[Bank account screenshot removed, here is why]
As you can see, my bank account isn’t doing too good right now. The 5k insurance money from the auto accident is pretty much all gone now. We did buy a cheap replacement car for $3200:
PICT4591
PICT4596
The left over amount was supposed to fix the problems with the car. But instead we had to use the money to pay rent and to live on.
I still owe $2200 to my friend, and about $2000 to the in-laws. My parents have been helping us from time to time as well. It’s embarrassing. Don’t forget about the $140,000 in unsecured debt too. Some of those accounts are going on 120 days late. My secured lenders are also going to take a huge hit on me stopping foreclosure with short sales. I still want to pay it all back, one way or another, without declaring bankruptcy if possible.
I thank God for Chris for giving me a real estate job. I haven’t received any money from him yet but the promise of stability is already making me feel better.
We need to get on a super strict budget. We have already been living frugally but we can do more. Time to stop going out to coffee/juice/burritos so much. We catch ourselves dining out as a way to relief stress. But that makes it worse and causes more stress.
With all the craziness and stress we haven’t been keeping a good account of where the money is going. Some of our stuff is on auto-draft and money just disappears every time we log in. Currently our account is negative and the daily over-draft fees are killing us:
[Bank account screenshot removed, here is why]
Update on Stopping Foreclosure
My True Credit Score / FICO Score
283 Comments
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Eric
November 21st, 2006 at 11:41 am
Hold on…
You’re 140k in debt, 4 months late on payments, do not have anything to your name, and NOW you cut out coffee/juices/burritos?
Apparently the situation hasn’t proven itself dire enough for you yet.
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Rancid
November 21st, 2006 at 12:00 pm
Don’t forget Eric…he DESERVES to be eating out because the poor little baby is having such a rough time with life and all.
Can you imagine the look on the in=laws face whom he owes $2000 to when he comes home with a starbucks coffee..or yells “We’re going out to eat” as they walk out?
In-law “Go ahead and buy another burrito you moron..hope you choke on it..”
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misc.
November 21st, 2006 at 12:05 pm
“We need to get on a super strict budget. We have already been living frugally but we can do more. Time to stop going out to coffee/juice/burritos so much”
You’re just trying to bait us, right?
Read up on what folks went through during the great depression.
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aaron
November 21st, 2006 at 12:05 pm
no shit eric. hell im in great financial shape with a ton in savings, PST, IRA etc and i still bring my lunch to work. guess that’s why i have money saved. As I stated before Casey has never learned how to use money wisely. I doubt he ever will either.
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UncleC
November 21st, 2006 at 12:07 pm
Casey, please tell us more about buying that particular car. It looks like it’s trashed. You should have been able to buy a nice, clean used car for 2-3 g’s from a private seller.
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What a Riot
November 21st, 2006 at 12:08 pm
Jamba Juice, Starbucks, burritos, 41 dollars at the god damn Macaroni Grill? Not only are you crazy, you have awful taste! Chain restaurants all over the place.
You’re f**ed, I guess you might as well just accept it and eat out all you want at this point. I’m grateful that when I was younger and stupider, the most credit my bank gave me to hang myself with was 700 dollars. It’s the last time I’ve ever paid interest.
It cost me 700 dollars, but it was a valuable lesson. I’d tell you that it cost you 2.2 million dollars, but you haven’t learned anything. You want to continue down this destructive path forever.
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Panda
November 21st, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Amazing.
You bought a car that looks like it has been hit, has an arms-lenght list of problems, and looks like a total POS because it has a new radio.
You have more than financial problems, my man.
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UncleC
November 21st, 2006 at 12:11 pm
This is a good, informative financial post. It’s amazing how Wells hasn’t cut you off yet. There’s nothing wrong with having a coffee if it helps your morale. You’ve heard it before, but looks like you need to file BK asap.
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fijirobe
November 21st, 2006 at 12:15 pm
buritos, lattes, jamba juice
wow, you are zero liquid right now, how does that feel? Hope you dont ever make it to retirement, because it is going to suck for you living in a shelter
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Pitag
November 21st, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Oh my god. I have been lurking for a month and this is my first comment. I CANNOT BELIEVE THE LACK OF COMMON SENSE YOU EXHIBIT. I have had sympathy for you but it is now GONE, as of today. I am shocked at your complete idiocy and lack of priorities. You think that a dent in your bumper and a rip in the upholstery of your car is what you need to be focusing on spending your money on???? Swallow your immense pride and drive as is, you dingbat! Welcome to the real world!
And those bank accounts….oh god. I cannot BELIEVE those transactions I saw. You spend like a fucking teenager. My wife and I both have good jobs with $10,000 saved, and WE can’t afford to go to the goddamn Macaroni Grill, or get our daily Starbucks or Jamba Juice.
Idiot.
Idiot.
Idiot.
I hope you go down now. You have no more sympathy from me.
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gozar
November 21st, 2006 at 12:31 pm
LOL. You owe your friend 2 grand, and you’re eating out at Macaroni Grill and going to Jamba Juice ??
you’re some friend
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CM SE
November 21st, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Eric is right. You waited too late to attempt to live frugally. As far as your comment about you and your wife living frugally, hmm…NO! You are not living frugally if you are eating out and going to Starbucks several times per day, knowing that you can not afford it.
You have been given much good advice during the course of this fiasco, advice for which many others would pay. PLEASE heed it. It may be too late even now but if you do nothing else, find an attorney who specializes in these types of cases. If you do not, you may well find yourself rooming with very unsavory characters.
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speechless
November 21st, 2006 at 12:41 pm
Casey, we get it. You are in bad shape. Please stop the whining and post your plan instead. Where is your step-by-step plan? Do you have a budget? Do you have someone who can help you prep a plan? You could post stuff like that on a wiki site and get people’s input. Lots of free advice around here.
I feel sorry for you. But you got yourself into this mess, you have to get yourself out of it. Time to grow up and take responsibility for your actions.
Here’s a stab at a plan:
First: Cut up all of your credit cards. Do it NOW. Your wife’s too. Casey + credit = trouble.
Second: Get a second job.
Third: Your wife should get at least a part-time job.
Fourth: Scrub the toilets in your houses, scrub the floors, walls and kitchens - well at least in the houses you can drive to, don’t take another plane trip - you may get a couple extra $1000 that way.
Fifth: Get creative, but don’t get criminal. Buy one of those “shoestring”
Sixth: When you check in with your Maker next time, listen carefully. Lying on loan apps, greed, covetousness, dishonoring your wife - I believe your Maker said something like, let me paraphrase, “that’s not good, Casey.”
Or, just ignore all the advice and do something illegal. Rob a bank, abduct a child, embezzle money from your employer.
Good luck, Casey. You’re going to need it.
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Sure
November 21st, 2006 at 12:49 pm
You bought the car on 11/8, and paid for an inspection on 11/11?
Shouldn’t the inspection be done first?
And who is dining with you at Macaroni Grill? Your wife still speaks to you?
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Tim
November 21st, 2006 at 12:51 pm
When I was starting out in my working career, I seldom went out for food. Sometimes my girlfriend and I would do “Sunday dinner” at Bob’s Big Boy, a sit-down hamburger place. A good-sized burger with fries and a Coke cost about $3.25. We felt like royalty! (She was making less than I was…)
I never for a nanosecond would’ve considered spending money on a daily basis for overpriced smoothies (Jamba Juice) or expensive burritos and lattes and Italian food (Macaroni Grill). At least not as frequently as Casey apparently does.
And I was making pretty good money for the time (mid-70s).
Instead, I saved as much as I could, bought tech stocks when I could, and bought my first house with 20% down when I was 27.
And i kept on saving, even as many around me were spending money as if they were Casey.
Between houses, savings, and (most of all) early purchases of Intel, Apple, Sun, etc., I retired when I was 34.
I don’t envy the disastrous situation Casey has gotten himself into. His posts seem to alternate between false optimism (”We are blessed”) and deep despair (”I have to find some kind of job”).
The latest nonsense with “Chris” is just putting lipstick on a pig. His debts are too great for him to be doing anything besides extricating himself from things getting worse (compounded interest, further declines in property values, deterioration of unoccupied/unmaintained houses).
Unless this Chris guy is paying Casey for his blogging here, his seminars, his interviews, I don’t see how Casey is earning his keep.
(I should mention that when I was in my 20s, I basically worked from 8 in the morning to at least 6 each night, then often took a briefcase full of papers home to work some more. And often I had to be in on weekends. No overtime, of course. And no blogging, no e-mail, essentially no distractions. Work was a full-time thing back then.)
–Tim
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dimwit
November 21st, 2006 at 1:02 pm
Face it he’s baiting us with this line ‘We need to get on a super strict budget. We have already been living frugally but we can do more. Time to stop going out to coffee/juice/burritos so much. We catch ourselves dining out as a way to relief stress. But that makes it worse and causes more stress.’
You have not been living frugally. you put that in there so folks would bite the line. you play such a blithering idiot. I know you have to have more sense then what you portray yourself having. IF not….your F&SJGED!
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Postman
November 21st, 2006 at 1:02 pm
You’re overdrafting your account, to the tune of $33 per time? Are you aware that knowingly writing checks against an account that does not have the funds to cover it is check fraud, and a felony if it involves enough money?
On top of that, you actually paid $95 for a pre-purchase inspection, and now you’re complaining about all the repairs that POS you bought is needing?
This has got to be a troll. Please tell me banks don’t really lend people like this millions of dollars. If this blog is true, I’m buying gold and moving into a compound in the hills, because society is going to fail soon.
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Ralph
November 21st, 2006 at 1:04 pm
Why did you buy one of the most unreliable cars on the road, not to mention one in such poor shape?
VWs from the late 80s and early 90s are great if you don’t mind spending a lot of time/money at the shop, or if you’re mechanically inclined. Like most German cars from that era, the electronics are a little too complex for their own good. This is definitely not a car to buy if you can’t keep up with the repairs, which you definitely can’t with dwindling financial resources.
What attracted you to this car? Was it the sweet system, the flashy rims, or the cracked mirror?
Also, please, please, please stop eating out and making unnecessary purchases. That five dollar snack at Starbucks quickly turns into a $38 mistake with your constant overdraft fees. Do you know how to use a checkbook register? A little common sense can go a long way. Plus, did you know you can make smoothies and coffee at home for a fraction of the cost of buying it at Jamba Juice/Starbucks? Amazing but true!
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Josh
November 21st, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Please tell me you that your purchase @ Barnes & Noble wasn’t for another one of those moronic rich dad poor dad books. I seriously can’t believe you bought that car, what a pile of crap that thing is, but then again none of your poor decisions surprise me anymore.
You’ve gotten a lot of sound advice, but yet you’d still rather listen to real estate “guru’s” and “stay in the game” rather than listen to sound advice of others. You keep digging deeper and deeper with your bad decisions compounding on each other.
I never had sympathy for you in the first place because you were trying to make easy money by being another douche-bag flipper. I’d be more understanding if you just wanted to get out of this mess so you could get a normal job and move on with your life, that would be the commendable.
I’d eat out more if I were you, it’ll be the last time you will for a couple of years. (I hear food in prison isn’t all that great).
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HungryBear
November 21st, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Your bank is raping you with fees. You may be better off just closing the account and paying for everything with cash until you get things under control.
Does your car run well as it is? If so, I wouldn’t bother fixing anything until it needs it.
Do you know how to use Quicken? Learn to use it. Free bootleg copies are easy to find.
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Anomalous Blowhard
November 21st, 2006 at 1:23 pm
Wow. You really got ripped off on that car. That sucks.
Next time:
1. Test-drive the car in daylight.
2. Get a mechanic’s inspection first. This is one case where spending $75 can save thousands.
3. Know the car’s fair market value. If the seller wants well above book & won’t come down, don’t buy. If the seller wants well below book (probably the case here unless that Jetta is older than it looks), be suspicious.
Buying a used car without an inspection is a gamble. Like all other forms of gambling, including RE speculating, never bet more than you can afford to lose.
Your RE losses aren’t your only problem. It’s clear from your accounts that you haven’t really learned how to manage money yet. Frankly it’s not possible at this point for you to service your debt and live within your means, but you should do the best you can. That means:
- No eating out. Period. Cook inexpensive meals. You can cut your food expenses further by eating things like top ramen and pork and beans as entrees several nights a week.
- No Starbucks
- No alchohol
- No entertainment expenses. Check out books and movies from the library.
- No gym membership. Ride your bike or jog. Do push-ups and sit-ups.
- Drive the POS car as little as possible. Ride your bike or take the bus whenever you can. If possible, sell the car. Be prepared to take a loss.
- Don’t buy new clothing or household goods. Hit the thrift stores instead.
It sucks at first to have to lower your standard of living, but you need to realize that you can no longer afford any of those nice things you’re used to. You called the tune, now it’s time to pay the piper.
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bobo_von_jojo
November 21st, 2006 at 1:27 pm
Ah, Thanksgiving, the Holidays, t’is the season and how timely!
Potter to Bailey: “You used to be so cocky! You were going to go out and conquer the world!…. No securities, no stocks, no bonds. Nothin’ but a miserable little $500 equity in a life insurance policy. You’re worth more dead than alive… But I’ll tell you what I’m going to do for you, George. Since the state examiner is still here, as a stockholder of the Building and Loan, I’m going to swear out a warrant for your arrest. Misappropriation of funds — manipulation — malfeasance… ”
And after he lost the S&L’s money, I doubt the insurance company would have paid the Bailey family after he jumped off a bridge!
Did I miss a post where you commented on how there is video evidence, or a signed confession that someone, with no relationship to you, damaged your vehicle? I mean, you’ve posted your finances and admitted to mortgage fraud online. And somehow you get an insurance company to write you a check?
Don’t get me wrong, now is not the time to jump off a bridge, but you seem to be risk and reward sort of guy. I think you can still make big bucks tax free as contractor in Iraq!
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Jim
November 21st, 2006 at 1:29 pm
Why do you use your check card to buy stuff and then rack up $65-$100 a day in overdraft fees??
Ever hear of paying in cash??
I won’t even comment since you are so clearly drowning in debt that what’s a few hundred more in fees… other than the fact that you will eventually have to work to pay it off and that’s gotta suck.
PS, all of that stuff that’s wrong with your car (except the welding) you can fix up yourself easily enough. Will it pass smog? If so… you’re pretty much good to go until something else breaks. Oh yeah, old Jettas are crap. They are like the Kia of German cars).
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Brian
November 21st, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Dude,
You’re the most impulsive character I’ve ever heard. You compounded your mistakes with even more mistakes. Your woman must be the most understanding woman or the stupidest person on this earth, or both. You seriously need to hire someone to think for you before you make any other decision.
Nonetheless, here are some advice for you:
1. Drop all your houses. Don’t think about them no more.
2. Focus on your job.
3. When you’re back on your feet, start thinking about buying houses sub-2 or owner-financing cuz you truly do not need credits for these transactions.
4. Do not buy anything that you can’t sell the next day and make some profit from
5. Do not rely on your own stupid way of thinking to make a purchase. Seek help from a professional instead. Your stupidity was what got you in here and your stupidity ain’t gonna get you out of this hole. Use someone else’s brain instead.
Take this from a guy who’s been doing real estate investment the past 4 years who’s semi retired. I’m also only 29 years old by the way.
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Harry
November 21st, 2006 at 1:43 pm
An old VW is about the most unreliable car you can buy. These cars are also expensive to repair compared to an old toyta or honda.
When I was 19, I bought a old audi, which had the same engine as a VW. It overheated and caught on fire a couple months after I bought it.
Next time spend $20 on a book that list the most reliable used cars for every price range. The next cheap car I bought was listed from one of these books and all I had to do was oil changes for the next couple years.
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Bryan
November 21st, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Is that you Lonelygirl15?
Danielbeast?
This blog has got to be a hoax. Otherwise, Casey, learn to sing:
“I hear that train a-commin’, it’s rollin’ around the bend
And I ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t know when
I’m stuck in Folsom prison and time keeps draggin’ on…”
from “Folsom Prison Blues”
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Al
November 21st, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Come on, this guy is a fake!!!
If he would be a real person he would be in prison for fraud.
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Free advice
November 21st, 2006 at 1:46 pm
I think it’s David Bach (or maybe another “guru”) who coined the term “latte factor.”
It’s just a metaphor for the little things one buys on a regular basis that could make a big difference later.
Spending $4/day on something like a latte adds up to about $120 per month.
If you start a 6% fixed rate 30-year mortgage of $200,000 and simply add that $120/month to your payment, you’d pay off that loan 6.5 years earlier.
Sure, 24 years may seem a long time to wait, but let’s say your house NEVER increased in value. Still, in year 10, you’d have $20,000 more equity.
And with a $100,000 mortgage, adding $120/month would pay off that 30-year loan 10 years early.
Now I’m sure this does not come as any big surprise to many people. But what surprises the hell out of me is DON’T THEY TEACH THIS IN HIGH SCHOOL ANYMORE?
Now I know there’s a lot of pressure to work in a whole bunch of stuff into a high school curriculum. But few people will actually read the Magna Carta in their lives. Yet virtually everyone will handle money.
Casey, as long as you’re in a sharing mood, would you care to give us the lowdown on what the rates are like on your credit cards? I’m suspecting somewhere around 29%.
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walt526
November 21st, 2006 at 1:48 pm
Wow. I honestly don’t think that I could sleep at night if my finances looked like your’s.
First, it looks like you cleared out your savings account but are still getting charged a monthly fee of $3. Call up WFB and close it ASAP. There’s no point in paying to keep a low yielding savings account open when you have no money (what’s your current APR, like 0.8%?). If/when you stabilize your finances, you can open up a no fee account at EmigrantDirect.com for a higher yield at no cost and a minimal starting balance.
Second, get a second job (anywhere, anything) that pays via direct deposit so that you can avoid monthly service fees for your checking account.
Third, if you don’t have the money, don’t spend it. It’s that simple. Especially for crap like Starbucks and Jamba Juice. I expect that WFB will be cutting you off within a month regardless, but its literally criminal to continue to knowingly bounce checks.
You need to stop trying to live above your means. Don’t spend money that you don’t have. Its really that simple.
On 11/09, my wife and I were reviewing our finances and realized that we had paid all of our bills (paid off credit card balances completely, rent, etc) and saw that we still had three paychecks coming this month. That money is going into our EmigrantDirect savings account and $1500 to pay down the principal of her car loan early (on top of her monthly $205 that we had already paid). Neither of us makes a ton, but we are frugal and stay well within our budgets. Work toward getting into that position. Its a lot more fun to log on to a savings account or investment account and see your money grow each day than it is to watch debt grow.
Good luck. You really need to readjust your entire attitude towards life not just money, IMHO.
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Alphahawk
November 21st, 2006 at 1:51 pm
It’s all moot at this point.
Casey and the wife could be splitting a PB+J and a cup of ramen noodles everyday for the next ten years and not hope to make a dent in this mess.
Look at the numbers. Macaroni Grill $41. Jamba Juice $4.90. Owing the IRS $300,000 and spending the rest of your life paying it back - Priceless.
It’s too late. It might not have been before, but now it’s too late. Several of these lenders are going to writeoff the loan deficiencies, and when the do, the IRS will be coming for their share of the writeoffs.
Nobody has mentioned that the overdraft fees are piling up. There’s more $33.00 hits on there than Latte’s.
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speechless
November 21st, 2006 at 1:52 pm
So your friend hasn’t paid you yet? You’ve been “working”, what, a full 4 days there, and no money yet? Even though you’ve been blowing up that exercise ball every day and blogging your little heart out?
Don’t kid yourself that anyone here is “learning” from your mistakes. Most people here are watching your blog like a slow train wreck. We are just watching Casey self-destruct and are cringing at your bad decisions, and at the same time entertained by them. So instead of us learning from you, I hope you can learn from some of us. Most people here are aghast at your incompetence, including myself, and would never have made your mistakes in the first place. What most people have, is called basic financial skills. And you don’t.
THE ABSOLUTE BASICS OF PERSONAL FINANCE (what your parents should have taught you, and it’s probably too late for you now, but here goes anyway)
• Make a budget and stick to it. That includes everything, like money for gifts, charities, rent or mortgage, heat, water, food, clothes, eating out, coffee money, entertainment, car, phone, travel, a fund for unexpected expenses, retirement savings, investments, emergency fund, insurances. Be realistic. When you add up your budget, it must equal your net paycheque. If it doesn’t, cut some non-vital stuff out like travel, eating out and entertainment. Yes, the fun stuff.
• Pay off your credit card every month (this means don’t spend too much on your card to begin with). If you must overspend on your credit card, make every effort to pay it off ASAP. You’re paying 19% interest on your card. The bank only gives you 4% for your money. Of course in your case, you should not have a credit card until you have dug yourself out. This could be 10 years from now. Maybe never. Only cold, hard cash for Casey.
• Put 10% aside for retirement every month. Don’t touch that fund, ever. Forget it exists.
• Save about 3 month’s worth of salary as an emergency fund. Again, this can take years to get there.
• For big-ticket items like a car, washer/dryer, computer, digital camera, or a trip, save the money FIRST. It may take you a year or two of putting that $50 or $150 aside every month. But it’s a sweet feeling when you can then go out and buy the item with cash.
• Working hard for your money, slowly getting somewhere on your own steam, is its own reward. I hope I don’t have to explain why.
OTHER ADVICE
• I suggest you read “The Wealthy Barber”. No nonsense here. No easy money promises. Take it out of the library. Don’t spend money on it.
• And finally, get some professional help for your gambling addiction. Surely there must be a couple of hours of free counselling available through your medical insurance. Ask your doctor.
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Want A Bargain
November 21st, 2006 at 2:00 pm
This is just literally unbelievable - as in “Not Believable”
Your are either monumentally world-class stupid, or just trolling for more material from your audience. I vote for the latter - and, to your credit, it is working for you. Toward what end, I don’t know.
Living with sister-in law, mooching money from in-laws, parents & friends, refusing to get a real job, continuing to repeat the same mistakes and behaviors that got you in this mess……….
……….you’re in a deep hole and continuing to dig. You are beneath contempt.
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sean-sisb
November 21st, 2006 at 2:03 pm
Hint on saving money for food:
Make various stews. Vegetables are cheap, so is broth. After this post I am going to make a curry stew with spinach, potatoes, etc.
That cost me $13 (five of which went to the curry paste and the coconut milk) and will last me for three days.
Most of the people reading this blog have more than a sneaking suspicion that despite your financial situation, you still live well above your means.
Living on a tiny budget is only a temporary situation. Keep that in mind if you are tempted to run out and waste $10 on coffee drinks for you and your wife.
Instead, spend that $10 on a bag of quality coffee beans and make your own. The grounds will probably last you a month.
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Jonny Jon
November 21st, 2006 at 2:05 pm
Casey, your posts continue to amaze me. I’ve got to assume that you’re talking to a BK attorney now and don’t really care about any extra cc debt, since it will be wiped away. I asked before and I’ll ask again, I’d love to see how you spent all of the money you got back at closing on your deals. You cannot honestly say that you spent the $41,000 you received after closing on your Larchmont property, on repairs on that property.
Please, no more defending of the wife either. It’s quite obvious that she participated in your lifestyle as a successful real estate investor.
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Stephanie J.
November 21st, 2006 at 2:06 pm
Priority \Pri*or”i*ty\, n. [Cf. F. priorit[é].
1. The quality or state of being prior or antecedent in time, or of preceding something else; as, priority of application.
2. Precedence; superior rank. –Shak.
Priority of debts, a superior claim to payment, or a claim to payment before others.
=====================================
Casey,
If someone had the courtesy to loan you such a large sum of money; it should be your greatest priority to ferret every spare dollar you have to make sure they are paid in full. Never mind the … augh….I can’t even type it without getting a flash migraine… millions (I’m still boggled as to how a idealistic, clueless kid can acquire loans that large and in such volume) you owe to lenders, I mean friends who are bailing you out.
Every day, you spend what you think may be trivial amounts of money on a Lattés… You can live without coffee… without food from the Macaroni Grill (what is that anyway? Ew…? One of those chains I presume? YUK! $40 for microwaved crap?!), or whatever Jamba Juice is… Buy groceries, and boil your own god damned macaroni. Eat Top Ramen until you crap noodles…
You want to diminish your stress levels? Then start by diminishing you f*cking debts! Nickel and dime them–grow up and deprive yourself of these little low brow luxuries–it won’t kill you to sacrifice SOMETHING to get out of this situation instead of hoping the answer will fall into your lap. Boo hoo.. waaah wah.. my car is craaaapppy…. I’d drive a freakin’ Yugo if it’s what it took to get me from A to B during difficult times. Stop WHINING! You *could* end up living in it!
With that money you would normally spend on crap–sans overdraft fees, you could have a few bucks to offer a good-faith payment to show your friend you’re doing something… *anything* to pay them back.
Jesus Christ… you give me heartburn. I’m afraid to look at your page–but I can’t help it… it’s like a car crash.
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Allenm
November 21st, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Looking kinda fried and overcooked.
BK should be done in about two weeks if he gets his butt in gear. I don’t think you are going to pay anybody back. I think you are a black hole to your lenders and a fine fiscal example of how to allow impulses to blow your life to bits.
Fine atomized bits. Your wife will be booting you out soon- I didn’t think so at first, but you are such a moron with your checkbook that I am beginning to believe that you do need serious impusle control therapy.
First things first, shut down this blog.
Second, get yee to the courthouse and get the mandatory consumer credit counseling done, so you can file fast when the big hits start coming.
Third. Get up every morning and thank god you live in California, if it was Nebraska you would have to move to LA LA CA CA land to get away from the disgrace. In California you are just another flake.
I find it utterly amazing that you think you can recover from this bellyflop of staggering proportions without BK.
Keep dreaming, but wake up in the morning and get to work- did you think I was kidding when I pointed you to kbr.com?
Kinda harsh, but then what do you think the lenders are going to send you after those short sales? Love notes? How about judgements and 1099’s?
I thought about clicking on some of the scammer ads to give you some of their scammer dollars, but I just couldn’t do it.
Done- I am not sure I want to see the rest of this trainwreck- I know someone that I am related to by marriage who is heading down this path- and he is almost 50 years old. dumb dumb dumb.
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BT98
November 21st, 2006 at 2:14 pm
Casey,
Now you’ve over done it. I don’t believe you anymore. This is bullshit credit card statement. How can you overdraft, day after day. Not believable.
You said your wife is paying the bills and all the credit cards belong to her and she is paying her credit cards on time and now this? I know you are a fake.
BT
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Dave
November 21st, 2006 at 2:28 pm
Good luck with your job, but Chris is a greater con man that RK, and you KNOW IT.
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Woolie
November 21st, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Casey, If this is for real, here is my advice and its very simple. Read all the above posts slowly over and over 10 times. There is alot of good advice given here. Listen to what others have to say. Do not be stubborn the help is here right on your blog.
Its that simple!!!!!
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Mike
November 21st, 2006 at 2:46 pm
So you don’t have the car checked out and then buy an old Volswagen????? Was it the blingy wheels?? They’ve got some of the worst reliability ratings going and it would take about 3 seconds of research to find that out. Don’t you ever ever want things to improve?? Enjoy your latte dumbass.
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Casey is fooling himself
November 21st, 2006 at 3:02 pm
Casey - If you keep a negative balance w/ Wells just long enough, they will report you to Chex Systems. Do you KNOW what Chex Systems is?
Hint: if you make their blacklist, you will not be able to open a checking account at ANY major or moderate sized bank for up to 5 years.
Wow dude…when I was in financial trouble, I stopped eating out and cut back on almost everything but the essentials.
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Casey is fooling himself
November 21st, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Postman: Yes, they do loan money to fools like Casey. It happens more than you know.
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Casey is fooling himself
November 21st, 2006 at 3:09 pm
Al: Not really. If he’s a fake, he’ll pay the piper when the crap hits the fan.
If he is what he says he is (I believe he is) than he is just another example of what is WRONG with our country right now. Casey is NO capitalist. He is among many who THINK they know, but don’t want to WORK hard perfecting their business plans before going for it.
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john
November 21st, 2006 at 3:09 pm
Just for fun drive into a dealership and see what they would offer you on a trade-in basis for that POS car you bought - I bet not more than $500.00.
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Casey is fooling himself
November 21st, 2006 at 3:10 pm
BT98: Hate to break it to you, but banks do this all the time. Casey is a perfect example of somebody who just doesn’t care.
One day Wells will close his account and send him packing. They’ll report him to Chex Systems which is as bad as having a BK on your credit.
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Monky C
November 21st, 2006 at 3:16 pm
c’mon guys, he’s the poor (really poor) immigrant boy living the American Drain, er, I mean Dream. He’s doing exactly what all the advertising agencies are telling him to do.
Oh, wait, coffee and juice can come from somewhere else other than Starbucks and Jamba Juice? Well how come the poor places don’t advertise?? Jee, the next thing you know houses won’t cost a million dollars anymore….
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mikey
November 21st, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Who cares about the burritos/coffee/juice. When you are $140K in CC debt, what the hell difference is a few $4 puchases gonna make?
Live it up and declare bankrupcy because you are gonna be f###ed for a long time.
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Frustrated
November 21st, 2006 at 3:41 pm
You need damage control, plus a whole fresh perspective.
First, damage control:
You and your wife should be bringing home about $5000 a month in paycheques, right? Your fixed expenses should be no more than $2000, so theoretically you have between $2K and $3k after taxes to pay down your debt. I’m talking unsecured debt - the RE foreclosures are a seperate issue.
You need to get EXTREME BLACK-BELT frugality in your head. No credit, all cash. No eating out. Eat plain, simple, cheap, home-cooked meals. Get rid of all unnecessary expenses - cable, TV, magazines, books, gym, everything. You can walk for exercise and get books from the library.
I would sell the car and get a bus pass. It’s inconvenient, yes, but suck it up - you’re in crisis mode!!
Sell everything you have of value - electronics, sports equipment. Use it to pay back your family and friends while they’re still talking to you.
Once you’ve done this, and you’re headed in a positive direction, I think you need to step back and realize that your relationship to money is all screwed up. Try reading “Your Money or Your Life” by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez (get it from the library).
Everybody I know who has tried to get rich quick has ended up miserable. The happiest people are those with meaningful work that they love, who live simply and within their means. It’s not glamourous or flashy, but it’s peaceful and honest and secure - qualities sorely missing from your life right now.
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Alphahawk
November 21st, 2006 at 3:45 pm
I don’t believe Casey is a fake.
People do actually do this. This is reality for some people. I don’t think Casey realized for a minute the gravity of what he was signing for when he bought these houses. I don’t think he realized the potential consequences of lying on loan applications. And I don’t think he has realized that a lot of these high-rolling RE Investors make their money on poorly written books and personal appearances.
People that I know who are making their money on RE are doing it one slow trade at a time with a hard-nose business sense for not spending too much. Pretty much exactly opposite to what Casey did.
And now that the train is clearly in view and he has dawning realization of what comes next, he’s going to cut back on the Juices and Burritos.
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Jason
November 21st, 2006 at 4:10 pm
Casey,
Don’t give up man….Don’t ever give up… Life’s too short to be stingy..Live the good life…
By the way .. the hell with all the haters….
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Trouble Brewing
November 21st, 2006 at 4:34 pm
Man, you are in big trouble. I don’t see a way out other than bankruptcy, and then living a cash existence.
You need a paying job, and a simple bank account in to which your employer can put your paychecks. Pay cash for everything, borrow nothing…and learn, learn, learn, but not from making mistakes, but by reading, and then investing cautiously, and intelligently.
You can get out of this hole, but you need to declare bankruptcy…this has go on too long.
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DrifterBee
November 21st, 2006 at 4:52 pm
Casey,
I think you need serious psychiatric help. You’re addicted to something, adrenaline? I dunno.
You bought a crappy car, you should have known better.
You buy useless crap and put it on a credit card you can clearly ill afford to pay.
Yet, none of this effects you enough to change your behavior. Shocking.
And remember, those bankruptcy laws aren’t as lienient as they use to be. Your creditors actually expect to see that money.
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HBL
November 21st, 2006 at 4:56 pm
KS,FB
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Blah
November 21st, 2006 at 5:01 pm
So 10/23 ~ 11/20 you spent almost 100 bucks on fast food, juice and coffee.
Yeah, if I had lent you the 2k(which I would never have done) I’d be walking over to your house right now and breaking your kneecaps.
Unreal. You pay rent, yet you have a number of houses in the area. I won’t say you own them since you don’t pay a damn thing into them.
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Hen Blubbering Lunch
November 21st, 2006 at 5:04 pm
Didn’t Suzanne research this?
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Scott
November 21st, 2006 at 5:10 pm
I bought a 1996 VW passat a few years ago. That was a big mistake, because I didn’t do enough research. Luckily I came to my senses a year later, cut the bleeding and got rid of it.
This Jetta will suck you dry. You will be spending 3-4K a year just to keep it on the road. Go buy a 10 year old Nissan, Toyota or Honda, or something like that for 2 or 3K. Get something that won’t leave you stranded in the desert.
Based on your current spending habits, you evidently haven’t hit rock bottom yet. It’s coming.
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Scott
November 21st, 2006 at 5:11 pm
If you want the pain to go away, declare bankruptcy.
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Max D
November 21st, 2006 at 5:21 pm
Dude,
If you ever need to buy ANYTHING; call me first. I mean it. Cars, houses, books, coffee…anything- I am the man to call.
Of course, I’ll make sure you pay cash but I’ll only charge a small fee for finding you a sweet deal on some Jamba Juice. If you would only use my service you could easily re-sell my coffee for a large proffit as well. Pleeeeease allow me to be your personal “bird dog”.
I also understand that there is a nice man giving away free computer lessons on CD! All you need to do is pay a small shipping and handling fee and they are FREE! Please try his product. Imagine the money you could make flipping these compact discs. We gonna be rich.
I’m working a deal at this very moment involving inflatable furniture that I know your going to love. Call me now.
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speechless
November 21st, 2006 at 5:22 pm
Check out thisUSA Today articleabout Casey.
You will see that Casey’s financial mismanagement has a longstanding pattern for such a young man. 5 years ago, he made $30,000 in profit when he sold his condo, moved back in with his parents, and still managed to somehow spend all of the $30,000 on “a car, living expenses and things, and to go on dates.” He also stopped working for three months. By the time he married in 2004, the money was gone.
I think it’s a pretty hopeless case.
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Bankruptcy NOW
November 21st, 2006 at 5:23 pm
Casey….
Doubt you have read down this far. I just was directed to your site and have only been reading for a few days. I am not here to flame you, actual advice if I were in your shoes.
It is 100% obvious that there is no possible way for you to get out of your debt. I currently make 85K a year, live below my means (10 year old Car, Pre-Bubble home purchase) have very limited expenses and am only able to save 20K a year. (on a good year)
With your level of income, with just the bank statement you have posted I would recommend bankruptcy, irregardless of the whole real estate debacle.
You are young, walk away from this mess completely!
I believe it is the banks fault for lending money so easily these days. My girlfriend (25 year old) only makes about 55K and she was approved for a 350K home BY HERSELF and she didn’t lie on her apps and only had 10K to put down. There is something seriously wrong with the system when this happens.
Bottom line, walk away… but pay back the personal loans by any means necessary.
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unbridled.faggotry
November 21st, 2006 at 5:35 pm
are you really this stupid? is anyone?
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Frank
November 21st, 2006 at 5:50 pm
Read up some PF blogs Casey….
Spend more time with your family, friends. Work hard, like 120+ hours at a regular job. GL with your life…
Take it easy…
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LMAO
November 21st, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Please. Buy my product.
rofl
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DC Troll
November 21st, 2006 at 5:58 pm
Just in case there isn’t enough complaining by the users, I would like to point out the $30.93 for E-mail marketing to Intellicontact (third Wells Fargo image titled “Bank Account Detail 2″)
As for the Jetta with its ghetto-licious sweet stereo system and arm-long list of mechanical problems, I’ll save that for another time. However, I echo the sentiment that we would like to hear the tale of how you got sold the car.
(For all those who think that this is a distraction from the main point of the blog - I suggest you re-evaluate what the point of this blog is. It’s not real estate any more. What part of TRAIN WRECK do you not understand?)
Casey, if you are ever tempted to quit blogging during this crisis, remember how many lives you have touched with this site. Even if that mainly consists of making thousands of people glad that they aren’t you.
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t_h_e_inlaws
November 21st, 2006 at 6:14 pm
[deleted a fake post by somebody claiming to be my in-laws. -Casey]
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Jim
November 21st, 2006 at 6:21 pm
Its also pretty interesting how many people focus on reducing expenses versus bettering yourself, getting an education and increasing your income. After all, if you’re making $85k a year, you can spend $4 a day on Jamba Juice and it won’t make a damned bit of practical difference to your life. Everyone has their little luxuries that they indulge in from time to time. If you like fresh-squeezed juice AND YOU CAN AFFORD IT, then go ahead!
As some others pointed out, Casey is not being buried by $4 juices and $5 lattes… its the $66 per day in late charges and the $700+ per day in interest payments that are killing him!!
Casey, try and keep your eye on the ball here. Must . Stop . The . Bleeding.
Oh yeah, get a job. Loser.
BTW, Not to rub salt in an old wound, but … you got mightily ripped off on those RE courses. Why not try and get your money back? All this publicity you have at your disposal can be turned to your advantage. You overpaid hugely for the education you received– you spent more on RE seminars in a few months than I paid in tuition for an entire 4-year engineering degree (grad 1998)… just to put some perspective on how overpriced those RE courses were.
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Sub2Guy
November 21st, 2006 at 6:23 pm
Brian,
Don’t be telling this guy to go out and start buying sub2. He has already screwed up his credit but just think how many others’ credit he could fry taking over payments.
Honest investors have a hard enough time as it is without help from the irresponsible.
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Want A Bargain
November 21st, 2006 at 6:29 pm
DC Troll: “I would like to point out the $30.93 for E-mail marketing to Intellicontact ”
OK, you pointed it out, now can you please explain what it is?
tnx
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Someone
November 21st, 2006 at 6:31 pm
Casey,
Time for you to actually wake up.
Count every cent gazallion time before you spend it. For a change dont listen to yur Guru’s but to common people here trying to help you out.
Wake up and set an example to prove that yes Hard Work+Prayers can get you out of any mess. As for me I am here to see how you pull this off and I am hoping you do.
Smiles.
Someone
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Casey Serin
November 21st, 2006 at 6:33 pm
@t_h_e_inlaws: wow, you did a great job making up that story and pretending to be my father-in-law. I was about to delete this post but then I though I will let it go through since you put some much time and creativity into it. So everybody, keep in mind that stuff is fake, don’t get confused by it. (On the other hand I may delete it… I’m still thinking about it…)
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AstorMan
November 21st, 2006 at 6:34 pm
He truly is the posterboy for all that’s wrong with our profligate, fiscally irresponsible country. I mean, if Congress can tack on trillions of dollars in debt with little consequence, it’s no wonder Casey feels he can game the system. It’s American optimism gone way, way wrong…
And just like the banks will have Casey’s ass on a platter (with wage garnish from the IRS); China and Japan will have this country by the balls sooner rather than later as they start calling in their dues.
And by the by, it’s China and Japan that indirectly allow the easy credit to flow in this country, giving the banks the opportunity to be incredibly irresponsible with loans, and for the likes of Casey to get their grubby mitts on ill-deserved money. But who’s letting all of this happen? Our irresponsive and spendthrift government. Go figure.
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gozar
November 21st, 2006 at 6:38 pm
well this just became about 1,000 times more interesting. good move, serin.
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(__o__) CASEY ~ ~ (]===8
November 21st, 2006 at 6:42 pm
CASEY YOUR BEYOND HELP!
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t_h_e_inlaws
November 21st, 2006 at 6:42 pm
OMFG…you actually deleted it…..My money was on you flip flopping and not being able to make a decision to delete it.
So apparently you can make a decision then…….
You never cease to amaze me casey.
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gozar
November 21st, 2006 at 6:43 pm
crap. i thought that father in law post was real. ah well. back to boring.
casey, we need some blood and guts here. more carnage.
c’mon, man. we need more drama.
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t_h_e_inlaws
November 21st, 2006 at 6:43 pm
oh wait its still there…disregard my last post
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The Man
November 21st, 2006 at 6:49 pm
I just ate a really fine large shrimp cocktail. It would probably cost $12 in a decent resturant. About a third a pound of the fat suckers and a sauce that I like (”Sau-Sea Cocktail Sauce”). It cost me less than one of your trips to Starbucks. How? I bought a pound of the shrimp (24-30 ct.) for $8 at WalMart and the cocktail sauce was about $1.50. Total for my large serving, about $3. You can save a lot of money by planning a little in advance, assuming your electricity doesn’t get shut off.
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Casey Serin
November 21st, 2006 at 6:50 pm
To address some of the other questions:
Yes, I bought the car at night and took it to the shop for a “pre-purchase” inspection afterwards. I know it’s dumb to buy a car at night and no inspection. But I was pretty desperate. I’ve been borrowing my friend’s jeep for a long time and I was wearing out his welcome big time. We have been looking for a car for a while. I just wanted to get one. Yes, I acted impulsively again.
I did get a discount from the asking price of $3600. I was aware of most of the problems when we test-drove it. I figured it wasn’t going to cost THAT much to fix this stuff. The important thing was that the car was running pretty good from what I can tell.
After getting the price tag on all the repair though, I realize I should have beat up the seller some more on the price. I think if I would have picked up the car for $2000-2500 and spend the excess money to fix it up right away, it would have been an OK deal.
I wasn’t aware the older Jettas are unreliable. Yes, I should have check into it more. Hopefully this one is going to be an exception.
I was desperate, I like the rims and the stereo, so I bought it, and probably paid too much. It’s funny because it’s just like me buying all those houses out of desperation.
Cars and Houses. Lesson learned (hopefully). If you’re buying out of desperation and limited knowledge, you will pay too much.
All I can do now is make the best of this situation, fix up the car and enjoy it. My wife actually likes the car and tells me not to be so down on myself for buying it high.
Yet another lemon for my lemonade. Sigh.
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Casey Serin
November 21st, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Thanks to everybody for the other advice on finances, etc… I read and consider it all (and even follow some of it). Your feedback is very appreciated.
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Jozsibacsi
November 21st, 2006 at 6:53 pm
Casey,
Can you ask your employer for an advance of your first paycheck? If you can at least get enough in your checking to stop the overage charges, it would be a start.
Microsoft Money and Quicken are very good for tracking personal finances and creating budgets. There are also plenty of freeware applications that can do the job. Your wife might consider getting a job to help with daily living expenses.
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SayWhat?
November 21st, 2006 at 7:09 pm
I have learned lots of things from this blog. I had no idea what a wraparound mortgage or a short sale before I read this mess. I’d just been working 9-5, paying my house off like a dope for all these years. Looks like I’ve been missing out on a lot of fun in life.
Not to imply that I’m any better at personal finance. For example I pay my bills on line and there’s a way to set up automatic payments every month. Naturally I set up my mortgage payment to be automatic every month.
Then I forgot about it and ended up double-paying my mortgage for over a year! I didn’t even notice until my mortgage statement said my next payment wasn’t due until next year.
I guess you can get away with being a dope when you have a good job and not a lot of expenses!
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Mark
November 21st, 2006 at 7:11 pm
Can you blog in prison?
If I was running a finance house, I’d make Casey a Poster Boy For Loan Fraud. And then I’d review how the company could lend money on such a lame horse to ensure it didn’t happen again.
Shame I’m not. Well, not a shame for Casey anyway.
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Delete The Inlaws Post
November 21st, 2006 at 7:15 pm
Casey, just delete the fake inlaws post. A purely fake post is not useful to anyone, it just messes things up.
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Fred
November 21st, 2006 at 7:26 pm
You have no choice to file for bankruptcy. The good thing: you are young. It will be a mark on your credit report for 10 years, but you will get a fresh start. Your credit is already is ruined and will be for seven years. BTW, the only way to get a true fico score on the net is at www.myfico.com.
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Lou Minatti
November 21st, 2006 at 7:35 pm
Hi Casey,
I won’t pile on, other than to say I worked my way through college via a series of low-wage jobs and I know what it’s like to be utterly destitute. Difference is, I was broke but I didn’t owe 2 point something million dollars. I am glad I did it this way, rather than taking out student loans. It would have sucked to graduate and be $100,000 in debt.
Anyway, there are plenty of ways to eat good for next to nothing. Think: red beans, rice, ground turkey, spices, macaroni, fresh fruits and vegetables, canned tuna. I was able to keep myself fed for a buck or two a day and I ate fairly well. Plenty of protein, vitamins and calories. I was never hungry.
Stay away from the Ramen stuff. It is cheap, but it is laden with salt and fat and is NOT good for your body. Don’t buy bottled water - it’s a waste of money. Tap water is perfectly fine. If Dasani is required in your office as a status symbol, just refill an empty Dasani bottle with tap water. No one will know the difference.
Have you given any more thought to joining the Air Force? They need translators badly! Do 20 years while learning valuable skills, retire at 44, you’re guaranteed a lifetime pension and there’s still plenty of time to start a new career.
Keep your spirits up!
Best regards,
Lou
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cant believe it
November 21st, 2006 at 7:45 pm
For the people even thinking about going and doing wraparound mortgages, short sales, sub 2 (modified sub 2–that kind)—the kind that will get you some prison time for fraud—yes it is illegal and people do it to get the deed, and short sales…
it takes years to master these techniques..they are not for novices..why do you think they are not thrown out there by legitimate RI investors…..because newbies will put themselves (and have) in the same situation as Casey here.
Allot of the gurus talk about this and it is illegal, unethical, and people will and have went to jail for modified sub 2…..
and just so you know a wraparound mortgage is a sub 2 mortgae…subject to the existing mortgage (or liens)….
the modified sub 2 is what scam artists like Ron Legrand push where you get the deed and hide all of it from the original lender in a intervivos (revokable) trust, while still keeping the person you bought it from on the hook financially, with no recourse to them if you default.
I have seen several people do these and get so far in over their heads they pretty much rival Casey here. Yes I got a crash course in all of this stuff when a friend of mine got in over his head with 6 properties and 4 of them went in default because he didnt do his due dilligence on his buyers properly..he just sold it to whomever had the highest down payment without looking into their ability to pay.
Long story short, he knows I have experience and accounting knowledge so he asked me to help……he was facing foreclosure on all the properties like casey here…but not foreclosures on himself ..on his original sellers….he would walk away completely unscathed if the properties foreclosed.
All of these properties were in Portland……he was from california until about 5 years prior so he was scared to death of deficiency judgements against his original sellers (not to mention he would never be able to set up shop here again in anything related to REI and had set some roots down here).
I explained to him that if a loan is secured by a trust deed and they go for a judicial foreclosure, then they can come after you for a deficiency judgement..if they do a trustee foreclosure…they forego the right for a deficiency judgement since the foreclosure cuts their time and costs down dramatically over a judicial foreclosure.
Okay so down to the nitty gritty now……I came up with solutions for him under the following conditions.
condition 1. restore the people you bought the homes from to their original position when you came into the picture..IE give the houses back to them in good standing.
2. as part of I….use any reserves to pay any and all amounts due.
3. buy out the current buyers for whatever it takes to get the property back and give the properties back to whom you bought it from.
4. work with the original sellers to find real estate brokers to sell their properties for them.
5. whatever money is left over from the reserves you can keep.
he thought I was insane..when all the numbers came in ..he saw that he was about 26k short to bringing everything current.
so i went through with him and made sure he did everything above….set up escrow with very specific instructions of what was to be done on all the properties…then I wrote a check for 26,000 dollars to the escrow company and got him out of his mess that took him a whopping 5 months to get into.
No I did not give him 26,000….he paid me back after he bought his house (which he did correctly by paying 75% of FMV)..did a 85% LTV mortgage and cashed me out.
so what did he learn…allot….he learned the ethical correct way to buy and acquire property…he used his personal residence as a leaping stone to acquire 4 properties in the last 3 years with everything above board..
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walt526
November 21st, 2006 at 8:02 pm
To Casey’s father-in-law,
I cannot begin to imagine the frustrations that you must have with Casey. It turns my stomach reading your post about what Casey’s immaturity has done to your daughter’s health, and I don’t even know the poor woman.
Since I began following Casey’s story about six weeks ago, I’ve often wondered about how you and your wife must feel about this mess. All I can say is that if I put my wife through this type of ordeal, I’d seriously be in fear of a major physical ass-kicking from my father-in-law.
I’m a strong believer in marriage and a lifetime commitment that you make to a person (we’re 26, been married 18 months), but everyone has limits. If I knew your daughter, I’d be urging her to consider divorce in the strongest of terms. Unfortunately the worst of the damage has already been done: her credit is ruined, which will cause difficulties getting her a job as an accountant. But as a outside observer it seems to me that she needs to distance herself from Casey before things get better.
Casey, like most posters here, I’ve felt a range of feelings about you and your situation: sympathy, disbelief, frustration, etc. But after reading your father-in-law’s post, all I can say is that you make me sick. You’re immature, lazy, and self-absorbed. You have absolutely no clue how to manage your personal finances, let alone a business. You’ve most likely ruined the best thing that will ever happen to you (your marriage, in case you weren’t aware). And you still don’t get it.
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Cutie Pie
November 21st, 2006 at 8:10 pm
Your bank statements are…… I can’t even find the words.
Have you cut up your credit cards? If not, do so now.
Have you cut up your ATM card? If not, do so now.
Are these trips to Jamba Juice, Starbucks, Subway and Chipotle just for you?
Where are the charges for Safeway?
Does you wife have a separate account? I sure hope so. Would love to see how she’s spending money.
So, on November 20 you had two $33 over draft charges to your account, then continued to use our debit card and one of your purchases included a 4.90 juice? So, that juice just cost you, in reality, $37.90 - was it worth it? That is $37.90 you DO NOT HAVE — money that when you have it should be used to pay off the people who’ve extended you personal loans.
Why don’t you continue to draw out your 15 minutes of fame and contact “Big Spender” the show on A&E. I’m sure you and Larry Winget would have a good time as he puts you on the “no excuses” budget.
In the meantime - drink water…. not fancy water… tap water. Drink lots of it. No coffee, no soda’s, no juice drinks. Just nice fresh cold tap water.
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Casey Serin
November 21st, 2006 at 8:12 pm
@walt526: That was a fake post by somebody claiming to be my inlaws. It was a pretty creative story so I though I will leave it (with a disclaimer above). Now I decided to just go ahead and delete it. I guess you didn’t see my disclaimer. And now you think i’m a really bad guy. The story wasn’t even close to being true.
I just wanted to give the author a little credit for his/her hard work. But I have a feeling the author doesn’t care about me and just wants to confuse people.
To the guy who made that up– I’m amazed you have the time to make up such a story. What do you do all day? Surf my blog and look for ways to throw people off? You’re probably the same guy who is digging up all this dirt on my in the Google Groups and other places…
No more of that please, I will not let it go through this time.
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Les Webster
November 21st, 2006 at 8:12 pm
I have a GREAT investment tip:
Buy condoms.
Do not even attempt to have children - your gene pool is seriously flawed.
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Want A Bargain
November 21st, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Casey - you did the right thing deleting the fake story.
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Frank In SF
November 21st, 2006 at 8:33 pm
Net, net…this is so hair brained. I’m not sure if I’m annoyed or amused. I don’t think it’s such a good idea to expose yourself so much. You are facing foreclosure and we already have figured out that you mishandled practically everything. It’s getting redundant. I guess you must be getting some pleasure out of putting yourself out there like this. But, at this point, I don’t think this post has anything to add in terms of learning about how to deal with foreclosure knocking on the door. I believe that you are in shock and don’t really understand the depth of mess that you have created and are in. My guess is you will someday understand how bad this got…but right now I don’t think you have a clue…I feel for you and wish you well…Class dismissed!
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Unbelievable
November 21st, 2006 at 8:34 pm
I kept a copy of the father-in-law post. He may not have written it but I bet it’s fairly close to the truth.
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Panda
November 21st, 2006 at 8:43 pm
You were AWARE of the problems with the car and bought it anyway?
Unbelievable.
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DC Troll
November 21st, 2006 at 8:43 pm
Want A Bargain: Intellicontact is a service that handles sending out mass e-mail. This can be used for good or evil, eg sending out newsletters to subscribers (good) or for unsolicited messages, a.k.a. Spam (bad). This sounds like something Casey should be able to do himself, the reason to pay would be for added features such as RSS feeds, easier subscriber management, not having to dig through hundreds of “out of office” replies every time you send something out.
If you still have questions, google the name and it is the first hit. Apologies to those who think I’m shilling the site.
The main reason to point it out was how this ties in to Casey’s ponzi-scheme spam from years ago, and his mass email promising “guaranteed returns” before coming clean. But so far the slavering hordes have failed to bite.
t_h_e_inlaws: Excellent post, by naming a “starting guru” and giving dollar amounts for various loans, you really had me thinking you were his father in law. And I have the nerve to put “troll” in my name. Sir, I am nothing compared to you. Although Casey’s not putting a disclaimer immediately before or after the post helped. LMAO that he dithered on how to handle it, just like everything else. Although it looks like he has deleted it now (unless it returns).
Casey seems to be approving comments at a reasonable pace (or perhaps I was just lucky). I hope this blog is actually a boiler room full of interns at a “viral marketing” firm, because for a single person, reading and approving all these comments would destroy any chance of getting work done, having a meaningful personal life, or “putting more sweet RE deals into the pipeline”. Although it’s just as well on that last one.
So come on Casey, gently move away from the keyboard and go kiss your wife if she’s still speaking to you. Or just put up a post that says “Maybe I should spend some time with my wife or something” and give the haters another chance to ream you for thoughtlessness, dithering, immaturity, etc. Because it’s all about the attention, right? Hmm, on second thought, better stay put. Wouldn’t want to get behind on reading comments like “you are a LOOSER and will be used as currency in jail”.
I can’t decide whether to feel bad for piling on or not. And now I’m burning MY time! Casey, you are contagious! I’m getting out now before I start buying houses!
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Josh
November 21st, 2006 at 8:44 pm
“was desperate, I like the rims and the stereo, so I bought it, and probably paid too much.”
You are truly a dumbass. You’re facing forclosure on how many houses and you bought a piece of shit car because you liked the rims and the stereo?
Your superficial nature will be your demise.
You’ve got so much good advice on this blog but choose to ignore it. I’m going to sit back, relax and watch another social parasite (flipper) go down. You’re great entertainment.
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Kyle
November 21st, 2006 at 8:56 pm
I noticed that you had four overdraft charges of $33.00 in your account. How hard is it to notice that you are low on money and you should triple check the next thing you purchase so you don’t overdraft? The last time I over drafted was when I got my first checking account in high school. Things like that can easily be avoided, no wonder why your in such a big hole.
One thing that you definitely lack is COMMON SENSE.
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Jonny Jon
November 21st, 2006 at 9:01 pm
I knew the father-in-law post was a fake the moment I read it. He said that Casey was doing some day trading and lost $8,000 in a day. No way that could happen to our Casey.
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walt526
November 21st, 2006 at 9:04 pm
I had to take a phone call in between the time that “the inlaws” was posted and Casey posted his clarification that it was a hoax. I still stand behind pretty much everything that I said, though.
Casey you have a lot of growing up to and you’ve got a lot more to lose than just your credit rating and money. As painful as the next 5-10 years will be, they’ll be so much worse if you have to go through it alone.
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Big Cheese
November 21st, 2006 at 9:10 pm
Hi Casey,
Can you please repost the father in law story under the heading ‘Fake Post’?- it sounds quite creative.
You really stirred the pot with this post. The last few days the activitiy was dying down and now with this post you get 90 comments in 12 hours… amazing. As has been stated before, you have a gift for drawing people in and pacing. All marks of a true entertainer.
I guess all your bank charges are true and given your situation you can have a good laugh knowing that you can continue to spend frivously and get ready to abdicate dealing with the aftermath by BK. It’s a bit like the old college scam of going out drinking with your friends, paying the bill with your credit card, leaving the said card in the bathroom and then calling the company to declare the card lost / stolen.
You can have a good laugh at all the people who work grueling cube jobs while eating their brown bag lunches and driving a Hyundai Accent all to save $100 per week when you can live the good life and then start over.
No need to trim down your spending now- seriously. Better to buy some gold bars (think about this) on credit and then bury it in your parents backyard to get a few months later… However you are thinking the right way because after BK you will have to really tighten the belt and then live like the poor cube farm workers for a while. That’s why it’s cool you are documenting everything in this blog for posterity.
-Big Cheese
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thoughtidseenitall
November 21st, 2006 at 9:16 pm
Wow, every time I think I’ve seen it all from Casey he just keeps upping the stakes.
Casey, please explanation is needed here. You are so insanely sloppy about important details that I don’t see how you can every hope to be successful.
Forget the important details you’ve missed on your real estate “deals”, you don’t even do the minimum when it comes to just day to day life.
You don’t check car reliability ratings before you purchase a car. (The excuse about needing to get it done quickly doesn’t wash, it would have taken you 15 minutes online). You don’t get your car inspected before buying. And you keep incuring these insane overdraft fees because you can’t be bothered to keep track of your balance.
What is wrong with you?! I don’t mean this in a cruel way, but have you ever been examined by a psychologist or doctor for this incredible implusive behavior? Because you definitely need to have this checked by a professional.
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Rob P
November 21st, 2006 at 9:16 pm
Let’s take slight detour from beating on Casey. What’s so great about being “retired”? This is a real question and not an invitation to a lot of oratory and posturing.
Tim says he retired at age 34. Brian says that he’s been doing RE investment for four years, is only 29 years old and is “semi-retired”. One of the boasting creds in this blog seems to be how early in life one retired or will be able to retire.
A boss of mine, now 65, started his own law practice after retiring from the legal department of a large company. He said that there are only so many days in a row on which you can play golf. I suppose the same goes for building model trains, playing bocce ball and lacquering butterflies. How many retirees can be like Doug Tompkins, who buys large swaths of Patagonia as wild life refuges?
So, seriously:
1) What do you retired and almost-retired folks who write on this blog DO with your time that is rewarding?
2) Tim, if you were in your twenties in the mid 70s, and retired in the early to mid 80s, you’ve been retired now for 20 years. You’re now in your mid 50s. What did you do with 20 years of your time?
3) If the answer is that you spend your time counting your money, how rewarding is that?
4) If the answer is that you are actively involved in managing your investments, then is it really accurate to say that you’re “retired”? Ditto if you are actively involved in teaching finance at the local business school.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s a lot of work–perhaps the majority of it–that is boring, demeaning, exhausting and repetitive (and that’s just the USA; think of what life is like on a daily basis for 99.99% of the Third World).
There are the people in So Cal with 2 1/2 hour commutes who get up at 4:00 AM each morning to hit the roads by 5:15 AM. There are people–probably none of whom are reading this blog–who work at Walgreens’ for $8.00 an hour and have great trouble paying for medical insurance. “Work” is not inherently gratifying or productive. Certainly, financially being able not to work, compared to that experience, would be a blessing.
But that’s not the way it has to be. It is possible to have interesting work, not to have a hellacious commute, to be well paid–but not astronomically so–and to steadily build financial security.
So, why is the goal to retire as early as possible? To ratchet down as low as possible the age at which one is no longer required to work? Is that where happiness lies? It would seem, then, logically that those who would be happiest are those who never have had to work, such as children in the Getty and Du Pont families. But we know that’s not true: they have exchanged one set of problems for another.
Even Prince Charles finds it necessary to pretend that his life has some meaning outside sitting for royal family portraits and wishing (to Camilla) that he were a feminine hygiene product. :- )
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smartypants
November 21st, 2006 at 9:25 pm
Casey:
As a small starbucks shareholder I would like to thank you for your patronage during this period. Please let me know how the company can do better to serve you. Do you like our new drinks such as the pumpkin spice latte or the ginger latte? Aren’t they irresistible and worth every penny of the $39.75 you spent on each cup?
—
Listen Casey. We also harbor a dream of getting rich and retiring soon. Instead of buying 8 houses all at once we went with the “millionaire next door” i.e. extreme frugal approach. Have you heard of this book? Dump all the rich dad series and just read this one. Buy it if you must buy something and please read it multiple times. It is the only book you need.
I can detail out all of our money saving tips, but they are just personal finance common sense, and you have had a flavor of them all from all of the comments above.
Good luck. You will need it. As for me, I will spend tonight wondering why some my tax money is going towards your food budget sooner or later.
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Take Some Responsibilty
November 21st, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Sweet!
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SCapitalist
November 21st, 2006 at 9:38 pm
I can’t imagine the stress you are under right now. I have had money problems in the past and know the kind of pressure it places (although I have never had THAT much pressure). Keep your spirits up. Make sure you don’t just throw your hands in the air and say “F*ck it, lets go shopping” Stay focused, pull in your budget and pull yourself out. You have come a long way. Unfortunately, the reality is you still have a long way to go…
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Fred Knott
November 21st, 2006 at 9:39 pm
Anyone have any statistics on how many people declare bankruptcy multiple times? My aunt is similar to Casey - spends money she doesn’t have. She filed for bankruptcy 12 years after filing for it the first time.
To everyone that suggests Casey declare bankruptcy: That won’t help him solve the core problem, which is … wait a second, I just realized he has multiple problems … but one of the core problems is spending more money than he has. A bankruptcy just resets your accounts, but, if Casey doesn’t change his behavior, he’ll end up in bankruptcy again (and again … and again …)
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Mr. Flipper
November 21st, 2006 at 9:49 pm
To “Can’t Believe It”,
Believe it! “Subject to” (modified?), short sales, and “wrap around” mortgages are LEGAL.
The first half of your blog entry shows you to be a self-loathing, ignorant, neanderthol.
The second half proves it.
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Casey Serin
November 21st, 2006 at 9:52 pm
I don’t have the original “inlaws” comment saved. I heard somebody else here does. If you want to repost it, I might consider letting it go through. Make sure you indicate that this is a reposting of a prior fake comment.
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Fraud
November 21st, 2006 at 9:55 pm
Casey, yeah, put it back, then take it out again.
Casey, when will you post: I AM FACING DIVORCE?
It’s getting a little slow dude.
Buy more properties, get some action going…
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Casey Serin
November 21st, 2006 at 9:55 pm
I’ve been on top of comment moderation today extra quick because I’ve been on my laptop all day trying to clear out my inbox. I still have mail from last month that I haven’t responded to. There are lots of opportunities and in some of those emails. I compare it to gold mining.
And NO I’m not using it to SPAM people. I’m establishing connections for future business. My address book is getting bigger by the day. Lots of good networking going on. I’m meeting good people through this blog. Sometimes there are too many opportunities all at once. I have to be careful too.
My IntelliCantact account is used to send out occasional email updates for those who are on my personal mailing list: http://casey.serin.us.
Again, thanks for everybody’s feedback.
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The Man
November 21st, 2006 at 10:06 pm
Anyone else notice that “cant believe it” and “the inlaws” make the same error, confusing the word “allot” and the phrase “a lot”
“cant believe it”:
“Allot of the gurus talk about this and it is illegal”
“so what did he learn…allot”
“the inlaws” (taken from browser’s cache after message removed):
“full of hope and optimism and allot of dreams”
“but it is hard to diversify actual income unless you have allot of it.”
“As you can imagine this caused allot of grief for my wife and I”
Same dumbass error. Allot means to allocate. “A lot” means to have many or much.
This error seems to be very uncommon. A search on google reveals 40 instances of the phrase “allot of dreams” and 51,500 instances of the phrase “a lot of dreams”.
Coincidence?
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Tom
November 21st, 2006 at 10:13 pm
You’ve got style - you blow up one hare-brained scheme in record time and then go hard charging into this blog and the publicity and possibly success.
Be yourself and don’t give up, or you’ll end up like most other people - in their cubicles, watching the clock, wondering when their life became so “safe.”
And remember - it is usually the “safe” people who hate the risk takers.
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BT98
November 21st, 2006 at 10:14 pm
Sorry, I over reacted. I didn’t think bank would allow you to go into negative, then hit you with overdraft over and over.
Now I realize this thing could be real, but I am still skeptical.
Well if it’s true, this is worse than I expected. Your wife don’t work? How can you guys eat? How are u gonna put gas in the car?
There must be another bank account you have lots of money in it and you staged this account to show how poor you are.
This is interesting, RK trys to show how rich he is by exaggerate his wealth. You try to show how poor you are by show bank statements and credit report. You both came from MLM background. You MLM people are really hard to figure out.
Why can u people just sit straight for 8 hours and make a honest living? is it that bad? worse than eating burridos/coffee and getting stressed out all day and all night?
I try to put myself in your shoes, but have a hard time doing it. sometimes, enough is enough, don’t mess around anymore. Don’t try to avoid rat racing. Some rats are fat and happy and some do retire comfortably and a few years early too. A honest and fugal rat can save 25K in 401K and have 10K in the bank after 5 years of work. I know I did it.
Thinking grow rich idea is the biggest lie and hoax in this world. I was poison by it once, but no more (I may talk about my venture in stock market some other time). Be your own boss is over rated. I did not make that mistake because I saw my Dad toiled for his own biz and barely getting by and require constant assistance and hand out from me.
I worked 13 years, not counting college jobs. Married 7 years ago. Put my wife thru college, I gave assistance to my parents, I bought two cars new a few years ago free and clear, bought a townhouse last year (bad timing, rented before and wanted to wait for bubble burst but wife keep bugging me and I finally give in). But I don’t have student loan or credit card balance. I even paid off the 2nd lien HELOC. Now we plan to have a baby. All acomplished by being a 9-5 rat.
You can do that too! why not.
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Harry
November 21st, 2006 at 10:19 pm
Why dont you post your budget. Make an excel spredsheet of all you expenses including rent, gas, food, utilities, phone, medical, clothes, etc. If you can’t manage to do this, you won’t be able to manage real estate for sure. If things don’t work on paper, maybe it’s a clue you’re off in dreamland again.
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The Man
November 21st, 2006 at 10:23 pm
THIS IS REPORTING A FAKE PRIOR COMMENT MADE BY ANOTHER USER - “THE INLAWS”
I would like to take a moment to comment about Casey.
I have tried to remain quiet about this but there is a very large part of the story he is leaving out to the media, and to you, the reader of his blog.
I am his father in law, and against my wifes wishes, I am going to tell some more of the story.
When my daughter first met Casey, she was ecstatic with joy. I of course remained neutral because who wouldnt when their daughter dates someone and you know next to nothing about them.
For the most part he seemed like a pretty likeable young man, full of hope and optimism and allot of dreams. When I sat down and talked with him on several occasions, he had no real direction or any sort of game plan on how to get there.
Well fast forward to their wedding day….My eyes filled up with tears when I gave my daughter away to this man that meant the world to her.
Well it wasnt long after they were married that Casey started calling in sick to work, sometimes simply not even showing up. He said it was because he “hated his job”. Well that is fine, many people hate their jobs and never do anything about it. They go through life and then one day wake up at 40 and have regrets. I commended him on realizing this so early on in life and encouraged him to act on it. (mistake 1)
Shortly thereafter he asked me to go to a Real Estate Seminar with him (went to several with him actually)..it was hosted by a fellow named Ron Legrand. Well right off the bat I could tell it was high pressure, all fluff info and I was completely shocked when people started ponying up thousands of dollars to buy basic real estate information that you can get from a real estate for dummies book at any public library.
Casey left this seminar talking a mile a minute talking about how he had found his calling….at this point I infused some reasoning into him and said with anything, it takes hard work and perseverence to suceed. In real estate it takes years with a very strong game plan to make it work…You have to learn the ropes and do the “unglamorous” work and learn the trade. I myself own several properties and set each one up with a years worth of reserves to cover emergencies.
We went to lunch and talked about real estate and strategies for several hours.
About a month later we went to a seminar hosted by “Rich Dad Poor Dad”. I realized he was a very powerful motivational speaker with an agenda, to get into your wallet and never leave. I did like how he stressed find something you like and make it work for you. He didnt just stress real estate…he approached the multiple streams of income concept…this I liked but it is very impracticable for begginers…
Yes you can diversify a portfolio with different stocks but it is hard to diversify actual income unless you have allot of it.
So Casey decided that he would try the stock market for awhile…he did quite a bit of research and I was impressed with the knowledge he gained in so little of time. He then proceeded to lose 8,000 dollars in day trading. I was flabbergasted, that was money him and my daughter had been saving for quite some time for a down payment on a house.
As you can imagine this caused allot of grief for my wife and I. We had the kids over and I talked with Casey about this….he was convinced with what he did wrong…and he convinced me of what he did wrong…
Over the next month I became convinced that Casey had learned his lesson and when he asked me to borrow 10,000 and promised to pay me back plus split whatever profit he made from day trading, After talking it over with my wife, she was hesitant because this was money we had saved over the past 5 years for a month long retirement trip to Australia. After much discussion, we decided to loan him the money because he was very persuasive with how he was going to make the money and had a written game plan and also because we wanted to show faith and support to him in hew new career.
Well about a month and a half went by which in that time Casey never said anything more about the money even though he was over for Sunday dinner several times. I brang it up and he said that the money is tied up and we will be reaping the benefits in another month.
Well 3 weeks go by and I get a call from my wife, the call all fathers dread “****** is in the hospital”. I rushed to the hospital. My little girl had an anxiety attack and passed out.. While falling she hit her head and it took 13 stitches to close it all up.
My daughter had a heart to heart with me right there in the hospital…She proceeded to tell me that Casey lost several thousand of the 10,000 I gave him on day trading..then he was convinced he could make it back and then some with online gambling. She said that between the online gambling and him going to the casino’s that all the money was gone and that he also took 4,000 in cash advances on the credit cards (more on this in a bit) and lost that at the casino also.
Now I was flabbergasted…I told my daughter right then and there that the money was forgiven….It almost killed me to see that she was so worried and stressed by money that was lost because of her husband that she didnt know how to tell me…it built up inside until she couldnt handle it anymore. Never in a million years did I ever think one dime would come between myself or my daughter and I told her so…money means nothing to me, your happiness means everything to me.
Inside I was seething mad..and I saw red when I found out that he quit his job to pursue a real estate career. My wife says I should just forgive and forget. I was paying for my daughters education but I stopped doing that. We have argued extensively over her husband and I think she should leave him. My wife and are at at wits end and argue constantly now about what is best for our daughter. We are almost on the verge of divorce over this. We constantly fight over this.
My daughter since all of this has had 4 anxiety attacks and has been hospitalized 3 of those 4 times.
My entire view on it hit the final straw when I saw a link to a site from a high school chum of Casey asking for money and then a week later sending another message to him pointing to this blog.
Well it turns out that he sent that out to hundreds of people..some of which actuall gave him almost 30,000 dollars.
I have been through hard times before..been laid off from a good paying job..and I took a job as a gas station attendant to keep food on the table for my family. I dont understand how he is so allergic to work?
Well that is all I had to say, sorry if I am rambling…it’s very difficult to put my thoughts together for someone that rips your daughter away from you and abuses her with his dreams of get rich quick scam’s.
The only thing to his credit is he has paid us 8000 of the money back but it has taken a very long time to get that.
I have put the money into a trust account for my daughters education for when she clears herself of either Casey or this situation.
—the inlaws.
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John
November 21st, 2006 at 10:24 pm
Have you even been to the food bank or are you too cool for that? I did anything I could to avoid overdrafts. I sent checks out, nobody gets auto-draw! That way I don’t bounce checks. I just didn’t pay. I know you don’t wanna think about it, but $33 for these overdraft fees is serious shit. You think it’s a big situation, not to be distracted by little situations. Um, big successful things happen because of control down to the penny. You drive a sweeter car than I did when I faced forclosure. My mom gave me a 20-year old car. I delivered pizzas. Now I earn $60/hr. I doubt you’d drive such a lame car or deliver a pizza. I see differences between me and you.
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Tim
November 21st, 2006 at 10:30 pm
“2) Tim, if you were in your twenties in the mid 70s, and retired in the early to mid 80s, you’ve been retired now for 20 years. You’re now in your mid 50s. What did you do with 20 years of your time?”
I’m now 54, and retired at 34. What have I been doing?
First and foremost: pretty much whatever I want to do on any particular day. Every day is like a weekend day…imagine how great that feels?
Am I inactive? Nope. I read more than I had time to when I was working for someone else.
I’ve had various projects. I created the modern anonymous remailer, part of my crypto activities. I was on the cover the second issue of “Wired,” back in 1993. I did some advising on startups, including Internet startups. One of them is reportedly accounting for more than a third of _all_ Internet bandwidth use.
I also got a couple of SCUBA diving licenses, got a BMW motorcyle, spent time mountain biking and hiking, and live near many state parks and beaches, which I enjoy.
In the past few years, my main interest has been in category theory, a branch of math. Mostly in connection with computer architectures to support functional programming. (I studied physics and math in college, and have returned to these interests.)
My view is that working for other people, on their projects, is not nearly as liberating as working for myself, on _my_ projects. And once my future was secured, working for more years just to make more money was not very attractive.
About 15 years ago one of my friends asked “Don’t you ever get bored?” I told him that yes, I do, and then I go around to my neighbors and ask them if they have any work for me to do.
He got the point–working for some employer is not the cure for boredom in life.
As I said in some earlier posts, I basically live like the so0-called “millionaire next door.” No expensive hobbies–no horse ranches, no yachts, no Picassos. My expenditures per year are a small fraction of what I _theoretically_ could withdraw each year and still have enough for my old age.
I did buy some new Lowa hiking boots this past week…but no stops at Jamba Juice or Starbucks.
Meanwhile, tomorrow is like a Saturday for me, as the past 7500 days have been. I may go for a hike near Big Sur…
–Tim
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Casey Serin
November 21st, 2006 at 10:36 pm
You guys are hilarious. I get 3 re-postings of the IN LAWS comments. And I noticed some modifications made too. So I’m not sure if I posted the correct one, I just chose one that looks like it was unmodified.
Again, I am only re-posting this thing by popular demand, even though it’s fake. I don’t want to confuse anybody. But its a pretty creative story. Somebody spends a lot of time on my blog thinking up of this stuff. Does this person have a life?
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Casey Serin
November 21st, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Maybe I should require registration before posting… that would make the blog a little bit less anonymous and hopefully prevent trolls, etc.
What do you guys think?
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leave it the way it is
November 21st, 2006 at 10:55 pm
NO, it provides some much needed entertainment to see the unscripted ramblings from people. You still control whether the message gets in or not anyway.
It is much needed relief since your blogs have been kinda stagnant lately while we wait for the trainwreck that your in to finish with the IRS and the LENDERS seeing the handcuffs thrown on you.
aside from all of that…casey I have a serious question for you……What is going through your mind when you go and use plastic that deducts from your primary account and get a NSF fee? At this point it would seem that piling any more financial stress on yourself is the last thing you want to do.
You may just be 1 nsf away from pulling the trigger on that gun that you sit there all day with while your financial hole gets deeper and deeper around you. Admit it, you sit there with a 9 millimeter and occasionaly put it in your mouth but you stop because you get buyers remorse for the gun because you bought it at night from someone on a street corner without getting a gatfax history report on it. Your right you should just set it there and go borrow some money from a friend and buy another one that will get the job done more efficiently with maximum gray matter penetration.
After all, your not going to have much to live for when the only thing that is keeping you tethered to this world is the loyalty of your wife (which I seriously think will end sooner than later)….once that happens you will fall off that last rung of the ladder as you will face everything alone.
On a side note:to the inlaws…
ROFLMFAO@ allergic to work.
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Tim
November 21st, 2006 at 11:01 pm
I recommended an Excel spreadsheet several weeks ago.
“Why dont you post your budget. Make an excel spredsheet of all you expenses including rent, gas, food, utilities, phone, medical, clothes, etc. If you can’t manage to do this, you won’t be able to manage real estate for sure. If things don’t work on paper, maybe it’s a clue you’re off in dreamland again.”
But I wasn’t saying his day to day expenses need a spreadsheet….first, keeping to a budget is about foregoing frivolous things like Chipotle and Jamba Juice and daily overdrafts, and second, the spreadsheet is for something FAR MORE IMPORTANT. Namely”
Casey needs to see in simple black and white:
– what he paid for various properties
– what he took out as a “cash back”
– his various debt balances
– this all updated on a weekly basis
If he did this, he’d see just how deep his hole is and what the implications of waiting longer are.
(For instance, as an example, Casey spent a week or more dilly-dallying on the “New York buyer” who might have landed him a $3000 advance. In fact, from my understanding, Casey gave up a potential deed in lieuw for the “lure of easy money.” That $3000 is “only” 4 days’ worth of his approximately $700 a day debt service fee, adding to the amount compounding daily. Now I’m not saying that sending in the DILOF would’ve solved this $700/day compounding bill, but at least THAT’S THE MAIN ISSUE, not the illusion of wasting a couple of weeks chasing a $3000 payment which probably was never very real to begin with (not very real in the sense that the NY Buyer sounded like a phisher, dangling an offer with no real intent to close).
Casey needs to see the BIG PICTURE:
– that he overpaid for his properties (not much he can do about this, but maybe he’ll learn his lesson and NOT TOUCH REAL ESTATE FOR MANY YEARS)
– that they are declining in value EVERY MONTH
(the comps I have looked at, informally, have dropped since I started following this blog. The lack of interest or even half-hearted phone calls should tell Casey that his properties are dropping in price with every month that he looks for some “sweet deal” to miraculously bail him out)
Why do I harp on this spreadsheet idea? Because Casey needs to see his NET WORTH on a daily basis, not putting it off and losing track of the big picture while chasing liittle minnows of deals.
He’s had a negative net worth essentially from the beginning. Which isn’t surprising, given that prices in 2006 have been dropping more or less montonically, just as Casey entered the market.
But he needs to see this. And he needs to get out of these properties AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE, with no pretense of “sweet deals” or “mentorings from Rich Dad” or “savvy Chris.”
A month from now, Casey’s debt will have increased about $20,000. And his house prices will likely have dropped another $20,000 or more, based on the softening real estate market.
Even if he gets rid of one or even two of the houses, in short sales, the debt increase will still be close to $15K, and the still held houses will likely drop by $10-15K.
Casey doesn’t need a detailed budget. Yes, he needs to stop spending at restaurants, put his wife to work, and devote _all_ of his efforts toward solving the Big Picture Problem.
He needs a one-page snapshot of his situation, updated dispassionately from comps and interest rates. Spreadsheets excel at this, so to speak.
Frankly, his wife ought to be doing this. She’s the supposed accounting student.
(BTW, putting receipts into Microsoft Money is NOT the same thing. That’s focusing on the trivia instead of the main issues.)
–Tim
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Take Some Responsibilty
November 21st, 2006 at 11:09 pm
@Casey
“Does this person have a life?”
Ever hear of the saying : “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones?”
The poster of the In-Laws comment deserves praise for his/her creative writing skill. I enjoyed it, even though I knew it was fiction. I bet it cuts very close to the bone.
If I am not mistaken; working screenwriters, free lance journalists, fiction authors, etc all can make a very good living. You surely do not.
Perhaps the poster has time on his/her hands because they have put the time in to working and have gotten “ahead” enough to write such a piece.
You, on the other hand, are sinking faster every day. Would you say that you have “a life”? I would not want yours.
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Jim
November 21st, 2006 at 11:14 pm
So, Tim, since having retired from the world’s largest chipmaker at 34, you’ve even made it into Wikipedia! Congratulations (an excerpt)
“Tim realized that the ceramic packaging which Intel was using was made from clay which was very slightly radioactive. Intel solved the issue by adopting plastic packaging for their products.”
That’s pretty cool, figuring out their packaging problem! (I guess if the alpha particles couldn’t penetrate the packge they had to come from inside, right?)
Sounds like they got good value for their stock-option money anyway! Congrats.
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Ross Pruden
November 21st, 2006 at 11:15 pm
It’s easy to ridicule with malice from the shadows… I suggest removing anonymity immediately; you’ll see everyone become respectful again if they must suddenly face consequences for being rude.
Honestly — it’s astounding how vitrolic some of your comments are… I was always taught, if you have nothing nice to say, say it nicely or don’t say it at all. Because it takes tremendous courage to admit your one’s mistakes (even if you’re a bit TOO forthcoming about your dealings), it’s also very troubling to see so many ad hominem retorts from the peanut gallery.
Strip everyone of anonymity, I say.
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Tim
November 21st, 2006 at 11:21 pm
“Maybe I should require registration before posting… that would make the blog a little bit less anonymous and hopefully prevent trolls, etc.
What do you guys think?”
“Registration” rarely helps in such situations. People have so many possible e-mail addresses…
And you already require an e-mail address. You could check by sending an e-mail and asking for a real person to verify it (even this has varous workarounds, such as use of cut-outs, like “mail-answering services”).
I think the real issue is that this blog has “jumped the shark.” You keep repeating the same mistakes, keep promising to “pay back every dirty cent,” then you are off on some new mentor or guru or “sweet deal.”
Fake or not, your “In-law” captured the situation pretty well.
I’m not a “hater.” Just an onlooker watching this bloody car wreck.
By the way, one thing that _lowers_ the tone of the blog, thus making jokes and insults and spoofs more common, is that you rarely respond to the _substantive_ comments many have made here. Substantive comments about the IRS, bankruptcy law, insolvency exclusions, and other options. Instead, you “riff off” the bizarre comments, such as when you took someone’s suggestion of a lottery and ran with it, which distracted you (and this blog) for at least several days (which cost you about $700 a day!).
That you space out on or just ignore meaty comments causes fewer meaty comments and more fluff, more “hate,” as you used to call it.
You’re in a deep hole. Stop digging. File whatever papers a lawyer can help you with to somehow stop the hole from getting deeper. Though you probably cannot just absolve yourself of debt, at least some of the interest compounding will be slowed.
–Tim
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I am flipping sick of this
November 21st, 2006 at 11:29 pm
To all of the people making suggestions about Casey’s wife.
WTF are you all thinking. Yes she may have encouraged him to pursue his “dream”.
Well if he is pulling cash back out of houses then he is showing allot of cash in his hand. In the beggining he is showing real signs of success to her. Of course she is going to be okay with it because she is not the savvy Real Estate Investor that he claims to be.
She sees cash and the bank accounts building, that is good enough for her. You simply would be a fool to think she knew about his dealing in detail and what the future ramifications would be especially since he was doing it mostly on speculation.
He made this damn mess, not her…he should dig himself out and her since she is being dragged down with him simply by being married to a fool.
To suggest that she give up her future which she is working on by going to school and get a job is ludicrous.
Now there are some serious issues with the situation in her getting a job in the future…any type of financial job with responsibility can and will pull a credit report on the potential employee.
That she should go and get a job to help pay this criminal out of his debt is so absurb it makes me want to start chewing so I can spit tobacco.
It is Casey’s job to pull himself out of this fiasco since he and he alone created it with his get rich quick crap.
To Casey’s wife….I feel for you….do not give up on college because your husband is a failure in more ways than one…
as far as I can tell, your the only one that is doing anything productive for your future out of all of this…
casey’s answer for your future is to keep networking for future schemes…he is already actiing like the next thing is on the horizon while he cant even see the surface from the hole he is in…
Casey you just dont see the magnitude of the pile your in…there is no future deals for you, especially when the tax man cometh…..no lender will touch you with a ten foot pole
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Jim
November 21st, 2006 at 11:30 pm
But, Tim, what made you look at alpha particles as the source of the errors vs. any number of other possibilities?
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just stating the obvious
November 21st, 2006 at 11:35 pm
Wow this is just amazing. I don’t know weather to believe your that naive to get yourself into this mess but i do continue to read mostly due to the comments both good and ugly. Did you read speechless’s post. I hope you read and reread many of these people’s comments that are giving you healthy advice and constructive criticism. I am sure the negative feedback is not very helpful to you or your wife. By the way does she read this blog /comments? Either way I don’t know how you do it. All this negative and sometime stupid feedback I mean come on guys he already bought the car there is nothing he can do now about that but next time Casey i.e. 5 years from now when your shopping for new USED car go to the library’s reference desk and take a peek at Consumer Reports used car ratings about an hour or two of research will save you thousands of dollars and headaches in the long run. Oh and also Casey as it seems like your very impulsive and wasteful with your money have you thought of letting your “fans” make the decisions for you since it appears that it is very difficult for you to choose the right options. I mean everything from “investing” in a better pc for future blogging to taking the wife out to dinner you should run it by your team of knowledgeable financially sound “fans”. I mean come on its free you know how much people are willing to pay for personal financial planners and here you have a whole slew of them albeit you have to weed them out from the pranksters and sarcastic ones (which i do hope you realize which comments are) Sorry to say this but the comments are a lot more valuable than the “story” you got to sell. So listen to them, write them down, and when all this is over and years down the road when your halfway outta debt. Declare yourself a “bankruptcy guru” who overcame all odds. Get a investor to invest in you and take all this blogs and comments offline and put it in a book/cd’s and seminars and then really start making some money helping all the other saps that are in denial and are “facingforeclosure”. Imagine 100-200 people each paying 2,000-5,000 to hear you lecture on how to overcome foreclosure/BK. I am sure you can do the math and that’s only on 1 weekend. Now that is some quick money :P ps dont steal my idea cuz if you do become a guru you better make me partner or atleast give me some money lol :P
Sincerely,
RM
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Wayne
November 21st, 2006 at 11:40 pm
Well Casey, what do I think about your requiring registration (and I’ll expand the question to this whole thing of yours)?
I think you have the mind of a seven year old, with a side helping of con man in the extreme. I’m not a hater, I couldn’t care less about you quite honestly. Whatever your angle is with this blog, I predict you will spend your life taking advantage of whoever will let you get away with it.
You wouldn’t know how tell the truth in a meaningful situation or consistent fashion if your life depended on it, and someday in the games you play your life may depend on it.
“I want to repay every dirty penny I borrowed”. Sorry, but no you don’t. You just want it all to go away, and you don’t care who gets hurt in the process.
This last post and the car purchase did it for me, if you were 12 years old there would be some hope you would change, but at 24 you are fully formed and these traits you have are fixed. You have learned nothing from your experience.
I would highly recommend any serious person avoid Casey, beware the siren song.
I’m out for the duration, good luck to all you serious commenters, I’ve learned a lot from many of your posts.
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Tim
November 21st, 2006 at 11:40 pm
“That’s pretty cool, figuring out their packaging problem! (I guess if the alpha particles couldn’t penetrate the packge they had to come from inside, right?)
Sounds like they got good value for their stock-option money anyway! Congrats.”
This blog is about Casey, but I’ll say a few words.
Yeah, the alpha particles were coming from low levels of uranium and thorium present in the sealing glasses and ceramics of the packages (and even from filler materials in some plastic packages, though this was a three orders of magnitude smaller problem, for various fairly obvious reasons).
As this _sort of_ relates to Casey, I joined Intel to pursue my interests in physics. Not my first interest, as that would have been in relativity, but there were few if any jobs for such folks. At Intel, I started working on various interesting problems.
Doing what I loved really helped, as I was working 50 hours a week, plus reading on the side, keeping current, etc. (I would add, perhaps somewhat cattily, that my “gurus” were not conmen and scamsters like some of Casey’s gurus, but guys like Richard Feynman, whom I once cooked a ribeye steak for. Not to be name-dropping, but there’s a world of difference between truly authentic poeple like Feynman and Gordon Moore and some of the “Think and Be Rich!” carnies.)
The alpha particle problem was more than just this identification of U and Th in small amounts, it was also about cell design for dynamic RAMS, test methods, the implications of cosmic rays, and some long term limits on the scaling of devices.
Yes, I was well-compensated, especially after this discovery and lab-building in 1977. But I mostly didn’t even think about money. I deposited my paychecks, bought stock on the company’s Plan, and “bought and held” my stock options. Essentially, I just did what I did best and eventually this paid off.
Calling it “luck” is not quite accurate, either. I took a chance by retiring in ‘86, as I might’ve had to go back to working had the stocks I bought not continued to do well, but all this would’ve affected is the timing. Consider this: of the 20 or so people I worked with in the 70s and 80s, every single one of them is a millionaire. One guy was worth $749 million on the day his company went public. Several others are worth many tens of millions. And none of them did it through real estate flipping.
For those talented in spotting good real estate deals, this may be a good career. Without meaning to further dump on Casey, he appears to have a _negative_ talent for spotting good deals. Of the 5-6 properties I’ve been following from his blog, he paid too much for them, bought them in cities far from his home, and seems to have no skills in arranging for them to be upgraded or otherwise made saleable.
As someone here so neatly put it, he’s like a kid who buys a bunch of stuff at full retail at the mall and then tries to sell at a discount on E-Bay. (The further wrinkle being that he’s like a kid who pays 10% over retail, on credit, then asks for that 10% to be kicked back in cash, then spends the cash, and so now owes 110% of the purchase price while trying to sell it for 70% of that price.
–Tim
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Fraud
November 21st, 2006 at 11:52 pm
I’ll bet Casey is laughing all the way to the Bank with this.
I mean, he lied to the Banks while pulling money out and blogs about what he did (fraud).
I am sure many others seeing this will copy it soon - Frauding banks out of money part :-)
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Big Cheese
November 21st, 2006 at 11:58 pm
Thanks for reposting the in-laws comment. That was a brilliant and fantastic piece of writing. Sadly though, truth is still stranger than fiction in this case!
You and the readers are dynamically responding to all user comments very quickly- Casey you are doing a fantastic job here! This must be an ‘up’ moment for you and I dare say that your ADHD is becoming contagious to a number of other commenters, including myself. I wonder how many hours of lost productivity are a result of the comments section of your very addictive blog…? I am now checking for updates every 30 minutes, LOL…
Last point, Casey- you have demonstrated that you can do such a good job on this blog, keeping it fresh & responsive and professional. I think you can do fantastic work if you have the motivation. So the question you have to ask yourself is how can you get motivated like this to fix your leaky financial boat? Because once you find out how to make yourself motivated in this area the rest will come very easy. Maybe you can blog your progress here- I think you have enough fans at this point.
-Big Cheese
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thoughtidseenitall
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:05 am
While Tim May is indeed quite famous in certain circles, note that just about anyone can “make it into Wikipedia” if they create an entry for themselves.
In fact someone added Casey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Serin
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Tim
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:07 am
“But, Tim, what made you look at alpha particles as the source of the errors vs. any number of other possibilities?”
This would take a long time. If you search on my name, which you obviously know, and “Craig Barrett,” who was my boss at the time (and later the President and now Chairman of the Board of Intel), you will find his recollections in his “oral history” of some of his years at Intel. There are other accounts, too.
In a nutshell, I was sitting in the outdoor hot tub of my apartment complex one night in February of 1977, pondering what could be causing random bit flips in some of our memory chips (a big problem with one of our biggest customers, Western Electric, part of the Bell System, aka AT&T). I remembered some geology stuff I’d read about low levels of radioactivity in granite and ceramics, about fossil alpha track dating in ceramic pottery, and about the ceramic walls of the hot tub I was sitting in.
(I also remembered my Gilbert Chemistry Set and its “spinthariscope,” where little flashes of light from alpha particles could be seen in a dark room. My parents wondered what use would come out of buying a fourth grader a full-blown chemistry set…they were happy to learn many years later just how well it paid off.)
The next day I tested a hunch and put some of the “high error rate” vs. “lower error rate” packages into the handiest radiation detector I could find, and then integrated the counts for a couple of minutes. Voila, the higher error rate packages were “hotter.”
Then I put some pure uranium foil, and some less pure uranium mineral over devices in a tester…a snowstorm of errors was visible on a computer map of the bits.
Lots and lots of other experiments and calculations followed, all confirming the hypothesis. And the physics worked out: a 5 MeV (million electron-volt) alpha was generating about 1.4 million electron-hole pairs, near the memory cell, and the difference between a “1″ and a “0″ was only about 900,000 electrons).
(Had the physics not worked out so well, what with ranges of alphas in silicon and electron-hole pairs and all, then the other tests would have been less compelling.)
Finally, for the sake of this account, we began changing the U/Th contents of packages, applying coatings to the chips (alphas are easily absorbed), and increasing the “Q-crit” critical charge stored in memory cells. By the time I was allowed by management to give a public paper on this, Intel was well ahead of all of its competitors.
We knew more about dynamic RAMs and small devices than even our mightiest of technological competitors, IBM and AT&T. (Ironically, since we had told AT&T early on, because of the solution to the Western Electric problem, they’d put a large team of researchers on it….it was their plan to start publishing what they had themselves learned that triggered a secretive Intel into letting me give the public talk and publish the paper.)
–Tim
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Big Cheese
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:07 am
Tim,
Since you are so well off, would you consider becoming the ‘rich big daddy’ that Casey never truly had? I think it would be more rewarding than any random project. You just would need a little control on the spending so that you aren’t funding too many lattes and burritos.
Big Cheese
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Bootstrapping Joe
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:12 am
Wow, look at all those system tray shortcut and quicklaunch icons on your computer’s taskbar. Simplify, Man!
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Big Cheese
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:16 am
Last comment for a bit:
This site has NOT jumped the shark yet… given the number of comments from today I think Casey still has a lot of material that will bring out the masses in earnest.
Big Cheese
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Ross Pruden
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:17 am
Tim’s right — if you really want to help others in foreclosure, you might fare better if you responded to the more substantive comments and removed the garbage comments.
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Scott
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:33 am
I noticed an entry in the Wells Fargo screen for CASHCALL. Would this happen to be http://www.cashcall.com/? Payday loans? Oh my, you have hit bottom, that is the last refuge of the damned. It’s the last place people with no money and terrible credit can turn to (well, save the mafia).
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Tim
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:15 am
Even in jest, it’s important to realize there are no gurus, no mentors, no “rich dads.”
“Since you are so well off, would you consider becoming the ‘rich big daddy’ that Casey never truly had? I think it would be more rewarding than any random project. You just would need a little control on the spending so that you aren’t funding too many lattes and burritos.”
There are no mentors, gurus, or “rich dads.” (Except for rich sugar daddies who mentor young blondes, but I don’t swing that way, and neither, I think, does Casey.)
By the time people are 20, they are basically set in their ways, on their course. They may have a graduate advisor who helps them get jobs, or they may have someone at a company who slightly helps them, but basically they are either capable of learning and achieving, or they are not.
It’s not black and white, but the important point is that people don’t need much “mentoring” when they are past the malleable stage, typically before they become adults.
Casey doesn’t need any more fracking mentors or gurus. They are the ones who led him down the garden path. (His “in-law” who described his conversion to the religioun of Kiyosaki got it right, even if this was fictional….his “in-law” distilled the essence of 8 weeks of this blog into this fictional account.)
Personally, I don’t believe in charity. Not a dime. I am already too heavily taxed. And giving handouts generates a mooching mentality.
If anyone gives Casey a thousand bucks, guess where it will go? For his urgent expenses, urgently needed, which will just delay the inevitable. And thus cost him a lot more.
(With his interest charges now exceeding $20,000 a month, and his property comps dropping more or less by the same amount per month, in toto, anything that gives Casey a “lifeline” is actually hurting him. Think about it.)
Sorry to sound so harsh, but you ought to hear my views on aid to Darfur, Sudan.
Loaning money to Casey simply worsens his situation.
–Tim
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Casey Serin
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:24 am
You’re right Tim. I would not want you or anybody to just give me money. I need to earn it or borrow it. Preferably earn it. Or, borrow it, leverage it the right way, and have money earn money.
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Casey Serin
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:28 am
@Scott: That CashCall loan is from a while back when I actually had good credit. I used it to fixup the Burdett property back in January. I’m still making payment on it because the stupid thing is doing an auto-draft from my checking out. I need to stop the drafts somehow ‘cuz its screwing things up right now.
Problem is that CashCall requires an auto-draft from somewhere. Short of just closing down the Wells Fargo account which I’ve had for 10 years, I don’t know what else I can do about it. Those guys are smart!
I borrowed $10,000 at 21% or something like that.
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Tim
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:33 am
I didn’t say he should _remove_ the garbage comments….
“Tim’s right — if you really want to help others in foreclosure, you might fare better if you responded to the more substantive comments and removed the garbage comments.”
The point is not to remove the garbage comments, but to respond more to the substantive comments and less to the frivolous or flaky or “hating” comments.
(In terms of keeping this blog active, if Casey begins to discard a lot of comments, people will stop commenting. Nobody wants to spend time writing a post and then waiting and waiting for it to appear and finally concluding that Casey was having a bad hair day and deleted it….)
I think Casey’s nonresponsiveness to the many substantive posts here is a symptom of the main problem: a lack of calmly objective analytical abilities. Maybe he has ADHD….I don’t know. Maybe he just doesn’t like to focus on numbers.
Whatever, he has not responded in many weeks to the posts which go into actual details about the law, the tax codes, etc. He instead responds to the “high flake factor” comments, the bizarre proposals, the “get rich quick” ideas. As with the lottery idea. Or the tip jar idea.
And he trades mentors about as often as most people change their underwear: the seminar gurus, then the trip to Phoenix and PRLINKWHIZBIZ, and the East Coast Mentor who he was two-timing the “No Limits Ladies” with, then Rich Dad and Rich Son and the Blue Ball of Foreclosure, plus some dalliances with the Salt Lake City guy who wrote the 5-part series about Casey, and now the Savvy Chris guru who is paying Casey for blogging, it seems.
Casey doesn’t need more mentors or gurus, and no
“Rich Dad” is going to hand him the $300-400K it will take for him to extricate himself from this mess.
I see various dullards referring to Casey’s alleged $1.8 million debt. This is B.S. The properties have _some_ value, even if less than what he is now listing them for. So the liquidation value is, while negative, not as bad as some media reports have headlined. if someone handed Casey about $300K, give or take, he could pay off his CC debt, make most of the lenders happy enough not to try to get him prosecuted, and set up a payment plan with the IRS.
But, of course, nobody is going to hand him $300K, and there is zero chance that any of his real estate deals is going to get him this amount. Casey keeps talking about various deals, but they are generally not going to make a dent in this big picture amount. Do the math.
–Tim
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Ross Pruden
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:56 am
Tim — yeah, misquoted you a little. But I see little to no purpose to allow “hater” comments on the blo; in fact, refusing to publish disrespectful comments seems an appropriate response.
Casey has his personality drawbacks, as do we all, but this blog is a place of learning and few can learn (Casey OR his readers) when there is so much gunk clogging the arteries. Character attacks are the last resort of a failing wit and everyone can disagree respectfully if they’re required to show ID.
I’d like to see Casey replying to the more substantive comments, though. What about it, Casey?
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walt526
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:59 am
“I need to earn it or borrow it. Preferably earn it. Or, borrow it, leverage it the right way, and have money earn money.”
::bangs head on wall::
Casey, when are you going to figure out that you can’t borrow your way out of debt? Moreover, when are you going to realize that no lender short of a real life Tony Soprano is going to lend you a dime with your financial picture?
Get rid of whatever debt you can as quickly as you can. Work hard and live below your means for several years to pay down what you cannot discharge so that you can get back on track in your early 30s.
You’re not going to get rich quick off real estate EVER: you have neither the discipline, talent, or luck needed to succeed. Your seminars were a colossal waste of money. You will never realize on a return on that “investment.” Until you can properly manage your personal finances, don’t waste more time and money trying to start up a small business.
Here’s the secret to running a successful business: sales generate revenues, controlling costs secures profits. Or in Econ 101 speak, profits cannot be maximized whenever marginal cost exceeds marginal revenue. It’s really that simple.
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Tim
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:01 am
Two items. First, watch out for “builder’s liens.” Second, you need a bare minimum of $20,000 a month in “sweet deals” just to service your debt, more like $30-40K a month in deals just to service your debt AND handle the declines in your Zillow comps (the drops may actually be higher than $10-20K a month, based on my informal tabulation….you should have all this on a spreadsheet, all summarized on one page).
First, the builder’s lien issue:
“That CashCall loan is from a while back when I actually had good credit. I used it to fixup the Burdett property back in January. I’m still making payment on it because the stupid thing is doing an auto-draft from my checking out. I need to stop the drafts somehow ‘cuz its screwing things up right now.”
If that money was used to pay a builder/contractor, and the payments stop to him, very dire things can happen. “Builder’s liens” are powerful tools: stop payment to a roofer, or a carpenter, or whatever, and they can get a lien on your house very quickly. And with a lien, sale is difficult. While it’s possible to settle a lien out of proceeds of a sale, many potential buyers will shy away from properties with one or more liens tangling up the title transfer.
(Assuming the contractor was licensed. I’m not encouraging either licensing or stiffing of unlicensed contractors, but the fact is that licensing gives contractors this easy access to the lien process….and unlicensed contractors often have no access at all to the lien process.)
In this falling house of cards, be very careful to watch for various harmed parties (such as contractors not being paid) throwing monkey wrenches into the sales process.
All of this is why you URGENTLY–as at least 30 people here have said–need to start the orderly liquidation process, through mandatory credit counseling and personal bankruptcy.
Thinking some “deal” is going to come your way is unrealistic in the extreme.
At about a $20-40K per month burn rate (debt interest plus declines in Zillow comps), any “deal” has to be worth at least this amount, and EACH MONTH, just for you to stay even. Or you can score a $40-80K deal ONCE, to make up for two months.
Basically, you’re sinking at AT LEAST a rate of $$240,000 per year (12 times $20K) and MORE if property values continue to decline for the properties you bought.
(I doubt this train wreck will play out for another year, of course. The foreclosures are going to all be done in a matter of 3-4 more months. None of the forced sales or short sales are going to net you any money at all, it appears, so the later foreclosures will not be forestalled. Do the math. It’s as simple as it gets.)
You need a $30K condo flip miracle right now, just to handle your losses since this time a month ago, when we were all giving you advice.
Do you know of any such deals? Your condo flip, in an up market a few years ago, was roughly a $30K deal, from what I remember. You need one of these deals every month, basically.
Ain’t gonna happen. Probably you couldn’t replicate your $30K gain even in an up market, for various reasons. And certainly not now.
Once you accept that there are no silver bullets, no gods dropping from the sky, no “sweet deals” that are going to net you the $20-40K EVERY MONTH you need to stay afloat, then you can take more seriously what so many people here have been saying.
More than a month ago, you said you were going to go see a bankruptcy lawyer. Now you really need to. And not some $50 an hour shyster you find in “Shopper’s Bargain” supermarket flyers.
You need a real lawyer. That’s the kind of guru you really need.
–Tim
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walt526
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:55 am
Tim’s 100% correct: you need a good lawyer and file for bankruptcy ASAP. But (and I don’t know how many times I’ve said this, along with countless others) make sure whoever you’re getting has a background in criminal defense for white collar crimes.
A BK lawyer’s focus is to minimize debt, plain and simple. BK lawyers tend to be very competent in their area of the law, but they’re seldom deal with criminal cases. You need to be very careful with what you say to any lender or on the debt exam.
As I see it, you have two interrelated priorities for the next year: 1) save your marriage; and 2) stay out of jail. Now both objectives require you to grow up and start acting like an adult, ie get a real job (or 2 or even 3), pay your bills, stop this get rich quick cycle. Assume that sometime in the next five years you will be audited by the IRS and don’t do anything stupid (like take $3k/month under the table). You have enough problems on your plate without getting bogged down with tax evasion charges.
Finally, as much as I enjoy watching this train wreck unfold, I would strongly urge you again to consider shutting down this blog. First, its a distraction. Second, its not going to make you money now or anytime in the foreseeable future (and in fact it looks like its costing you ~$50/month, money that you don’t have). Third, you’ve already made yourself a target for prosecutors by promoting your misdeeds so much; continued publicity is essentially a dare for authorities to go after you. Lastly, you continue to make some pretty self-incriminating statements about your past and present activities. Again, you’re just making yourself a bigger target.
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Lou Minatti
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:03 am
links from Technoratiparticularly depressing post today
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Josh
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:31 am
You say you had good credit, and you took out a TEN THOUSAND DOLLAR loan at TWENTY ONE PERCENT from CASHCALL?!
If you had good credit, couldn’t you have gotten a personal loan from a bank at a much lower rate? Or would they pull your credit report and see 6 mortgages on it?
For that matter, how did you end up getting each successive mortgage? Did the mortgage lenders not see the other loans upon review of your credit report?
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Ted
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:43 am
Darn , I have 700,000 put away and I rent. But thank you all dumb speculators out there for doubling our rent. I will enjoy watching you eat the big one.
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Mr. Flipper
November 22nd, 2006 at 5:12 am
Casey,
I should email this advice to you, but…
Immediately close the checking account with the auto-debit to CashCall. This is a dead end.
Open two or three new checking accounts at different (major) banks if possible.
You’ll need these as backups, and for credit repair, but after the bank reports losses to Chexsystems or whatever they’re called, you’ll be immediately locked out of opening a checking account at any major/recognized banking institution.
Also you might consider opening a saving account at a credit union, or two, and get a share withdrawel set up with checks. Having a savings and checking account improves/maintains any credit score — of course the length of time they’ve been open affects it, too.
Otherwise, again if you get caught up in the “Chex” system for riqocheted(sp?) checks/unpaid fees to Wells Fargo and such, you may not be able to open any checking account at a major bank for several years.
Right now, you might still be able to get a Visa Debit Card for each of these accounts for the time being, but it may be impossible in just a few weeks time.
You don’t have to keep very much money in these accounts to keep them active, but it’s very important you keep your options open for obvious reasons, if not for operational purposes for the forseeable future. But close that auto-debit account. Forget CashCall. They’re out.
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Bob
November 22nd, 2006 at 5:32 am
1) Instead of spending $6-7 bucks at subway, $8 at Chipotle and other places. THINK that is 2 weeks of ham/turkey sandwiches and cheese if you budget right.
2) FILE for BK now. Unless you become a mortgage loan professional in the next 3 months and start making $20,000 per month, you have no chance to get out of your debt fast. A friend of mine that had a BK several years ago now runs a successful business here in Sacto he bought with his wife. And I used to be his boss. You’re young and your credit will be back to decent in 5 years. BK will be there but it won’t stop you from buying a house. 100% correct!
3) Once this mess is over, save your money. You did too much, too fast. Time to start over, HAVE A PLAN, for life after all of this and through BK, this means including your wife in on the plans and perhaps see a counselor.
This advice is free, waiting to file BK will cost you more in the end.
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Ethical Realtor in DC
November 22nd, 2006 at 6:08 am
Yikes - you really don’t learn do you. You are tryign to make smart ddecisions on $1.70 Starbucks drinks but you bought a car at night with no inspection because “I was desperate, I like the rims and the stereo, so I bought it.” If you spent half as much time researching a multi-thousand $$ purchase as you do reading these comments, you could have saved yourself a whole lot of time and $$. The guy saw you coming. Next time, go to Car Max for one of their cars with 50,00+ miles - they can be great deals.
Next - look at the $132 in overdraft fees you racked up - ouch! Keep a track and stop spending because you are sliding backwards fast.
As a member of the financially healthy class, I’ll be the one wearing your stupidity as banks lose money and have to pass it on to customers and shareholdders in the form of lower returns. I resent you spending the way you do because at this rate, you’ll never pay your way out of the problem and we all will be paying for your stupidity. Stop spending hours on the blog each day and get a second or third job. When I was 24 and a financial journalist earning a pittance, I was a weekend bartender and waiter so I could afford to buy a car and keep it on the road. I never got into any debt aside from a car loan, and I paid that down very quickly by throwing extra $$ every time I had an extra shift of catering work.
You don’t have the luxury of letting your money issues get out of hand while you doodle away on this self-indulgent blog that probably doesn’t make you even minimum wage in terms of advertising revenue.
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Dinsdale
November 22nd, 2006 at 6:50 am
I think one of the reasons behind Casey’s continuing dithering and inability to come to the acceptance of the most rational course of action is his refusal to realize that the chance to fulfill the so-called American Dream by something akin to winning the lottery is largely a popular fable that serves the powers that be to keep the rabble in line to buy lottery tickets or to attend real estate flipping seminars.
The mass media writes its narrative using mostly the stories of the winners of the lottery, however the truth is that for each Google or Netscape or Microsoft or Intel of their time there have been a hundred of failed counterparts that you almost never hear about (except in The Onion). Meanwhile Casey here, still wanting to be the winner, has been living with the feeling of an addict that knows he needs to kick the habit but has a paralyzing premonition of the miserable life that is bound to last for a long time once the current situation blows over.
In any case, the most rational behavior would be to understand that the probability of a quick fix in this case is next to nothing and proceed to find a resolution that minimizes the adverse consequences. But then again, free advices are worth their price.
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aaron
November 22nd, 2006 at 7:03 am
Tim rest assured i am one of those that agrees with your views on darfur and the sudan. we are prolonging the inevitable. that area simply cannot sustain its population. let nature take its course. congrats on the early retirement. looks like you earned it.
Aaron
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john
November 22nd, 2006 at 7:07 am
For God’s sake - stop paying your credit card/line of credit bills……every time you do the interest and penalties just compound. Let them go to collection, at least the bleeding will stop, as balances, interest charges, and penalties are frozen from that point. Your credit score is already finished. If you really want to be honorable, you can then work out a payment plan or even agree to a settlement. Casey - you have been incredibly irresponsible, but no less irresponsible than the lenders who gave you this much credit to begin with. And believe me, these guys will let these debts compound at 30% as long as you let them - it just flows to their bottom line under “non-cash interest received” - what a joke. This whole mess is just one symptom of a society going downhill fast.
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Cow_tipping
November 22nd, 2006 at 7:22 am
That’s OK - I heard this guy on the radio (John Comuda I think his name is spelled) that transforms debt into wealth. Just give him a call. You’re not 140,000 in debt, you’re like 140,000 in wealth. Yea. Add in the houses that are left and 1.5 million you owe on them, will make you 1.5 million in wealth. Simple solution see. Now get out there and get that double espresso Venti macchiato and go get em tiger.
Cool.
Cow_tipping.
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John M
November 22nd, 2006 at 7:49 am
Thanks for the warning not to bank with Wells Fargo. I refuse to let a bank hold on to my money that would give $83,500 of it to fraud.
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Joey
November 22nd, 2006 at 8:34 am
Did you take the *little* yellow bus to school when you were younger?
I can’t believe you’re not mildly retarded, Casey. I’m not making fun of retarded people, you just keep making the same mistakes over and over.
You never learn.
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Daniel (Argentina)
November 22nd, 2006 at 9:00 am
Dear Friend,
thank for this wonderful blog. I spend dozen of hours reading it.
I’ll try to make (maybe) one of the best advises:
You should understan what is you role in this game. The RE market is down, it’s time for the Big Fish to start buying. Your role is to “be de jerk” as example for all jerks, hanged out in the public Plaza for everybody to see that it’s time for downmarket.
It’s true it’s downmarket now, and you are the prisoner jerk hangging in the public Plaza. If you understand this role in the media (your role), you’ll make a little of money.
This blog is your biggest Assets. Plus Confferences in which you’ll be hired, plus newspaper reports. Will bring you some money to get out of this mess, and come back to the game in two years before upmarket.
You should have understand now, that when everybody is speaking (a plumber man) about stocks, then the bubble is rocking. Moreover, in the upper side of the bubble, big fish make lots of money giving courses to “the idiots” that will buy their properties (their exit strategy).
I think you understood this game by now, for the pathetic posts you make, I think you understood what is your role in this Opera.
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Billy Bob
November 22nd, 2006 at 9:01 am
Casey,
Just wanted to take a moment and wish you a ‘Happy Thanksgiving’. Spend tomorrow with family. Don’t visit the website. Just spend time with those that you love. And take time to reflect on what you have to be thankful for. It may not seem like a lot at the moment. But it may be quite a bit more than you are aware of.
Happy Thanksgiving
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Robert Coté
November 22nd, 2006 at 9:11 am
I need to earn it or borrow it. Preferably earn it. Or, borrow it, leverage it the right way, and have money earn money.
I thought you were reading the comments. This won’t help you woke up this morning $2000 poorer. Just like yesterday and the day before. And no, you don’t get Thanksgiving off. Google is way up, $100 in one month. That’s about as close to a hail mary investment you can hope for. In that same month you lost about $40,000 so you’d have had to invest $160,000 in GOOG. See the problem yet?
If you spent just one minute reading this you’ve lost another 50 cents of my money. Stop digging before someone makes you stop because the latter is not going to be pleasant.
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Mike
November 22nd, 2006 at 9:13 am
OK, I’ve learned a lot about real estate from reading this blog, and I think I am now ready to go out and buy some properties and get rich. The only thing I don’t understand is how alpha particles are causing Casey to wind up in the red. Please explain.
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Jim
November 22nd, 2006 at 9:44 am
Just one more question for Tim… since you’re clearly a smart guy, why on earth are you posting on this blog so much?? Other than the obvious amusement we all share in watching Casey’s financial collapse…. I just can’t see the point of trying to help this guy. Every day that passes just reinforces the fact that Casey is beyond redemption (financially, at least).
And for Casey, allow me to offer the following for your consideration:
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.”
– Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, 1849
Or in your case, “Annual income $50k, annual expenditure $60k, result, temporary happiness through the miracle of consumer credit. Annual income $0, annual expenditure $2.2 million, result, misery.”
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Linda Proctor
November 22nd, 2006 at 9:45 am
Who are you kidding? You are bankrupt. Get a good bankruptcy lawyer now - rather than later. Consult with a criminal attorney. The system will bail your sorry ass out of your financial obligations, but I hope to god they get you for fraud and you spend a nice few years with a cellmate named Bubba.
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San Diego Renter
November 22nd, 2006 at 9:49 am
Tim —
Your story is just as much luck as any real estate flipper! There’s no way anyone else can follow your path. You couldn’t even do it again. You happened to be in the right place at the right time, and through no fault of your own managed to make a fortune. Good for you, but you’re still just another lottery winner. Suppose back in the seventies you’d been a little better at physics and had managed to land an academic job? Or if you’d gone to work for Zilog, or any of the dozen other chipmakers that ended up flaming out? You could have worked just as hard, and your discoveries could have been just as clever, and you’d still be a long way from retirement.
Oh, and, Casey? Have you talked to anyone about your bipolar disorder? Seriously, look into it…
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Jobu
November 22nd, 2006 at 9:51 am
Casey, sorry to be harsh here, but everytime you open your mouth, so to speak, you reveal why you are in this mess.
“Problem is that CashCall requires an auto-draft from somewhere. Short of just closing down the Wells Fargo account which I’ve had for 10 years, I don’t know what else I can do about it. Those guys are smart!
I borrowed $10,000 at 21% or something like that. ”
Yep, those guys are smart.
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Joey
November 22nd, 2006 at 9:52 am
Casey,
I know this blog is about you, but how did your in-laws take it when they found out your debts, and what their daughter’s facing?
I don’t want to know who your in-laws are, who your parents are, where they work or even where they live. I just want to know their reaction… if they even know.
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Mak
November 22nd, 2006 at 10:09 am
You probably have a future as a guru. Most of them come from backgrounds such as yours, they file bankruptcy, they absolutely refuse to get a job or earn money in any traditional way, and they try to figure out a way to use their con artist skills to scam and scheme a living off other people by selling their snake oil. Probably 1% of the saps they sell this garbage to “make it”, and that is random chance. The guru is the only one with any decent probability of getting rich.
So start writing your course, organizing your bootcamps and seminars, making your video tapes. All you need is stupid saps dumb enough to part with what little cash they have to get told what they want to hear. Apparently there are a lot out there.
Be sure to address your target audience, who are a bunch of losers with dead end jobs who look wistfully at people making more money than them and wonder “why not me?” They need to be told that:
a. education doesn’t matter, in fact it ruins people (this gets their hopes up)
b. it doesn’t matter your circumstances or the fact that you have no money or natural con skills
c. it works everywhere, it works as well in some backwater dump full of goobers like Macon as it would in Manhattan
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Fraud
November 22nd, 2006 at 10:12 am
Tim,
Thank you for posting common sense stuff and I agree with you 100%
I, like many others here started posting helpful suggestions and ideas for Casey. After a few months, I have noticed all of these people including myself, posting “negative” stuff.
Casey pulls out the worse in people because he cries Wolf and then goes about ignoring help and good advice.
Casey reminds me a LOT of immigrants who come to this country thinking that money is sitting on the sidewalks and all you have to do is pick it up - you see a lot of this in Casey’s mental state where he keeps looking for the “creative” edge or gifts or mentors that will magically get him out of trouble.
It’s not going in Tim. I do enjoy the commical way Casey goes about justifying things - for that, Casey has one creative mind which borders the real/unreal/frad/idiotic/honest realm which captures our attention.
It is entertaining :-)
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Lurker No More
November 22nd, 2006 at 10:41 am
First, I have to comment on buying the Jetta – I’m not surprised you got screwed in the transaction. You should have spent a little less time blogging and a little more time on cars.com researching and bought a nice used Honda or Toyota. Better yet, dump the car entirely and ride the bus.
And all of your purchases boggle my mind. Smoothies, lattes, Barnes and Noble, and Macaroni Grill? My husband and I are both young professionals whose take home pay is in the six figures and we still bring our coffee and lunches from home. And it shows when you look at our net worth. If you want to be rich, Casey, you need to learn how to practice financial restraint and responsibility. We all know that lying on mortgage applications and running up huge amounts of debt is stupid, but you don’t even have the basics down. You need to be shopping at the Grocery Outlet and going to the library, not buying gourmet coffees and dining at overpriced chain restaurants. You cannot afford and do not deserve a treat right now. Especially when buying that $3 latte means you get hit with a $33 overdraft fee. In fact, “treating” yourself is actually causing you more stress than it relieves. When you dig yourself out of this hole you got you and your wife into, you can then treat yourselves to a dinner out.
And I ditto the others who have said that you really need to get another job. I think that the presence on this blog by the poster named Tim brings up an important point. The true way to wealth is to leverage your interests and talents against a need in the market. It is pretty evident from the RE purchases you made that you may have an interest in real estate deals, but you have zero talent for it. As someone who has only bought two houses in my life, I could recognize instantly that the properties you bought were turkeys and would have difficulty being re-sold. Find a job that utilizes your actual talents (in computers, blogging, whatever).
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John
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:16 am
Good comment, Tim.
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sean-sisb
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:26 am
Notice how his pal who hired him has yet to pay him.
How long have you been working for this guy, casey?
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Jobu
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:35 am
The Tale of Two Caseys (apologies for the length):
IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.
Casey of Wisdom
Casey arises around 8 a.m., gets a cup of coffee and boots up his laptop. The coffee was brewed in his coffeemaker that he got from his in-laws for free when they bought a new Krups. He is drinking generic store brand coffee, which he purchased with a coupon for $2.99 a pound. The coupon was 50 cents off and was doubled by the store, making the coffee only $1.99 a pound. The pot costs him roughly 20 cents. Seeing many new posts on his blog, he sits down to read and contemplate them. The previous day, Casey had decided that ‘tomorrow is the day’ and had made an appointment to meet with a bankruptcy attorney. This attorney had been recommended to Casey by a trusted friend and had agreed to accept installment payments for his fees. His fees were not cheap but Casey had decided that this was an area where he needed expert help. The attorney had promised to map out a plan and Casey was now feeling much better, sensing that he had taken positive action.
Casey had about an hour before reporting for work so he wanted to work on the blog for just a few minutes. He was a little tired as he had gotten home late the previous night. His second job loading boxes on UPS trucks ended around 3 am. He was happy with this second job as it brought in more income to his household while at the same time, giving him exercise for free. He smiled his impish smile, thinking how he had killed two birds with one stone.
Casey writes a new blog entry, telling his many fans about the positive steps he has taken. After reading a few more comments, he goes to the kitchen to make his lunch. He has been brown bagging his lunch for a while at his primary job. Today was going to be tasty and healthy. Tuna on wheat with just a dab of mayo, a handful of chips taken from a Costco giant tub and tossed into a ziploc baggie, and a bottle of water, which was actually tap water in an empty Dasani bottle. He doesn’t mind that the chips are a little fattening as the night job at UPS has required him to beef up a little.
After making his lunch, he pours another cup of coffee. He still has a few minutes to catch his bus but he can’t be late as he has to make a few transfers to get to his programming job. He checks his wallet to make sure he has his bus pass and his library card, then sits down at the table and flips though his credit card statements. In the last week, he has called everyone of them and made efforts to settle his accounts. He spoke frankly with every creditor regarding his situation and his desire to pay something, anything, on his accounts. Most were amenable to working something out, rather than taking nothing in bankruptcy. As he looks through the statements, his wife emerges from the bedroom.
Casey: Good morning pumpkin.
Mrs. Casey: Good morning to you, Mr. Go Getter.
Casey: Coffee? It’s saving us $37.00 every time I pour a fresh cup.
Mrs. Casey: Pour me a Grande then.
Casey: How is your job going?
Mrs. Casey: Great. The extra income is really helping out and I’m having a much easier time studying for my new major now that some of the stress is gone from our lives.
Casey: I know what you mean. It feels so good to finally have plan instead just messing around all day, trying to find sweet real estate deals. Man how I hate that term. You know what they say. Honest work is it’s own reward. However, steady income is nice too.
Mrs. Casey: Jamba Juice is overrated anyways.
Casey: Honey, have I told you how glad I am that you stuck with me through this mess?
Mrs. Casey: There will never be enough times, you little nutcase, you (smiling). Aren’t you glad I ignored my family’s advice and stuck with you and got you to see that doctor? Now we are on the right track.
Casey: We sure are.
Mrs. Casey: (points to a stack of manuals and binders and books) It sure is good of you to put those in recycle bin.
Casey: Yes. I thought about burning them (waving his finger in the air) but that’s bad for the environment you know. No more real estate for me. No more guru’s, except good lawyers, doctors, and tax advisors.
Fade to black as we hear ‘The Sun Will Come Up Tomorrow’.
————————–
Casey of Foolishness
Casey stands in line at the local Starbucks, laptop tucked under his arm.
Casey: One Grande Mocha Frappy Latte, milk not too frothy, hazelnut flavoring, and leave room for extra creamer. Oh what the heck, give me a bottle of your best water too.
He pays with his debit card.
Casey: Hope this thing works. I’ve got no idea if I have any money (he laughs).
Casey sits down and boots up the laptop.
Casey: (to himself) Gotta blog, gotta blog, gotta blog.
His cell phone that he just bought at Best Buy rings. It’s got all the latest gadgets.
Casey: Yo, talk to me. Yea, jeez, what a piece of crap. Another 1500 for that lemon? Yea, okay, fix it, gotta have wheels. I’ll drop off the credit card later.
He hangs up. Glad my buddy will still loan me that Jeep, Casey thinks to himself. He dials his wife on the cell.
Casey: Hey baby, are you free for lunch?
Mrs. Casey: Sure pumpkin.
Casey: How about Macaroni Grill? We can do lunch there for less than $35, plus tip. The car will be fixed today and we need to celebrate
Mrs. Casey: What about the overdraft charges?
Casey: That’s just on paper, it’s not real money.
Mrs. Casey: Okay, I trust you baby.
He hangs up. Casey responds to a few of the haters who have posted on his blog. Don’t these people have lives, he thinks? He reads a few more. Rubbish. Crap. No good advice here at all. Daddio Serin knows how to get things rolling again. He dials a number.
Casey: Yo Chris, what’s happening? No, still at Starbucks. I’ll be there in about an hour. What? The database is down? No problem. An hour babe, I’ll have it humming again once I get there. Oh by the way, I need to take a little extra time at lunch today. I’ve gotta network with some amazing people who have some fantabulous ideas. Yea, cool. Later.
He hangs up and sips his Starbucks. Man that is some good $37.00 coffee, he thinks. The cell rings again. This guy is a player. Things are happening.
Casey: Hello. Hey dawg, what’s the 411? Yea, I’ve got time to talk. Nothing happening at the 9-5 job, if you can call it that (he laughs). I just took it to get the wife off my back and to spice up the blog.
He sips his coffee.
Casey: That is some kind of sweet deal. How much? 220k? Let’s move on it now. I think the market is turning. 100% financing with cash back. Do you think we can do a couple more of these this month? Flip city baybeeeeee (he high fives himself).
Loud Voice: Attention inside Starbucks.
The loud clatter of keyboards and endless mindless chatter becomes silence.
Casey: Got to go dawg, something is happening.
Loud Voice: The building is surrounded. Mr. Casey Serin, please put down the designer coffee and exit the building with your hands in the air.
Casey: What the f…..?
Everyone looks around.
Anonymous Girl: Hey that’s him. I’ve seen him on the internet. (She points).
Burly Guy: Hey punk, get out of our coffee joint. This place is for real investors.
Loud Voice: Come out now Serin. Don’t make us come in and get you.
Casey: They can’t be after me. I’m planning to pay back every dirty penny with my upcoming sweet real estate deals.
The crowd starts to chant.
Crowd: Rich Dad, Rich Dad, Rich Dad.
Starbucks Employee: We’re going to miss you Casey. Can I have your laptop?
Casey (in his Arnaud voice, which is a little too high pitched): Don’t worry, I’ll be back.
Employee: You’ll get through this Casey. Buck up little buckaroo.
Casey: As God is my witness, as God is my witness they’re not going to lick me. I’m going to live through this and when it’s all over, I’ll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again
Fade to black as Jailhouse Rock plays.
Which Casey would you rather be??????
(story copyright Jobu, 2006).
Tales of Two Cities excerpt by Charles Dickens.
Gone with the Wind excerpt by Margaret Mitchell.
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sean-sisb
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:50 am
I just read that Casey borrowed 10,000 at 21% interest. Holy crap.
http://news-info.wustl.edu/new.....l/570.html
Casey, read that article above, because it illustrates some of the errors in your thinking regarding investing. I also recommend that you read “trading for a living”. It was written by a psychiatrist who spends a few chapters describing how losers rationalize away their bad risk taking habits. The author then compares these people to alcoholics; that they only way you can get over bad risk taking behavior is to emulate a 12 step program.
Essentially, the major of those who gamble or speculate with over-optimizism have a “naive theory of the world”. Usually, people grow past this in adolescence, but many of us carry a naive theory of the world well until adulthood. People who engage in these cognitive errors tend to put more weight on evidence that supports their worldview, and less weight on contrary evidence.
As people have noticed on this website, you engage with your commentators over trivial personal attacks, but you practically ignore those who offer real advice based on years of experience. Instead of focusing on solutions to your problems, you have a naive view of the world that suggests that your problems will get better over time. You simply can’t admit to yourself that your personality and cognitive “schema” is what led you to this mess in the first place.
This is why you continued to borrow money to service your debt. It is why you borrowed money from your friend and the $10000 at a high interest rate. In your mental schema, you look at real estate investing like a gambler looks at a slot machine. All you need to do, in essence, is put a little more money into the machine and eventually you’ll “hit it big”.
I suspect the main reason why people fail at any investment scheme that involves speculation is because they do not have the self discipline to calculate their tolerance to risk and to “sell” when losses pass a certain threshold. The greatest investors are so disciplined that they know exactly how to minimize their losses by getting out of the market BEFORE they incur even greater losses.
Further, because of a naive theory of the world, most speculators of all risk levels tend to follow schemes that they believe will allow them “win”. Examples are martingale systems in roulette or “doubling up” when a stock goes down in price.
In fact, many people during the dotcom bubble implosion would buy MORE stocks as the stocks went down, essentially doubling up in their NAIVE belief that AT SOME POINT IN TIME the stocks must go back up. The majority of those people, instead of leaving the market after incurring some losses, refused to believe that their scheme is a loser’s scheme and they lost an incredible amount of money.
Other cognitive deficits include the slow-leak of money to purchase items that make themselves feel better for a short period of time. Whether these purchases are starbucks, jamba juice, a snappy new computer monitor, or a new pet for christ’s sake, these marginal expenses add up to large amounts in a short period of time. The cognitive schema has to change; the person has to believe that only discipline and an aesthetic self-denial of pleasures will slowly but surely bring them out of the hole that they’ve dug for themselves.
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Edwin
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:54 am
I was in tha same situation in the 80’s and 90’s, lost everything flipping houses but learned a lot from it. I was chasing my losses and stumbled on a gold mine in real estate. In the late 90’s I found out that Riverside County in California will revise their General Plan and got hold of the proposed map. I went and bought two farm lands (120 acres total). I did subdivide it to 360 single family lots, sold it to merchant builder in 2003 and made $15 million. Dont quit now man, dont loss your hope, failures and mistakes has its flip side and you are very lucky that it came first.
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Tim
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:55 am
“Just one more question for Tim… since you’re clearly a smart guy, why on earth are you posting on this blog so much?? Other than the obvious amusement we all share in watching Casey’s financial collapse…. I just can’t see the point of trying to help this guy. Every day that passes just reinforces the fact that Casey is beyond redemption (financially, at least).”
1. This story is compelling, at least as much so as nearly any Hollywood film or t.v. show. So spending some time reading–and then writing when something hits me so hard I have to respond!–is not much different than watching the boob tube.
2. I found this blog when the “SF Chronicle” ran their Sunday article in early October. I thought it might be a “lonelygirl” thing….for about an hour. Then I Googled “Casey Serin,” found the 1997 chain letter scam, checked on the real estate listings, and concluded that there was too much verifiable information for this to be a viral marketing scheme.
3. As for spending my time here, we all need entertainment, or, more importantly, a chance to discuss important issues and philosophies. Many of us see Casey as an exemplar of some Real Bad Trends ™. So does the press, which is why he’s had a bunch of articles written about his situation.
4. I agree with many here that Casey’s Story is now his only remaining asset (not counting the Oprah stuff about his marriage, his family, blah blah blah).
(This is also why I think the PRLINKBIZ “contract” is about some rights Casey assigned over to them in a contract. And it matters not whether PRLINKETC or No Limits Ladies plan to go ahead with a story, all that matters is that they have certain “blocking rights” which become a saleable asset if ANYONE ELSE tries to market the story of Casey. If this theory is true, which neither Casey nor PRLINKBIZ have disputed, then Casey was foolish to have signed away a chunk of his only real asset, his story.)
5. Lastly, I write because I wish to write. A month from now, I expect most of us will have moved on. But for now, this is the best show in town.
–Tim
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Casey Serin
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:57 am
@Joby: Wow… just WOW! You have talent! I saw myself a little bit in both sides of the story actually.
@sean-sisb: I’m not ignoring good advice, I consider it all. I don’t have time to respond to everybody though. Lot’s of advice is repeated because people think I’m not following it. Some stuff takes a while and people don’t see the process. There are many thing I already address in previous posts too. Some people come on early and haven’t caught up on the whole blog yet. So its all good. Thanks for your feedback. I like the article about gambling. I study personalities and I DO have a little bit of a gambler in me for sure.
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dimwit
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:58 am
LOL Jobu that was good. exagerated some perhaps but ill bet close to the truth than further from it.
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Ralph
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Casey,
You need a second job. May I suggest hiring on to UPS or FedEx as a package sorter for the holidays? You’ll typically work 7pm - 3am, get great exercise, and make a boatload. Good luck!
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BT98
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:08 pm
To Tim and Brain:
You guys are heros having retired or semi-retired in such early age. My questions to you are do you have kids, how many? do you plan to send them to college. Because just retire for myself and wife I can do it now, but I won’t because I plan to have 2-3 kids and send them to college.
Casey was pretty much retired at 22, but his retirement cut short by this stupid housing investment situation or so he says.
-BT
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Casey Serin
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:10 pm
A second job is gonna waste my time. The first job takes care of my basics at 3k/month. The rest of the time needs to be spend earning $100-1,000/hour through smart flips/wholesaling/investing. I’m not quitting on real estate. I WIL become successful. It’s very close. I can feel it. Plus HOW am I going to pay off $300,000 (unsecured + short sale losses) in debt with a UPS job? I don’t want to bankruptcy out of this mess. I want to repay all of it. That’s the right thing to do. I just need to focus and leverage my network and opportunities the right way. I am not going to be able to do this alone.
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Daniel (Argentina)
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:11 pm
San Diego Renter wrote:
“Tim — Your story is just as much luck as any real estate flipper! There’s no way anyone else can follow your path. You couldn’t even do it again. You happened to be in the right place at the right time… Suppose back in the seventies… (you wouldn’t be in the same place) … and you’d still be a long way from retirement”
No friend Renter, In my life I found that LUCK is a PROBABILISTIC phenomenon (not Random nor Deterministic). Good luck and bad luck happens all the time. It’s our behavior what -in the logt run- turn the luck balance in our favor or agains’t us.
This is to say: a man like Tim would retire between 32 years old to 40 years old, because his capabilities, posibilities and (most important) BEHAVIOR.
I know a few men that save 2/3 of their income. They earn like a succesful lawyer, and spend like a frugal highschool teacher. When one person save 2/3 of their income, they can even invest risky, because their possitive cashflow allows that. And in the long run, they’ll win.
One of them told me “I could be a teacher and still I would have lots of money”. His current net worth is about 4 middle class houses, he is 38 years old. ¿Was he lucky investing? No! he made one bad deal, and one good deal. Still this man is not a good investor… but he kick but saving money.
¿¿What can we say about Casey?? I personally think that Casey behaved like a bad gambler, undiscipline spender. But in the long run he has probabilities in his favor.
- Casey has chances to become his history into money.
- Casey has chances to return into the RE game in two years.
PS: sorry for my poor 500 words english.
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UncleC
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Casey, about the car, you should at least get an oil change if you are going to delay other repairs. Edmunds.com used car pricing shows you actually paid a fair price for a ‘98 Passat with 95k miles in “fair” condition. They show $3,600, so your $3,200 isn’t bad, but some of those repairs are really needed immediately. Good luck with that.
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Josh
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:14 pm
“The rest of the time needs to be spend earning $100-1,000/hour through smart flips/wholesaling/investing. I’m not quitting on real estate. I WIL become successful.”
Yeah, and I’ll win the lottery some day.
You’re completely delusional .
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aaron
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:25 pm
you ARE DELUSIONAL casey. seriously are you being for real or sarcastic when you say ‘I WIL become successful. It’s very close. I can feel it.’ ??
you sound like the crack addict or the guy at craps table begging for one more throw on someone’s elses money saying ‘come on i can feel it…the next one will be the motherload’.
if you think you can make 100 to $1,000 an hour flipping or doing deals….well i have some oceanfront property in Kansas. or maybe you mean you are now selling crack on the corner. I suppose you could make couple hundred an hour doing that.
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bobo_von_jojo
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:25 pm
Yes, that’s rich Casey. “I WIL become successful….I don’t want to bankruptcy out of this mess.”
I’m no expert but acceptance is the first step to recovery. You sound like a classic alcoholic. One more drink, and then I’ll stop.
“I am not going to be able to do this alone.” Refuses to take responsibility.
Also, at some point you are going to have to apologize for how your actions, your compulsive behavior, hurt those around you.
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Therese
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Casey,
It doesn’t matter if you’ve banked with WF for 10 days or 10 years. There’s no excuse for a bank charging $33 per overdraft, and their interest rates on savings are terrible.
Close the account and get a checking account with a local credit union before they call Chex. The fees might be as little as 1/3-1/2 of what you’re paying now. Then keep your new checking account clean and wait for the BK shakeout.
Good luck.
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Tim
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:47 pm
“Your story is just as much luck as any real estate flipper! There’s no way anyone else can follow your path. You couldn’t even do it again. You happened to be in the right place at the right time, and through no fault of your own managed to make a fortune. Good for you, but you’re still just another lottery winner.”
This is incorrect. Nearly everyone I knew professionally in the 1970s is a millionaire, many several times over. A few, hundreds of times over. And they worked for a variety of companies, including Intel, AMD, Cisco, Sun, Apple, SGI, etc. A bunch of them moved from failing companies (like the Zilog example you mention) to newer companies.
One friend of mine sold his crypto startup to Redhat. Another sold his data mining company to Yahoo. Yet another joined Google in the early years.
For the same reason most _doctors_ make a lot of money, those who deeply study engineering, physics, etc. tend to make a lot of money. Not necessarily their mid-30s, though many of the Internet startup folks made a lot by their mid-20s.
The mistake so many people make is “catching the wave too late.” They get into stocks just as Xerox and National Student Loan Marketing and Mohawk Data Sciences have already peaked, then spend the next 10 years telling everyone that the stock market is for suckers.
Or they get into real estate at the end of the 1977-79 real estate boom, then bemoan the collapsing home prices of 1980-83.
More recently, they start day trading and talking about JDS Uniphase and Qualcomm to their buddies at the gym, not knowing that they waited until the “gurus” told them that day trading was the ticket to wealth.
(Meanwhile, some of us bought Qualcomm very early, on the strength of knowing that CDMA was superior to TDMA and that Anthony Viterbi was a genius…then we sold out to the day traders who thought it would keep doubling and tripling, and eventually got margin calls which sent them back to their sandwich-making jobs.)
Given that nearly everyone I knew in the 70s and 80s who avoided speculative frenzies made out very well, I have no qualms about recommending deep learning over foolish attempts to catch the perfect wave.
–Tim
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NoVa Sideliner
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:49 pm
I’m not quitting on real estate. I WIL become successful. It’s very close. I can feel it.
No! You idiot! For those who think you have a gambling addiction, there it is, in black and white. “very close. I can feel it” just sums up the feeling a gambler gets, for no rational reason, that his luck is about to turn. His feelings, of course, have nothing at all to do with it, other than continuing to push him down the wretched path to destitution.
Some potentially useful contrary advice: Do NOT get a UPS night job. Why not? Not because it’s a waste of your time; in fact, anything that wastes your time on mindless tasks is probably better than letting you pursue your irrational dreams.
The main reason, though, is that when it comes to bankruptcy laws, you want to make sure you are in the lower half of income earners in your state; otherwise, you might be forced to follow a many-years-long process where your income is managed by the court/trustee.
Now if you remain in the lower income bracket for now, you have a far better chance at full-on Chapter 7 forgiveness. That should now be your immediate goal.
Once your debts are all wiped clean, THEN go get that UPS job. And perhaps save yourself a seat at Gamblers Anonymous because this impulsive, strike-it-rich attitude is just a disaster that will continue to visit you over and over if you don’t control it.
P.S. What on earth were you thinking when you bought a used VW. For God’s sake, man, don’t you ever talk to your friends about cars, or do your friend know no better either? Prepare to be eaten alive by maintenance costs.
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Chet Hummel
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Casey, I suggest you read Walden by H.D. Thoreau. It’s a pretty easy read. Shouldn’t take you more than an hour to absorb some EXTREMELY valuable insight into the human condition.
Since you are unaware/unwilling to use a public library, you can pick up a copy used on Amazon for about $2.
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JustMe
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:54 pm
ARGH. Just stop it! Casey, do you even read what you’re posting?
A second job is gonna waste my time. The first job takes care of my basics at 3k/month. The rest of the time needs to be spend earning $100-1,000/hour through smart flips/wholesaling/investing. I’m not quitting on real estate. I WIL become successful. It’s very close. I can feel it. Plus HOW am I going to pay off $300,000 (unsecured + short sale losses) in debt with a UPS job?”
If you even get paid this month, you don’t get 3K. Taxes, remember? You are in no way spending the rest of your time earning money. You ARE wasting time, you are posting on this blog, you are obsessively answering e-mails, you are bleeding money from your very pores.
“It’s very close - I can feel it” - You are no different than the pathetic folks who stand at the slot machines, feeding in quarter after quarter, hoping that just this once, they will hit it big. They think they are “investing” their $0.25 into a big payoff - making that money work for them. It rarely does.
There is no quick way out of this. Of course a UPS job isn’t going to magically erase $300 K worth of debt, but at least you can start paying back your friends.
Why am I even submitting this comment? It won’t make a bit of difference. Seriously, get yourself checked for mental illness - you need help, and fast.
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Another MultiMil
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Tim, shut the hell up. I have more than 40 million myself. A lot of it is luck. You sure got lucky. You didn’t employ people, build a company or anything. You took a job and got lucky on stock options.
So, don’t give anyone else any advice on anything. Maybe you could give some advice on basic physicsl but that is it.
One problem with people who get lucky and make money is they think they are an expert on everything.
You know nothing about real estate or investing. You know a lot about sitting on your duff because you’ve done it for 20 years. Go back to watching Oprah.. please.
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Frustrated
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:02 pm
Well Casey, I give up. You think that hard work is a waste of time. You actually believe that you are capable of making $100-$1000 an hour in real estate? Really? How’s that working out for ya so far?
Plenty of people have dug their way out of seemingly enormous amounts of debt by hard work, frugality, and discipline. Check out www.simpleliving.net if you don’t believe me.
I reiterate - you are on the path to misery, also known as “get-rich-quick”. I am utterly astounded that your wife is still around at this point, but it’s possible that she’s as deluded as you are. I’m not saying this to be mean - I’m saying this because you need a wake-up call. If I was there, I’d grab you by the shoulders and give you a good shake!
Try thinking of it this way - having savings gives you the freedom to take advantage of ACTUAL opportunities in the market, not imagined ones. For example, when I was 26, I had been saving money for five years for my first home. Then interest rates dropped to historical lows, and I was able to buy my first home in one of Canada’s most expensive housing markets before the prices shot up. That little townhouse has appreciated by $200K in four years, and it will be paid for free and clear in another seven years. If it hadn’t been for frugal living and socking money away, I wouldn’t have been able to strike when the iron was hot. Working a steady job and saving my money was clearly not a waste of time.
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Ralph
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:06 pm
You’re kidding me. You need to forget about real estate for the time being and, at the very least, get back to zero. With the current state of the market, I don’t understand why anyone would want to be in the real estate game. You won’t make $100-1000 dollars per hour. I don’t understand how you think you can stay in the real estate game with no capital, no credit, nothing.
Don’t poo-poo jobs like package handling. Around this time of year shipping companies are desperate for help. They pay very well. I worked at a shipping facility during the holidays all through college. What good would a job like this do? Well, you would be able to pay down your debt faster! Do you need us to draw you a picture? You even have the nerve to ask how you would pay off $300,000 in debt. One penny at a time.
And in response to UncleC…Casey bought a Jetta, not a Passat.
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fijirobe
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:13 pm
thanks Jobu, that was the funniest thing I have read all day, you just need to hae Mr Flipper stop in and offer him some more advice about “Deals on every corner, if you just look!!!!!”
Just sold all my Wells Fargo stock today,
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Tim
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:16 pm
“To Tim and Brain:
You guys are heros having retired or semi-retired in such early age. My questions to you are do you have kids, how many? do you plan to send them to college. Because just retire for myself and wife I can do it now, but I won’t because I plan to have 2-3 kids and send them to college.”
No kids. Not married. My last couple of girlfriends were more trouble than they were worth, mentally and emotionally and financially. And the cuter they are, especially as I get older, the more “high maintenance” they are. (In passing, I wonder if this contributed to Casey’s obviously spendy ways…today’s chicks just seem to want to spend, spend, spend, with hubby’s money.)
Putting kids through school is expensive. Here in most of California, public high schools are “gladiator academies,” filled with gangs, low standards, violence, and a “reading be fo’ whitey” anti-learning mentality. Three families near me with kids in school have them in private/parochial schools, at enormous cost (this despite the enormous property tax bill we face each year to pay for the public schools!).
College is no better. Costs have risen way beyond inflation, as more and more fluff is spread.
One of my friends for the past 30 years is paying $28K a year in tuition and something like $15K a year for room and board for his son, at a private college in Minnesota. (He pays because his wife filed for divorce, took him for a ride in alimony and child support and half the “community assets,” and doesn’t have enough earning power to pay these kinds of expenses….so my friend pays for it all.)
I hope you have a serious talk with your kids–a serious talk in the sense of thinking about Casey when you sit down to talk to them!–about the b.s. stuff most kids study in college these days. Most of the popular courses are b.s. fluff about “womyn’s studies” and “exploitation of lesbigays and other persons of color,” and all that blissninny stuff.
A large fraction of graduates of even formerly great university systems like the University of California end up working entry-level jobs at boring companies, or even as waitresses and waiters (”until the right job offer comes along”).
The junior colleges (”J.C.s” or “JuCos”) are worst of all. Here in California, most are essentially “13th grade” and “14th grade,” attempting to teach illiterate and innumerate kids what they should have learned in high school.
America is racing toward the edge of a cliff.
–Tim
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Jim
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:17 pm
@San Diego Renter: you obviously don’t understand how Silicon Valley works. Notice how most of Tim’s colleagues at Intel went on to found other ventures and some of those people netted huge sums of money in them? That’s not luck– its a combination of determination, risk-taking, intellect and education. There are thousands of people like Tim living here. Why do you think that almost the entire output of the best colleges in the country (if not the world) moves to Silicon Valley as soon as they graduate? (Hint: it ain’t for the weather). Why do you think Santa Clara county has more billionaires per capita than anywhere else on earth? SV is probably one of the last places on earth where a smart, determined, entrepreneurially-minded person can really ‘make it.’
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Robert Coté
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:19 pm
A second job is gonna waste my time. The first job takes care of my basics at 3k/month.
Your basics are $40k/mo.
The rest of the time needs to be spend earning $100-1,000/hour through smart flips/wholesaling/investing.
No. How many times no? All your flips are losing money. You’ve yet to see a penny birdogging/wholesaling. Investing implies cash to disburse.
I’m not quitting on real estate.
Your opinion is no better than number 10 or 12 on the list of those who determine whether you are allowed to remain in the real estate arena.
I WIL become successful. It’s very close. I can feel it.
Datum? Come on Casey. What single verifiable event of the last 6 months gives you a hint, a whiff, a peek that success is even on the horizon nevermind proximate?
Plus HOW am I going to pay off $300,000 (unsecured + short sale losses) in debt with a UPS job?
You aren’t looking at the big picture. A job means the people you stole from are going to be inclined to let you work off their claims rather than rot in the slammer.
I don’t want to bankruptcy out of this mess.
Your wants and desires were serviced with the cashbacks and other illegal nonequity manipulations last year. It is the desires or your lenders that drive the circumstances now. Bankruptcy is no longer your choice. September you had choices.
I want to repay all of it.
Sweet, maybe even admirable. Provided your dedication to this path doesn’t cause further harm.
That’s the right thing to do.
Who told you this? Certainly not any mentor. Certainly not anyone you owe. Who says this? Look, tying up a depreciating asset with no prospect of full restitution is not doing your lenders a favor.
I just need to focus and leverage my network and opportunities the right way.
There’s that “focus” issue again. Casey, I’m not qualifed nor inclined but many who are/were have pointed out that you are not focused and have suggested several possibilities requiring professional attention.
I am not going to be able to do this alone.
Huh? You’ve been going it alone all this time. You’ve refused every single earnest effort of outside help. You’ve gone so far as to actively pursue exotic offers to further exploit your situation.
Everything you need was in the first hundred replies near a hundred posts previous. $38 lattes? I won’t let my children pay $3.80 of their own money on that stuff. I do let them spend near $3 on such nonsense because of the educational content. They’ve learned and bought a coffee maker and beans enough for 100 cups for the cost of 5. At 16 and 13 they listen better than you do. How does it feel to be more financially inept than a couple of teenage girls?
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fijirobe
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:19 pm
A second job is gonna waste my time. The first job takes care of my basics at 3k/month. The rest of the time needs to be spend earning $100-1,000/hour through smart flips/wholesaling/investing. I’m not quitting on real estate. I WIL become successful. It’s very close. I can feel it. Plus HOW am I going to pay off $300,000 (unsecured + short sale losses) in debt with a UPS job? I don’t want to bankruptcy out of this mess. I want to repay all of it. That’s the right thing to do. I just need to focus and leverage my network and opportunities the right way. I am not going to be able to do this alone.
DID I JUST READ THIS WRITE!!!!!
CASEY, PLEASE TELL ME YOU ARE KIDDING ME!!!!
IT DOESNT MATTER THAT YOU DONT WANT TO GO BK, YOU DONT HAVE A CHOICE!!!!!!!
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Jason
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:22 pm
I’m tired of hearing everyones success stories on here. Guess what thats you!… SAVE SAVE SAVE… it all BS… You can’t take any of it to the grave, and I highly doubt you are SAVING enough to turn you family into a Vnaderbilt and so forth. Truth is Casey would be a very well off if he had done all of his DUE DILLIGENCE instead of most. Blame him all you want, but if the market had not declined and Casey estimated repairs and holding costs better he would be making 1000 per hour doing very little work. The good thing about real estate is is cyclical, menaing it’s going to boom again in a few years.
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CM SE
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:23 pm
“A second job is gonna waste my time. The first job takes care of my basics at 3k/month. The rest of the time needs to be spend earning $100-1,000/hour through smart flips/wholesaling/investing. I’m not quitting on real estate. I WIL become successful. It’s very close. I can feel it. ”
Dude. I cannot believe you have the temerity, or the audacity, to write this. You are completely and utterly beyond redemption. As a financially-responsible individual, I protest your contemptuous actions and insist you take SEVERAL jobs; it is not MY job to repay YOUR debts.
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hyperlexic
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Tim, quit bogarting the blog. Yes - we get it. You’re a Level 25 Wizard with 30 million hit points and infinite dexterity. But this blog is about watching our humble narrator–Casey ‘The Uzbeki Hammer’ Serin–drive his over-leveraged debt jet into the mountain of dashed hopes and dreams.
Casey - all white knuckles and poker face - is holding on to the stick while the great mountain is quickly appearing over the horizon. Will he be able to avoid colliding into the rocky giant and having his financial body ripped to shreds across the rocky terrain? Or will our hero — in a move of tremendous agility and quick wit — terrificly outsmart the and out-maneuver the Goliath?
I - for one - am at the edge of the my proverbial seat in anticipation.
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Blah
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:35 pm
FYI, I’m sure most people are here because of Casey, and they don’t really care about some guy named Tim who won’t shut the hell up.
No one cares how much you’ve made in real estate, or stocks, or how much you have in the bank. This is about Casey.
If you want to start your own blog somewhere, and link it with your name, fine. Just remember that most people don’t find you half as interesting as you think you are.
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CaseyFan#1
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:43 pm
Looks like Casey is in one of his manic phases.
I hope he is still posting in his down phase.
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aaron
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:43 pm
tim,
although i agree with you mostly….i dont agree about the college bit. perhaps on the west(left) coast that’s what colleges are about(although i think they have some decent curriculums at some universities). I went to Va Tech. not the best school for sure. but pretty damn good in my eyes. A top 40 engineering program, excellent architect program, good business school, etc). Not big on the liberal arts(the stuff you mention in your post). IF i have kids they won’t be going to Berk. or any other similar school that cost 40k a year and teaches d*CK. if they want to go that route they can fork it out of their pockets.
I will agree our country is in for a steep learning curve in the next few years as the consequences of our societiy’s spend what you don’t have mentality catches up. we peaked as a society in terms of standard of living(materialistically speaking). china, india and a few others will start leveling the playing field and sucking up more natural resources. just wait to see what things cost in a few years when increased demand hits us in the pocket book.
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BT98
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:46 pm
Reading between the lines, here is the translation
“A second job is gonna waste my time.”
– what how dare you tell me to work like a dog. I stopped working at 22 and not about to start now.
The first job takes care of my basics at 3k/month.
– this is to buy me burritos/coffe/juice
The rest of the time needs to be spend earning $100-1,000/hour through smart flips/wholesaling/investing.
– I wanna be like RK without lifting a finger
I’m not quitting on real estate.
– my scam is working, you suckers keep coming back.
I WIL become successful. It’s very close. I can feel it.
– yeah the same feeling I has at a rollete table in Las Vegas
Plus HOW am I going to pay off $300,000 (unsecured + short sale losses) in debt with a UPS job?
– UPS job is beneath me. Don’t mention it again. Do I look like a guy will work for less $100 a hour?
I don’t want to bankruptcy out of this mess.
– I am not really in bankruptcy mess. I am just stage it to look like it. I need to play this out as long as I could. How can I bankrupt now. You guy will be gone tomorrow.
I want to repay all of it. That’s the right thing to do.
– I really don’t have any fake debt to repay.
I just need to focus and leverage my network and opportunities the right way.
– you guys are my real money maker and I have to play it more real. Some of you are not easy to fool.
I am not going to be able to do this alone.
– Damn right, I need more suckers to visit my site. I can’t write all the interesting stuff by myself
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Me
November 22nd, 2006 at 1:57 pm
Well, Borat’s not going to help you, you can be assured of that.
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Tim
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:12 pm
So many astute comments here, apparently being wasted on Casey. So sad, but so illuminating.
Robert Cote (sorry for lack of cedilla or whatever over the e) writes:
(quoting Casey)
“A second job is gonna waste my time. The first job takes care of my basics at 3k/month.
Your basics are $40k/mo.”
Exactly so. About $20K in high interest rate loan minimum payments, another $20K or so in falling property values. Perhaps he can get by just be servicing the debt.
Casey seems to think the difference between his “basics” of $3K/month and the overall monthly costs is just something that gets added to his overall debt. Nope. That $20K is what lenders are charging for the vig on the loans, essentially, the minimum that will service the loan. Just like an interest only mortgage payment, except multiplied by 4 or 5, as in Casey’s case, plus the CC debt.
A couple more months of not servicing this $20K debt and various automatic methods will kick in.
“No. How many times no? All your flips are losing money. You’ve yet to see a penny birdogging/wholesaling. Investing implies cash to disburse.”
He overpaid for all of these properties, from what I can see.
In at least some of the cases, he paid more than the inflated appraised value, got money back “in cash back from the seller,” then spent the cash back, and so now is carrying a debt greater than the value of the house even at the time he bought it….even before the big price declines.
He’s underwater, with a negative net worth of about $400K (as near as I can figure it). And he doesn’t have any particular skill in buy properties and then reselling them for a profit.
So, how does he make a $400K “sweet deal” in a declining market, with few skills, and with no cash to take advantage of opportunities that may come up?
Finder’s fees from “Rich Dad” or “Savvy Chris” are not going to get him out of this hole.
And the hole is getting $20-40K deeper each month, with the machinery of foreclosure and action by the CC companies not very far off.
Meanwhile, Casey seems to think that earning his “basics” of $3K a month will let him make more “sweet deals.”
I hope some Hollywood scriptwriter is taking notes.
–Tim
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hyperlexic
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:15 pm
hey casey, why not implement some kind of forum (phpbb). that will enable real-time discussion between your little ants here. holy pageviews! refresh - refresh - refresh
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hammawi
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:17 pm
Hello,
First, as soon as your wife finishes her semester/quarter in school, she needs to find a job. She is being as irresponsible as you are by not contributing. You are both responsible for the debts and paying them back. Marriage is supposed to be a partnership. If your wife allowed you to get this deep, then she is just as complicit as you are.
I will admit my income, what it really is. My wife and I, she works and I stay home with the kids, make approximately $26,000 from her job and about $8,000 per year in dividends.
So, on $2,700 per month, we live quite comfortably. We own our own home, on 80 acres in Wyoming. She inherited the home from her parents along with her siblings. We feed and cloth ourselves and our children every month, pay electricity, propane, two cell phones, DirectTV, satellite internet, garbage, water, auto insurance, gas for the cars (1982 Toyota Wagon, 1988 Chevy Camaro). We can afford to eat out a couple times a week. We also save about 10% of our income.
My advice to you and your wife, is to move out of Sacramento, to a place with a lower cost of living. I was born and raised in Sacramento and went to school in one of the worst school districts there, Washington Unified School District in West Sacramento. But from there, I went to college at UC Berkeley and graduated with a degreee in Economics. I graduated in 1995 which was before what became the Internet we know now. Most of my friends dropped out of college, they were CS majors, and went to work for all sorts of companies in the Bay Area. They made tons of money and are still making it now, but they chose that lifestyle. I chose to live within my means and still lead a happy life.
I have stayed away from credit cards after some mistakes in college, and the only debt that I have ever had in life was a car I bought in college and my student loans, which are paid off. I dont care what my FICO score is or if my credit is good or bad. I live with cash. If I dont have it, I dont buy it. I do not borrow from people, thats the fastest way to not have friends or family.
These are things that you should have learned while in college, which I dont see that you went to college. Do you really need college or a degree to get ahead in this life? No. But it helps to live independently before you decide to marry and go out in the world. You skipped that section. It seems like you went straight to getting married and your get rich quick scheme.
I enjoy the good life too. It just takes me longer than most to do some things. I save my money and do Las Vegas or Carmel and San Francisco, which are my favorite places in the world besides Wyoming. I enjoy Chez Panisse in Berkeley or staying at the Highlands Inn in Carmel once a year. They take my money if I am a millionaire or make $30,000 a year.
I hope you learn your lessons from all the mistakes you made and continue to make.
*
Free advice
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:23 pm
Casey:
Pretend for a moment that the $400K to $500K debt you have is owed to me.
Your desire to pay me off is noble, but as time goes on, largely irrelevant.
Don’t you feel a moral obligation to ask ME, your creditor what *I* want you to do about your debt? Don’t you have an inkling that *I* may have my OWN view on what you need to do now?
I may never see most of this money again, but what *I* want is for you to stop adding to your debt. If you’re borrowing from other people than me (such as CashCall), that means there’s less for me to lay my hands on.
I want you to get a real job that pays real wages. A second job would be nice, but I would prefer that you take on freelance PHP/Web projects that would probably pay better.
And your wife will get a job. If she wants to go to school at night instead of getting a second job, that’s okay with me.
I want you to put every dime you make into *my* hands and I’ll give you an allowance. I won’t be Dickensian about it, but it ain’t gonna allow for much in the way of luxuries.
And *I’m* going to be making all the decisions on how your properties are sold.
I’ll assume that you’re sincere in wanting to pay off all of your debts. What we disagree about is *how* you’re going to do it.
I suppose we could vote on it. You vote on doing it your way and I’ll vote doing it my way.
But if I’m your creditor, at this point, morally and ethically, *my* vote counts more than yours.
Now, in the practical world, you have many creditors, each with their own view, and they legally can’t dictate terms as I have above. And that’s what bankruptcy courts are for.
But in the ethical and moral realm, don’t you see that you have no right be in charge anymore?
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dumbererer and dumberereest
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:38 pm
WOW TIM IS A REAL MAN GURU…
IM SURE HE IS ON TO SOMETHING…
THIS SCENARIO HE DESCRIBES HAPPENS IN NYC EVERY DAY…
CASEY IS NOT EXPLAINING THE WIFE SIDE!
im sure all his ‘cash at closing’
30K FLIPS, etc etc etc…
went to bankroll his wife’s spending & living large habits…
sorry its a very eastern eurpean thing…
casey never posts pictures of his wife or any unstaged photos because im sure they are full of prada & gucci logos…
casey thought that jetta with the pimp speakers in the trunk and the fancy racing tires was a deal!! hahaa
the only reason people place speakers like that in cars is not because they appreciate the fine sounds of mozart,
they want to be obnoxious and blast music and show off…
CASEY SHOW US YOUR LAST CAR?!?!?
i bet it was some ghetto nasty&flashy fast&furious wannabe
CASEY, BE HONEST break some things down further…
explain your full warddrobe, your cleaning costs.
do you have an ipod, when did you buy it and for how much?
why did you replace that other perfectly working ipod,
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speechless
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:44 pm
• We all get it, people. You’re smart, Casey is stupid. You don’t need to post details of how smug you feel when looking at your finances next to Casey’s. Beating a deficit of $600,000 is no achievement.
• Casey, I can’t believe that your wife didn’t know or doesn’t know all the details of your financial gambling. Don’t you discuss any acquisition, however small? Like the purchase of a new pooper scooper for the dog?
• That inlaws post wasn’t all that impressive. Whoever wrote it, is not a writer, doesn’t know proper grammar, spelling or punctuation. It wasn’t even all that creative, given that it matched what we know of Casey and didn’t give us any insight into his “personality” — just more stories of gambling with money.
• I am concerned that Casey is now talking via email, as he indicated, to various people about how to get out of his mess. Are “sweet deals” being offered? Will he inform his wife this time? Or will he tell her only after having signed a contract, so that she can advise him against it, and he can then break it?
• Casey, you don’t understand that there is no reliable way to make $100 – 1,000 an hour in your spare time. Your best bet to get that kind of rate would be to get yourself invited on the Oprah or Letterman shows and promote your speaker from there. Charge an extra fee for members of the audience to verbally abuse you on live TV. Throwing rotten tomatoes or eggs requires a prior written application and a deposit of at least $10,000 in cash to your account.
• I am not sure why I care. Quite possibly, I don’t have a life. Probably like many posters and Casey himself, I have a job that requires me to sit at a computer all day and structure my own time. For now, this is better than watching Borat clips on Youtube or reading the celebrity headlines.
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hammawi
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Hello,
To Aaron, UC Berkeley doesnt cost $40,000 a year to attend, that would be Stanford. I went to Berkeley from 1991-1995 and paid $12,000 a year tops for tuition, books, and living expenses, including rent. Berkeley is the best public university in the US and that means its the best in the world. Employers know that graduates from Berkeley are good prospects, because we actually have to work for our grades. In a school where every student was their high school valedictorian its tough to compete.
Casey, File Chapter 7 bankruptcy. You do not make enough to file Chapter 13, because of the size of your debts. If you had a job that paid well and could pay off the debts in 3-5 years, then I would advise Chapter 13. Its admirable that you want to pay off your debt, but at this point its not smart.
I worked for a bankruptcy attorney while in college for two years, and I saw the most corrupt stuff.
When you gamble, and this RE flipping scheme is gambling, only gamble when you can afford to lose. If you are gambling your grocery money or the rent money, you can not afford to lose, but you will likely lose. The only ones who win are the casinos, and in your case, the banks. All the fees they make from originating mortgages and then flipping them to someone else, then they make more money by servicing the mortgage.
No one doing something legally makes $1,000 an hour and not many 24 year olds make $100 dollars an hour. Declare bankruptcy, which gets rid of all your debt, try to save your marriage, and enroll in school. I dont know which high school you went to in Sacramento, but hopefully you did well. Go to Sac City and transfer after two years to UC Berkeley, thats my advice. In the meantime, get a taste of the real world. Eat some beans and rice and try to enjoy life. Bless god that there is no draft anymore and you are not being sent to Iraq to come home in a body bag.
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omarnyc
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Housing Bubble SMACKDOWN!
http://rense.com/general74/smack.htm
HOUSE FLIPPED..great story, real flipper!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....00178.html
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Casey Serin
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:51 pm
I put the last $300 cash I had on me into the bank last night hoping to stop the OverDraft bleeding. BUT THEY CHARGED ME AGAIN!! 3 Times!!
[Bank account image removed by wife’s demand]
Guys, I’m seriously out of cash. I spend the entire $5K i got from the insurance company and all our credit cards are maxed out. I’ve already borrowed a bunch of money from friends and relatives and I don’t want to go there again.
I have two options… I’ll check with my wife to see if there is ANY room left on her credit cards for a small cash advance. There maybe like $50 on one, $20 on another, maybe I can scrape it up to bring my account to $0.
Or I can try to get a hold of Chris who I work for (he’s on vacation seeing family right now) and see if he can give me an advance on my salary.
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Kiyosaki Is A Fraud
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:00 pm
So Casey my friend, with regards to you saying you have no money:
How much does it COST to sustain this blog and server? Hosting this blog with such good bandwidth must cost a pretty penny :-)
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wieners and loosers
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:02 pm
the inlaws…
Wow, that was truly impressive. The attention to detail was amazing. It should go in the hall of fame comments section.
Casey-
Don’t make people register in order to comment. The amount of comments will plummet. Same thing as far as deleting negative comments. Most of us are internet rubberneckers so we’re here for the entertainment value, not to learn anything. Besides, the negative comments are the only ones that are ever funny.
I have to admit though, I have learned a thing or two from this site. Some important things about real estate, bankruptcy, Volkswagens, Jamba Juice, exercise balls, and of course, alpha particles. And I’m normally one of the negative commentors, and will continue to be, but I can even see a little bit of myself in Casey’s story. (luckily a very very very little bit, praise Jeebus.)
Anyway, Casey, let me use the helpful advice in these comments to propose a workable solution for you. Simply encase your properties in a plastic resin to contain the alpha particles and make them more saleable. Then market them to AT&T as a short sale with a proviso in the contract that your debt forgiveness be paid entirely in Jamba Juice so as to avoid capital gains taxes by the IRS.
See, there’s no problem the internet can’t solve when we work together as a team. GO TEAM CASEY!!
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Jim
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Casey’s out of cash? I have the solution:
Every day when I get off the 101 freeway on my way back from work (just before you turn left onto Van Ness), there’s a guy with a handwritten cardboard sign that says “God bless, anything helps.” Its either a younger Jesus-looking guy with long hair and blue eyes, or a really old, scruffy white-haired homeless dude. I guess they own that corner since they’re there every day and no one else panhandles on that corner. But, Casey, YOU COULD GET YOUR OWN PIECE OF PRIME SF REAL ESTATE!! Not 1 block further down Van Ness is another intersection… and as far as I can tell, its wide open.
So, get your hand-lettered sign ready and get on down to the Tenderloin, and you too can start EARNING CASH RIGHT NOW.
Seriously. Try it. Those guys look like they’ve been “working” there for years…
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Damn_the_torpedos
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:13 pm
Casey,
You’re the embodiment of the very definition of insanity: to continue to do the same thing over and over while expecting different results. But as I’ve said before, you’re in good company. Our idiot president with his foreign policy is another such embodiment, on a much larger scale.
The rest of us, unfortunately, end up paying for both your insanity and his.
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speechless
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:14 pm
“I have two options…”
Uh… Casey? Each of these will last, like, a minute? How about a third option:
BK. BK. BK.
Casey, Casey. I’ve decided that you fulfill some unmet needs in your large audience, because you’re such a helpless, clueless waif. You fulfill older sibling instincts in some (those who want to beat you up for your stupidity), and parental take-charge instincts in others (who want to tousle your frosted hair and give you stern advice). For that, we thank you.
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mp_man
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Casey,
Stop spending money from your checking account and make the account slightly positive. Since you have no overdraft protection because your attached credit line has a limit of $0, probably every little transaction is getting a $33 overdraft charge. This is trivial in the overall scheme of things, but I suspect that is what’s going on.
Then, get thee to a bankruptcy attorney (preferably one with a CPA) as soon as possible. Once you file bankruptcy, make a note to yourself (with help from the attorney) regarding the debts that have been destroyed, and then commit to yourself to pay those debts back. Same goes for the difference between the debt owed and the foreclosed amount in Texas, and soon to be foreclosed numbers on the other four properties.
Good luck.
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Mama Mia
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:28 pm
“I’m not quitting on real estate. I WIL become successful. It’s very close. I can feel it.”
ARRRGHH. (Mama Mia bangs head on keyboard.) Those words make Mama Mia’s eyes bleed.
“I’ll check with my wife to see if there is ANY room left on her credit cards for a small cash advance.” “Maybe I can scrape it up to bring my account to $0.”
Kid you aren’t going to learn until you truly hit rock bottom are you? More loans aren’t going to save you.
I agree with hyperlexic, Tim is bogarting. Everybody please focus on the real task at hand, bashing on Casey.
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DC Troll
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Okay, no jokes with this post.
The three overdraft fees on 11/21 are probably for the three purchases you made on 11/20. The two overdraft fees on 11/20 would be for the two purchases made on 11/17. Your deposit last night did not get credited until today, and even if it had been credited last night it would be too late to avoid the overdraft fees on 11/21 because they were for overdrafts on 11/17.
Yes, banks lag on this stuff.
My recommendations are twofold:
1) Call your bank and see if you can get some of those overdraft fees cancelled, perhaps by paying a single $33 fee for the three purchases on 11/17 rather than three fees. Of course, you need them to cancel more than just those two fees, like doing this every time there was more than one fee per day for the last few weeks. Make noises about possibly cancelling the account, they’d probably hate to lose someone who gives them so much fee income.
2) Cut up the #%& debit card and start paying cash. Get receipts for everything. The down side is that you will have to start tracking your own expenses to see where the money goes, which I realize is not a strong point for you. But it beats paying $39 for a latte.
As for the other financial issues, there is a wealth of good advice from other posters already, but the best may be to take whatever little cash you have and see a BK attorney and a lawyer who understands mortgage fraud. You want to dispose of those houses in the way that is least likely to land you in court, whether that is Deed-In-Lieu or short sale.
It has been implied you attend church regularly, is there anyone who could point you to someone who could help for free / reduced cost? Caveat Emptor, of course.
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standallamazed
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:38 pm
Jason says:
“I’m tired of hearing everyones success stories on here. Guess what thats you!… SAVE SAVE SAVE… it all BS… You can’t take any of it to the grave, and I highly doubt you are SAVING enough to turn you family into a Vnaderbilt and so forth. Truth is Casey would be a very well off if he had done all of his DUE DILLIGENCE instead of most. Blame him all you want, but if the market had not declined and Casey estimated repairs and holding costs better he would be making 1000 per hour doing very little work.”
Thank you Jason for being the one person on this blog that is more of a foll than Casey. You are telling the rest of us that saving is bullshit, all the while trying to scrape together enough money from INVESTORS ( those who have saved money) so that you can bring the seed money of your stupid little company above the $1000 you and your two loser friends have. Reading your website and your hilarious business plan was the funniest thing I have read all week.
You are not a full service real estate company, you have no money to invest or purcahse any homes and your business plan which is built on getting “bird-doggers” to find your deals as independent contractors, is hilarious. Let me know when your financial empire of a company purchases its first house by March of 2007,,,until then STFU and take down the link to your embaressing company website.
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Me
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Well, I give you some credit, Casey. Like many others, I thought you were after the book deal or blog ads, but when I saw the comment about “building my network”, I changed my mind.
It’s still pretty risky, though, but I’ve been contemplating a similar scheme for meeting women, i.e. an internet-related deal linking with waiters and waitresses who would put me contact in a maximum # of women for a certain price.
So I can definitely see where you’re going, what you’re trying to do. I think you will fail, the odds are high against you, but not impossible.
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JustMe
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:44 pm
Casey, they charged you 3 more overdraft fees because you used your debit card three more times on the 21st. OK, you used it twice, but the Jamba Juice charge on the 9th didn’t go through until yesterday. So three charges. That $300 cash deposit won’t be credited on your account until the close of business today. If you haven’t used the debit card today, that should solve the problem for now.
Asking for a cash advance from your “employer” is probably a good idea. Also, seriously, GET A PART TIME JOB. It’s the holiday season, every retailer is hiring. This will give you some extra cash flow, and help you get your head above water.
You’re on the computer all the time anyway - if you can’t let go of the debit card and move to using cash, at least obsessively check your accounts so you know when you’re low on funds. There is no good reason why you should be getting nailed with overdraft charges 3 times/day for 3 days! Pay some attention!
Baby steps.
(and I can’t believe I am still wasting my time with this blog)
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Casey is a Moron
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:47 pm
Casey should change his URL to:
“www.thehumancarwreck.com”
What a messed-up, demolished, twisted-metal waste of a human life.
Any yet, you the reader, can’t help but to stop and look.
Can you?
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Casey Serin
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:48 pm
Sorry guys… just had a big argument with wife….
She refuses to have our bank account screen shot displayed online. I told her that I removed the senstivie account numbers from the entries but that didn’t fly.
Basically she’s upset that I didn’t talk to her about this first before displaying private information online. I told her that this is the nature of this blog - to document everything in detail - all the gory details and all. But that didn’t fly too well either because she thinks I’m stepping over the line.
I agree with her that I should have talked to her first before display bank account screen shots. And she is right - this is a joint account and she has a right to want to stay private.
So it’s my fault for not clearing this up with her first. I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal. I took down the images for now. Will try to renegotiate with her later, after things calm down a bit.
This blog is really starting to affect our marriage because our personality are so different. My desire for self-expression and sharing with the world is clashing with her desire to stay safe and private.
Oh, and I checked with her, apparently ALL her credit cards are maxed out too. That sux! I’m gonna try to get a hold of Chris to see if he can find a local Wells Fargo and deposit some cash real quick. I will also try to go to my local branch and figure something out and maybe put a freeze on the account for now.
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Voice of Reason
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:52 pm
The last transaction I see on your account is your $300 deposit. The 3 new overdraft penalities were charged the day before your deposit.
BTW, can you post a daily snapshot of this account, and perhaps other active accounts to give us a better picture of your activities, at least in the credit/checking/savings area? You’re already keeping us posted on the properties.
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standallamazed
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Casey,
You can’t be out of money, its impossible. There are still at leasst 3 hours left in the west coast work day,,, that has to be good for at least $300-$3000 in deals just by the end of the day.
Go check out Jasons website and business plan, it looks like he and his operation are going to be pulling in the huge money once they can raise more than $1000 in capital for all their sweet deals. Jason has Uncle Rico and Kip out selling plastic tupperware on the eastside and they are right on target of making their first real estate accuisition by March of 2007. At his range of $100-$1000 an hour, the three man empire is expected to flip that baby for around a $450,000 - $4,500,000 profit..
You probably haven’t made it down the list to his email offer of getting you on board.
Its a good thing you turned down being just over broke like the rest of the losers/loosers on here.
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Ethical Realtor in DC
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Nice one Jobu.
But Casey, Casey, Casey. As an immigrant who is a self made millionaire+ and sitting pretty, I can tell you that you are deluding yourself. Read a good book for a change - “The Millionaire Mind” - and read about how real millionaires make their money. They are not adreneline addicts who are stupid enough to not see Carlton Sheets and the like are crooks selling ridiculous ideas and profiting from your desire to take the easy way out. You say: “A second job is gonna waste my time. The first job takes care of my basics at 3k/month. The rest of the time needs to be spend earning $100-1,000/hour through smart flips/wholesaling/investing.” Smart flips don’t happen in a market that is falling as fast as this one is. You are the person who has made the dumb moves that others will profit from. In the long run, perhaps you’ll be on the other side of the fence, but you are the hunted, not the hunter.
Here’s how I made $1m+ in a relatively short time (not overnight). I bought a few 3-4 unit buildings that were cashflow positive from day one (today the cap rates don’t offer the same opportunities - another reason why it is a bad time to be buying real estate), lived in the smallest/cheapest unit myself and did renovations to maximize rents, bought each one as owner occupied and refi’d once the income was increased so I had 5% to put down on the next multiunit. I always bought 4 units or less so I can get non-commercial loans. Never lied on a single loan app. as the income from each rental negated all my debt when they ran debt/equity ratios. I bought about one a year for a few years. I held a very full time job that was not in real estate and did all of this in my spare time. I just sold the last of the buildings the other day and have a nice little $750,000 equity from that property alone to do a 1031 exchange with. I’m fortunate that I can put it in a hands off RE investment that will pay a not stunning cap rate of 6.25% and 6.5% cash on cash income - which will be a nice way of funding my SEP-IRA and paying for a few rather fun habits that I can afford while still putting cash where I need it for my bold old age.
People like me get rich cleaning up the mistakes made by people like you.
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Jason
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:57 pm
Whoa standallamazed,
I sure did get you rattled didn’t I? Wow and to think it was that easy.
Obvious you don’t know much about real estate investing because any part time wannabe knows you don’t need any money to buy homes.. Just ask Casey.
I’m not going to get into a pissing match with you because we need to focus on helping Casey out.
Thanks for visiting my site!
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Daniel (foreign)
November 22nd, 2006 at 3:59 pm
Hey fellow I propose a crazy idea. What if Casey enable a place here were we can talk her. Come on! what do you think?
it would be good. Most of us will wonder why didn’t she life Casey. Others may ask her to hold.
Come on Casey, ask her if she leave us speak.
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Fraud
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:00 pm
Casey my friend, with regards to you saying you have no money -
How much does it COST to sustain this blog and server? Hosting this blog with such good bandwidth must cost a pretty penny :-)
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Casey Haiku
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:04 pm
It is very close.
I WIL become successful.
I can feel it now.
copyright Casey Serin 2006
What was I thinking?
I was lost in la-la land.
I am so hungry.
copyright Casey Serin 2007
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Rick
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:06 pm
[quote]This blog is really starting to affect our marriage because our personality are so different. My desire for self-expression and sharing with the world is clashing with her desire to stay safe and private.[/quote]
You think it’s the blog that is putting a strain on your relationship with your wife?
You are truly delusional.
Maybe, just maybe it has something to do with the following:
1. You have obliterated both of you financially for more than likely the rest of your lives.
2. You have destroyed her career.
3. You are about to experience life on the street first hand.
4. You are a bi-polar manic deppressive with delusions of grandeur.
5. All of the above.
Your wife obviously has self esteem issues, there is no other excuse for why she would be dealing with you outside of divorce court at this point.
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dumbererer and dumberereest
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:20 pm
YOU WIFE IS BEING SILLY AND YOUR NOT SEEING THE TRUTH!
she is embarrased and is using the ‘you didnt check with me before posting her private information’ excuse
it happens all the time with all you facingforclosure bloggers…
your whole life story (& hers since your married)
is all about having your dirty laundry aired…
isnt that the point.
frankly i see DIVORCE soon,
CASEY, i know your head in the clouds ladidah love doesnt see it coming…
lets say for example since your living with your inlaws, your wife & inlaws kick your ass to the curb?
then what?
will rich dad’s som offer you a couch?
did you already look online and decide that VW’s are the most confortable for the carsleeping homeless?
CASEY! CASEY, CASEY!!!!
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San Diego Renter
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:26 pm
I know all about how Silicon Valley works — I got a PhD in a computer-related field from Stanford in the 90’s. A few of my classmates went on to found successful companies and are insane wealthy, deservedly so. Most of us just got jobs, though. We’re all doing just fine for ourselves, but some hit the jackpot and were able to ride their stock options to “financial independence” (as the saying goes). The difference between the ones who could could retire at 35 and those who’ll be able to retire at 60 is pure, dumb, blind luck. Sure, if you have a time machine, it’s easy to go back and get a job with Intel in the 70’s, just like it would be easy to make money in stocks or real estate. So what? Did you know that back when you started grad school? More importantly, do you know what the equivalent company or industry is today?
Ever watch poker on TV? Here’s something they don’t tell you: top professional players always buy shares in each other’s winnings. Why? Becasue the difference between first place and twentieth place is almost pure luck. Good players are able to put themselves in a position to take maximum advantage of good luck, so the same bunch of guys tends to win tournament after tournament, but for any individual player in any individual game, luck is the dominant factor. That’s why pros structure things so it doesn’t matter which of them wins, they all still get a regular income.
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dumbererer and dumberereest
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:26 pm
CASEY!
your bank should be able to forgive one or at least a few NSF/overdraft fees, just ask, ask nicely…ask for a manager,
demand it, say use been a customer for ten years…
get that one $33 fee outta the way and you only got what…
$2,000,000 plus $20,000 a month interest left to go…
HAHAHHAAA
you know i never thought id use this but check it out…this is perfect…..
ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO ROTFLMAO
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Joey
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:37 pm
Wow, no cash on Thanksgiving eve. What are you going to eat tomorrow?
Are you going to your parents or in-laws for dinner tomorrow? Be sure to stock up on Thanksgiving leftovers for the rest of the week.
If you’re not going to the parents, then get Thanksgiving dinner in a homeless shelter. I think they all serve a classic Thanksgiving meal tomorrow, with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and all. If you can borrow money from friends, there should be no shame in getting dinner in a homeless shelter.
Have a happy Thanksgiving, Casey.
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bobo_von_jojo
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:39 pm
“Basically she’s upset that I didn’t talk to her about this first before displaying private information online.”
Again more classic compulsive behavior.
Like I said before, you are not only hurting yourself, but you are destroying your wife too. That she has not left you yet amazes me.
I can only think of what would happen to me… “Hi honey I’m home. You know that 30 thousand I made, well I lost it all while living with my parents, and then I bought 6 houses, and I know, I know, they are all pieces of sh*t but thats ok, … they are all going to be taken from me, but not before they take every dime from us.”
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cLuStEr_fK
November 22nd, 2006 at 5:04 pm
You just discovered that, somehow, out of the blue, “her cards were maxed out too?” Cool.
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Sometimes, you just can’t look away. » Thanksgiving Open Thread
November 22nd, 2006 at 5:16 pm
Kramer auto Pingback[…] Casey Serin’s foreclosure blog is affecting his marriage. (He posted screenshots of their joint bank account without asking his wife first, and he’s hurt that she’s unwilling to be open and honest with the internet.) […]
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Therese
November 22nd, 2006 at 5:19 pm
Casey -
Don’t worry about getting the screenshots reposted. Your wife’s feelings are more important than your readers.
Have a happy Thanksgiving with her!
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Jose Conseco
November 22nd, 2006 at 5:26 pm
You’re out of cash, you’ve got a crappy car, your wife is probably going to have to drop out of community college, and now you just found out that you’re totally out of credit. Welcome to Dick Cheney’s America.
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standallamazed
November 22nd, 2006 at 5:38 pm
Jason says:
“Obvious you don’t know much about real estate investing because any part time wannabe knows you don’t need any money to buy homes.. Just ask Casey.”
I couldn’t have explained how stupid you are myself Jason. I couldn’t agree more, any part time wannabe real estate investor knows you don’t need any money to buy homes.
Any legitimate real estate investor does however know that you do need some money to buy homes and cash flow them correctly. I have 16 years of succesful real estate investing that supports my method, and you are using Casey as the evidence for your method??…
Guru’s thrive becasue they convince people like you that you can get rich ( make $100-$1000 an hour) with no money, and with little real life education in real estate. You don’t even have enough capital to run a succesful mailing to find your sub2 and existing financing houses. If uncontrollable laughing is part of getting rattled, then I guess you rattled me.
I am helping Casey by being realistic about his situation and what it truly will require for him to turn things around. You offer Casey more of your pie in the sky cheerleading and koolaid drinking. Two months ago, if Casey had started implementing the numerous sound ideas that have been offered to him, he would be on track to rebuilding his position, with at least one home as his residence and no foreclosures. It would have been a hard road with no profit taken on his past mistakes.
Casey turned down alot of sound advice and now he is losing money daily and will continue to lose these homes, daily income, and will rack up debt and poor credit. Casey held out for a dream fix or some profit on the deals and lost.
Why don’t you buy his homes Jason, he is offering 100% owner financing, here is your big break,,you can have five homes before the end of 2006.
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walt526
November 22nd, 2006 at 5:56 pm
You didn’t check with your wife before posting screen shots of your bank accounts? Wow. It didn’t even occur to me that you would be that clueless.
Casey you just don’t get it: money, marriage, life. You prove the old adage that the most expensive education is the college of hard knocks.
You’re going to declare BK. That was obvious to anyone with an IQ above room temperature six weeks ago.
On occasion, you might be able to talk a good game, but you have no substance. I’m rapidly losing my interest/patience with this blog. You lack the ability to utilize even the most obvious advice (have you closed that savings account? have you asked WFB to reverse the overdraft fees?).
Finally, I don’t understand people’s distaste with Tim. His personal story is interesting and he provides sound advice.
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Want A Bargain
November 22nd, 2006 at 6:07 pm
This is truly a trainwreck of increasingly majestic proportions! But at $1000/hr in sweet deals, you should be in good shape in January!
Make sure Chris advances you at least $10K. Tell him you’ll repay him ten-fold in 30 days.
And, agreed, enough of Tim’s self-important bloviating.
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ITS ALL BUSH'S FAULT
November 22nd, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Why not - everything else is
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Clippership
November 22nd, 2006 at 6:47 pm
Hi Casey -
I concur with those who say you’re posting to much info on the website. But the good news is there isn’t much someone could do with the information. I mean afterall, what’s gonna happen- are they going to run up your credit cards and ruin your credit score?
Just kidding - have a happy Thanksgiving!
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Mort
November 22nd, 2006 at 6:54 pm
I have a few suggestions:
1) I know of a few really good houses that are totally underpriced, I’ll even sell you mine.
2) I’m sure you can get financing from Guido Poppalardo (675) 413-8979 in the Bronx.
3) If you don’t pay Guido 23% per week interest he breaks your testicles.
4) Problem solved.
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scorpion fan
November 22nd, 2006 at 7:12 pm
I know that, in the grand scheme of massively-in-debt-things, $4.90 or $41 or even $10,000 doesn’t mean a whole lot. But I’m curious as to the thought process that allows you to spend ANY amount of money that you don’t have. You didn’t foresee that you’d hit the ground sometime in the near future? There was no sense that this house of cards was coming down?
I’m not just talking here about the real estate crap, which seems a bit more “hypothetical” and might take awhile to resolve (I’m no expert there!), but the very real and immediate matter of the money you need to buy food and keep the lights on. I am, frankly, befuddled that there was apparently no thought given to the fact that you were splurging on overpriced franchised meals with the money you’d need to actually eat at all three weeks down the road. Surely it must have crossed your mind … ? You didn’t see the ground fast approaching?
Who, or what, was going to save you?
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Mr. Flipper
November 22nd, 2006 at 7:38 pm
Casey,
In 2004 we experienced a brain-fart-induced, check-balancing accident which racked up $300.00 in over-draft fees at Washington Mutual. They charged us $35 bucks each to cover several checks written for less than $20.00 dollars!
We balked, and they “forgave 50%” of the fees. Whoopie, they still made over 1,000% annually off of my temporary incompetence.
This reduction is standard procedure when a customer complains about them. But don’t expect more than half the fees to be removed unless you can “convince” the bank that the fees were a result of the bank’s error and not yours.
In the case of the auto-debit, I don’t think the bank has control of that to my *understanding. They just do what they’re instructed when the withdrawel request comes through. As a result, I think you’ll be forced to close that account in order to cut off CashCall.
*I don’t authorize auto-drafts of my checking accounts anymore. That’s way too dangerous. Sometimes my deposits don’t make it into my account as scheduled, but for sure the auto-debit doesn’t miss its schedule! I’ve paid enormous penalties in return for offering them that privilege! NO MO!
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UncleC
November 22nd, 2006 at 10:11 pm
@RALPH: “And in response to UncleC…Casey bought a Jetta, not a Passat.”
Thank you. You are correct, sir! Edmunds.com shows the private sale value of a ‘98 Jetta in “fair” condition as about $3,100. This means Casey probably overpaid by at least $500 or so, given needed repairs. But since the Jetta seems to be rather trashed, it’s true value might only be around $2,000.
If Casey doesn’t get those belts replaced it’s liable to leave him stranded (maybe at Starbucks if he’s lucky).
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Big Cheese
November 22nd, 2006 at 10:19 pm
To the real Anon,
I would think you are still lurking here and I wanted to let you know I really miss your posts.
I and (on behalf of) many other readers would invite you to start commenting again.
-Big Cheese
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UncleC
November 22nd, 2006 at 10:26 pm
Casey, those CASHCALL auto withdrawals will continue even if you close the WF checking account (just the same as if you passed checks after you closed the account).
Heads up, dude, this is the one where the sheriff comes calling real quick. WF and/or CASHCALL will press charges on the bounces, for sure.
The only way you can stop this one is by BK filing, asap. (Or get enough in there to cover the next withdrawals).
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Jerry
November 22nd, 2006 at 10:32 pm
@clippership - great observations! I didn’t think of it before… But the reason you dont want your account number on the web is so people can’t steal your identity and take out credit in your name and so forth. Woe to the person who pretends to be Casey!!!
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Casey Serin
November 22nd, 2006 at 10:46 pm
I talked with Chris and he said he will get me $1500 on Friday. That will take care of my compensation for this month. Sounds good to me. So then I rushed over to my local Wells Fargo branch right before they closed at 6pm. Talked to the personal banker, told him my situation and asked if something can be done about the $242 in overdraft fees. He said I will have to come back on Friday and talk to the manager.
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Tim ambivalence
November 22nd, 2006 at 10:58 pm
I don’t think everybody has a problem with Tim’s advice, it’s just the frequency and length of his posts. His story and background is interesting, but don’t really have anything to do with Casey’s situation. I mean, if Casey extricates himself from this mess, that won’t qualify him to give advice to grad students on how to make it in the semiconductor fabrication business.
That being said, he’s infinitely more qualified than myself to give financial advice. So……. ramble on, I guess.
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thoughtidseenitall
November 23rd, 2006 at 1:01 am
Enough with the financial dic*-sizing, we’re truly honored that we have several retired-PhD-genius-multi-millionaires in our midst, but we come to read about Casey, not you.
I’d like to see Casey address the issue of impulsivity, if he thinks he has a problem and what’s he’s doing to address it.
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Tim
November 23rd, 2006 at 1:08 am
“I don’t think everybody has a problem with Tim’s advice, it’s just the frequency and length of his posts.”
You are right, of course. Learning to touch type, and thus type faster than I can speak, warped me. Further, learning how to compose essays also made me incomprehensible to today’s readers.
I will make amends. Here’s my first exemplar, written in the style apparently preferred by the proles here:
Like, d00d, Casey, you are like so f*cked, d00d! I like tryed to get a job in RE but they like wanted sperience, like. I want to see naked pics of yur wife, like.
And like why dont you right about you’re favorite Startbucks coffe? Like why not.
–Retard Tim, who the dumbsh*ts here apparently want to see
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Jerry
November 23rd, 2006 at 1:23 am
I think most of us agree that Casey’s most valuable asset is this blog and the PR that goes with it.
So what would happen if he took the majority’s advice here, went and got a steady but boring job, stopped his RE activities, and started to scrimp and save his way back to solvency?
NO ONE WOULD VISIT THE BLOG ANYMORE!!! And then what would Casey have left???
Who wants to read a blog describing a life that most of us are living? Working steady jobs, being frugal with our money, saving for retirement… this kind of stuff doesn’t draw crowds.
Casey has a natural talent for being a showman. When the RE stories were getting slow and comment counts going down, he posted his bank account details and now traffic is back up. This post has probably 150 comments on it already. I think his only way out at this point is to rely on his ability to get PR and somehow spin this disaster into some kind of book or movie or seminar or whatever. Trying to recover from this just by working two or three jobs, or RE flipping, for that matter, is hopeless. I say he’s doing absolutely the right thing and look forward to seeing what he’s gonna do to surprise us next!
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Tim
November 23rd, 2006 at 1:33 am
This is an open comment forum. Unlike your post, I avoid profanities.
You write:
“Enough with the financial dic*-sizing, we’re truly honored that we have several retired-PhD-genius-multi-millionaires in our midst, but we come to read about Casey, not you.”
I replied to some questions which came up when someone figured out my True Name. Take it up with them.
As for successful people commenting, I make no apologies. Most of the “haters,” as Casey calls them, are actually knuckle-dragging illiterates who write in some kind of twentysomething patois (”like, dude, like, chill…”).
In any case, you are welcome to contribute what you can.
But telling me to shut up is not going to work.
Unless Casey, of course, would rather see illiiterate comments from Neanderthals and not hear from those who took a different approach than he did.
–Tim
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Casey Serin
November 23rd, 2006 at 1:57 am
@Tim: keep talking. I welcome your perspective and advice.
@Jerry: You’re right, my blog is the best thing going for me right now. I’m trying to leverage my publicity into something positive. Not sure exactly where its going to go yet. I have many opportunities on the horizon but everything takes time and my fires are still burning.
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Train Wreck Watcher
November 23rd, 2006 at 7:15 am
Casey, I’m hoping that you atleast make it into the year end edition of People magazine. The issue that has terrific stories about all of the great stories of the year.
Good luck with trying to leverage your publicity into something positive. Your continual imploding creates less and less sympathy from readers. So I’m hardpressed to see where something positive (read financial assistance here) will happen. But if it does, good for you.
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jonny quest
November 23rd, 2006 at 7:36 am
I been reading for a while now and thought Casey was going to jump the shark a while back, but he’s still keeping us entertained. I say with that talent, forget RE, Casey, and start something in the entertainment biz. But, my gut still says that he’s a con man using this blog as a test base for new scams.
Tim - I enjoy your posts, but on those last few, quit showing your horns. Don’t crap on the youngsters. After all, as successful as Michael Crichton is, he failed with the ladies too. Steve Martin also, but Crichton had the good sense not to write “Shopgirl.”
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
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dcguy
November 23rd, 2006 at 7:53 am
Casey
when you started this blog, the consistent message
you were given was “GET A JOB”.
Because you needed a steady source of income to put
food on the table, gas in the car, medical supplies,
rent to the in-laws,
I also advised you to draw all your credit lines to the
maximum and then file for bankruptcy.
Wells-Fargo hasn’t minded letting you pull overdrafts
because they figure the fee income has exceeded
the likely loss.
It’s the end of the month, RSN. You have no Cash.
I would not suggest putting any cash into your
account at wells-fargo. They will grab it to pay
fees, Interest etc.
You have to hear the words “Cash Economy”.
You also need to contact the remaining lenders and
do Deed ILO Foreclosure. Each of these properties is
dead.
Maybe Chris will actually pay your salary, in which
case you may survive this with your wife, otherwise,
if he starts giving you a song and dance, your in-laws
will kick you out, let her stay, and we will hear of you
blogging from the public library.
I’m sorry, but, you have failed to take good advice,
in favor of one more pull at the real-estate wheel.
Dump the real estate, generate some cash
and file BK. You are young, the world will not end.
If your wife leaves you, well, then you are
seriously screwed.
As for TIM:
Be very careful you aren’t engaged in selection Bias.
All your friends are millionaires, because all your friends
from today aren’t your friends from 1970.
Take a look at a conference attendees list from
1972, see who really made it, who didn’t.
Life being what it is, a couple percent got cancer,
some died in accidents, some burned out and left
tech, others as you point out did extremely well,
some did okay.
a couple of years can make a big difference in results.
Microsoft used to viciously discriminate between
the employees and the “Temps”. The “Temps”
never got benefits, stock, stock purchase, etc.
While you are a brilliant physicist, there are lots
of people cut out in life to be clerks or secretaries.
To them life is a lot more random and far less
influencable. Sure they make mistakes, and sure
you can save on a secretaries salary, but it’s still
far more uncertain for those on the bottom of the pile.
Tim, you should also not be so critical of real-estate.
Lots of people made Huge Fortunes in Silicon Valley
real estate. You can acaquire with careful analysis
property that has real cash flow, and if the deal is
structured right, you can make some incredible
ROI. I have a buddy who structures Sale-Leasebacks
on office properties. He can make 2,000% ROI.
Of course, he has buyers/investors lined up in the
REIT’s, the Pension funds, Trusts, who want steady
income properties, and then he scouts for
office properties where management wants to take
the asset off the books.
You and your peers, just like many of my friends in
the Internet world made incredible sums from stock,
from bonuses, etc. I had to sit out the boom for
reasons that I don’t want to go into here.
Tech investment has proven solid for you,
and stocks are an okay investment vehicle.
Berkshire hathaway has made a lot of people wealthy.
So has Southwest Airlines (Sym:LUV). But People’s
Express dashed a bunch of aspiring millionaires
hopes in less then 30 days. Enron took many a
lifetime pension down the well. As did worldcom.
Now if you are interested in interesting problems,
we are working on the interesection between
optics, electronics, giga-pixel and beyond imagers,
Super-Hidef video, gigabyte comms, etc.
If you wish to hear about them pop me a line.
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dumb da dum dumb
November 23rd, 2006 at 8:09 am
TIM….keep writing!
CASEY! a screen shot of your bank account aint gonna change the overall situation…
Im posting from nyc, the home of vulture seminars with Donald Trump, Kim Rich Wife & the likes of Mad Money Jim…
any reasonanle person looking at the 2 page spreads for these seminars would see this the same way you see fat-burning pills and exercise machine commercials at 2am…
its just not possible and just not reasonable…
if theres a way to make $1000 an hour in real estate and I can really teach you how, then for 50% commision I can go to you or send my hand picked flunky to your home or office and in a year we can each net $1,460,000 each working everyday for 8 hours? get it?
TIM your comments would be appreciated on NY part of curbed.com, it will be obvious where sense is needed no registration no moderating…
“L1k3 [)o0D”
so keep writing, you should have your own site, might be a rense.com type thing!
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dumb da dum dumb
November 23rd, 2006 at 8:19 am
oh yeah, you see $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
thats why the seminar guru mentor crap looks like $$
you see $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ thats why overdrafting for a $4 latte + $33 NSF is OK
you see $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, thats why $3000 loan is not paid back,,,,
oh you paid back $1000, right, you never explained how that happened, you probably borrowed money to pay back borrowed money, thats OK because soon u will have $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ to pay it back!
thats why the jetta was purchased first b4 paying a friend back,,,,because youll need it to get to those “$weet deal$”
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A Prole
November 23rd, 2006 at 11:09 am
Tim said:
Like, d00d, Casey, you are like so f*cked, d00d! I like tryed to get a job in RE but they like wanted sperience, like. I want to see naked pics of yur wife, like.
There you go, Tim! Now just add some smileyz and I think you’ve got it! Also remember, u not you, and ur not yur. U’ll be 1337 in no time!
Also maybe change your name to Timzorz.
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Tim
November 23rd, 2006 at 12:04 pm
Yes, Casey’s blog here is his most valuable asset. I’ve checked a couple of other blogs that have been mentioned, ones with titles like “Yep, I’m going broke,” and they are pale imitations of this one.
Now how Casey can commoditize or cash in on this blog is completely unclear to me. And, for you Tim haters, note that I am not speculating on things I know absolutely nothing about! I figure Casey is probably in contact with people, outside of this blog, about possible t.v. movie or book deals.
I’ll go ahead and speculate and say that a quasi-comical t.v. movie might be the best thing…most of the juicy or funny stuff would go over well in some kind of comedy format….the racing around, the buying houses in lots of places (good for some local color, with scenes of Casey running through the Albuequerque airport like OJ)…only thing is, it can’t just end on a downer note, with Casey out of money and all the properties foreclosed upon….
Scenes with a Kiyosaki-like guru would be good. The PRLINKBIZ/No Limits Ladies interlude would add some spice. Stuff would have to be fictionalized for dramatic or comedic purposes, of course.
Casey, you might want to rent a couple of old classic comedies:
– “Serial” (1980) A series of farcical encounters in Marin County and San Francisco, with gurus.
– “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, circa 1988. Steve Martin and Michael Caine play scam artists in the south of France.
I’m not saying Casey’s situation is funny…far from it. But people want to see something lighter, not a “disease of the week” downer.
How Casey may find an ending that is not a downer is the real challenge. (He can’t count on coming out financially above water, given the situation and the debts, but he may be able to come out in a way that will leave him OK for Chapter 2.)
–Tim
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Hmm
November 23rd, 2006 at 12:26 pm
Nice try Tim, but your ‘humor’ falls a little short.
Maybe you shouldn’t try so hard?
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speechless
November 23rd, 2006 at 3:19 pm
I can see the movie too. Something Christopher Guest-directed, like “Best in Show” or “A Mighty Wind”. Let’s call it something like “The Sweet Deal”. Fake documentary-style with a shaky cam, shot mostly from a low angle, like Casey’s speaking videos. A greenish-fluorescent pallor over everything. Phobia-inducing, sterile hotel conference rooms with young pasty-faced would-be RE investors listening to spray-on tanned gurus in quasi-religious rapture.
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Daniel (foreign)
November 23rd, 2006 at 3:37 pm
TIM said: “Now how Casey can commoditize or cash in on this blog is completely unclear to me. ”
friend, didn’t PRIBLNLNK and fellow women shark have the rights for marketing Casey’s Story?
I think they want that, but the ladies need the Happy Ending (Kiyosaki needs it). So Casey could try to retake that path.
As for TV commedy? I don’t know. Is better the “success story” than the “crazy story”.
I wish Casey get good opportunities. I pray for it and… bet a few dollars
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Overactive Imaginations, Unltd. - Comment of the day
November 24th, 2006 at 6:40 am
Kramer auto Pingback[…] Nov. 23rd, 2006 at 12:53 PM …if you are ever tempted to quit blogging during this crisis, remember how many lives you have touched with this site. Even if that mainly consists of making thousands of people glad that they aren’t you. - DC Troll, on the mind-boggling “I am facing foreclosure” blog. Tags: […]
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segfault
November 25th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
Agreed… If you needed cheap, reliable transportation, a 1990s VW Jetta is not the car for you. I should know; I used to own one. Long story short, it looks like this example has been severely neglected. Mine was an unreliable POS, but it looked almost new when I sold it with 92,000 miles on it (it was five years old at the time, fully loaded with the VR6 engine and heated leather, and had nothing that needed repair–the best of three offers I received was around $6400). You paid more than half that for an older model that needs probably $1-2,000 in repairs just to make roadworthy (not clean-looking, just roadworthy)?
In the $3500 price range, I’m fond of a used Ford Taurus or Geo/Chevrolet Prizm. (The newer Tauruii are much more dependable than the old ones were–and you can get a fairly recent one for under $5,000. The Prizm is an ultra-dependable Toyota Corolla but has lower resale value due to the lack of a Toyota badge.) At that price you won’t find a pristine one, but they’re decently reliable and won’t be as badly beat up as the car you bought.
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Jacks
November 25th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
Tim,
Are you the guy that is like the Michael Richards ( “Kramer”) of the internet with all the racist posts? I also find it strange ( since I am a “real” libertarian) Wikipedia mentions your “unique brand of libertarianism.” I assume that unique brand is not being libertarian at all. Oh well, so many great minds are also unhinged whackos.
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star
November 26th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
Casey, here’s a dose of reality for you;
If you can’t even manage your own personal finances, what makes you think you can run a business?
Think about that real hard.
I can’t think of more irony than you wanting to be a businessperson and your wife wants to be a CPA. Both of you are about as financially inept as it gets.
You have destroyed your tools, i.e. credit and bank relationships, and incorporating will not be an option since any decent LOC will require a personal guarantee(PG) and a check of your personal credit. You have screwed yourself out of business for the next ten years.
You don’t know what frugal is if you’re still eating out and drinking expensive coffee in your situation. I reckon you’ll be forced to learn at some point.
Overdrafting bank account even just one time is one of the most irresponsible and idiotic things a person can do. You should focus on how to run your life before you even consider running a business.
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Jobu
November 27th, 2006 at 8:26 am
Star, his wife is in TRAINING to be a CPA. Surely, you can’t expect her to manage her finances (and his) before training/schooling is complete.
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star
November 27th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Jobu, I’ve had checking accounts from the age of 11 when I opened my first at a credit union. My life has gone through many ups and downs since then yet I have never once overdrawn an account. Only irresponsible people do those things.
It requires no great skill. Just simple math. I have to wonder if you’re joking. Maybe you’re just an idiot too. I don’t know.
So yes, I’d expect someone wanting to be a CPA would be able to handle the simple accounting of a basic checking account. Most people manage these things easily without a formal education.
I would expect even a CPA in “training” would know better than to max out their credit and bounce debits. At this point I think she better start looking for a different line of work because accounting obviously isn’t for her. Between herself and Casey, they’ve pretty much already shot down any chance of her getting hired anywhere as a CPA.
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Jobu
November 28th, 2006 at 7:32 am
Yes, my post was sarcastic. I would think that you could have picked up on that but I guess I should have put a smiley at the end.
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