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The wealth-building thread
- Thread starter JeffS7444
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And how does one value a crypto token, exactly?
I guess you speculate at what it could yield if it was broadly adopted versus how it is valued based on current adoption. Not sure it would yield anything meaningful to do so mind you.
Tks
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Isn't everyone at the end of the day that bothers with this sphere of financial activity?
I dont think there's anything out there with respect to investing that's going to immunize you from a collapsing market (then again, I don't hold a degree in finance so who knows), in the same way there's very little that would prevent you from gaining on an upturn. Sure you can have investments that mitigate risk, but as all things in life that must give in some fashion, you also mitigate potentially gains (or just have undesirable clauses about when and how your money is managed, and when it can be pulled out).
Well if you want as close to a fiduciary as one could possibly in reality have barring being on the board of directors for a company, is you need to seek out CFP's (Certified Financial Planners). Your investment broker is as fiduciary as anyone else who's interest it is to make money. There's no fool proof way of enforcing a fiduciary even if the entity you're in business with fails to realize gains. This is one of those retarded things about markets in reference to legality that I don't have the patience for. You have a world where you say for instance a company isn't legally required to realize gains, but they have the fiduciary responsibility to make those gains as the primary concern for which they are in contract with you. The amount of subjective legal decion making that one needs to jump through even as an impartial judge (whatever that means) is insane. Entities with fiduciary responsibility are best enforced by the capital incentive one rewards such employee/company for (which is why you have CEO's being paid the amounts they're paid). There's no real garanteed legal recourse seeing as how most people aren't trying to be criminals by violating fiduciary responsibilities seeing as how abiding to making the investor money, ends up paying more than any real potential fiduciary violations. Now obviously you could have brokers or CEO's at the end of their luck, so they're trying to potentially skim off the top one last time in what amounts to an exit scam.
But at that point, I always say.. good luck to you if you need to go chasing for your money through the courts. It's possibly one of the worst things I can imagine in terms of trying to get repayment for violations. I'd rather hire the Mafia.
I wouldn't engage with stock/public company investments on philosophical grounds as mentioned in my previous post. Though as one might imagine, I (like anyone else) would've done well.
If it's any consolation Michael Burry (guy who bet against the entire financial system during the sub prime mortage crisis of '08) was heavily into chasing water.
Seems like a fine investment I suppose. But I don't think OP cares about this. Seems he wants investing to out do his earnings if he were otherwise employed or employeeing others. Which I simply wanted him to know would essentially require being self employed anyway (not like billionaires themselves go off lofting around even after they've made their riches, though granted at some point they're so rich, others make their money for them in virtue of having so much money to begin with).
Uh huh.
Good suggestion the fiduciary. They are as rare as hens teeth and very hard if not impossible to find wrt broker dealers. Individual advisers, absolutely ... broker/dealers ... good luck you will be searching a while (speaking only of the US since that is all I know)
While a CFP provides a small level of improvement over nothing, i can tell you first hand, it in no way provides what you implied. I personally know plenty of cfp's who are NOT fiduciaries. It requires you ask them and see if they will sign a fiduciary oath ... in writing. If they start to dance around or choke on their words, its probably best to move on
I was trying to be polite, but yeah.
Get-rich-quick schemes rarely work out as promised.
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Yes, it is nasty.
One side effect is that if you keep amounts of cash above a certain threshold in cash accounts, banks have started applying negative rates there as well. And the question is where does that ultimately lead. My investment portfolio did very well last year (about everyone did I guess) and I really feel it is overvalued. I am not making any prediction here, just expressing the feeling the market is historically high with some worrying signs. If banks are pushing cash out (I can understand them in terms of business) and that cash goes out to the stock market, it will lead to even more highs and increase the disconnect with the real activity.
Real estate has gone through the roof here thanks to the very low rates. But, that rise is a bit bogus in absolute terms. The problem I see (I have about a third of my assets in real estate) is that while I can feel happy to see my relative net worth increase on paper selling at an inflated price leads nowhere as, if I want to maintain the diversification ratio I am comfortable with, I would need to buy new real estate assets at an inflated price.
Here is another good book similar to The Millionaire Next Door
Everyday Millionaires - Studied over 10,000 millionaires.
https://smile.amazon.com/Everyday-M...swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1631037501&sr=1-2
What seems to be working for my wife and I is the Dave Ramsey Baby steps. We are in 4, 5, and 6 now.
Our net worth has gone from -$20,000 in May 2014, to hovering around $30,000 from November 2014 all the way until we started the baby steps in January 2017. Now we are close to having our first million (net worth) and should be within the next 12-18 months. When we retire (we are both 33 now), we should have around 10 million give or take if we just continue doing exactly what we are currently doing.
Sure, doing this way probably is leaving some money on the table. But it sure is nice not having to worry about anything financially. Things are really good these past couple of years. Bought a new motorcycle last march ( Brand new old stock 2019 KTM 1290 SAS), just put in an order for a whole new speaker setup (All philharmonic stuff and probably pick up some buckeye amps), we have the cash saved for the wife to get a new to us car (a used one that is a couple years old) once they come back down in price. We go on a bunch of trips and do whatever we want. It isn't a question of if we are going to do things, it is a question of when will that happen (we now pay cash for everything).
Oh, we are both high school teachers in Phoenix Arizona. Arizona is ranked as the 48th state for teacher pay so we aren't making hundreds of thousands of dollars.
We do both also teach at community college as adjuncts usually one class a semester (My wife hasn't the past few due to covid and enrollment being low) and my wife has her own youth theatre company and I have a financial coaching company (do mostly for free to lower income neighborhoods). But that is just a little extra money each year, not game changing.
Everyday Millionaires - Studied over 10,000 millionaires.
https://smile.amazon.com/Everyday-M...swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1631037501&sr=1-2
What seems to be working for my wife and I is the Dave Ramsey Baby steps. We are in 4, 5, and 6 now.
Our net worth has gone from -$20,000 in May 2014, to hovering around $30,000 from November 2014 all the way until we started the baby steps in January 2017. Now we are close to having our first million (net worth) and should be within the next 12-18 months. When we retire (we are both 33 now), we should have around 10 million give or take if we just continue doing exactly what we are currently doing.
Sure, doing this way probably is leaving some money on the table. But it sure is nice not having to worry about anything financially. Things are really good these past couple of years. Bought a new motorcycle last march ( Brand new old stock 2019 KTM 1290 SAS), just put in an order for a whole new speaker setup (All philharmonic stuff and probably pick up some buckeye amps), we have the cash saved for the wife to get a new to us car (a used one that is a couple years old) once they come back down in price. We go on a bunch of trips and do whatever we want. It isn't a question of if we are going to do things, it is a question of when will that happen (we now pay cash for everything).
Oh, we are both high school teachers in Phoenix Arizona. Arizona is ranked as the 48th state for teacher pay so we aren't making hundreds of thousands of dollars.
We do both also teach at community college as adjuncts usually one class a semester (My wife hasn't the past few due to covid and enrollment being low) and my wife has her own youth theatre company and I have a financial coaching company (do mostly for free to lower income neighborhoods). But that is just a little extra money each year, not game changing.
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Ramsey gives pretty good personal finance advice for those that need it. But he wouldn't be my go to for investment advice.
Congrats on turning your finances around.
Live well below your means. In my work, I receive 80% of my income in one lump on December 31. We live on the 20%. The rest is saved / put to work.
Oh, and buy investment properties instead of vacation houses.
Oh, and buy investment properties instead of vacation houses.
Another good book is The Richest Man in Bablyon
Thank you, it was a rough couple of years of digging out of more than $180,000 (this is not a typo) of student loan and other consumer loan debt that doesn't include our home.
His investment advice is to find someone you trust and can teach you how to invest. So even his advice is don't go to him for investment advice
We did that and found an awesome investment advisor. I still read a few books a year on investment strategies and all that, but 99% of the time, my investment advisor's advice is what we go with because it is just good advice and I don't have the time to mess with the investments. I do however, 100% track what happens and double and triple check everything, after all, it is my money and I want to take care of it for my family's future generations.
MRC01
Major Contributor
Congrats! When it comes to long-term investing, the steady consistent pace wins the race. The first $1M is a nice milestone but as you know it's not enough to retire on, just a step along the way worth celebrating.
So sad when I think of how late in life I am to obtain a decent paying job (only decent, not great). I will never be able to have anywhere near a million dollars to retire on and I will need to work into my 70s. That is the price for a late start. If I was young I would invest for sure (ethical funds) so I follow this thread as it is nice to read about people who have managed to do things correctly and reap the benefits. Good on all of you.
OP
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Wow, -$20K to +40K in 6 months is pretty amazing.
I hit the wrong button, it should have been +$30k not 40.
This was also using the mint app to get net worth data, and, if I remember correctly, in November 2014 I was brilliant (sarcastic) and leased a 2014 chevy 1500. This was the cause of that flip. The lease was the "loan" on the truck and the value of the truck was ~$50,000. All of that would have been put into the mint app. This would have showed like a $10,000 loan with a $50,000 value. So, in reality it should not have been $30k. It should still have been negative.
OP
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How did you learn to do that?
Our properties are all in markets my wife and I grew up with. So we have a good sense of knowing what makes a property desirable in a given area because we lived there and we commuted from there. We target studio and one bedroom condos because renting to single people or couples has proven to be the most trouble-free; they spend the least amount of time at home and no kids to destroy your walls or annoy neighbors.
Not too long ago we purchased a town home in a vacation area near the beach, and we rent it out during prime season. If I had to do things all over again, I would have done that sooner and tried to amass a portfolio of vacation rentals in a single, highly desirable beach town. Our rate of return on the summer place (which rents for $5K+ a week) is better than the year-round ones in the commuter areas. It's more work, and there's more insurance costs etc., but we have a place that pulls ~$60K/year in rent, PLUS we have a getaway that we can use the 9 months of the year that we don't rent it.
Happy to answer any specific questions.
This has to be the worst time to buy property. It's like buying in 2006. Prices are at new highs, restrictions coming on 1031 tax free exchanges, property tax soaring. The time to buy property was 2009.
It's been a great time to be a landlord, with steadily rising rents and tight inventory.
While there is no denying that buying properties long ago is a great investment strategy, short of a time machine, you have to do something else. We all live in different markets, and so for your market and your situation it might not be a good time to add to your portfolio. We look at every opportunity on its own merits. Notwithstanding your thesis, we bought two places during COVID, for example, and are glad we did. Other particular properties might not have worked out, but those two did.
