Bum Bright, of Bright Banc, the Dallas Cowboys, and other ventures, says, “I decide myself what I want to do. I don’t feel anybody knows what to do with my money better than I do.” One of his better investments; 2,552 acres in Hebron, bordered on the north by The Colony and on the south by Carrollton. Bright paid $164 an acre for the land back in 1952 and has since been offered as much as $86,000 an acre. So far, he’s not selling. “They haven’t offered me enough money [yet].”
Ron Chapman, KVIL radio personality, was prompted by his tax adviser to invest in a Florida hotel that was supposed to lose money the first three years. But the limited partnership failed, and when his partners, whom Chapman didn’t know, wanted to transfer ownership to a Mobile, Alabama, hotel called Cindy’s Townhome, Chapman’s tax adviser was unavailable for consultation because he was in prison for tax evasion. ’They |his partners] told me they sold my in-terest for no cash value,’ Chapman says, chuckling at the memory, “and they wanted me to sign more papers.” He did. The Mobile hotel was also supposed to lose money but instead realized a profit almost immediately after the acquisition due to a hurricane that destroyed most of downtown Mobile except for-you guessed it-Cindy’s Townhome. Its occupancy rate soared to 112 percent. “Once again, my scheme backfired,” he says. Chapman still owns a 3 percent share in Cindy’s Townhome but says, “1 don’t know what they’re doing. They haven’t asked for any money and I haven’t received any in years.” Chapman now prefers to invest in Certificates of Deposit and his IRA. “These sophisticated things I just don’t understand,” he says, still laughing.
Ross Perot, founder of EDS and fast becoming a Texas folk hero, relies mainly on his own instincts and always consults with his son, Ross Perot Jr., before pursuing an investment. “He [Perot Jr.] has a business head like a fifty-year-old.” Perot says, “and I’m grateful.”
A. Starke Taylor Jr., mayor and former cotton king, says, “I do my own investing. I would rather trust my own judgment.” Some of Taylor’s current investments are in real estate, including his wife’s home-remodeling venture in East Dallas and Oak Cliff, and stock in a high-tech firm that is just getting off the ground.
Chuck Howley, a former Dallas Cowboys linebacker who retired from professional football in 1973. prefers taking an active role in his investments rather than sitting back and passively watching his money grow. Among this Dallas entrepreneur’s endeavors have been four dry-cleaning centers, a uniform rental service, and most recently an in-house data processing system, Facts Service Bureau. Howley started the computer company so he could centralize his many business concerns. “I had a great need for a computer,” Howley says, adding matter-of-factly, “[so] I formed my own company and hired my own programmers.” Howley says he has invested in a few small oil wells, but for the most part his companies, which he says are always expanding, have been his preferred investments. Judging from his success, that’s not likely to change.
Tom Joyner, KKDA-FM radio personality and king of commuters, gained national fame about ten months ago when he began commuting daily between Dallas and Chicago, where he hosts an afternoon radio show. During ail the publicity, Joyner was solicited by phone, by letter, and even en route to Chicago. “I had never been approached like that before,” Joyner says. To say the fifty “advisers” who solicited Joyn-er’s business were aggressive is an understatement. Several resorted to booking the same flight to Chicago and reserving the seal next to Joyner. “They came at me like. ’You got money!’ ” he says. Joyner, who represents himself and incorporated ten years ago, invests in C.D.s and takes the “maximum on my pension plan. I’m real, real conservative.”
Ebby Hallidaty, Dallas’s Auntie Mame,conies right to the point: “I spend my moneyon living.’’ Halliday has several financial advisers, “none of whom I pay any attention to,though,” she says. “’I react from my own gutfeeling.” Her investments are all in realestate. Her best purchase: the house andproperty at the northwest corner of Northwest Highway and Preston Road for $75,000.”I’ve been offered many, many times overwhat I paid for it,” Halliday says. Whenasked why she hasn’t diversified, she explains, “I thought I should practice what Ipreach.”
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