Dear family,
Before you go on to read this letter, go ahead and take a look at the author.
Despite what it says… It’s not Sophie. It’s me, Luke.
Seeing as it is the one month out of the year that Sophie and I are the same age, she has taken it upon herself to see me as her equal and temporarily relinquish control of the Famlet.
Now, for those of you who are unaware, March is the best month. Not only is it my birthday, it’s also Grace Willis’ birthday. Sophie rounded out my small birthday gathering with a wonderfully beautiful penguin cake, which was made with peanut butter cream cheese frosting (as requested).
Now, while having my 22nd birthday party surrounded by family and friends was a very exciting experience, it was also one of deep reflection. As I contemplated over my previous 21 years of living, I found myself quite lacking in certain areas of my life.
For instance, I came to the unseemly realization that, despite all of my years of effort and learning, I still don’t own a house.
To remediate this embarrassing oversight, I took it upon myself to embark upon the only purchase where a bank would allow a poor college student to take out a loan that is literal orders of magnitude greater than his total net worth.
Now, you might be thinking to yourself:
“Luke, you’re a poor college student. You can’t afford that!”
“The housing market in Utah is crazy; you’re a fool for even trying.”
“Renting would end up cheaper anyway – why not just do that?”
Now, my first response to this would be “Mind your own business and let me have fun.” Fortunately for the sanity of my wife and parents, though, there is a reasonable explanation as to why Sophie and I have decided to start this early.
For starters, we are not purchasing a single-family home. Fun fact about single-family housing in Utah county – it’s a terrible investment. There are intangible benefits, and there is certainly something to be said about the stability and status that comes with owning your own home, but a ROTH IRA is probably a better place to put your money if you’re looking for growth.
In come something called “house hacking”. This is where you purchase a multifamily property (We are going with a duplex), living in one unit, and renting out the other unit(s). Given some modest property appreciation and rent increases, along with a litany of other reasonable assumptions, Sophie and I should end up seeing returns in the 8-12% range.
Now, let’s get out of all those fancy numbers and turn to something much more entertaining – my newfound status as a Linkedin Influencer.
Sophie and I found ourselves enjoying a Monday evening in the abode of Adam Baxter, who was having a birthday party for himself and his girlfriend (Now fiancée!). Sophie and I like to show up to that kind of event just to show our support, but we honestly only knew a total of 3 out of the 20 people there. I’m sure you can imagine the surprise, then, when we were on our way out the door and someone neither of us recognize said,
“Are you a Linkedin Influencer?”
I paused, a bit taken aback, and stammered out an affirmative response, after which we quickly hurried out on to the street. It isn’t the first time a random stranger has commented on my Linkedin presence, but it was a whole new flavor of interaction to meet someone who would label me an “influencer”. I’m not sure if I’m even particularly influential, but I suppose influencing people to randomly stop me on BYU campus on occasion has to count for something.
In thinking on ways to capitalize on my apparent influence, my mind turned to a business idea that began formulating months ago, and is just now beginning to give dividends.
Warning: I definitely didn’t intend for this to sound like a sales pitch, but it definitely does sound like a sales pitch. Please skip 3 paragraphs if you want.
It all began when I decided that I had too many watches. Watches are unique in that they represent the only piece of jewelry besides a wedding ring that men can get away with without pushing some kind of stylistic boundary. Seeing as that was the case, I had amassed quite the collection of watches, all of varying but generally fairly poor quality. Not wanting to continue the pattern of accumulating more things simply for the sake of having them, I listed my watch collection on eBay and began looking for a single, high-quality watch that I could use in place of them all.
Unfortunately, binding myself to the possession of a single watch meant that I had to be very picky about which one I chose. It had to be rugged enough to be worn daily, and yet sleek enough to complement a dressy outfit. Not only that, but it had to appeal to my very particular tastes, which seemed to only be fulfilled by watches well above my price limit of a few hundred dollars.
Fortunately, all this humming and hawing led me to make a curious discovery – that you can build your own watches. With some online research and a lot of tinkering, I was able to put together a watch that I really loved, for less than a hundred dollars. Seeing some potential there, I ordered parts for a few more custom watches, and began selling them for a decent profit, some for pre-made watches and some made to order – all for much cheaper than you could ever get for a name-brand counterpart.
End sales pitch.
Anyway, long story short, I learned how to make watches and started selling them. It’s a pretty fun thing to be able to do.
Anyway, I’ve talked quite a bit about myself, ignoring the fact that something very exciting is coming up – my wife’s birthday!
Unfortunately, her birthday falls squarely on the Saturday of general conference – meaning that we will be spending the majority of the day watching church meetings in front of a TV. Since most of our day will be spent in that pursuit, I surprised her with a trip to a beautiful aviary in Salt Lake City, where we met a lot of new friends.
Pre-Disaster:
Post-Disaster (note the poop in the hair and on the shirt):
Anyway, as you can see, it has been a thrilling month, full of learning and adventures.
Until next time! (Assuming Sophie allows me to write again)
Luke Wonnacott
