Wednesday

The sub-prime mortgage market still dominates most business news stories. At least a couple dozen small-ish mortgage companies have filed for bankruptcy, and units at some of the bigger finance companies have been shut down. More blood will be let in the weeks and months ahead.

There was a time within the last 3-4 years when we considered establishing a relationship with a mortgage company to offer mortgages to our accounting firm customers. The creative stuff being done with mortgages back then had just tons of refinancing being done, and there was money to be made by the originator on each refi file. Brokers were so busy that they added staff and worked evening hours. It was a classic example of "making hay while the sun shines".

My guess is that most of the people whom we would have encountered in our practice for that service would not have been "sub-prime" borrowers. But who knows what may turn up in the wake of this mess? What we haven't seen yet are the sharks in the water (read: attorneys) looking for their cut in the legal boom that is sure to come.

A little bit of Garth Brooks applies to our situation here: "Thank God for Unanswered Prayers". In this case, my lack of commitment (or motivation) became my savior from what could have been just more headaches.

In another matter related to strategic planning, I spoke for about a half hour today with the 24 year old daughter of a client who is now thinking about heading back to grad school to become a CPA. She has a Business undergraduate degree, so with a CPA now being required to have 150 hours to obtain the certificate, she can do a Masters' program in a year and a half. My friend/client had asked me to speak with her when I had made an eyebrow raising face to him when he had told me of her plans.

My advice to her was to make sure that there was enjoyment and a plan in pursuing the program. Debits and credits never inspired me. The tax work was intuitively challenging for many years, and I enjoyed the game-theory of substantiating favorable tax treatment for clients. In recent years, I have found investment services/planning a much more interesting and rewarding area of study. Accounting was certainly the base that allowed me to have options later in life. If you are going to run your own business, or work in a key role within a business, a good understanding of accounting is a necessity.

In the end, I wished her good luck, and then apologized to her for rambling and preaching. It's kind of like reading this blog.

There are all kinds of other items to confirm that I have established my place among the aged, but I think that the number of different doctors whom I have visited in the last six weeks takes any doubt out of the question. GP. Urologist. Orthopedist. Dermatologist. Plus the various lab techs, physician's assistants, nurses, etc. Plus the Gastro guy whom I will be seeing soon for his 5-year look-see. I used to describe myself as "generally healthy".

So have a great evening.

Be careful out there.