Goodbye South Dakota… Hello Florida

Growing up I never had a true home.

This wasn’t due to a bad home situation or anything like that.  It was because my dad was in the Air Force for 22 years.  And growing up we moved a lot.

From the ages of five to ten  we moved four times.  New Mexico where I was born and don’t remember at all.  To Idaho which is beautiful and where all my moms family is.  To the Panama City Beach area of Florida which I loved.  And then we’ve been in South Dakota for the last 17 years.

I became used to moving.  Even liking it.  And I’m sure this is part of the reason I still want to travel as much as I can when I make some money.

While I love it here in South Dakota growing up I told my friends that I would always move back to Florida some day.

I got the chance last year on three different occasions to visit the state and this only confirmed I still loved the state.  And wanted to move back there when we could.

After I got back from working at the investment newsletter in March my wife started looking for a job as I built up Value Investing Journey and Press On Research.  Because she’s a nurse she can work anywhere in the world.

But we were drawn to Florida.  Not just because of my love of the state.  But because my wife’s best friend lives in the Tampa area.  So this is where she looked for jobs.

Why else did we look in the Tampa area?

Because where I live there is maybe 100,000 people within 45 minutes of where I live.  Tops.  And the entire state has maybe 600,000 people in it spread our over vast areas.

This means low to no job opportunities in the investment related field.

For reference when I lived in South Florida there were more than eight million people in just the Miami Metro area.  And while the Tampa area isn’t as big there are still more than four million people dwarfing the entire state of South Dakota.

This means there are more things to do.  More people to meet.  And more job opportunities than are available here.  Especially in the investment arena.

Because we sold our house in preparation to move to South Florida.  Sold most of our things.  I can work anywhere that has internet.  Our daughters are still young.  And we’re already packed and ready to go, this was a chance we couldn’t pass up.

While I will always consider South Dakota home.  I hope my young family and I can build another home in the Tampa Bay area.

This plan has been in motion since April/May time period when my wife got hired for a job at a hospital in Tampa.  And she’s been down there since June working while we tried to buy a house.

Two houses actually.

Apparently even with great credit its a pain in the ass to buy houses using Wells Fargo.  This led to us losing the first house.

We moved on from this.  Found another house.  Have progressed on buying this one and as we’ve finished the process Wells Fargo sees that I’ve got a discrepancy in earnings during 2014.

According to the IRS, in 2014 I worked in Dodge City Kansas where I’ve never been.  And Jackson Mississippi where I’ve only been for one day when I was seven or eight.

If you follow me on Twitter you know what happened.  But for those who don’t some jack ass has tried to assume my identity.  And because of this ongoing process of proving I am who I really am and didn’t work in those places we lost the second house too.

After dealing with all this for the last several months we’ve decided to rent until we can clear this up.  And found out we got the apartment Monday.

After spending only three of the last 12 months together as a family.  We’ll finally be a family again next week.

We’re leaving next Monday October 12th.  And should be set up in Tampa some time after that.

This move will change nothing in terms of Value Investing Journey or Press On Research.

As I told Press On Research subscribes when launching the service… Unless something great comes along I’m not looking to get hired.

I’m going to continue writing for you and growing my Amazon and EBay businesses with the long-term goal of raising $5 million to start a holding company.  And begin building my own mini Berkshire Hathaway.

For you Press On Research subscribers there may be a slight delay in the October issue due out October 20th.  But I’ll work as hard as I can to make sure this doesn’t happen..

What this does mean for the short-term of the blog though is that new content will come to a standstill.  And I’ll only be reposting older content like when I was on vacation in Boise until I get settled in Florida.

While I will have limited access to internet while moving please email with any comments, questions, concerns, or just to talk like so many do.  I may not respond fast but I will get back to you when settled.

And if you’re in the Tampa area or plan to visit let me know.  I would love to meet some subscribers and/or fellow value investors.

Until next time… This time from Florida…

These are the things I’m working on and will post when I get settled in Florida.

• Next part of the Steiner Leisure (STNR) case study.  This time valuation.
• The October Press On Research Issue.
• An article on neuroplasticity.
• An update on a Press On Research recommendation.
• Thanks to Mahesh the case study after STNR will be on Fiat Chrysler.

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