Your Life and Money aka Time and Score
Time and score. Do you know what “time and score” means?
You may know what time and score means in sports and maybe as it relates to weddings. Do you know how time and score relates to finance?
My newsletter is all about traveling, trackchasing, and managing money.
What I’m talking about today as regards finances is not easy to implement. You might be too young to pull this off. You might be too old to pull this off. Your childhood upbringing might prevent you from wrapping your mind around this concept. However, if you can do what I’m doing, you and your loved ones will be able to enjoy the financial resources you worked so hard to create.
My most important post of the year?
My most popular posts each year cover my annual financial review and new car buying guide. However, my time and score newsletter might be my most important.
Even when I was working back in the Stone Ages, using too many sports analogies in my presentations was considered poor form and tone-deaf. No one wants to do anything in poor form or to be considered tone-deaf, right?
Time and score. What it is.
For the uninitiated, let me briefly explain what time and score is with a sports analogy and then a wedding analogy. There’s no reason to stop reading at this point. You have never read an article that covers time and score in these two arenas, so what do you have to lose?
At UCLA, the basketball coach will yank a player from the game if he throws one bad pass. That’s an element of “time and score”. He doesn’t want the players to do stupid stuff in the middle of the game. Of course, you don’t want to do stupid stuff in the middle of your game, right?
Can you imagine what UCLA coach Mick Cronin would say if one of his players was 85 feet from the basket and threw up a Hail Mary shot with 15 minutes to go in the first half? A player who did that would probably lose his scholarship before he sat down on the bench.
How about a different form of time and score? If UCLA was behind by one point with one second to go in the game and one of our players had the ball 85 feet from the basket, Coach Conan would most certainly be yelling for him to shoot the ball. Try to make a basket from 85 feet away! That, my friends, is time and score.
Your actions should vary based on time and score.
Your behavior will vary depending on how much time is left in your game, whatever game you are playing, and the score with whatever method you use to keep score. At least your behavior should be different!
Shooting an 85-footer with 15 minutes to go in the game will almost always be a poor choice. Shooting an 85-footer when you’re behind by one point, and there’s one second to go in the game is your only option.
You get to decide what your best action is with time and score. Don’t screw it up.
However, time and score does not only relate to sports. Let’s say you’re going to your daughter’s wedding. To do that, you must cross the Fremont Bridge, a drawbridge in Seattle. That bridge opens 35 times each day.
The wedding site is just across the Fremont Cut. You can see the guests mingling on shore from your position on the drawbridge. The wedding begins at 1 p.m. It’s 12:50 p.m. It only takes three minutes to cross the bridge. You’ve got it made.
However, you know the drawbridge will go up to accommodate a passing cruise ship in 60 seconds. The bridge will stay up for 10 minutes. The speed limit on the bridge is 40 mph. If you drive the speed limit, you miss the wedding.
If you exceed the 40-mile-an-hour speed limit by 50 miles an hour, you’ll be driving 90 miles an hour! You can cross the bridge before it closes for the cruise ship. You get to the wedding on time.
Folks, that’s called “time and score” regarding weddings. Yes, that’s Carol and me at our wedding nearly 53 years ago!
If you change your behavior after recognizing your current situation and speed across that bridge at 90 mph, you’ll do what you must to maximize your life experiences. No one wants to be late for their daughter‘s wedding. If you don’t accurately recognize “time and score,” your lack of understanding will be remembered by you and the other wedding guests for the rest of your life.
The pivot.
There we have it. We used a traditional worn-out sports analogy to explain time and score. Then, somewhat miraculously, I pivoted to cover a real-life event and how time and score can affect that outcome.
What is the best item that comes your way?
Do you know how much you pay to get my financial newsletter? Just as a refresher, you don’t pay anything. It’s free. If you can get something for free and then reapply what you learned to benefit you financially, who could possibly argue with that?
Today, we will talk about time (life expectancy) and score (financial reserves) as they relate to your lifelong happiness and enjoyment. This is not just for you but for your loved ones as well. We’ll do that with the help of real-life travel examples. Yes, this is a travel and finance newsletter, for gosh sakes.
Time and score in real life.
We will first travel from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., and then, a few days later, from Los Angeles to New York City. All the while, we will be practicing “time and score.” You’ll see me do things I wouldn’t normally do unless the time and score situation both allowed for them and/or required them.
Do NOT miss the Filipino lady.
With that as a preamble, I suggest we get started. If you don’t have time to read everything I write, you should at least seek out my experience with the Filipino lady and her young daughters. It will bring a tear to your eye.
Once in a lifetime, at least.
I’m all about one-time experiences. If I can experience something just once, I will find that very satisfying.
I had never been to the Army-Navy football game. I’m a sports fan. I was in the Marines. I had an off weekend. With that combination, who in their right mind would not go to the big game in Landover, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC?
I had no other reason to go to the East Coast, just the game. I would not be trackchasing. I was only going to the football game.
I would leave Southern California on Friday and come back on Sunday. Heck, I figured, why not? I wouldn’t be returning to the East Coast again for another four days on Thursday.
Would you do this?
If you had never been to the Army-Navy football game, or any football game for that matter, would you fly round trip coast to coast, would you stay in an upscale Hyatt Regency for a couple of nights and use rideshares all over the place and buy a ticket to such an important game just to say you did it? I did that. That’s how I roll.
Here’s the deal.
I can only roll this way because I understand the financial concept of “time and score.” Here’s the deal: This is the essential part of this message, not the tear-jerking good Samaritan story that I encountered with the Filipino lady.
The financial aspect I will explain does not apply to everyone. It could apply to 50% of the people in America, maybe less. Another 50% of the people where time and score does apply don’t even know this concept exists.
Here’s hoping this applies to you.
I am hoping that you are one of the 50% of the Americans that time and score might apply to and more importantly I am hoping that you understand that time and score does apply to you. If you don’t understand that, maybe after reading what I shared today, you will understand it. What have you got to lose? You get this newsletter for free.
How about an example?
Let’s say that you had $100 to your name. You were 30 years old. You worked hard for that hundred dollars. You wouldn’t want to lose it. If a guy came down the street on a hot, humid July day selling watermelon and only one watermelon for $100 would you buy it?
Folks, that’s really what we’re talking about today. If you had $100 and only had $100, and a guy came down the street selling a watermelon for $100, would you buy it? You might be hungry, and you might be thirsty, and a juicy pink watermelon might be exactly what you would like to have.
Watermelon. One dollar!
In this hypothetical example, the only product that exists is that one watermelon. Would you buy it with your last hundred dollars, knowing that in three hours, the watermelon’s price would drop to just one dollar? Maybe you would wait. Maybe you would wait until the situation improves and you get more for that $100 in your pocket?
The last situation in our hypothetical story is this. Just one hour after the guy offers you the watermelon and two hours before the price drops to one dollar, an out-of-control skateboarder takes our healthy 30-year-old to her ultimate demise.
This was a hot, humid day in July. You had an hour to enjoy that watermelon before the skateboarder came along. You had the money to enjoy that watermelon. Did you enjoy the watermelon or wait for the price to drop?
You don’t know when your life will end. Will it end before you get the watermelon or afterward?
You can do this. Will you?
Folks, that’s “time and score.” If you know how much time you have left, and few people do, and you know how much money you have, and most people do, then you can apply the time and score strategy to your personal situation.
Is this you?
Let’s take a little bit more of a realistic situation. You worked all your life. You retired with $1 million. Feel free to adjust the $1 million number by adding or subtracting zeros.
Let’s say that you know you have saved and hopefully invested $500,000 out of that one million dollars. That $500,000 (or some number) will cover all of your living expenses for the rest of your life and those of your spouse or significant other. For the rest of your life! All of your living expenses. Don’t try to change the story with all kinds of “what ifs.”
Wait. There’s another $500,000!
What about the other $500,000? I’m talking about the $500,000 that you don’t need for your normal expenses for the rest of your life. What are you going to do with that?
Will you just let that extra 500,000 sit in a bank account somewhere? Will that money be just out of your reach and that you will never use?
I know. What if you come down with some off-the-wall disease that is going to require you to spend even more money than you would have expected? That’s possible. But it isn’t very likely. Some people think that very rare circumstances are ABSOLUTELY going to happen to them. I can’t change people who think like that.
Of course, you can insure against these calamities, for a much more reasonable cost, compared to putting a significant portion of your assets in the “deep freeze” likely to never be needed for that once-in-a-thousand-times event.
I am confident that all of the rationales I could come up with won’t stop some people from filling their freezers with money, never to be thawed out again. At least those folks will get to read the story about the Filipino lady!
When I asked you to consider how much money you needed for the rest of your life, a certain amount would go toward medical expenses. Those expenses will certainly increase toward the end of your existence. Medical expenses should be counted in the money you need to get to the end of your life.
Don’t be negative Nellie or negative Ned.
Far too many people think they are going to need far too much money before they die. They imagine the most draconian circumstances that, in reality, have nearly a 0% chance of happening. I fly on airplanes a lot. I don’t expect to ever die in an airplane crash, but it’s certainly possible. I recognize the possibility, but I also recognize the probability.
Most people who have been responsible and lived a long life earned some money. Hopefully, they saved some money and invested it. But here’s the key thing I think far too many people miss.
Did you stay after work to get the overtime pay for the fun of it or because they were paying time and a half?
Most people, I guessed 50% of Americans at the beginning of my message, will not spend all of their money that they worked hard for. Those people probably didn’t work long hours and take overtime and go to college to get a higher paying job so that they could earn money and then never spend it. I’m sorry. People just don’t work an extra four-hour shift on top of an eight-hour shift for money they will never use.
Here’s my recommendation.
In our example today, we have a person who has $500,000 they never will spend. Your number will almost certainly be different.
Here’s my recommendation, my very strong recommendation. Take a little bit of that money and go enjoy it. You’re getting older. You’ve missed out on the time and score opportunity when you get too old to use your money. The money game ended.
When that happens, you’re like the UCLA player standing 85 feet from the basket with one second to go and you simply hold the ball. If you don’t use the time to take the shot, the clock expires. Now if the shot is attempted from 85 feet even if the ball goes in, it doesn’t count. The clock expired. The shot doesn’t count. You will not get the chance to enjoy the victory if you don’t take the shot. Take the shot.
Is this what you want?
If you don’t spend your money, someone else will. Maybe the government will get it in taxes. Perhaps the people you leave it to will blow it. Can’t bring yourself to spend all of that money that’s just sitting there and it’s not going to be used?
I understand. Just use some of it. Go to the Army-Navy game or take a trip to New York City where everything is super overpriced. Just enjoy yourself and bring along a guest. You’ll be creating memory dividends for the rest of your life no matter how short or long that might be.
Ah heck, enough of my sermon. Let’s just go to the big game.
I flew from LAX to the Ronald Reagan National Airport. I think the Reagan National Airport has the most beautiful architecture of any I have seen in the world. I’m talking about old-time architecture.
When I arrived in Washington DC, I hopped on the shuttle to the Hyatt Regency Crystal City hotel in Arlington, Virginia. By using the hotel shuttle, I wouldn’t need a rental car. A rental car for a couple of days would cost around $200. I would reinvest that $200 in other things. Remember, I never do things to save money. I do things to save money so I can then spend those savings on other things.
I am a Hyatt man. I used to be a Marriott man, but Hyatt came up with a better program. I switched. I listen to “Points and Miles” travel podcasts multiple times a week. They all agree. Hyatt has the best hotel frequent stay program and probably the best TRAVEL points and miles program. You don’t listen to these podcasts? Are you stuck in another hotel program? Sorry to hear that.
Now when I stay in a Hyatt, they almost always upgrade me to a suite. They did that at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia.
Tomorrow morning, I would head out to the Army-Navy football game. I bought a single ticket on Seat Geek. Tickets throughout the stadium were going for $600-800 each. I only paid $191 for my ticket. My seat location was in the standing-room-only section. Later on, I’ll tell you why that was a great idea.
Did you know that Uber and Lyft rideshares operate on a supply-and-demand basis? When the demand is higher, the price is higher. I rode from the hotel to the football stadium, the Northwest Stadium (not that great of a venue), which is where the Washington Commanders play football for just $21. After the game, the rideshare fee was $75. Folks, that’s supply and demand.
Because I practice credit card arbitrage, I get 30% off whatever Lyft charges. I don’t get any rebate from Uber. With this benefit, I normally use Lyft.
I’ll remember this conversation for a long time.
My Lyft driver this morning was from Cameroon. He had only been in America for a couple of years. We had a lovely chat for nearly an hour getting out to the football stadium.
This guy couldn’t get over how much I travel. He was beyond amazed that I had been to all 50 states. He had been to four. When I told him I had been to each of the 50 states well over 25 times he couldn’t resist. He picked up the phone and called his friend. He kept repeating, and I have this on video: “This guy has not only been to all 50 states but he’s been to every state more than 25 times each. He’s been to 88 countries just to see cars race.”
I travel for memory dividend creation. I could entertain you, my words, with stories from every one of the 50 states and lots of stories from each of those states. However, it’s a pretty positive memory dividend when you meet someone else and they start telling their friends about your travel experiences. They are creating a memory dividend from my memory dividend!
I was stopped by the Secret Service!
I had my football ticket stored on my phone. It was about a one-mile walk from the rideshare lot to the entrance to the stadium. I waited in line to clear security. The “Secret Service” was conducting the bag checks around the metal detectors. That was pretty cool. I don’t think I’ve ever been inspected by a Secret Service agent.
In a separate location, when it came to scan my ticket, my ticket wouldn’t scan. The ticket taker told me to walk over to another more modern scanner. While I did that and waited in line for a moment, another guy came up and said, “You don’t have to scan your ticket. You can just walk on in.” Then he did that. Then I did that. Although I had a ticket on my phone, nobody ever scanned it at the stadium. I guess the Secret Service people were more vigilant at the metal detector than the minimum wage ticket takers with their ticket scanners.
Standing room only. First time ever.
My seat inside the stadium was standing room only. I had a specific row and a specific “stall,” but there was no seat. I would need to stand. That was perfectly fine with me.
I’m 6‘3“ tall. Whenever I sit in a stadium, I always feel cramped with no legroom and unable to stand whenever I want. If I had a choice between standing room only and I wasn’t bothering anybody else or being seated in a cramped seat, I’ll take SRO every day.
This was emotional for me.
The highlights of the game for me were the introductions the flyovers and the pomp and circumstance. I am not one to get emotional over being an American. I love being an American but don’t get emotional about it.
I must say that I was blown away by all of the men and women in Army and Navy uniforms. Everything that was being done at the game truly did bring a tear to my eye. That was an unexpected reaction.
I like meeting people.
Another highlight for me was standing next to a young man who had gone to the United States Military Academy at West Point. He graduated and was now on active duty pursuing his green beret designation.
Here was a 26-year-old young man with his 26-year-old girlfriend, a University of Washington graduate They had their lives ahead of them.
When I meet most people and finish my conversation with them, I can guarantee that I will know much more about them than they know about me. How is that? I ask questions. If I’m with someone for very long, I will know where they went to school, how many brothers and sisters they have, what kind of car they drive, and what their parents do for a living.
The unique thing about the young man I met today was that he couldn’t stop asking me questions. This was a 26-year-old interested in a man 50 years older than him, or nearly 50 years older than him, and he couldn’t stop asking me questions. I had to do my best to get my questions in! What a wonderful way to watch the game. One of my best memories of the Army-Navy football game will be meeting these two young people. I never would have expected that. By the way, Navy was a 6.5-point underdog. Navy beat Army 31-13. That’s why they play the games.
After the game, getting a rideshare was an engaging experience. It was dark and cold. There had to be more than 100 rideshare vehicles trying to meet up with their patrons. I returned to the hotel, got an early morning wake-up call, and caught a nonstop six-hour flight back to Los Angeles.
I had been gone for about 48 hours. I dropped some coin. It was a wonderful experience. I could not have asked for more. I utilized my time and score strategy perfectly with this trip.
You found it! My story with the Filipino lady.
But wait. The Filipino lady. She was waiting for me. I found her. She found me. This is the story of the Filipino lady.
The story of the Filipino lady.
I live for memory dividends. Today, I had an early morning six-hour flight from Washington, D.C., to LAX. LAX is a huge airport. When I landed, I noticed a young woman with her two young daughters who seemed confused about what to do next at this big airport. Because I travel as much as I do, I commonly help foreigners with directions at LAX. We were in terminal six. I asked the woman where she was headed. She told me that she and her daughters wanted to go to the international terminal.
That wasn’t the complete story, I guess. I told her I was headed in that direction and she should follow me. This would be about a 30-minute walk. Her two-year-old was in a red wagon-style stroller, and her five-year-old was trying to handle one of the rolling bags.
Once we got to the international terminal, I learned that the woman’s flight wasn’t leaving until tomorrow! I asked her what her plan was for this evening. She didn’t have a plan. I think they might have been planning on sleeping overnight in the airport. That didn’t sound good for them.
Then she told me she had a checked bag back in terminal six, where I first met her, a 30-minute walk away. Geez. As Carol says, “No good deed goes unpunished.”
I was pretty well invested with these folks so I started to think creatively. I was headed to terminal three. I have a deal with the airport where I can pick up $80 worth of food and drinks in terminal 6 and then again in terminal 3 for every departure and arrival I make at the airport. That’s a story for another time. I asked them to make the 20-minute walk from where we were to terminal three. Once there, I gave them all my drinks and snacks for the rest of their day.
What the heck? Pay it forward, right?
Then I figured, what the heck, I would walk back with them to terminal six to make sure they got their bag and knew the way. That was a 40-minute walk. I was concerned about their sleeping arrangements for tonight. They were now outside of security and probably couldn’t get back into security today with an airline ticket good only for tomorrow.
I have a little clout with Hyatt Hotels. I asked the woman if she and her children would like to stay at the Hyatt Regency at LAX for the evening. I would treat them. They were grateful and accepted my offer. I’m glad she didn’t have a car to park at the hotel. The Hyatt Regency at LAX charges $75 a night to park a car.
From terminal 6, it would be the better part of another 30-minute walk to get to the Hyatt hotel. I made a reservation. When I checked them in, I used my best salesmanship skills to get them upgraded to a suite. Wouldn’t you prefer a suite if you were flying to Taipei and then to Manila in the Philippines and had to stay overnight at LAX? The front desk was most helpful. My guests would all be having free breakfast in an upscale hotel restaurant tomorrow morning. Then we got them a VIP key to the pool and they were pretty much all set.
All told we probably walked at least two hours. They had snacks and drinks, a hotel suite, and a shuttle bus from the hotel for their flight tomorrow morning. I didn’t mind doing this one bit. I live for memory dividends and this was a memory dividend.
No expectations from me.
I didn’t expect anything in return other than a thank you, which I got in spades. However, I know how these things work. What I gave them will be returned to me in various ways, currently unknown, tenfold. I don’t do it for the return, but I know I’ll get one. That’s my story for today. I think I lead a pretty eclectic life.
East Coast; West Coast; and back to the East Coast.
I returned home from the game on Sunday evening. On Thursday morning I was flying back to the East Coast, New York City to be precise. I would be hosting Carol on a trip to the “city” for six days at Christmas. New York is my favorite city to visit in the world. Coming to New York City at Christmas is magical.
New York City!
This is how our New York City trip came down. Maybe we travel differently than you do. You might read about something that we did and say to yourself that you would never consider such a thing. Perhaps you’ll pick up a new idea. Maybe you’ll come to New York City.
New York City is an expensive place. What drives the expense? Demand. I’ve been coming to New York a time or two every year since I was 25. When we come to New York, the place is packed. Demand drives pricing.
You might think that I am bragging when you read what I have to tell you. If you feel that, then you have missed the point. I am simply providing real-life examples of my time and score financial philosophy. What I will be explaining is my understanding of time and score.
When I didn’t know time and score I didn’t realize what I didn’t know.
I have not always understood time and score. It wasn’t all that long ago that I used to stay in Motel 6 properties. What does that tell you? First, I guess I didn’t value my personal safety all that well. Secondly, I didn’t understand time and score. Now I do.
Free!
For me spending the kind of money that we spent was the same as everything being free. Free! I didn’t consider our trip to New York as costing me a single penny. I took all the money we used in New York from our “extra 500,000”. All of the funds for our New York trip came from money we would not be spending based on time and score. If nothing else, I walk the walk that I talk.
A few details.
Carol and I flew round-trip from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey. You probably know that New York has three major airports: JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark. They’re all about the same distance from the city.
We flew on Alaska Airlines. Alaska Airlines is the fifth biggest airline in the United States. We love Alaska Airlines for several reasons. I’ve had five different Alaska Airlines credit cards in the past couple of years. The credit card we used on this trip allowed us to pay for one passenger and take the second passenger along for just $99. Even though the cost of this trip for me was free, I might as well make some savings here and there so the next trip is free as well, right?
I used the Lyft rideshare company to give us a lift (pun intended) from the airport to our hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The normal fare would have cost anyone else about $100, maybe more. However, I had a 25% electronic coupon with Lyft. Then my credit card saved another 30% off that price, so our net cost was 50 bucks. As you might have surmised, I don’t pay retail.
We would be staying at the Dream Hotel Midtown. What a perfect location for us on this trip.
The Dream Hotel was built all the way back in 1904. It wasn’t a Hyatt property then. The hotel has gone through several iterations in 120 years.
Small, really small and big.
The Dream Midtown has three different-sized rooms. The maid showed us each of the rooms that we were not staying in. I would classify them as extremely small, small, and a one-bedroom suite.
The tiny room was 180 ft.² (above). I think that measurement included the bathroom. The room was just big enough for a double bed and a couple of Spirit Airlines-sized carry-on bags. On Saturday night, during our stay, that room went for $752 a night.
I married the maid because she was good lookin’.
Although Carol and I have been to New York City well over 50 times, I always like to treat her. You need to know that when I first met Carol, she was not only a college student but also a hotel maid. Despite my best efforts, I have tried to change her mentality from that of a hotel maid to a more upscale person. What have I learned from these endeavors? You can’t change someone’s mentality. Too bad. Me? I grew up poor and today my trip is ruined if they don’t give me a suite!
Carol and I were staying in a one-bedroom suite. The hotel maid told us we had the biggest room in the place. I don’t even want to tell you what the retail price of our room was. We had a guaranteed suite upgrade and various points offers from Hyatt. The tiny room was $752 a night. Our suite price was? Aw, I’ll just let you guess. I’m a Hyatt man.
This trip to New York finished off my Hyatt stays for the year. I ended up with 160 qualifying nights with Hyatt, but “only” 141 of those were actual stays.
Of course, not only were we paying a pittance for our ideally located NYC room, but they gave us complimentary breakfast off the menu in the hotel dining room. That saved us $500 for our stay.
When it came time to check out, we took a later flight. Hyatt let us stay in our room until 4 p.m. as they do on every one of my stays. They gave us a bottle of wine and two free bottles of water each day but that’s hardly worth mentioning, is it?
Location. Location. Location.
One of the best aspects of the Dream Midtown was its location. It was a four-block walk to Central Park. Just eight blocks to Times Square and maybe another eight or 10 blocks to the Hudson River. Fifth Avenue was a short stroll away. Even walking down to Madison Square Garden was only a 24-minute walk. If you want a super location, you won’t do much better than the Dream Midtown.
Hyatt offers about 30 different hotel brands under various names. Every time I stay in five brands, they give me a free night. This is their Brand Explorer program. From all of their promotions this year, Hyatt has given me nine free nights in various categories. Using average retail prices this totals to about $4,500.
This wasn’t SoCal and we didn’t want it to be.
During Christmas time in New York City, it’s going to be chilly. It’s undoubtedly going to be cold by Southern California standards. With the temperatures in the 20s and low 30s, it wasn’t all that bad until the last full day when the temperature came out to about 15°. We could notice that cold.
New York City. Lots to do.
When we come to New York, we always want to sample the Broadway scene. We go to a location in Times Square that used to be called “Half Tix” but has gone by TKTS for years now. They sell Broadway tickets for roughly half price. How much is half-price? A lot.
On our first full day, we waited in line for nearly an hour. We ended up with two tickets to The Great Gatsby musical at the Broadway Theater, only two blocks from our hotel. We paid $149 each for our tickets. Yes, that means the face value of those tickets was $300. New York is expensive, but it’s not as pricey when you think everything is free!
When I go to any city I’m unfamiliar with, I will always use an app called “Yelp.” Yelp is great for getting information about lots of things you might like to buy, but especially so for restaurants.
Other than breakfast, every lunch and dinner restaurant location came from a Yelp recommendation. We had only two expectations of Yelp. The place had to be close and come with a 4-star or better rating.
We dined on Indian food and dim sum and barbecued ribs and Italian food. It was all delicious, unique, and expensive.
I love New York for its restaurants. There are many on every block. They have nearly 100 Broadway plays and lots of sports. NYC is a great walking city. There are tons of museums. New York is the most exciting city I have ever visited.
What is cheap in New York City?
Is anything cheap in NYC? Yes! Postcards. We saw ten cards priced for just 92 cents. NYC is the cheap postcard capital of the world.
At Christmas time, New York is special. We walked over to Rockefeller Center. There, we watched everyone ice-skating in the evening under the famous Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
Our walk took us past the Hilton Midtown Hotel. Just a few days ago the United Health Care CEO was gunned down by an Ivy League graduate in front of the Hilton. You don’t see those sets of circumstances occur very often.
I’ve read that a relatively large group of people have cheered on the shooter and declared him to be a hero. I guess they thought the assailant was somehow solving the high cost of healthcare by shooting the leader of a healthcare management company. What can I say about that? Anybody who thinks that action will solve the problem is a freaking idiot. Anybody who thinks the shooter was a hero is a double freaking idiot.
Mansion for sale.
I walked an average of 5 miles every day. I passed by one building that was for sale. It was described as a “mansion for sale”. This was a building that might have been four stories tall and maybe about 60-80 feet wide. I scanned the QR code.
How much were they asking for this property? $49.5 million. How much were monthly real estate taxes? Just a shade over $25,000. $25,000 a month! I don’t care if you do understand time and score. You better have a big pretty big piggy bank to afford that mansion.
I took a walk over to Central Park. Lots of people were enjoying the ice skating at the rink in the park. Others were just walking around on a cold dark day. These weren’t the best conditions to view Central Park, but it was Central Park for gosh sakes.
Carol and I never really go to bars by ourselves. We’re not from Wisconsin! However, we stopped in a few New York bars just to soak up the ambiance and consume some overpriced drinks. We had a good time.
The Filipino lady had her hand on my shoulder.
Remember the Filipino lady? I told you that when I do a good deed, I won’t necessarily be recognized for it immediately. But it will come back to me in the future. This is out of my control. The benefit will come. I just have to accept it. Today the benefit came back to me.
I was just out getting a few steps in, and I happened to randomly walk past Carnegie Hall. Carol and I took a tour of Carnegie Hall a couple of years ago. The most famous concert hall in the world was being remodeled at the time.
Today there was a line of people waiting in front of Carnegie Hall for some reason. I didn’t know why. All of a sudden, the obvious dawned on me. Tonight was an “open” night for us. Maybe something was happening in Carnegie Hall this evening.
A giant outdoor poster behind the glass said the New York Pops was performing tonight. Great! A huge “sold out” sign in big red bold letters was just below that description. Bummer. Carnegie Hall would have been fun.
I don’t take no for an answer. I strolled inside despite this long line of people waiting outside. There were no customers at the ticket window. I inquired.
Somehow someone had just turned two tickets back in for tonight’s performance. They were in the 18th row of the orchestra section. Fantastic. I would take them.
Price? $180 each. I have never seen a performance at Carnegie Hall. This was our chance. Price didn’t matter. Carol never asks about the price. When she does, I don’t tell her. To be honest, there was a small discussion between the ticket seller and me.
I expressed some concern about the price to the ticket seller. He frowned, furrowed his brow, and said, “We do have two other tickets way back in the theatre, but they are not together. Would you like those instead?”
Time and score. Time and score.
I’m sorry. I had temporarily lost control of myself. I quickly repeated my mantra, “Time and score. Time and score.” When I regained control of my mental faculties, I bought the tickets. Was I going to not sit with Carol in Carnegie Hall to watch the New York Pops perform over 40 bucks?
No, I was not. The Filipino lady had me walking past Carnegie Hall this morning. She told me to go in. Then she told the ticket seller that my Bank of America credit card would give me a 10% discount, saving us 36 bucks. That would be almost enough for two cocktails in one of the New York bars we had been visiting. Is the Filipino lady finished with me? I doubt it.
Carol and I had a wonderful time at the concert. They played familiar Christmas music. The conductor was a comedian himself and spoke to the audience frequently. The guest singer was Broadway star Jessica Vosk. She is a fantastic performer and has great comedic timing. Even Neil Patrick Harris came on stage to do a song with Jessica.
From the world’s most famous concert hall to the world’s most famous arena.
For day three we would be heading to Madison Square Garden. MSQ is noted as being the most famous sports arena in the world. We had tickets to the CBS Sports Classic. What’s that? It’s a sporting event that features two basketball games featuring top teams in the country.
The UCLA Bruins #18 would be playing the University of North Carolina. The second game would feature the University of Kentucky #4 versus Ohio State University. Back home Carol and I have season tickets to UCLA basketball in the legendary Pauley Pavilion.
Give me good seats or don’t give me any seats at all.
When I go to an entertainment event, I want good seats. I would rather go to one event with really good seats than spend the same amount of money and have bad seats at two or three events. That’s just how I roll.
I worked with our son J.J. who contributes to the UCLA athletic program for the availability of these tickets. I would still have to pay face value, but I would have the option of getting the very best seats in a place like Madison Square Garden.
How much would you pay for an outstanding seat to see the CBS classic in Madison Square Garden? I paid $650 per ticket. Did we have good seats? Yes, we did. We were seated at midcourt, in row 5, and about 12 feet from the CBS Sports announcers. Fantastic seats. Time and score. I don’t just talk the talk I walk the walk. As a newsletter subscriber, you deserve that right?
If I think just one reader is thinking, “Randy can do this but I can’t” I’m going to frown. Of course, if you think you can’t then you can’t. Doing this does require some thought. Few things are free in life. I grew up poorer than you can possibly imagine. You can do this, over time, if you think you can.
Fudge!
There was just one downside to the entire trip. UCLA was leading North Carolina by 16 points with 13 minutes to go. They ended up losing 76-74. We had the ball with a one-point lead with 15 seconds to go and we couldn’t get the ball up court. About the only thing that really pisses me off in life is losing a 16-point lead with 13 minutes to go…to North Carolina!
Moving on.
The next day, we went to more New York bars. I took Carol to church at the famous St. Patrick’s Cathedral on 5th Avenue. What a beautiful place that is.
We went back to the TKTS location to get tickets to another Broadway show. That would close out the trip’s entertainment schedule. We were done with musicals for the trip and wanted a simple “play.”
When you’re standing in the TKTS line, various Broadway crew members give you advice on which plays might be best to see.
Not a play about a dentist.
Today, one of those recommendations was a play called “Teeth.” One crewmember accurately opened his description with this about Teeth. It’s not a play about dentists.
Teeth? What was the play about? Seemingly it was a play about a woman with teeth in her vagina. Please don’t be offended. These are not my words. These are a description of the words the Broadway crew member shared with us. No amount of salesmanship could get Carol interested in the show so we moved on.
The Cult of Love.
What did we see? The Cult of Love. This was a story about a family and their children coming together at Christmas in the family home. Of course, none of the people in the group, all now adults, could understand and appreciate the values of the others. This created a little drama and a little tension. Not everyone’s life is indeed as happy as it appears on Facebook.
Many people think everybody else in the family should think exactly like them. I don’t believe that’s a good choice. You don’t have to accept what others believe but at least you can give them all the space and let them believe what they want to believe. No harm no foul there. We don’t get a chance to choose our family. On the other hand, if you’re a good person, in my judgment, you love everyone in your family to the max. End of statement.
I hope you get from this message that we had a wonderful time in New York City. We did all kinds of upscale stuff. Trips like this are easier to enjoy when you know everything is free.
Don’t forget the financial message I’ve shared.
In closing I’ll just repeat this is a message about time and score. When you understand time (life expectancy) and score (financial reserves), you will not hold onto the ball 85 feet from the basket with one second to go. You’ll shoot it. You might not make the shot but you will shoot the ball.
If you like the idea that I can travel frequently to places all over the world and do that often and do everything in a first-class manner don’t forget this. You can do this as well! You will have to emulate a few of my financial practices. You can do it…even though you might think you can’t. Maybe your parents or your kids would be better suited for some of these ideas. This is not pie-in-the-sky thinking. I live this life.
Hope you had a happy holiday. Also hope you enjoy reading my newsletter because I have some fun and interesting stuff coming your way soon.
Randy Lewis
The guy who met the Filipino lady