fyi
I have been thinking hard about your compensation.
I have not been able to get comfortable with buying property in New York City worth something like $11M and letting you use it.
Even if I got the appreciation and you covered the expenses there is no reason to be sure the appreciation would cover the cost of the money.
The place you looked at is super nice and it is the kind of place you should aspire to have assuming the job/bonus/investment stuff goes well.
When you moved over from the foundation I was willing to increase your salary quite significantly.
Then when we discussed your financial goals at first pushing for a pure investing thing I was open to the discussion.
My main response was being willing to make another big increase in your salary which I did.
Then we continued the investment discussion and I was open to that including spending time on the investments to make sure they were ok.
Normally I would not spend time on smaller investments but I was willing to do so because they were interesting and to help you.
I know you have talked about getting a place in New York for a long time. I would be glad to help with some kind of place.
The thing I can't get comfortable with is helping with a top end property that would also be somewhat complicated.
If there was some borrowing thing now I could loan you money in the $2M to $3M range I could see doing that.
I do want you to feel good about your job both in terms of impact and compensation.
We should keep talking to make feel good about the current piece and the 4+ year piece.
However I am not comfortable making the current piece include such a high end property.
I need your help in thinking through. Will call you when I land 7:30pm PST (10:30EST). If too late for you please do not worry.
In mean time — please cancel Steve Gold's house. I am so sorry to waste your time re the house — thank you so much for helping me but I guess it is not in cards right now.
It will be something else someday soon.
I really can't thank you enough for everything.
Boris