Read Fragrant Souls, a serialized novel on Substack

 https://maddente.substack.com/p/fragrant-souls-the-full-serial-index

Date Night in Milwaukee

Last night involved dinner and a show at the local Improv. Let's take the show first so I can end on a positive note. 

Apparently, we missed an earlier "perfomance" that indeed featured The Office trivia competition. (I studied in advance). My wife and I shelled out over a hundred bucks to this experience.

We had to settle instead for stand up acts from one of the recurring guest stars on The Office and his warm up act.* Both of these guys could've made the late Larry Flynt blush. Maybe one day, I'll understand why raw sexual humor amuses people, particularily when it's the whole act. No imagination. Now, I'll pivot to something that was actually satisfying...

The pizza we had at a nearby restaurant before the show was DELICIOUS and I'm extremely picky about pizza. Of all the times that I've been to New York City; I've never actually tried NY style pizza until last night at Grimaldi's in Brookfield, Wisconsin. I'll be back. 

*My email sent the next morning to the Improv general mailbox with a cc to the manager at this place was ignored. I would have given them another try. Lesson for entertainment merchants: even if you disagree with customer complaint, ignoring a respectfully-composed one, is weak and dumb.

snip from Grimaldi's website

Fifty Year Mortgages? An awful idea.

Freepik photo

The WSJ editorial team nailed it today: 

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/50-year-mortgage-donald-trump-bill-pulte-housing-prices-5ca2417b?st=N1W1Cu&reflink=article_email_share 

My online comment...

"Have we learned nothing from 2008-2009? This is a bad idea and a dangerous one. The easy answer of pile on more debt to improve affordability, hastens another meltdown. We don't have a demand problem, it's a supply problem."

Is that what heaven looks like?

Last week before leaving Thailand (more about that trip shortly), I learned that my brief reader's comment about financial advisory services, would be included in a Wall Street Journal article found HERE. 

The common practice of paying an advisor one percent (or more) of assets under management (AUM) on top of all the other fund investment expenses, is a relic and many people don't realize there are alternatives. 

This is not to say that all financial advisors who are paid a percentage of AUM never provide a valuable service, some do, but the point is that many clients would do better by paying for advice about asset allocation, fund selection, tax planning etc. on a fixed fee, or hourly fee basis. Pay only for what you receive. 

I cringe when I hear commercial pitches like "We do better when our clients do better". Anyone can be a fiduciary and still overcharge for a service. The fact is, an advisor gets paid with the percentage of AUM fee model, even when their clients' portfolios don't perform well, or when the advisor delivers poor advice and/or poor service. 

Still think the traditional fee model is fair because clients are charged the same percentage? Consider two investors paying Joe Advisor 1.25% of AUM. Claude has $1,000,000 portfolio and Julian has a $2,000,000 portfolio. All other factors equal, can Joe justify charging Julian $25,000 vs. only $12,500 for Claude? Has Joe done twice the amount of work for Julian? 

Now, about my recent trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand...

The people in all three countries are generally very poor by our standards. They have little, but they are also happy and peaceful. Beautiful people. In Cambodia, a group of schoolchildren waved, called out to us and smiled so energetically that tears came to my eyes. I won't forget the moment. Most of us in the USA have an abundance of riches compared to these citizens, yet many of us remain unhappy, always wanting more.

Perhaps part of their abundant sense of well being is underpinned by the fact that there is almost NO violent crime in these SE Asian countries. I never felt safer. 

The problem of course, is a demonstrable lack of personal freedoms, freedoms which some of us take for granted. In SE Asia, one can criticize the government(s) until one has developed a group of followers. I was told by a local that initially if criticism is overheard by a party member, one might be escorted to the police station for "tea". Afterwards, repeated speech against the state will land one in jail. 

Why can't we have public safety and peaceable citizens AND also enjoy personal protections afforded us by the US Constitution and our legal system? Is that what heaven looks like?

 

Child of the Line

Catapulted into a summer night

I run out the door, into darkness

thoughts of youth pervade the mind

reminding me of the long line called my life.

The games once played

are mostly forgotten

the people who chased me

are all gone.

But the child is still there

The child of the line is smiling

Freepik image

Winter Whispers

Pointed, brilliant drifts of snow

pierce the evening of winter.

Curving upward they arch

to a luminous, cyclopean moon.

A guest, humble, I stand here

beneath flickers in northern skies.

Icy grains atop snow drifts, 

move obediently for winter gusts.

One drift releases grains to its neighbor.

Tumbling crystals, indifferent, brush sodden drifts.

A rabbit stops to listen.

Paul Krapf image adapted

Old man and the park

Old man walks to

a familiar place with

hand on a park bench

he lowers himself to rest.

He cups a flame, 

cigar smoke 

rises to his hats brim,

curls upward and over.

The grackels,

scampering feet

scurry over scraps

nothing wasted. 

He watches as an orange sun rests, 

contented, the old man rises.

Another day in paradise.

Image by prostooleh on Freepik