Robert Chase

Recovering Banker | Novice Surf Bum | Debt Advisory for TMG

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

How to get ahead financially:

Housing: Each additional sqft you buy/rent is added cost. If buying, look for places where the land is worth more than the structure.

Vehicles: Your car is a tool to reliably get you from point A to point B. Money spent above the reliable tool threashold is luxury consumption.

Food: Having someone else prepare your food costs 3x what it costs to do it yourself. You're not 16th century king, prepared food should be a treat, not an expectation.

Once you have enough money to no longer need to work? Splurge away.

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

@vrexec @7Saturdaysaweek I get it. I clocked out at 37, had enough and ways to make money w/o having a boss.

Decided I didn't want to be the next community bank president, some lieutenant sitting under the c-suite, or back into production/sales managing a book.

Life's too short.

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

@vrexec @7Saturdaysaweek I'm not saying I agree with the choice either. It's usually me encouraging them to quit, but I have this conversation 1-2x/year.

Prior career was in commerical banking, plenty of normie people now earning 400k+ in financial sales, living on 100k, and have 3, 4, 5mil now.

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

@vrexec @7Saturdaysaweek They're out there, even conferences where FI people get together.

Most common for I know still working "the job isn't hard, my kids aren't out of school until I turn 52. I might as well do this for stupid money while I'm tied to the school calendar"

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

@vrexec @7Saturdaysaweek Difficult to DIY it in high level finance sales / M&A work. Same for high level enterprise software sales.

Not everyone in those fields are leveraged to the tits

[MrFox @MrFox42995]

@vrexec @chasesfish High level M&A guy's making millions are sales guys and most CEOs are sales guys.

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

@vrexec @7Saturdaysaweek How many financially independent clients do you have that still choose work?

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

@vrexec "No truly financially independent person is working a sales job anywhere in the world"

I'm financially independent and won't, but I also know multiple people that are and do. It's more difficult than you think for people to seperate from their professional identity.

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

@Schornack 2-5 treasuries look attractive today with bank cost of funds

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

It's just solving a puzzle. Watch / attend meetings, figure out competency, willingness to take on tough issues, and be thoughtful when speaking.

I've needed city council buy-in / city employees for some quality of life stuff that most citizens want, but a vocal minority oppose. I spent some time understanding the background on "how did we get here".

On non-financial stuff, I'm 1.5 out of 2 so far. We successfully had smoking banned on beaches and city parks. Our neighboring towns did it and we started attracting sunrise chain smoking at beach walkovers.

Working through allowing leashed dog walking on the beach. Piloted it in the offseason, wildly popular with citizens. Now we're working through a loud, abusive, and unreasonable minority of people that believe leashed dog walking is the equivalent of hunting nesting sea turtles. Our two main nesting turtles have been removed from the endangered list.

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

Florida Property Taxes

Over a year of rhetoric / bluster and the end result is voters get to vote on a modest homestead exemption.

Average home price in Florida is $390,000.

Homestead exemption would increase to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028.

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

@invertedfragil1 Especially when we're a city with ~ 65% property tax revenue and 65% payroll.

The good part about Florida, the state is so flush with tourism dollars almost any CapX need is "grant funded"

It's been fascinating getting to the weeds of the budget. Almost no one is

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

@invertedfragil1 Still have a ways to go. The City Manager is younger, needs to have tougher conversations older department heads.

Public Works doubled employee count in seven years and every third person has some type of manager / director title. Cost per employee is pushing 90k

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

@invertedfragil1 Our citizens / new councilmembers are in Year 3 of addressing issues. Slow, one uncomfortable question at a time.

City manager eventually resigned, CFO took over and is more data / finance driven, so things are improving.

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

For local governments, there's usually 1-2 revenue sources and payroll is the largest expense.

IMO - The biggest risk is when local government becomes an inefficient employment program. It is *incredibly difficult* to pull that back, which is part of what my city is dealing with

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

@invertedfragil1 IMO - The missing piece is government leadership that is a responsible steward of money / justifying the use of tax dollars, especially at the federal level.

Don't ignore / defend fraud. Also support and fund an efficient tax code and enforcement.

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

Question with no easy answer...

Federally, it's all peanuts while we scream towards a debt crisis that eventually happens from "mandatory" spending.

Developed country services require a 40% income tax rate at 50k and a consumption tax. Borrowing just extends the "until" part.

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

@invertedfragil1 There's reasonable backlash because of what some cities have done.

My city decided to run a 60%+ increase in non-public safety employment since 2019, raises far exceeding state / federal employees, despite minimal increase in population and no increase in city size.

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

@invertedfragil1 Correct. The question becomes "what's the line?"

Eliminating all taxes on homesteads was a non-starter. Too many smaller cities with 70%+ homesteads, the burden just can't be shifted around. Also politically unpopular to eliminate taxes on a million dollar home.

[Robert Chase @chasesfish]

@invertedfragil1 Makes reasonable size homes more affordable while making larger homes more expensive.

This is a nice win for first homebuyers in the $450,00 price point.

Painful if you want a bunch of extra bedrooms that go unused.