Be careful what you wish for

It's me, Preston, for real this time. I decided to start writing blog entries every now and then, but they are probably going to be about money, politics and school. Shelbi has wanted to me to contribute for a while, and she doesn't much care for the 3 topics I like to write about so I aptly title this entry, be careful what you wish for.

I actually used to have my very own blog, way back in college, some of the posts were about how 'pessimism is the secret to true happiness', and "How to trick a girl into like you" (the ring on my finger proves that my strategy works).

But I thought I would update everyone on my latest conversation with a teacher, that I had yesterday. Since I am graduating in December I am starting to look for a job. I went in to my professor (Deena Katz') office to talk to her about the different routes a financial planning graduate could take. Mainly I wanted to know the pros and cons of working at a big international firm, like UBS, versus a small local financial planning firm. An interesting little anecdote she told me was that if you start working for a small firm and really impress them, you can become part of the succession plan. One graduate went to work for a firm and the owner "croaked" and he took over the business... and had absolutely no idea what he was doing. I don't know how that story ends but that's not the point. The point is that it seems like a smaller firm will offer more freedom. Freedom to really create your own portfolios for your clients -- as opposed to having more restricted limitations at a big firm, where there are already set procedures. And I think it would be the coolest thing ever to take over a firm one day, or start my own from scratch.

But I'm getting way ahead of myself. I don't even have a job, and I'm already talking about taking over the business. The point is that, after speaking with my teacher for a while, I expressed concerns about finding a job at a small financial planning firm, because it seems hard to find out if a firm is any good or not. There just isn't much information out there about a tiny financial planning firm in, say, Addison, TX. Before I could finish my sentence my teacher said, "Are you kidding me, our students graduate with three job offers and a diploma. You tell me where you want to go and I will find you a job there."

Wow.

So, I told her I was looking at Dallas and Austin, and she gave me the name of two firms; one in each town. Both of them only work with high net worth clients (side note: I think it would be very difficult to only work with high net worth clients, and to have a person come to you to manage their money and you have to tell them that they literally aren't worth your time.) She gave me the name of people in each firm to get in contact with just to talk to a little bit about what they do and what the possibilities are.

So there you have it, my first blog as a married man. Thanks to all of our faithful readers, this one was for you. More money, politics, and school to come.

The Flood

Here are a bunch of pictures from the flood yesterday. It didn't rain at all today but schools were canceled anyway. We just showed up to work a little later. The roads, for the most part, were ok. I had to take a small detour because one of the lakes was still flooded over onto the street, but no big deal.

The first of these pictures we took last night when we drove around our neighborhood and through the Tech campus.

These are the lights of the Tech stadium...you can see the water at the bottom of the pic.

This is a view of our apt. from across the street...or should I say river.

There's supposed to be a raised median on this street...as you can see...there isn't.

The rest of these pictures are taken by the Lubbock newspaper of the Texas Tech stadium field...I think they said it was under about 2 feet of water. They spent all day today pumping it out...

Notice the small fish in the right hand corner of the picture...

Come in with the Rain

There's really not much going on in Rampy land right now, but its been a couple days since I posted so I thought I needed to write something.

It rained A LOT today. Now, I'm from Dallas so I've seen lots of rain before, but it doesn't rain like this in Lubbock...ever. It just doesn't. It rained all day...the whole day...never stopped. It's STILL raining. The streets are flooding like crazy because Lubbock has a terrible drainage problem. Preston came home from class soaked to his boxers (you think I'm kidding). So...lots of rain in Lubbock.

Our friends had to cancel their wedding shower which was to be in Austin this weekend because of the hurricane. They feared guests from Houston wouldn't be able to attend considering the evacuation traffic plus the fact that, well a hurricane is supposed to hit. It's a bummer for them to have to reschedule but I was a little excited at this news because I couldn't get ANYONE to cover my shift and wasn't going to be able to attend. Depending on the rescheduled date, we might be able to go now! Yay!

In other random news, people think I look like Taylor Swift (country music artist). It's only when I wear my hair curly but I've gotten several comments from customers at the store in the past month. Taylor Swift is dating Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers so I texted my sister and told her that, naturally, Joe must think I'm cute. She got a kick out of that. Here's a comparison pictures of Taylor and myself...I don't see a major resemblance but Preston and I did search for pictures that would somewhat resemble each other to help a little...


BUT last year some friends of ours saw Jenna Bush on the cover of Texas Monthly and called to tell me we looked identical. Now THIS I actually believe because I saw this and could definitely see a connection.


Well my boss just called and said not to come to work in the morning until she calls because Lubbock is flooding, so naturally Preston and I have decided to hop in the car right now and take a tour of the flooded city. If we take his car and it floats away does that entitle us to a brand new car through our insurance? Preston said, "moral hazard". I don't know what that means, but he thinks it's funny. He'll explain it to me later. Anyway, if we don't float away, I'll try to take a few pictures...could be more interesting though if we do float away...

Preston is writing an entry!!!

Well sort of. He doesn't know (yet) that I am copying an email he sent to his parents to put on our blog. He never knows what to write about so when I saw this email I thought it was a perfect opportunity to add a little Preston flair to the mix. I mean, it is the Rampy Chronicles right...not the Shelbi Chronicles...though that does have a nice ring to it doesn't it?

To preface Preston's "entry" I will first say that he really is in the number one place to be as far as education goes for his field. I know right? I too thought Lubbock (and Texas Tech for that matter) was the armpit of Texas. Turns out it really does have something great to offer. Preston will be going to Boston AND Atlanta this month, all fees paid by the school, to attend 2 different conferences...and at one he'll hear Madeline Albright and Ted Turner speak. I don't get to go, which is stupid, but they must assume I'd skip the seminars and go shopping instead. They're probably right. I'll try to get Preston to explain his trips in better detail and not through me...especially since I only know what I hear through him. In the meantime, here's what he actually wrote:

"Just wanted to update you on the course I told you about, Asset Management III, being taught by the very well respected professor, Harold Evensky.

To put it simply, he does not disappoint.

I am amazed by his knowledge of Financial Planning. It is obvious by listening to him and it's obvious due to the fact that very famous (famous for PFP) people talk about him and quote him in academic articles that they write. The class is a TON of reading but it will be well worth it.

Also, he is having different people call in to class and talk to us for 30 minutes to an hour about some of their writings and the ideas behind them. And one of them is Harry Markowitz. You shouldn't recognize the name but you will recognize his ideas. He is the founder of 'Modern Portfolio Theory'. Basically, he is the man who introduced diversification to the investment world (essentially, mutual funds are based off of his ideas). Modern Portfolio Theory is the idea that putting two assets (stocks) together, makes them less risky than the individual assets by themselves. Sounds like a no brainer, but no one had thought of it until him. And he won a Nobel prize for it in 1990. And he is calling in on the 19th to talk to us!!

Daniel Kahneman is calling in next week, he is also a nobel prize winner.

Between this class and the conferences I am going to, I think this is the best semester of my life. I am really excited about it."

So there we go!!! Preston has involuntarily made his blog debut! More to come...I hope. :)