My review of Chicago-part 1

Ok, so I am somewhat delayed in posting this, but we had a great time on our trip to Chicago. I have been 2 times before, but never had spent any extended time there. Each time before it had been for training at a Chicago suburb. St. Charles, IL for Arthur Andersen and Rosemont, IL for KPMG. This time I really got to explore the city and see what it had to offer.

After taking the DART here in Dallas for over 4 years to work everyday, I am a big "fan" of light rail public transit. Chicago's "L" is probably the best system in the country. Everywhere we wanted to go you could go by train and if you didn't get right there, a bus could take you the rest of the way. Also, having the train service both of the city's airports is something I wish Dallas could get on board with.

I was also impressed by how clean the system and the city in general was. You really felt welcome there no matter where you went. The people were extremely friendly and really seemed to genuinely care about their city.

The food was great too. Chicago style hot dogs and deep dish pizza were excellent and Kristy had me try some Garrett's popcorn that was on Oprah that was pretty good as well. Visiting Gibson's again was good, although I remember it being better when I went to the one in Rosemont back in 2003 when I was at KPMG. Geja's Cafe was good too, although I thought it was a little over the top on the fondue stuff. At least I can say I have done fondue now. Anyway, when I have more time, I will go into more detail about other things we did.

Not typically part of being a CPA. Documenting inefficiencies...

There are several things about my job that I think are incredibly inefficient. One example happened today and I think its extremely comical when you think about it and also an example of the mentality and inefficiency of some New York/Wall Street/Corporate counterparts I work with. First some background: I work for a firm that was acquired by a Wall Street Investment Bank about 4 or so years ago. We do the accounting for most of their private equity funds. I happen to work on a $2.5 billion Real Estate fund. We have counterparts in New York who interact directly with the deal professionals. We are not permitted to contact them even though their information is what we use to produce the financial statements for the fund. Our counterparts are also not accountants but rather finance people. They review all of our work which doesn't make sense. Why hire a group made up of CPA's to do your accounting if you then shoot holes in all of their opinions and double check all of their work? Don't understand that one and its probably the inefficiency that would need to be corrected in order to fix all the other broken processes we have.

Anyway, today's example is that an analyst in New York wanted me to rename a package of partner commitment schedules that we prepare in excel with a specific name. Mind you that was the sole reason for us to resend these files; change the name on them. In the time it took her to draft the email she could have done exactly what she was wanting to do. Inefficiency at its finest! Not only that, she was extremely vague in exactly how to name each of these files. Mind you there were 8 of them that all had different partnership names and I was supposed to read her mind and know how to name each one! I also have no idea how they store these on their file server and cannot access them. The have to save them off of the email I send in order to have them on there server anyway!

I think I am going to start documenting how stupid and inefficient this business model is that I work in. I am a CPA that answers, but not reports, to an analyst in New York. I tend to think of myself as not an egotistical person, (not everyone would agree with that statement ha!) but come on. This is beneath me and wastes my time. It also wastes the time of people who work for me and wastes the precious time and money of a company that needs both in the worst way right now. The stock dropped another 7% today. Coincidence? I think so...

Tracking my Restricted Shares

Lets take a moment to review the activity since November 30, 2007. This was the day I was granted restricted shares in the firm for my year end bonus. Mind you that was only 5% of my 20% bonus so good for 1% of my annual compensation for 2007. Pretty immaterial in the grand scheme of things, but none the less...

I was granted these shares with a strike price $15 less than the closing price on Nov. 30th. So roughly $47/share. Today the firm projected a $2.8 Billion loss for fiscal 2nd quarter 2008 and the stock closed today at $29.48. This puts my shares roughly $17 underwater. Nice piece of annual compensation huh? They also plan on raising $6 Billion of new capital, further diluting the value of my shares. Very nice!

Anyway, the shares vest at 75% in 3 years and 100% in 5 years so no big deal if you are looking long term. Buying opportunity right?

Anticipation

Almost time for the highlight of the summer, Kristy and my trip to Chicago. We are flying out on Saturday morning on American (right before the baggage fee is implemented) and returning Tuesday night (right after the baggage fee is implemented). Should be a lot of fun. We are staying at Swissotel for 2 nights and the Hotel Sofitel for one night.

Planned dinners include Kristy's choice of Geja's Cafe, and mine of Gibson's Steakhouse. I have eaten at Gibson's before on my last trip to Chicago, but out in Rosemont near O'Hare. I really enjoyed it then, so I am looking forward to the downtown Chicago location.

We plan on seeing the Navy Pier, taking an architecture tour, and seeing the musical "Wicked" among other things. I also want to have my picture made in front of the Michael Jordan statue at the United Center. Should be a lot of fun to celebrate our 5th Anniversary.