Wednesday, March 02, 2016

The stormy beginning to 2016

2015 ended on a personal high note for me. Vacation in india for a month, was relaxed, without my usual fears and worries.

But I was not watching the markets. The last month of 2015, the markets were correcting. China troubles and oil in free fall.

When I came back, I was dismayed by Apple's fall to below 100. Today its at 95. A lot of the hoped for gains have evaporated.

Along with that both wealth front, and OptionHouse are down about 8-10%. My 401K is down 11% just in the last 3 months.

I have arranged for larger than usual 401K withdrawals to take advantage of the dip. But there is little hope in sight.

On top of that seems like I might have to buy a new car. The Audi is having issues with oil pressure. and we drove a bit with it like that. We will have a better picture in a week or so.

So I am out a whopping 3K for just fixing the car, without too many assurances as to what other damage may have been inflicted.

On the upside, my wealth front and OH accounts turned positive, and AAPL surged to 100. I sold all holdings.

Now I am wrestling with the decision to buy a luxury car. I think a nice luxury SUV will provide a lot of utility. And its something I can take pride in. So steaming ahead with the plan.

Plan is to trade the Audi in.

===
Update mid-march.

So an expensive spike has ended. The Audi has been traded in. Got a meer 4K for it. Signed up for a Brand New Q5 Lease. Aggressively brought down the MSRP, however, the finance cost of lease are quite high.

In the end, I suppose the only advantage of a lease is you buy the same car twice. Half of it each time and this in total is more expensive than buying it outright. But it has the benefit of easing your cash flow at any given time.  So I will stop thinking about the finances, and put aside 4-5K for a years worth of payments and enjoy the car.

Upped my insurance payments quite a bit.

On the up side. I own a gorgeous new Audi Q5.
My Option house account is positive, Wealthfront is almost 10% up, regained most of my 401K losses. And AAPL is at 106. So A lot better than how the year began.






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