BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

Cali

So... tonight I had a phone call with some people in Cali.  It was a good convo.  I basically was poking around to see what I was allowed and not allowed... It's much more clear now.

Basically I can't "borrow" money from my trust.  I can't leverage capital either.  I can't really do much but let them hold it and invest it, and then I get income from it...

So there's that.  Hey, I mean, I'm not complaining.  That's fine with me!

Anyways so yeah.  The phone call was good times though, the two guys I spoke with were super nice and friendly and funny.  So, it's all good.

They did however invite me to come hang out for lunch.  I'm down for that.  It's an excuse to hit up the west coast.  So, I told them I would definitely take them up on that offer, and I plan to as well.

Let's see, what else.  Well... I got into a swing trade yesterday with my own personal funds.  I'm anticipating like a 3 or 5 day hold time.  We'll see... Here's the thing that you learn about swing trades...

Okay, first off, my swing trade is at 100 shares.  I did blog about a 1000 share trade... Obviously, I'm just not ready for that yet.  I don't know if I'll ever be.  Timing the market is kind of a crazy thing.  Even the best of the best get it wrong.

Now, even though there are technical indicators, they don't always hold true.  Sometimes the market can move in strange ways...

Here's why I always trade long.  I can hold... I can sit and hold.  And hold.  And hold.  Here's also why I trade dividend stocks... Income.  If I am wrong about the trade, I can still receive some kind of positive cashflow from the investment.

So, yeah.  We'll see how the trade goes.  If it doesn't swing, I'll still hold it.  I'll just collect my dividend from it.

Anyways, besides my investments... I've decided to take a break from dating and try to focus on music.

And also focus on drinking more coffee and tea.  Because, I'm just big on coffee and tea lately.... And fancy cheeses... That's another big thing at the moment.

You know, I don't think I'll ever really be successful with anything, books, music, whatever...

I mean, one of my family friends just won top prize at Sundance for his documentary.  I'm super happy for him.  But to be fair, he's in NYC.  He does a LOT of stuff.  He lives and breathes movie making.  He also studied at NYU and such.

I mean, I'm going to keep making music.  I'm going to keep writing these books, and hopefully finish this first one soon.  I'm also going to keep with my own personal investing and such.  Try to get better and better at my long term portfolio and additionally with my short term technical swing trades too.

But here's the thing... As I said tonight in my phone call with the west coast... When I think about my life priorities...

I'm 34... My priorities now are different from when I was 24, or 14, or 4.

So, when I'm 44... My priorities will be vastly different and again when I'm 54 and when I'm 64... Etc. etc.

The thing is... I probably don't even know anything about what I'll be in the thick of at 44...

Like, I have yet to even cross paths with people.  I have yet to even connect and work with people that who knows... what sort of things will be in my life at that point.  But one thing we decided was... I want this money to be there.  I want this money to last.  And I want to know it's like a safe bet if I do need it.  And then on top of that, just knowing I have that income to fall back on or help me out is comforting.

SO, maybe I can't like borrow the trust to go into the real estate business and start renting out apartments that I've bought.  Or maybe I can't self publish my book, or buy a music studio or something with it...

But, that's probably a good thing.  Starting any business, or making any kind of business investment is risky.

Sometimes it's better to just let the professionals handle that.

I do however still have my own little investment portfolio which I can use to play with.

Anyways... The part I was just really thinking about the most was when I said about the 10 year timeframe priorities... which is true.  Even 5 year time frames.  My life will definitely be very different 5 years from now than it is now, just as it's very different than it was 5 years ago.

But hey, you know, I'm happy to just kind of float in the river of time and see where I go next.  I'm happy to just come home after work and work on my music and books and what not.  And I'm happy to do my own little investing and trading.  And maybe what I thought was going to be an overnight swing trade, will turn into a 6 month hold for dividends trade.

But that's how life is... Have to be prepared for the unexpected.  Because that's the more likely scenario anyways... Expect the unexpected and you'll probably be more prepared than if things had gone how you'd thought they would go.