Disclaimer...

At this time I want it understood that I'm:

• NOT a financial advisor
• NOT an investment advisor
• NOT a tax consultant
  
  

  I'm: a risk taker, gambler and like living on the edge, I have been called 'Blade Runner' by friends and enemies alike!
  
  

I'm a non-participating MLM target, coffee drinking exmormon, confirmed Atheist, mildly OCD chatterbox living in the scam/fraud capitol of America. I would rather be sitting at a blackjack table counting cards (which I'm pretty good at) or leaning against the rail of a crap table (also capable at) in Las Vegas. I have wagered occasionally on sporting events but, haven't been very successful at that. I'm probably the worst poker player (my tell is like a neon sign on my forehead) you have ever met. Although I did walk out with $42 in Texas Hold'em profits one day at Binion's.

However, the one claim to fame I possess is my ability understanding the concepts of compounding interest and appling that skill to eke out profits in the stock market. I have gone the day-trader route with limited success but caught with my pants down more times than I like to remember. I am no better at picking the right stock than the next person, I realized I do have the skill to follow the trend and capitalize on winning the small battles ignoring the war itself. I also have the intelligence to give up on a losing scheme of which there have been many.

Backgound...

I have to give you a little history to understand where I am today. Back in the 80's during Reagonomics I came up with a little scheme to make a million in pro football bets. I theorized that if you can pick one game a week (there were only 14 games at that time for 16 weeks) and pick the team to cover the spread you could possibly turn $110 into $1.7 million by the end of the season by parlaying your bets each week. I talked a few friends (9, yes they are still my friends) into this plan which I will call DareToBeGreat 1 (DTBG1) in honor of the illustrious Glenn W Turner. We started the new season with $11 each. We promptly lost the first game and re-invested another $11 and run it up for 4-5 weeks until our next lose resulted in a bad bet on the Arizona Cardinals to cover, the bet was $1,400.00. Oops, I then decided to wait until the next year and try it myself. That lasted about 3 weeks into the next season. I gave it up as a losing cause. I still make an occasional bet, it's in my blood.

At about this same time there were 8 Baccarat dealers (female) that decided to pursue the same line of betting. They invested $10 each and promptly lost their first game > reinvested $10 each and run it for the next 12 weeks. It was reported in the paper because the casino they had been betting at refused to take their next bet somewhere in the $130,000 range. Another casino volunteered (out of mercy I'm sure) to take their bet.

Several weeks went by and we didn't read any follow-up to the story so I had one of my co-workers call the sports desk at the Las Vegas Sun for information. Seems like Dan Marino destroyed their run, it was a good bet: Chicago to cover against Miami (-3 points) in Chicago. Chicago was ahead by I think 4 or 5 and Danny boy threw a 60+ yd 'Hail Mary' pass in a blinding snow storm with seconds left that was caught for a TD and Miami won.

Moving on...

I and a friend at work (female) were discussing investments, we had just been offered a 401k plan and since no one (including myself) were into the market, she decided for whatever reason to consult me. We discussed stocks for a while and she said she had $5,000 in a CD and wanted to invest it. She was a trusting friend since I talked a good game. She said she would open an account and let me choose her buy. Luck would have it; I picked Iomega and made her an astounding $8,000 profit within a few weeks. Blind luck yes but one rule of investing is to invest in things you know about. I was in IS and was familiar with the high tech field, so I steered toward that. She subsequently cashed in her inheritance that her father had left and invested another $35,000 I worked with that for several months and built the total to over $70,000 day trading. I lost some and won most, by mutual agreement I turned it back over to her and she cashed out and bought CD's and Mutual Funds because of her age.

Next phase...

I had been watching the 401k now for several years and started to apply on paper a method similar to the football bets (parlaying). My company had 5 accounts at the time you could invest in. You could trade them daily - Money market fund, company stock fund, index fund, international fund and the small cap fund. I started to move my money daily from the MM fund to the index fund when the market went down. I would shoot for a small percentage gain and then move to the international fund because if the Dow went up usually the international funds followed the next day. I would move my money to the company stock fund whenever the index fund went up and waited until I had a small gain then would move it back to the MM fund to save my gains. I noticed I was doing better than my co-workers and being not very closed-mouth about my luck I gained a following. There were some that moved their money when I told them to and several that wanted me to do it. I made the moves just prior to 4 PM EST and at one time was moving approx $750,000 between 15 accounts. I made money for everyone. In May of the next year my company decided that they had had enough of my perceived inside information and made changes to shut me down. They mandated that you could only move your money once a month. Yep, that did it. I had made 45% up to that time from Jan 1st until the 1st of May.

I found out (from a former manager) just recently that the reason they had shut me down was because I was embarrassing the big boys at Corp whom were investing for the company and I was blowing them out of the water with my returns. I was an uneducated, backwoods lowly line worker making money in their backyard and they didn't like it.

On my own...

I followed the stock market closely through the late nineties and into the new century. I had devised a plan to invest my 401k after retirement and have tracked it for 8 years and realized I could make money at this. I wanted to build up my pension and SS so that I could always have that in reserve. I done things with my 401k that were bad decisions (loans, withdrawals ,,,etc, I don't do well with paper) and knew that I could still get good returns with whatever amount I had at retirement. Health problems (both me and my wife) necessitated my staying employed because the changes in my company's health coverage policies and elimination of coverage if you retire before 65. I have a mortgage on my house that I will have paid down enough to qualify for a Reverse mortgage and will eliminate my house payment, so with my pension/SS/Medicare/VA paying the bills and living expenses, I will have the nest egg in my 401k to apply to the DTGB28.

Forced to put the plan into action...

In 2006 my wife's hereditary condition resulted in a rapid heartbeat that needed medication to keep in check. She was working at a job that required her to chase 4 year olds around all day and 3 different doctors advised her to seek other employment. She was just shy of 60 but was too young for Medicare and SS and too old to work anything other than menial jobs. She had a small 401k worth about $20,000 and I told her I would let her quit (so very good of me wasn't it?) if she would let me invest the money for her in a rollover IRA. She was so willing to quit that she blindly agreed.

I told her that she could draw $750 each month and I've almost lived up to that but there were some bumpy times and she wasn't able to withdraw on certain months. We've had the account open since Sept 06 and after getting my feet wet and struggling to make what I thought was what I projected to her I finally settled on the method that has been somewhat stable since August of 2007. Over the 2 years she has had the account she has drawn out $17,500 and still has $16,500 in the account. The bulk of the gain has come since 08/2007 and now I'm making her enough to build up her base, recieve her SS and make a draw about 2 out of 3 months.

In come the friends...

A friend's new wife had received a split of her ex-husband's 401k in Dec 06 and they asked me to try to do what I had promised my wife. She started with $25,300 and to date she has drawn out $10,000 and has $22,500 in the account. Both her and my wife are doing what investment advisors label as 'eating your children' drawing money from your account and limiting the leverage. Her father jumped on the band wagon in Jan 07 and wanted to invest $20,000 I worked with his money until June of 08 and he needed to pull out for some much needed dental work. He had never drawn any and his bankroll was just over $27,000 for a 35% gain over 16 months. His money was in a regular account so he only reports the capital gain of $7,000 over 2 years, his daughter and my wife are both in self-directed IRAs, my wife is over 59½ so no penalty but the friend's wife has had to pay the 10% penalty.

A side note on the friend, I had him move his 401k into a fixed account in February 2008 and have saved him over $80,000 in loses based upon the current market returns.

During the last couple of months I have been able to get better returns and fine tuned my scheme to where I'm much more comfortable with it. I also have hit upon 'The Secret' (my term, nothing to do with those other fly-by-night_pie-in-the-sky modivational speakers) pertaining to the timing of the buy or sell of the stocks I focus on and that closely guarded information (as closely guarded as the recipe for Bush Beans) is what I use every time for my decision.

Today I had an experience at the local Sam's club in Ogden, Utah that will remain with me for many years to come. Me and my wife had decided that we needed to get our monthly supply of bulk items to sustain our lifestyle. We ventured to the aforementioned Sam's Club to make those purchases. I usually spent between $300 - $400 each month. We had approx $200 this time because of our stock. This was between 10 AM and 11. I went to check out and found that they only had three lines open, the merchant lane and two regular lanes. I went to the one with the least shoppers and immediately the girl indicated she was closing that checkout. I moved to the longer line (at least 3 heavily laden carts and one on the belt. I looked around and noticed that several shoppers were as preplexed as I. I noticed one of the Associates (I believe that's what they call their workers) was standing at the podium watching the lines.

As soon as there were 3 others behind me the girl whom closed her lane pushed the sign back to open and immediately 3 carts filled the void. Yep that pissed me off. I angerily pushed my cart past the podium and left the store. I voiced my dis-pleasure with the cart checker at the exit door and left. On my way home I decided that right then and there I will no longer shop at any Wally World outlet. I spend on the average $800-$900 per month at both the local WalMart and the Ogden Sam's club. Never again, I can't resrict my wife since she makes her own decisions but I will no longer donate money to our food and paper supply needs if she shops at WalMart. I will now shop at the local Krogers for everyday items and venture to Target for our monthly groceries. Yes I may pay a little more but the extra will give me the satisfaction of knowing that I will not be controlled from Bentonville, Arkansas again!

The quality of their products are at the low end of acceptability and I decided to become a better value shopper, pay a little more for quality and leave the cheap shit to others. I have found that if I want something in particular I am at the mercy of their buyers and marketing managers. I live in Utah and we have flakely weather in Spring and Fall, so one day early in the spring I went to buy a hooded fleece jacket because of changeable wheather. I was informed that they sold out of that stock last fall and only had light wind breakers and summer clothing. WTF, Get a clue stock your fu*king stores with items that can be used by the locals rather than what you southerners decide we need.

In these bad economic times I had made the decision recently to purchase a better TV set. I had gone to WalMart and settled upon a 42" RCA that was listed at $798 forgettaboutit. Hello Costco, Krogers and Target, here I come.

I made my own private war on MicroSoft 3-4 years ago. I moved to Linux as my main operating system, I did have to maintain an old PC with XP loaded for those pesky items that just won't run on Linux. Software application are coming around much better as time goes on but there are still a few stick-in-the-mud/dyed-in-the-wool developers that can't or won't see beyond their noses. I have successfully been able to configure my systems and connect wireless network. Video is still in their infancy in Linux but that is improving as more and more developers are shedding the shackles of Redmond, Washington.

They tried with Vista (now there's a study in stupidity) to block Linux installs but Fedora and Ubuntu have beaten that wall. I haven't pushed openSuse to try since it's my main PC operating system without any Windows loaded. There is so much free or open source applications available that it's boggles the mind that anyone would be restricted to whatever big brother says you can have. GIMP is every bit as good as any graphics program for the novice or more advanced user. OpenOffice can open any file created in the Office products and works just as well with a little practice.

I use Quanta as my html editor and found that it is much better than any Windows free or otherwise application. I use Firefox for my browser and keep the operating system updated with security patches and download and install all tested upgrades to Firefox. I have been able to leave my system online and powered up with little fear of hacking or spyware invading my world, or for that matter any unplanned upgrades from MS rebooting my system when I want it least.

I'm sure Bill has lost many hours sleep over my decision! Take that!

My exit story started many years ago but only came to a head in 2005. I was raised Mormon for all intends and purposes. My father and mother were non participating members, therefore I was not BIC (Born In the Convenant). My father went only on very, very special occasions, funerals and weddings. My mother would attend maybe 4 times a year for no special reason. I was dunked at 8 and all my sins forgiven. Confirmed on the next Fast Sunday. I spent the next 4 years in Primary and attending church with my peers. I was ordained a Deacon at 12 and moved onto Teacher at 14. I was ordained a Priest at 16 with all the rights afforded the high calling in the Aaronic Priesthood. Up to that time I was a normal Utah teenager, attending MIA, chasing the young woman around on Wednesday nights and reluctantly following my bishop's advice.

When I enrolled in seminary and spent three boring years with old and new testament, then church history, that's where my apostasy started. The teacher was brother Maxwell, he was married to a former Miss USA, Charlotte Sheffield. He made her wear modest clothing, high neck loose tops and below the knee skirts. He was a twit and so into the trappings of the Morg, it was hard not to argue with him on every point. It was so easy to get him going that now I look back with some embarrassment.

He was the motivation behind my questioning the teaching and history of the church and all religions. The bible was too trite and unbelievable to me. It didn't match what I was being taught in normal school subjects, history, geography and science. I quit going after I had been chastised for my choice of friends. I never smoked, nor drank alcohol, but my friends did. I was into sports and followed the training advice of my coaches. I was offended that I was judged by my association with wayward boys and girls my age. I was told that if I continued along these paths that I would not be called for a mission and my life choices would lead me into eternal damnation.

Therefore not being called to serve, I enlisted in the Air Force. I spent four years in that paper airplane factory, I even tried to volunteer for Vietnam as an escape for the experience I was subjected to in Okinawa. Germany was a little better but still the military. During those years I became aware of how the rest of the world perceived mormons. Weird cult member with multiple mothers and no dancing, drinking, swearing, smoking, fornicating or having freedom to do any the more enjoyable pastimes. I married soon after my enlistment was up and my wife was almost as bad as I when it came to her membership. She is more passive than I and just quit going, we tried several years later to attend regularly even to the extend that we paid a little tithing, sure would like that money back. After six months I decided that I didn't like the fact that they would take up 3 hours of my Sunday and because of the hours totally screwed up the rest of the day. No fun at all.

I just quit going and didn't engage in arguments that were constantly going on at work. I wasn't informed or gave a damn at that time. I continued on at that pace for several years until 2005 and after arguing about some doctrine. I said that I had resigned which I hadn't so a co-worker challenged me about my membership. I decided that I would have to do something about that or quit arguing.

In 2005 we took a auto trip down US 89. I had become fascinated with the history and sites along the way. We travelled from northern Utah to southern Arizona and photographed the site along the way. I visited the Mountain Meadow Massacre site as well as Cove Fort, contrasts in projections of the mormon faith. I became fixated with the history and purchased a book about the MMM, very revealing. That led to other book purchases and web searches about the history of the church. The final straw so to speak was my reading of Fawn Brody's book about Joseph Smith, 'No man knows my history' what a revelation to me. I always had a morbid interest in cults, mafia, mass murders and serial killers. After comparing the information from Fawn's book to the other cult leaders I had been reading about. Boom! I was in a cult! WTF, so I started to really study the available information, joined several forums and soon realized that I've got to shed myself of this albatross and get on with my life.

After gleaning information from several publications and discussing those issues both heated and informative I sent my letter in for resignation. I was visited by my bishop to interview me about my choice but I questioned him and he couldn't excuse himself fast enough from my house. I probably knew more about his religion than he did. I have since challenged RM's, visiting teachers and others along the way. I usually get them to point that they want to get the hell away from me, because I get them thinking with no pat answer to their tenets and my statements.

My journey has been from jackmormon to exmormon to agnostic to finally atheist.