minke nerve: Memory Lane? It's Been 40 Years Since I Walked There

Monday, January 7, 2013

Memory Lane? It's Been 40 Years Since I Walked There

I had to go to San Jose this week. The last time I was there was 1972.

I'll be 70 this year. I needed to get some documents from the county recorder for my social security application. I've been putting this off for several years but now I can't put it off any longer. I rationalized my inaction by telling myself that my benefit will increase by 8% for every year I don't take it. BUT, that is only true up to age 70. It freezes at? that level (subject to COLA increases? only). So now is the time to get it started.

So we drove to San Jose. Five Hundred Miles away from home.

San Jose was a sleepy little town when I lived there. Silicon Valley didn't exist then. It came a few years later.

We stayed at the Hilton?near Great America. That didn't exist then either. As a matter of fact it was just a salt marsh back then. Land nobody wanted. If I only knew then what I know now. A fortune could have been made.

I visited my alma mater, San Jose State. It's not the same either. There is a brand new Business School building. Very imposing. The old business classrooms have been turned over to the Engineering Department. Interesting values.

I spent a year at the University of Santa Clara law school. So we visited there also. Wow! The campus is beautiful. Streets have been closed off. Many new facilities have been built. I was lost. But the law school was still there. I had pangs of regret. Oh well. I walked down a different road. I chose real estate instead. I am?still glad I did. What I learned there helped me for sure, but it didn't grab my heart like real estate did.

My last memory to be refreshed was of my first house. It was a small three bedroom tract house that I bought for $18,000. There was a?prune orchard across the street. Well, the house was still there but the orchard wasn't. Another missed opportunity? Who knows? Anyway the current owners were taking good care of the house, but then they paid a lot more for it than I did.

Lessons learned or reinforced by my stroll down memory lane: real estate endures, change happens, fortunes can be made buying before the changes take place.

It was a very good week.