to date.