Our Money

As I begrudgingly squeezed in my afternoon workout to maintain my somewhat shapely figure, I tuned in to the Washoe County Investment Committee meeting. You’d expect the usual suspects: Comrade Hill-Insky, Eric Brown-Stain, Commissioner Andriola, and other characters sit on this board too! I made some brief remarks, both opening and closing, sharing my concerns.

Let me set the stage: there’s this firm called, FHN, which manages our money. Their compensation and decision-making process are murkier than a swamp in Louisiana. But, as I’ve always been taught, the golden rule of investing is not to lose money. Yet, according to their report, we lost a whopping $29 million last year. The presenter, with all the flair of a C-list actor, laid out a slew of excuses rather than taking responsibility and offering solutions. The board members’ silence was deafening, and it seemed I was the only one paying attention. With 500,000 bosses, you’d think they’d do a better job handling our money. However, the only “bosses” present were Penny Brock and a couple of call-ins like myself.

It’s a spine-chilling thought, how little attention is paid to the people’s funds. FHN’s numerous locations suggest they have some serious investment power. Even a greenhorn trader could move markets ethically and legally with that kind of capital. Yet, we lost $29 million last year, not even making a 1% return on a nearly billion-dollar portfolio.

Folks, I could close my eyes, get as hammered as a DC congressman, hitch a ride with Stevie Wonder at the wheel, and still make a guaranteed 5% return on $1 billion in any market. What’s more, I’d use the profit to pay down debt or invest for additional gains, and of course, leave liquidity options to fund obligations as well. It’s beyond me why anyone would be okay with losing $29 million in a year when, on my worst day, I could make us $50 million.

We must pay attention to what these people are doing; they have no business running our affairs. I mean, have you looked at Comrade Hill-Insky? She’s hardly qualified to manage a second-hand socialist clothing store, let alone our county or funds.

They said they’d get back to me with answers. Let’s see if they do, and let’s find out how much we’re paying them to lose us $29 million while being told it could have been worse!

While we wait for them to tell us and show us how much we’re paying the management company to lose our money, I did some quick math based on what my personal investment team said. This murky fee agreement, which I believe Bob Lucey signed on to, appears to be an X12= .384% management fee.

So on $900,000,000, it would be $3,456,000 a year in fees. Fees can always be trimmed, but this is roughly what we think they’re charging.

Let’s see what they actually say, then show. Can you imagine if we lost 29.6 million and then had to pay $3.5 million in fees to the manager who lost it? That would be nuts, right? We the people need to start asking these questions, and we the people need to start babysitting our so-called leaders as they are failing us.

Remember what Aesop said, “we hang petty thieves but appoint great ones to public office.”

Do you trust our politicians? Do you trust them to run our county or even a lemonade stand? I surely don’t!

By the way, I’d happily do it for free and guarantee a minimum of $50 million in profits every year. If I were to actively invest rather than park the billion, I’d make at least $350 million annually for us. You heard me. My entry into an investment starts at a 35% profit margin—anything less is not worth my time.

In the meantime, get involved. I know we’re all swamped, and sitting through these snooze-fests is the last thing we want to do, but if we don’t, we’ll soon be watching our county and country circle the drain.

Hold these people accountable, peacefully, of course.

Beadles

P.S.

Here’s a screenshot of the presentation showing the $29.6 million dollar loss.

Here’s their fee agreement, good luck figuring it out. I’m eager for their official statement to see if our quick math on fees is close to what we’re paying to lose 29.6 million.