| This is my first post since the election of Trump.
I still find it hard, on a daily basis, to comprehend that he will be President. His election is a testament to the unimportance of facts or policies in modern elections. It's Brexit, American-style -- where all that matters is nationalistic persuasion and hatred for the opponent who, admittedly, was highly flawed (though much more qualified).
For people like me, however, it should ultimately be a boon as is already being demonstrated by Trump's Administration selections. Indeed, since the election itself, the stock market has been on a "Trump rally" tear almost daily--with the DOW topping 19,100 and the S&P at 2,200.
Naturally -- of course -- my investments mostly did not participate in this terrific rally because they are tech-related. Trump is no friend to the tech industry, who (except for Peter Theil) overwhelmingly supported Hilary. As a result, this month would actually reveal a small decrease in net assets, except for the fact that we are continuing to smooth out an increase in "other assets."
As was noted last month, the major change to net worth continues to be to "other assets." These assets represent a separate business and equity in my law practice.
In sum, I agreed to sell the separate business for $650,000 through a combination of monthly and annual payments over the next three years, beginning Nov. 1, 2016. So I estimate that the remaining balance will be paid at a rate of about $200K per year for the next 3 years.
As for the law practice, we've adopted a reasonable mathematical formula to value our interests based upon an average of net income to the firm, which value is realistic and close to the law firm's liquidation value. While the actual value of the firm as of last month was approximately $4MM, I decided to "smooth out" the increase by only valuing it at $3MM and adding only $500K this month. I'll add the final adjustment of about $500K on Jan. 1, 2017, and adjust it periodically when new tax returns are available.
For now anyway, this puts me at $13MM for the first time. |