January 10, 2006
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I’m back from the mountains. Kind of bittersweet since we’ll never go again but we had a really good time, when we might not have, so I’m relieved. Lots of cooking and scrabble — I thought of you, Emily. I’d never played Scrabble before so that was tons of fun. It snowed the whole time we were there, and our cabin overlooked the lake so the view was picturesque. The sledding trail was right outside the kitchen window and someone had brought their German Shorthair. That made me miss Bridget a little. We kept a puzzle going but Scrabble was our big deal. And the middle child insisted on buying a gingerbread house kit so the youngest did that. Oh, and I brought music I thought they might like so we had tunes. But what pleased me the most was watching the middle child teach the youngest one stuff on her Apple.
She took a picture of a friend of theirs and stuck in into another picture of a town in Amsterdam. The other thing I liked watching them do was go sledding at midnight. The middle one has lived in S.F. for the last three years so it was great to see them get closer.
It feels lonely here. I stepped back into my old life as a mom but then I came home to this big empty house with the rain and wind outside — It is really nasty out. Those of you from Portland know what I’m talking about. That little cabin was so cozy and cute. All three of us sitting around the table or hanging out in the kitchen.
Christmas is over now but my tree is still up. I hate taking Christmas down. Plus I’m fat. I can feel my ass when I walk. The other thing is that I did a very scary thing today. I sold a substantial holding and put all the money down on a stock which will announce its quarterly earnings tomorrow. I’ve never done that before. I have always kept my purchases small. And talk about gambling. If their earnings are not what they forecasted, I’m in big trouble.
But I decided that this year I’m going to be a more aggressive trader. I called my broker and told him I wanted to switch to a fee-based account. Do you think, anybody out there who knows about consulting, that I could set up a business and call myself an independent contracter and do unrelated things like trading stock and writing about stuff and it wouldn’t matter that the two things were separate? I certainly don’t know enough about the market to write anything about it. It’s just that I got my bill from NW Natural gas and it was $420 this month. Yeah. The most it was last year was $300 and I thought that was staggering. So if I could write off part of my living expenses that would be good.
I’m just throwin some ideas around so let me know if you have any experience with this.
Comments (17)
from what people tell me, the only safe investment is real estate
The business which has kept me going was a small LLC which my parents set up about 10 years ago. We did property management and my father did consulting. I jokingly said that we would consult on just about anything, just ask us! His consulting was on land planning and zoning issues. Of course, we could broaden that to land rights, drilling, development, marketing. The good thing about forming an LLC it provided us our own ledger for whatever business we wanted to do. Not much in the way of info, but incorporating is a good thing.
re above comment: yep…..real estate.
I know nothing about it, but what they said sounds good. Yay for Scrabble – a friend of mine who’s finally finishing his bachelor’s degrees (he’s had the English one in the bag for a while, but he’s been fiddling with the mechanical engineering thing for years – the guy was a junior when I was a freshman, and I graduated two years ago!) is coming down tonight so we can play. I hate a lonely house. Empty isn’t always lonely, but it often is for me. I spend a lot of time at my parents’ house on the weekends just to be around them. Good luck with the stocks! It sounds like crazy fun, potential profit, and a definite stroke for this young twenty-something.
My business lets us write of a myriad of things, but I don’t write off my home office. Too complicated, and an IRS flag. Easier on me if we don’t, but doesn’t mean you can’t.
I forgot you were going to the mountains. Glad you had fun, but I know what you mean about the quiet house.
Sounds like the trip was a great success but sucks that it has to include the emptiness that you are experiencing. Scrabble can get very competitive, especially when one person has mastered more vocabulary than the others..As for incorporating,,they have changed a bunch of the laws that used to make incorporating a huge advantage but really you need to discuss this with your accountant as they have to keep up on the letter of the law with each change that Congress passes. I am with the post above,,the home office is a big red flag, but if you dedicate the room entirely to the business it can be done, has to have a dedicated phone line, lots of rules…again ask the accountant. I rent one room as an office to Dave, but it is truly unattached from the house and meets all the requirements, as the previous two owners of this house ran their construction businesses from here…I get to write off some of the power etc,,,again the accountant will know what can be done. That bill is outrageous, that’s why I have a woodstove..my bill last month for power was $149 and gas $89, not too bad but still about 1/3 above last year.. Wellllcommme back, I missed you..marilyn
sounds nice, your getaway with the girls…and i cannot fathom a one month gas bill that high….
Sounds like you had a really good time. I know nothing about consulting or investing for that matter I just invest in what my gut tells me will do well and so far so good, Judi
I took down the Christmas tree yesterday… gotta do what we gotta do..
Welcome back! I saw your comment last night (thank you!), but it was already one in the morning here so I did the responisible thing and went to bed. Scrabble is the only game at which I do not cheat rabidly. The conversations that go round during a gmae are more fun than the game to me. Oh, that sucks to come home to an empty house AND have chores to do. More than once that has made me walk right out again. I also talked with my tax preparer about claiming some sort of deduction for my home office and PC (I do hours of schoolwork here, it made sense to me)but she said I would have to prove that I used it solely for business purposes. I don’t knowif this was true or not, she was one of those H&R seasonal employees and may not have been as astute as a real financial counselor would be. Best of luck to you on that though and on the stock venture! I had to laugh at your feeling your ass, not at you, but because it occurred to me the other day that I felt something at the top of my thigh and when I investigated, it was my ass! Things have started to succumb to gravity it appears. So glad you all had a good time this last time, it sounded wonderful and serene. But I am also very glad that you are back Pru!
So…. waiting with baited breath about the financial announcement.
The steppping in and out of a life… that’s what getaways and vacations are for, right? It’s good to leave the familiar (or in this case return to the familiar) but then it’s always somehow comforting to get back to normal, whatever that is, even with the chores waiting and all that. Bittersweet is the perfect word, isn’t it? Sweet melancholy: even while it’s going on in the present, you’[re already missing it in the future somehow. I like the daughter reconnection thing. I worry about my girls. With the divorce, it somehow seems even more important that they end up close. I wasn’t close to my sister until we were both grown. There was too much of an age gap (7 years). Even now, I don’t think we have the closeness that my mom had with her sisters (each less than 2 years from the next). I’ve always felt the outsider with my siblings due to the age gaps. We had such different experiences even growing up in the same house, at least for a while. Really, it wasn’t even growing up in the same “family” when you think about it. To me there are “them” (the older ones) and me (the younger one). They have something I don’t.
I’m really glad you’re back. Reading that brief bit about the cabin makes me feel all warm and toasty. I need to be somewhere like that right now.
Again, your talk of stocks scares me witless!!
RYC: I went over to that person and posted some advice. Let’s see if she writes back to me. The last time I offered advice to migraine sufferer, she never posted again. She was using Excedrin Migraine, which is about as useless as a sugar pill. I don’t know why she didn’t want to see a real doctor and get a prescription. This one sounds like she’s more willing to listen about doctors.
I sure hope she’s better. I know the hell she’s going through.
You might tell me that I’m willing to answer any questions she has, since I sort of posted out from nowhere, and she doesn’t know me. I think that might help break the ice. She can e-mail me privately.
Lynn
Oops, that was supposed to be “you might tell her…”
My what a random post. Glad you enjoyed your trip, the dog (sorry you missed yours), and scrabble. About the ass, no comment. About consulting, wish I knew but it sure seems logical to me that you could do so. Prudy I always appreciate your comments on my site. You were so right on about the last verse of my poem. I got rushed and threw it up just to finish it. Cheers dear one.
So far I have not heard from the migraine sufferer. I hope she’s okay.
Lynn
i love the way you are taking aggressive chances this year! it seems like you are becoming a different person… more self-assured and outgoing, and more willing to try new things as you say good bye to the old ones. i like that!
The H&R woman knew her stuff on that one, along with buyit – writing off a home office is touchy. You must be able to prove the area is solely used for business, so blogging on your computer, unless you can defend it adequately as creative writing, would disqualify it. It used to be easier when I was doing taxes many years ago, but the IRS has tightened that one up considerably. But there are many other tax saving alternatives to filing a Schedule C as a consultant before considering incorporation. Obviously a financial advisor or tax accountant could advise you better. (that disclaimer came out without even thinking, old habits!)