All posts by Nathan Ruffing

All, Ventures Quarterly

Ventures Update October 2015

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695 Riverview Drive

We have made steady improvement on the apartment building.

  • The parking lot is resurfaced and it looks great.
2015 11 04 New Pic from Front 2
Notice the new pavement in the parking lot. Also, the front lights are now on a dusk to dawn sensor, so they are on all night.
  • We have good paying tenants, and have received all of our rent due since April.
  • Since July, we have averaged 8/9 occupancy.
  • We currently have 7 occupied. I remodeled one of the two empty units and we have people lined up to rent them when they are ready next week.
  • The market rent has increased to at least $650. We may look to get $675. When we purchased the building, average rent per unit was $465. If we rent the vacant units for $650, our average rent will be $560. That’s a 20% increase over 2.5 years!

I am in the process of hiring new management (again), and I am excited to have an experienced professional on board.

Simple Kneads Gluten-Free Bread

Devaunt and Tristaun have been working full-time to develop the business in Raleigh, North Carolina. It has been so successful that they have brought Nick Rapkoch in full-time as well to help with marketing and distribution. This short summary does not do justice to what they are doing in Raleigh. Simple Kneads is the real deal!

Click the picture for the Simple Kneads website.
Click the picture for the Simple Kneads website.

Kineomen

I visited Devaunt and Nick in Raleigh in August. We ate mostly gluten-free bread with lots of butter, and we talked about real estate and business. Loaves of gluten-free bread were everywhere. I felt like we were drug dealers and that was our product. Tony Montana said, “don’t get high on your own supply,” but I don’t think that applies to high-end bread.

Currently, their time is taken up on their best opportunity, which is Simple Kneads. I came away from the meeting recognizing that I have to get my traveling out of the way before I commit to starting a business or another real estate venture. My current real estate investment is enough for me for now and I am on a steep learning curve.

The Stock Market

In December of 2013, I decided to get out of the stock market completely. That money has been sitting in cash ever since, gaining near zero interest. On the day I sold, the S&P 500 closed at 1775 on 13 December. Today, it closed at 2090, up 17.7%. I owned VWIAX mutual fund at the time and I sold it for 61.46. Today, its value is 62.17, up just 1%. I missed VWIAX’s dividends of about 3.5% per year, so I actually missed out on a total of 8% of gains. The market is not up as much as I thought it was. I don’t feel so bad about my decision.

I have decided to consider stocks again for my retirement accounts using the strategy of “buy fear, sell greed.” Phrased a different way, I want to “do the right thing as an investor by standing behind good companies when nobody else will.” I do not believe that now is that time. Investors have not been really burned since 2008. Confidence is high. Money is cheap, in fact almost free to borrow. Cautious, pessimistic investors who haven’t bought into the current market look like fools for their missed opportunity. Most of the bad news has been around for a while. There is ongoing conflict in the middle east. China steadily gains ground while each country fights to devalue its currencies. Russia acts more and more boldly each year. Washington plays brinkmanship games with the federal budget. Economists continue to warn that holding interest rates at zero is a short-term band-aid that is causing the next “bubble.” Investors are numb to it and blindly throwing their money at stocks. I ask people why they are in stocks and I hear, “well, I wasn’t, but it just kept going up and I didn’t want to miss out.” Who can blame them? What else are they going to do, put it in a savings account for 0.1% interest?

It’s easy to put money in stocks right now. It feels safe. Therefore everybody is doing it. Therefore, I’m still staying out! … So then why write this whole thing? I have been out of stocks for two years.

Because now I know what I’m looking for:

I am looking for the time when the market “needs investors’ confidence.” The economists will be talking about years of recession. Investors will be just recovering from the gains they lost. The news will be talking about the “new norm, where stocks aren’t safe, and maybe even the dollar isn’t safe.” When everyone is down and out, that is the time to be positive. That is the time to use a good system to pick the winners that will see us through.

Vino de Coco

Same same. Tim Bowles is in the Philippines. It has been fun to be a part of the venture. Tim is quite a salesman and I think that coconut wine will succeed. Maybe I’ll go visit!

Click the picture for the website.
Click the picture for the website.
All

Shout Out to my Cuz!

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Shout out to my cousin who is between jobs right now. I talked to her on the phone yesterday and she was struggling with what to do with herself on “day 3 without a job.” Hang in there, Ray, you’ll stay busy! It’s good to have some company here in “retirement.”

This week, I got back into the routine following the wedding. We played poker on Friday and it was awesome, especially since I won $17. All in a night’s work.

I hardly used my bike or truck this past week, but I used my bike more. 49 miles for the bike and 22 for the truck, bringing the total since August to 1092-1156, truck still in the lead, but closing!

Answer to last week’s quiz question: the “UP” is the Upper Peninsula and it borders Wisconsin.

This week’s quiz question: what is the primary physical difference between the earth’s arctic pole and its antarctic pole?

All, Travel

Home from the Bike Trip

After biking to Cleveland and back, my bike miles since returning to Ohio are up to 1043 and that compares to 1134 in the truck. So I’ve closed the gap to under 100 miles, but the truck miles still are in the lead.

Today was a big day. I put a deposit down on a TEFL certification course in Rio de Janeiro for February!

Quiz question of the week: A person from Michigan says he is going to the “UP,” what does he mean? What state does the “UP” border?

All, Travel

Northeast Ohio Bicycle Tour, In Summary

402 total miles on the bicycle for the whole trip.

The gear I packed weighed a total of ~30 pounds. 15 pounds of that was in my backpack on my back and 15 pounds in my bag on my bike rack. The only thing I brought that I wish I hadn’t was a “long john” shirt that I donated to a Goodwill along the way.

This is a picture of all the gear I brought with me. The only thing not included in the picture is the jeans and shirt that I wore around town.

I did not bike the entire way. I used public transportation in some places. Used the bus to travel to the east side of Columbus the first day. Used the bus system for most of my travel around Canton / Massilon. Took the Amtrak from Cleveland to Sandusky, and rode the bus from Delaware to Columbus.

The tow path trail is indeed continuous from Dover to Cleveland. I was impressed.

The only major gaps in dedicated bike trails along the entire distance from Columbus to Cleveland is from Columbus to Centerburg and then between Millersburg and Dover. Otherwise, dedicated bike paths cover the entire distance. Google Maps has them accurately mapped out with green lines.

Of the 200 miles between Columbus and Cleveland, less than 50 are not covered by bike trails. The other 150 miles are on dedicated trails where no cars are allowed!

NE Ohio by Bike October 2015

Click here for the whole Columbus to Cleveland and return bike trip.

All, Travel

Day 10, Departed Sandusky for Home

Departed Sandusky for home around 1400. Should have left earlier to take advantage of the tailwind. It was huge and forecast to shift the next day. Rode until sunset making easy miles with the wind at my back!

Long shadow. Riding to sunset for the tailwind!
I was happy for the tailwind, so I took a selfie. I can ride my bike with no handlebars!

NE Ohio by Bike October 2015

All, Travel

Days 7 and 8, Downtown Cleveland

Spent Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday and Monday in downtown Cleveland.

Sunday, spent an hour at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, then spent most of the rest of the time watching sports at the Corner Alley downtown. What better to do in downtown Cleveland than watch sports all day? Browns and Bengals both won in overtime!

Monday, tried to go to the Science Center, but it was closed Mondays for the season. Tried the library just to check it out, but it was closed for Columbus Day. Gave up and watched sports at the Corner Alley again. Cubs beat the Cardinals, Mets beat the Dodgers, Ronda Rousey won another fight, Chargers lost to the Steelers. Mostly a good day in sports. Left that night on the Amtrak for Sandusky.

The Science Center was closed, but I took this pic by Cleveland Browns stadium, AKA “First Energy Stadium.”

NE Ohio by Bike October 2015

All, Travel

Day 6, To Cleveland

Finished a great visit in Akron. Rode by Lebron James’ house. Rode north on the tow path downhill from “high” Akron to the lakefront. Took Jeff’s advice for the route into Cleveland and ended at Air BNB with my host Dustin in Ohio City. First experience with Air BNB. Awesome!

NE Ohio by Bike October 2015