The Noetic Monk Retirement Fund (NMRF)

It's good to have great friends. A few months back, I was confiding in my longtime good buddy Pete that I wasn't doing as well as I had expected trading leveraged ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds). After all, I've continued to short the market during one of the biggest rallies in history. Silly me, I refused to believe that we were out of our economic crisis. Those Wall Street guys get paid the big bucks because they are sophisticated enough to see beyond the record unemployment, declines in profits, record deficits, and weak dollar. With the return of their multi-million dollar bonuses, I'm sure it seems to them that the worst is over. Silly, naive and broke me for not looking beyond the details. Fortunately, to the rescue comes my friend.

Pete likes to run -- one of the several things he does that makes no sense to me. He offered to turn his morning jaunts into a charitable cause. As he runs, he is scanning sidewalks and curbs for coins that were dropped overnight. He is donating 1/2 of everything he finds to the NMRF. This allows for him to feel that he is supporting the worthiest of causes and allows me to feel like a real monk by retiring on donated money. So far, the pot stands at $9.44. The plan is to take the collected monies to Reno/Lake Tahoe next February when we will meet for the 32nd consecutive year and place strategic bets that will grow the fund exponentially, enabling us both to retire in the manner to which we wish to become accustomed - or at least to something better than the freeway offramp that otherwise awaits. His job is collecting the money -- my job is writing this blog and choosing how to place the bets using my Noetic Monk insight skills.

It sounds like a plan to me, but I wonder if Pete has considered that my Noetic Monk insight skills had me shorting one of the biggest rallies on Wall Street. Those guides like to mess with me sometimes. Still, I'm expecting the guidance will be tuned in and turned up by then.

Should anyone like to contribute to the cause, the easiest way would be to drop your spare change along his running route in Kirkland, WA - we'll sketch out a map for you along the East side of Lake Washington. This will not only provide the needed financial support, but will also serve to motivate our star runner to continue the cause during those dreary winter months in the Seattle area. Alternatively, perhaps you'd like to collect coins while doing something you like to do. We can meet in the High Sierra next February for a few days of skiing, gambling and meditation -- all for a good cause that is dear to my heart.