{"id":15466,"date":"2012-10-19T09:07:30","date_gmt":"2012-10-19T13:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=15466"},"modified":"2012-10-19T11:09:43","modified_gmt":"2012-10-19T15:09:43","slug":"some-lessons-from-dubai-and-my-cfp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=15466","title":{"rendered":"Some lessons from Dubai and my CFP"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Q3 earnings are coming in weak. Google. Microsoft. McDonalds. Chipotle, etc. More dithering around in aid for Spain. I don’t feel especially sanguine this morning. Still mulling what my next investment “strategy” will be. Good time to look for shorts. Meantime, recent pick-up in commercial real estate and residential real estate looks promising. What I lost on my meager Google holding yesterday I made up in real estate syndication dividends. Diversification works\u00a0 — unless you’re in control in — in which case go for it.
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People are funny, and stupid.<\/strong><\/span> The certified financial planner (CFP) who gave the seminar I wrote about yesterday called up mad. How could I write such horrid stuff? How could I attend his seminar without telling him I was from the press, etc. etc.<\/p>\n

Better approach: Apologize for the 35 minute delay in starting the seminar. Offer to meet with me and give a “proper” interview, with real advice, etc. I had filled in his form. I wanted to meet with him since I was sufficiently impressed\u00a0 (despite his late start and hopelessness with a computer) to mull the idea of becoming his client.<\/p>\n

Funny thing: I never mentioned his name on the site. And now I can’t remember it. After his silly voice mail, I threw all his material in the garbage.<\/p>\n

Never blow a sales opportunity.<\/p>\n

Private equity. Private opportunities. <\/strong>Lots of opportunities in bridge financing. Companies who run out of money at the precisely the wrong time. Tricky stuff. Got to pick the right ones. There are a lot that will go down for lack of those few bucks to do some clever marketing.<\/span>
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Dubai is a great place?<\/strong><\/span> From the official Dubai visa site<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Please note that Israelis and travelers whose passports bear Israeli stamps will be denied a visa.<\/p>\n

My friend who lives there tells me you can’t call Israel from Dubai. Israel’s country code of 972 is blocked. To call Israel, you use Skype to call London, then hop onto a private VPN (private virtual network). Despite Dubai being an airline hub, there are no direct flights between Tel Aviv and Dubai.<\/p>\n

How can Dubai be so business savvy and yet be so stupid?<\/p>\n

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\u00a0The two greatest vacations.<\/strong><\/span> An African photo safari (you saw some of my photos) and Galapagos. My friend Gerry just came back. He was surprised at just how close he could get to the animals. Says Gerry, “I guess it’s the lack of large predators.” Gerry took amazing photos. Samples:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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You can get really close to some amazing animals.<\/p>\n

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Gerry writes Cactus is the primary food for the Galapagos Land Iguana.<\/p>\n

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Get as close as you like. But don’t touch the animals. That’s the rule on the islands.<\/p>\n

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Harry Newton, who saw Argo<\/em> last night. It tells the true story of the rescue of six Americans from Iran after the Embassy was occupied in 1979. It’s well-done and worth seeing. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Q3 earnings are coming in weak. Google. Microsoft. McDonalds. Chipotle, etc. More dithering around in aid for Spain. I don’t feel especially sanguine this morning. Still mulling what my next investment “strategy” will be. Good time to look for shorts. Meantime, recent pick-up in commercial real estate and residential real estate looks promising. What I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}