Custom Made Sofas as Alternative Investments
I am not recommending this! In fact I have just determined that investing in custom-made sofas is not good retirement planning. Today I received a check for $1,163; the proceeds from a consignment we made in December of 2 beautiful, custom-made sofas from Lillian August of Greenwich (O.K., I had never heard of them either, until we moved to Greenwich). We spent $6,000 + on these 2 sofas, upholstered in a lovely champagne colored damask fabric, and to my chagrin they were hardly used the entire time we owned our home.
In fact I bet no more than 27 "bums" settled into those sofas in the 3 years we had our house. My wife found them way too formal. My Dad thought they were too big. I now gather all of our relatives, friends and guests did not like them. I was sold! And my wife did nothing to stop me buying them! Everyone seemed to prefer the family room for congregating; where the big custom made sofas weren't, and where the big screen TV was; and where you could eat pizza, drink beer out of bottles and put your feet up.
People would sit down on these beautiful, champagne colored sofas with a look of consternation: "Please don't let me be the one to spill my red wine on these!" They looked like the belonged in the drawing room of some mansion- and while we had a very nice home, it was no mansion. So when I received my check today I admit that I was very happy- not because I had $1,163 to go and spend but because I was relieved of the obligation of collecting them in May and storing them again, or of having to cart them off to another consignment house- if no buyer could be found.
But this caused me to reflect: was our $6,000 investment better off in framing and stuffing 2 sofas, or would it have been better invested in the stock market? Had I invested the $6,000 in Google, RIM or Apple or in a cluster of other companies, I would have been much better off......If however I had invested the money in Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, AIG, Fannie or Freddie or in any number of other ravaged public companies I would have lost it all. So my wife should thank me for investing our money in the sofas. I think.
In fact I bet no more than 27 "bums" settled into those sofas in the 3 years we had our house. My wife found them way too formal. My Dad thought they were too big. I now gather all of our relatives, friends and guests did not like them. I was sold! And my wife did nothing to stop me buying them! Everyone seemed to prefer the family room for congregating; where the big custom made sofas weren't, and where the big screen TV was; and where you could eat pizza, drink beer out of bottles and put your feet up.
People would sit down on these beautiful, champagne colored sofas with a look of consternation: "Please don't let me be the one to spill my red wine on these!" They looked like the belonged in the drawing room of some mansion- and while we had a very nice home, it was no mansion. So when I received my check today I admit that I was very happy- not because I had $1,163 to go and spend but because I was relieved of the obligation of collecting them in May and storing them again, or of having to cart them off to another consignment house- if no buyer could be found.
But this caused me to reflect: was our $6,000 investment better off in framing and stuffing 2 sofas, or would it have been better invested in the stock market? Had I invested the $6,000 in Google, RIM or Apple or in a cluster of other companies, I would have been much better off......If however I had invested the money in Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, AIG, Fannie or Freddie or in any number of other ravaged public companies I would have lost it all. So my wife should thank me for investing our money in the sofas. I think.
posted by John @ 7:53 PM
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