Annual Financial Update (AFU) – October 20

Man, it’s like Christmas today at the Anderson household. October 20 aka Annual Financial Update Day!

We gonna order some good food, hope the kids stay in bed, and review some Excel spreadsheets together as all happily married couples do.

Honestly, a day we really look forward to each year. A time to reflect on the progress of the past year, challenges, and goals for the upcoming year. I like doing this at the end of October because there’s also enough time before year end to address anything that needs taken care of – max out the Roth if we forgot, make some charitable contributions, maybe adjust the daily automatic investments, etc.

Our annual update is mostly two items:

  • Review Personal Financial Statement (PFS) – essentially a net worth statement, often requested by banks
  • Make some fun goals for the coming year – travel plans, family visits, stretch goals for work or money

You can add more items if you like, but this set up works well for us. A bit of a New Year in October with the setting in of fall weather. So much to enjoy.

Hope you can also celebrate AFU with your partner, or a friend. Cheers!

Hoping to return to Iceland in the future – a fun 2021 travel goal.

Observatory North Park – Estimated Attendance + Economic Impact

There’s been quite a bit of neighborhood angst in North Park about Observatory North Park – a historic theater in the heart of the neighborhood converted to a concert venue a few years ago.  Recently the City Councilmember for the area hosted a Festivus-style Airing of Grievances about the venue.  I live a couple of blocks from the venue and other than an occasional bit of noise haven’t had any complaints about the venue or patrons.  My thoughts generally align with this piece by Jeff Terich of CityBeat.

I was curious about the overall impact of the venue on the neighborhood in terms of patrons and dollars – how many people are attending concerts and bringing energy, liveliness, and money to North Park.  I live a couple of blocks away and it seems to be quite popular but I hadn’t seen any numbers about the average attendance, etc.  Here’s the response I got from an Observatory representative (received on 8/11/2017) on this topic:

“Our capacity is 550 seated or 1100 standing. We do between 12-25 shows per month with the average of most shows being about 80% sold.”


Let’s do a bit of math to get a monthly estimated total of attendees:

Average capacity: 825 [(550 + 1100)/2]  (assuming half seated shows and half not)

Average shows per month: 18.5 [(12 + 25)/2]

Average attendance per concert: 660 (825 x 80%)

Total attendance per month: 12,210 (660 *18.5)  ———>> In a year that would be an estimated 146,520 attendees.


What does this mean for the larger North Park economy?  As a rough estimate, this infographic from event organizer / platform Eventbrite is what a quick Google search yielded.  It’s a bit dated, from January 2015, but as I don’t currently have a data analyst on staff I’m going to run with it.

Eventbrite Infographic from January 8, 2015 – https://www.eventbrite.com/blog/infographic-how-much-do-people-spend-on-a-night-out-in-san-francisco-ds00/

Based on the above, the average non-ticket spending (snacks, drinks, transportation) would be $47 per person, in addition to the average $35 ticket. Multiplying the annual attendance by this $47 per person in spending would yield a direct economic impact to North Park of $6,886,440.  A good portion of this, especially the drinks category, may occur inside the Observatory venue or attached West Coast Tavern.  The wide variety of restaurants, cafes, and bars in North Park would also receive some of this money.

Prior to Observatory opening there wasn’t a major concert venue in North Park and I’m glad there is a place where music lovers can attend a wide variety of performances.  (I’m not much of a concert goer myself and haven’t attended a performance at Observatory other than the Christmas program for Jefferson Elementary, for which the venue donated the space and support services.)  I see Observatory as the type of place that most neighborhoods would pay lots of money or tax breaks to attract – a place bringing money, jobs, and attractions.  Hopefully Observatory will continue to listen to neighborhood concerns as well as operating as a top-notch place to enjoy a night out in San Diego.

Observatory North Park with throngs of attendees waiting to enter, taken 7/19/2017.

Trump by The Presidents of the United States of America. Enjoy.

In middle and high school my friends and I enjoyed listening to a quirky band by the name of The Presidents of the United States of America.  One of their biggest hits was “Lump”, released in 1995.

This song came on Spotify during a ride today and I couldn’t help but replace Lump with Trump given the current level of interest in the U.S. Presidential race.  Here’s the full set of lyrics with Trump replacing lump and gender pronouns changed to male from female.  Enjoy.


 

Trump sat alone in a boggy marsh,
totally emotionless except for his heart
Mud flowed up into Trump’s pajamas
he totally confused all the passing pihranas

He’s Trump, he’s Trump
He’s in my head
He’s Trump, he’s Trump, he’s Trump
He might be dead

Trump lingered last in line for brains
and the one he got was sorta rotten and insane
Small things so sad that birds could land
Is Trump fast asleep or rockin’ out with the band?

He’s Trump, he’s Trump
He’s in my head
He’s Trump, he’s Trump, he’s Trump
He might be dead

Trump was limp and lonely and needed a shove
Trump slipped on a kiss and tumbled into love
He spent his twenties between the sheets
Life limped along at sub-sonic speeds

He’s Trump, he’s Trump
He’s in my head
He’s Trump, he’s Trump, he’s Trump
He might be dead

Is this Trump outta my head?
I think so
Is this Trump outta my head?
I think so
Is this Trump outta my head?
I think so
Is this Trump outta my head?

Check out the video and sing along!