Stays in Vegas

 Obviously, I had a good time in Lost Wages, Nevada, where I had gone to participate in a Retiree Reunion, held during the annual meeting of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

NASFAA is made up of all sorts of educational professionals, mostly college financial aid officials. but also those who supported the financing of students - which would be guys like me.

I was the chartering CEO of a student  loan secondary market, which purchased student loans from lenders, and subsequently collected from the borrowers after they graduated and started repayment.  I was there from 1982 to 2003, before retirement.  At the time, we were a secondary market.  We'd buy loans, with borrowed funds from selling bonds on Wall Street, and then pay off the bondholders with the money we recovered from the students.  We were not taxed, so we had less expensive sources of funds, and our investors also paid no taxes on our bonds.

Ten years later, the world of student lending is much different, without banks.

The federal Treasury Department makes loans now and the organization I created has evolved to servicing Direct Loans, and the margins are tight.  The "legacy portfolio" of loans purchased during my tenure are said to have helped the organization have the wherewithal to survive some lean years as the current administration and the Congress changed the rules of the game.

Fortunately, the management team I left behind has persevered and now is the fifth largest holder of loans in the country.  They invited me to attend with their staff, and I had a chance to see a lot of old friends while also seeing some sights, including Hoover Dam along with other retirees.  All in all, I had a good time and the days went quickly by.  The Fremont Street Experience was my last night in Las Vegas, with a buddy from Florida who came into town for another meeting.  There is this huge mall along the street where it all started, and it has a sort of "JumboTron" where images are displayed several times an hour for about ten minutes.  It was really cool, almost better than "the Strip" where the convention hotel was found, and I spent most of my time.   Thanks for my friend Will for suggesting I attend and to Ray, who graciously picked up some major costs.  My buddy Rick proved to be a good photograhper with my iPhone too.