It’s all pretty simple. Especially since the good times are back.

Where then? Gold? I’m old enough to remember the last time. And there are times when property holds it value when cash does not.

We are quickly reinventing asset allocation, as you see. And that is why all financial advisors, except sword-toting bunny rabbits, would consider all assets on a balance sheet.

Monevator – I’m so pumped, I can’t stand it! We’re back to 2007 peak level earnings, with 10-20% less people to pay in my industry.

Hiring will be ROBUST next year for sure.

FS

I get contracts here and there (not a full-time job), and a couple of months is enough to pay for a whole year of expenses and savings

But in between contracts (like now), I have a lot of downtime to do whatever I like without stressing out.

The great thing, is I can also pick and choose my contracts, which was not allowed when I was a consultant for a corporation.

Such a great bonus.

I don’t think I could actually retire completely, but I wouldn’t be doing the same job as I am doing now.

I’ll probably end up in something else. Maybe blogging more seriously as “Grandma in a Stone House” or something.
@Samurai: No, wire ME the stuff. He’s in England, it’ll be cheaper to send it to Canada, no?

One I think you might be leaving out is the dollar value of learning and experience, especially if you are the sort of person who has the skills needed to transform learning and experience into an income-generating business at some point. Person A who is putting in time at a job is not as wealthy as Person B who is being paid less and who has less in the way of hard assets but who is sharpening his skills for the day when he will cash in through participation in an entrepreneurial venture.

Rob

Friends in the City (yes, despite best efforts I have a couple ) are definitely feeling chipper. I wouldn’t say anyone else is excited as such though. Not yet.

Do you sense the excitement?

I think you’ll agree with me after you read “You’re Net Worth Is an Illusion – Sorry To Spoil Your Delusion!”.

Zillow told me I’m $400,000 wealthier last month. If that really were the case, I’d be popping up some Crystal and getting me one of them new Audi R8 V10’s!

Best,

FS

On the property issue, I agree property isn’t the same as very liquid assets (I don’t mean wine here, Dan ) but that doesn’t make it less of an asset, it just makes it a less liquid one. I don’t know what my shares will be worth tomorrow – the market could crash – but I know what they are worth right now. Yes, there’s also the opacity of pricing of housing, but this is largely a short-term thing. if I had an envelope with £10 or £20 in it that you could buy for £5 and you had every reason to trust me, I’m sure you’d agree the envelope would be worth owning.

In the US, where you can walk away from negative equity, a house seems to me an incredible thing to own – an option on the house market, with no downside risk except the cost of holding.

I’ll do a post on this at some point. I’m not being obstinate for the sake of it, and I appreciate some people like to think of it as separate from their assets for psychological reasons, but as Dan says, objectively it’s undeniable. (Send me the deeds to your home if you disagree. You can keep staying there until you pay the mortgage off! )

FB, I’m not trying to be dryly witty, that’s me writing straight-up heartfelt, soulful prose. Now I know why the kids all laugh at me.

Anyway, on the retirement issue my current feeling is I won’t retire. I may well wind down to doing something that only takes a day a week spread over three and earns diddly-squat, but I think it’s better to feel you’re doing something. When I sold out of my start-up (for no profit) a couple of years ago, I allowed myself the freedom to do nothing if I wanted. That’s what I ended up doing. There are also stats on how people die soon after retiring etc.

Keeping in mind I haven’t had a regular salaried job for over ten years (discounting the start-up years, which were decidedly irregular), I don’t think as things stand they’ll be a big change. Still quite a long way off though, I hope!

About the property thing – objectively you are correct. However, in reality there are a lot more constraints on house trading. It’s not just a case of it being an illiquid asset, it’s also the fact that property tends to be controlled by, and have an interest of, all people living therein, whereas the trading of liquid securities tends to be governed by one individual in a family/household unit. They aren’t tradeable on anything like the same level.

Oh and finally:

“Children can enrich your life in many ways, but since slavery was abolished their cash value has been curtailed – economically-speaking, they’re cost centres.”

Great sentence.