My dream life planned out.

[Skyline]

Sure. We'll use my property (2-unit) as an example:

Mortgage payment: $1200
Rental Income from other tenant: $1000
Rental Income from Roommate: $400
Net Income: $200

The numbers get better as you get more units.

This is obviously oversimplified but I'm sure you grasp the concept. Getting paid to live somewhere is better than living for free at your parents.

That sounds like a really good idea... How much do those usually go for?

If a $100k vehicle is "at the borderline of being pricey but not too expensive", I believe you don't have a good grasp on the value of a dollar yet.

Well for what the car can do, it's not too expensive but it's obviously expensive when compared to cars that aren't Gran Tourer's. The GT-R is, in my opinion, the best Gran Tourer of its class. I know there are a few others that are cheaper like the M3, C63 AMG, whatever Audi has, CTS Sport/V models, C7's- if you don't consider that muscle, Toyota's next generation Supra, etc... $100k is still 100k though. One of my passions is cars and I kind of learned the value to performance and reliability ratio through that- which is why most car dealers hate me.

Why do you feel the need to live "comfortably"? What is "comfortable" for you?

Being "comfortable" is also a by product me being successful. Much like the GT-R, it's more of a status symbol for me. I will be the first one in my family to actually "make it" with a bachelors degree or higher while making more than $50k a year.

Comfortable for me is my own house that I can afford/pay off quickly and basically me able to maintain myself without any help. The GT-R and the house is the "dream life."

Have you considered what life would be like if you were "uncomfortable"?

If I'm not doing what I love and being able to support myself, then I consider that living uncomfortably. Which is actually my current situation. It's not that bad but I can't stand not doing anything, especially when I'm doing something I don't even enjoy for money.

Same question for starting a family: why do you feel the need to do so? Is it something YOU want to do, or is it something that society is pressuring you to do?

I know I'm going to start a family one day. When I'm in my 35+, and have achieved my dream life, I'm probably going to start a family. I just want my life to come first before starting another. I'm also probably going to move up in the ranks to a Lieutenant and maybe even a Captain, or I go back to school and get a Masters.

I'm giving you a hard time on purpose here, to challenge you for your own benefit.

It's fine man. I appreciate you, and everyone else, helping me.

 

[Tenacity]

I think this might turn out to be a very good thread. I am still reading through that old thread from Str8up.

Frayzer how about my car idea lol? You know as I mentioned in my other thread, I buy cars that are no more than a year old, between $13k - $20k, that are in the Muscle Car category like your Charger, Mustang, etc., then I throw another $3k - $5k for customization on it.

I get attention, stares, etc. when I drive down the street and random compliments. It's mainly the customization that's doing it because those types of cars are made for the customization.

I mean it's just an idea. I will never spend more than $20k - $25k for a car no matter how much I make. Cars are depreciating assets.

If I want a particular expensive car I can LEASE it for a weekend, a month or a couple of months and drive it around town then turn it back in.

 

[Skyline]

I think this might turn out to be a very good thread. I am still reading through that old thread from Str8up.

Frayzer how about my car idea lol? You know as I mentioned in my other thread, I buy cars that are no more than a year old, between $13k - $20k, that are in the Muscle Car category like your Charger, Mustang, etc., then I throw another $3k - $5k for customization on it.

I get attention, stares, etc. when I drive down the street and random compliments. It's mainly the customization that's doing it because those types of cars are made for the customization.

I mean it's just an idea. I will never spend more than $20k - $25k for a car no matter how much I make. Cars are depreciating assets.

If I want a particular expensive car I can LEASE it for a weekend, a month or a couple of months and drive it around town then turn it back in.

Oh of course modifying a car that has a similar suspension is like 100x cheaper than buying the "racing/sport model." The only thing you're getting from buying a souped up version of a car is a balanced power to weight ratio(SOMETIMES), brand name, sometimes a nicer paint job, and a badge somewhere on your car.

Let's take the SRT8 Challenger for example. It's about $38k BRAND NEW. The SRT8 Hellcat is uses the same exact suspension as the SRT8 Challenger and it's worth $60k. Let's say you buy a brand new SRT8 Challenger for $40k, comes with about 470BHP. You then drop about $20k on modifications. If it's a Super Charger build then you would be looking at over 850BHP, and 270 of the HP is coming from the Super Charger alone. Now a Twin turbo build would grant you probably close to 1000BHP.

Just be aware that there is a crap ton of math that occurs based off of what your suspension can handle. If you just throw stuff all this crazy stuff on there you might not be able to even control it.

The SRT8 Hellcat has a BHP of 707. The Horsepower, the one that actually matters because the vehicle is in motion so it's the actual power after aerodynamics and all of that, I would say it outputs at around 500HP. 80 of that 707 horsepower is used to power the engine and the rest is sacrificed from the vehicles weight and crappy coefficient drag.

The only bad thing about tuning your own car is that your gas mileage takes a massive punch and parts suddenly get expensive, because you picked them and you need some reaaaaally good tires to handle all of that torque. But any time you want to drag race a Lamborghini or Ferrari, you're going to win 95% of the time. That's why you see Toyota Supra's take down these big names.

If I were to modify a car, $3k would get me a new exhaust($1,000-$1,500), exhaust manifold($500-900), and a pearl paint job($1500). If I don't get the paint job, it's most likely going to be spent on a new air intake($300ish), dampers($600-900), and Brembo break rotors($300-$500 for four).

 

[Vice]

That sounds like a really good idea... How much do those usually go for?

You need to learn how to analyze real estate, because the sales price varies depending on location. You can get a duplex in a bad neighborhood for really cheap and make good money, or you can get one that's in a nicer neighborhood that's more expensive. Price is irrelevant if the numbers make sense and you're netting positive cash flow every month. My own property was purchased for about $190k. It doesn't matter if I bought it for $19k or $1.9 million, as long as the numbers worked, it was a good deal for me, assuming other things remained constant.

Well for what the car can do, it's not too expensive but it's obviously expensive when compared to cars that aren't Gran Tourer's. The GT-R is, in my opinion, the best Gran Tourer of its class. I know there are a few others that are cheaper like the M3, C63 AMG, whatever Audi has, CTS Sport/V models, C7's- if you don't consider that muscle, Toyota's next generation Supra, etc... $100k is still 100k though. One of my passions is cars and I kind of learned the value to performance and reliability ratio through that- which is why most car dealers hate me.

Honestly I think the reason why most car dealers hate you is because you can't buy what they want to sell. You need to apply your passion for cars and use that to redirect your energy to learn about finance so you can afford them, if you're REALLY interested in obtaining one. There's a running joke in real estate world: A multimillionaire with apartments has tenants that drive better cars than him

Come to your own conclusion with the idea behind the running jokes.

If I were to modify a car, $3k would get me a new exhaust($1,000-$1,500), exhaust manifold($500-900), and a pearl paint job($1500). If I don't get the paint job, it's most likely going to be spent on a new air intake($300ish), dampers($600-900), and Brembo break rotors($300-$500 for four).

Again, this tells me that you have too much of a "consumption" mindset. Right now you need to focus on how you're going to offer value to society in enough of a manner that you can begin to consume without straining your finances.

What if I told you that you can have your cake (income producing real estate) and eat it too (buy car parts/make payments on a dream car)? If you spend some time and find an investment that throws off enough cash flow to cover a few nice toys?

Read these two books:

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad
2. The 4-hour workweek (Focus on how he breaks things down)

If you don't take the time to read these two books, it tells us that you're probably not serious about your dream life.

 

[Skyline]

You reaaaally want me to invest my money... Investing is like gambling and I absolutely hate loosing money. I also hate math but...

I'm just starting Rich Dad Poor Dad and I think I might do some more research when I finish the book. I never thought of my financial path that way and it would be cool to own a corporation or two.

Mortgage payment: $1200
Rental Income from other tenant: $1000
Rental Income from Roommate: $400
Net Income: $200

Okay so I looked up a duplex in my area and found a 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom for $56k at $207 monthly mortgage and $220 HOA fees. If I were to buy that and then rent that out to someone, wouldn't it make sense to charge around $1,000 a month which includes basic utilities(water, gas, electricity)?

So after the HOA, mortgage, and utilities I would make around $300-$400 a month in profit. And obviously if the people I'm renting to start using too much of something then I will probably increase rent.

Or buy another one side by side and supply a more luxurious room that comes with better furniture, WiFi, nicer fridge/stove, and a nicer washer/dryer. I can then shoot the price to around $1,400 a month, but since all that crap is technically a one time payment it wouldn't be depreciating anytime soon. My monthly fee to keep it running is gonna be doubled but I think I'll make enough profit to not really care.

So.

Standard duplex = $430~ a month for mortgage and HOA. I rent it out and charge $1,000 a month including basic utilities. The utilities cost me about $200-300 a month. I'm still going to be making about $300-$400 profit on this one.

Then the luxury duplex would be the same mortgage and HOA prices, so $430 a month. Only since this one has a nicer interior, at my expense(could I possibly write this off as a business expense in my taxes?), I can charge around $1,400 a month and make $700-800 a month on this one.

Added all together I'm making about $700-$1,100 a month, just on two! If I get 10 then that's $7,000-$10,000 a MONTH. If I owned a WHOLE block of apartments then that would probably bring me a million a year.

Holy... Obviously I have to pick good locations, decent layouts, stay alert for the value of the apartments and others in the area, and possibly study the area just to know who I'm dealing with. But damn, this sounds nice.

 

[Vice]

You reaaaally want me to invest my money... Investing is like gambling and I absolutely hate loosing money. I also hate math but...

I'm just starting Rich Dad Poor Dad and I think I might do some more research when I finish the book. I never thought of my financial path that way and it would be cool to own a corporation or two.

Investing is NOT like gambling at all, its more of the opposite. If you read the books I recommended, you'll understand why. Basically, it's more of a gamble to depend on a job for income than your own investments. Buying a duplex in a good neighborhood and living in one side is a low risk investment. There are risks, but you can easily manage them. It's the same thing regarding law enforcement (LE); there's risk involved with every encounter, but there are ways to manage the risk.

Did you go to public school? The reason why I ask is because you mentioned you hated math. That's kind of a strange thing to hear at this point in my development. There are theories out there that there's this conspiracy out there to make learning a huge drag for public school students so that they no longer have a natural drive to learn and develop themselves and "rise" up.

The math gets a lot more interesting once you realize what kind of income can buy you what kind of toys.

Okay so I looked up a duplex in my area and found a 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom for $56k at $207 monthly mortgage and $220 HOA fees. If I were to buy that and then rent that out to someone, wouldn't it make sense to charge around $1,000 a month which includes basic utilities(water, gas, electricity)?

So after the HOA, mortgage, and utilities I would make around $300-$400 a month in profit. And obviously if the people I'm renting to start using too much of something then I will probably increase rent.

Or buy another one side by side and supply a more luxurious room that comes with better furniture, WiFi, nicer fridge/stove, and a nicer washer/dryer. I can then shoot the price to around $1,400 a month, but since all that crap is technically a one time payment it wouldn't be depreciating anytime soon. My monthly fee to keep it running is gonna be doubled but I think I'll make enough profit to not really care.

So.

Standard duplex = $430~ a month for mortgage and HOA. I rent it out and charge $1,000 a month including basic utilities. The utilities cost me about $200-300 a month. I'm still going to be making about $300-$400 profit on this one.

Then the luxury duplex would be the same mortgage and HOA prices, so $430 a month. Only since this one has a nicer interior, at my expense(could I possibly write this off as a business expense in my taxes?), I can charge around $1,400 a month and make $700-800 a month on this one.

I would generally avoid anything with a HOA, with the exception of buying a condo in an area that I know I would return to (beach town, downtown area near night clubs, etc.) and would have no problem being rented. HOA's also tend to be Nazis about if you can rent out your unit or not, since most prefer them to be owner-occupied. Plus the HOA fee must be paid every time its due, adding to holding costs.

Added all together I'm making about $700-$1,100 a month, just on two! If I get 10 then that's $7,000-$10,000 a MONTH. If I owned a WHOLE block of apartments then that would probably bring me a million a year.

Holy... Obviously I have to pick good locations, decent layouts, stay alert for the value of the apartments and others in the area, and possibly study the area just to know who I'm dealing with. But damn, this sounds nice.

You're starting to "get it".

Keep in mind that the income from these properties can pay for any toy you wish. If you opt to, you can allow yourself to buy whatever car you want so long as your purchase a property that will cover the payments for it. That way, once you pay the car loan off and the depreciation curve is in effect, you STILL have an appreciating property that throws off cash flow every month.

Also, the game "Cashflow" is mentioned a lot in Rich Dad Poor Dad, you can play it for free online now. It's a great learning tool.

I have a few other books for you to check out but I'll wait for you to finish Rich Dad Poor Dad before I recommend them to you since I want to make sure you're serious about this. I've given DOZENS of guys the same advice and they end up now following through. I'll see them again a while later and they'll see my results (which are still rather "beginner-intermediate" level) and make all kinds of rationalizations of why they couldn't do what I did, despite being in the EXACT same situation as me, or better.

 

[DaddyLongShanks]

Man this board is like a university for the advancement of higher learning for men!

 

[Tenacity]

High Risk Investing CAN be gambling if you mis-manage the risks involved. The key with investing is to take calculated risks and you can't do that without extensive knowledge over the investment(s).

You have High Risk Investing and Safe Investing.

-> Investments that are considered safe include Fixed Annuities, CDs, Money Markets, Muni Bonds, and Treasury Bonds. Of these choices, Muni Bonds will give you the best return right now.

-> Investments that are considered high risk include Operating A Business, Stocks, Bonds, Real Estate, Commodities, P2P Lending/Other Debt Financing Investments, as well as various funds that include a diversified variety of these investment types. A well managed Business will always give you the highest returns of ANY investment vehicle.

With safe investments, you really don't have that much of a hands-on requirement or an extensive learning curve for those vehicles because they are pretty straight forward as well as protected. Annunities are protected up to $100k by your State Insurer Association, CDs/Money Markets are protected up to $250k by the FDIC, your Muni Bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the State or Local Government, and Treasury Bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the US.

Financial Advisers slam people for going too heavy on safe investments because they like to point out that taxes and inflation will make the returns "negative". The reality is that we are in a deflationary period, which means there's no inflation. And taxes are variable depending on your income and final tax bracket. Long Term CDs are going for 2.3% a year, Brokered CDs are going for 2.9% a year, and Muni Bonds Long Term are going for about 3.5% a year. None of these are "bad".

But it's good to diversify into the high risk investments but understand, you are going to have to bring extensive knowledge and CONTINUED management with them to get the decent returns. Either you are going to have that knowledge, or you are going to use a Fund Manager that has that knowledge for you and pay him 1% - 3% of the returns of your portfolio. There are also Index Funds that you can utilize as well but again, that would mean you would have the extensive knowledge and be able to predict how those Funds are going to end up some time from now.

Me personally, my favorite investments are:

- Operating A Business
- AAA and BBB Muni Bonds
- AAA and BBB Corporate Bonds
- Long Term or Brokered CDs

I absolutely hate Stocks, Commodities and Real Estate, because they are founded on Capital Appreciation and that Appreciation is tied to variables that are totally BEYOND your individual control. With Bonds, if you do good research on the company, industry and forecast on the macroeconomic stances as a whole, you can pretty much predict whether or not a company will default or not. With Operating A Business, it's all on your sweat equity, connections, network, creativity, etc. to get the returns.

You can do all of your research on Stocks and Real Estate, do everything right...but variables beyond your control cause your investment to lose value. Like with Real Estate, the value of your property is directly tied to the value and uptake of your neighbor's property as well as the local surrounding economy. With Stocks, your companies could be financially sound, well managed, structured, etc., but idiots in a totally different sector you don't even own stocks in (Financial) could be playing around with derivatives and cause the ENTIRE Stock Market to go down which of course will devalue your investments.

 

[Vice]

I absolutely hate Stocks, Commodities and Real Estate, because they are founded on Capital Appreciation and that Appreciation is tied to variables that are totally BEYOND your individual control. With Bonds, if you do good research on the company, industry and forecast on the macroeconomic stances as a whole, you can pretty much predict whether or not a company will default or not. With Operating A Business, it's all on your sweat equity, connections, network, creativity, etc. to get the returns.

Real estate is NOT founded on capital appreciation. I have no idea why you think this, but I can see why you would hate real estate if you believe that capital appreciation is what it's about. You have far more control over real estate than you do over stocks and especially commodities, unless you are in charge of operations at a publicly traded company or have enough resources to manipulate commodities markets like JP Morgan is allegedly attempting to do with silver.

You can do all of your research on Stocks and Real Estate, do everything right...but variables beyond your control cause your investment to lose value. Like with Real Estate, the value of your property is directly tied to the value and uptake of your neighbor's property as well as the local surrounding economy. With Stocks, your companies could be financially sound, well managed, structured, etc., but idiots in a totally different sector you don't even own stocks in (Financial) could be playing around with derivatives and cause the ENTIRE Stock Market to go down which of course will devalue your investments.

The value of your property is not always directly tied to the value and uptake of your neighbor's property. It certainly is more so for residential property, but for commercial property, the value of the property is a function of its current income. The local surrounding economy certainly plays a factor in property values, but with proper research you can determine stability and growth potential of such an area. Besides if you have a diversified portfolio of properties, one property that's not doing so hot can be liquidated. If it was your only property and you lose it/go bankrupt due to factors out of your control/poor fortune, you still have the analysis, negotiation, and financing skills to be able to start again.

 

[Tenacity]

Real estate is NOT founded on capital appreciation. I have no idea why you think this, but I can see why you would hate real estate if you believe that capital appreciation is what it's about. You have far more control over real estate than you do over stocks and especially commodities, unless you are in charge of operations at a publicly traded company or have enough resources to manipulate commodities markets like JP Morgan is allegedly attempting to do with silver.

The value of your property is not always directly tied to the value and uptake of your neighbor's property. It certainly is more so for residential property, but for commercial property, the value of the property is a function of its current income. The local surrounding economy certainly plays a factor in property values, but with proper research you can determine stability and growth potential of such an area. Besides if you have a diversified portfolio of properties, one property that's not doing so hot can be liquidated. If it was your only property and you lose it/go bankrupt due to factors out of your control/poor fortune, you still have the analysis, negotiation, and financing skills to be able to start again.

With Real Estate there are various operational procedures you can take, such as buying, holding and renting....or buying, fixing and flipping.....or buying, holding and selling.....or buying, holding, renting and eventually selling.

All of these strategies are founded on the value of the Real Estate Property either remaining the same or appreciating. If the value of the property is going down, then you are most likely looking at a losing investment.

When it comes to determining the value of a particular piece of Real Estate, other factors than the actual uptake of the individual unit are taken into play. I have people in Flint, MI that bought properties back in the 80's when General Motors was still pretty much relevant in the city. Those properties today as they come near the end of their 30 year mortgages, did NOT create a profit but instead created a LOSS for them. And the reason that loss came to pass was because of the surrounding factors in the City that had nothing to do with the actual uptake of their individual unit.

GM leaves, people with money leave, the people left behind are mainly lower income, degenerates come into the area and start fvcking it up, and all of this destroys the value of the Real Estate. And guess what? None of these factors are in the control of the owner of the Property.

In terms of jumping out of the investment and selling it, sure, you can do that (if you can find a good buyer), but who is to say you are going to get the full value of your investment OR if you are going to have to take a loss? If the market conditions start going down as I pinpointed, you are likely looking at a loss.

 

[Vice]

With Real Estate there are various operational procedures you can take, such as buying, holding and renting....or buying, fixing and flipping.....or buying, holding and selling.....or buying, holding, renting and eventually selling.

All of these strategies are founded on the value of the Real Estate Property either remaining the same or appreciating. If the value of the property is going down, then you are most likely looking at a losing investment.

When it comes to determining the value of a particular piece of Real Estate, other factors than the actual uptake of the individual unit are taken into play. I have people in Flint, MI that bought properties back in the 80's when General Motors was still pretty much relevant in the city. Those properties today as they come near the end of their 30 year mortgages, did NOT create a profit but instead created a LOSS for them. And the reason that loss came to pass was because of the surrounding factors in the City that had nothing to do with the actual uptake of their individual unit.

GM leaves, people with money leave, the people left behind are mainly lower income, degenerates come into the area and start fvcking it up, and all of this destroys the value of the Real Estate. And guess what? None of these factors are in the control of the owner of the Property.

In terms of jumping out of the investment and selling it, sure, you can do that (if you can find a good buyer), but who is to say you are going to get the full value of your investment OR if you are going to have to take a loss? If the market conditions start going down as I pinpointed, you are likely looking at a loss.

Solid points all around. You can't control a major employer shutting down in your area. However, it would be prudent to liquidate your property if something like that was to occur. The earlier you get out, the less you may be able to lose. However, if you borrowed most of the money anyway, you may be able to break off with little out of pocket, or even a small profit, depending on the many variables. Or possibly even a loss.

Anyway, that's certainly a risk. And one that can easily be mitigated at that. You need to ensure that you have an exit strategy for contingencies.

 

[Skyline]

I'm thinking about going into real estate and maybe start a company with the profit. I had no idea that the founder of McDonald's is primarily involved with real estate.

Do you have any real estate books you would recommend? I'm probably gonna pick up the Barbara lady's book from Shark Tank, since she's in real estate, and also the Kevin guys book about managing money in a business and all of that.

 

[Tenacity]

Solid points all around. You can't control a major employer shutting down in your area. However, it would be prudent to liquidate your property if something like that was to occur. The earlier you get out, the less you may be able to lose. However, if you borrowed most of the money anyway, you may be able to break off with little out of pocket, or even a small profit, depending on the many variables. Or possibly even a loss.

Anyway, that's certainly a risk. And one that can easily be mitigated at that. You need to ensure that you have an exit strategy for contingencies.

Correct and here's the thing, not doing Real Estate and Stocks is just something I prefer not to do because I'm more of a micro-managing type of investor. I want to know all of the what, who, where, why, and how of an investment because I don't like to lose money. I have never lost any money investing and I have been an investor for over 8 years now.

If one is going to do Stocks and Real Estate, you want to be VERY hands on and be able to predict these random variables going haywire before they start going haywire to make sure you get out in time and you also want to be buying up the Stocks/Real Estate at a time when everybody else is panicking.

For example, the Stock Market right now is extremely over-valued due primarily to the low interest rates of the Fed. Every time there's a THREAT that the Fed might raise the rates back, the Stock Market as a whole starts shaking but the reality is, you aren't going to have low rates forever. When the rates adjust back up, you are going to see movement out of Stocks and back into Bonds/CDs, causing the value of the Stocks to go down. Again, these are macroeconomic factors that are outside of the actual SCOPE of the value of the companies you are buying stocks with. Those companies could be solid companies, but their stocks would devalue based totally on the other variables going on with the market.

I'm thinking about going into real estate and maybe start a company with the profit. I had no idea that the founder of McDonald's is primarily involved with real estate.

Do you have any real estate books you would recommend? I'm probably gonna pick up the Barbara lady's book from Shark Tank, since she's in real estate, and also the Kevin guys book about managing money in a business and all of that.

Here's what I would do if I were you. Before you do any type of Real Estate Investment where YOU are going to be the expert and manager, I would take classes, get various licenses and actually WORK for someone doing what you ultimately want to do.

So with this, if you want to do real estate fix and flips (which means you want to start a Real Estate Development Company) then how about you GO WORK for a Real Estate Development Company first? You will learn all of the ins and outs of how they find properties, structure them, the legality behind it, the financing behind it, the various issues that occur later down the line, etc. Help that company get find good deals, fix up good deals, and then resell those good deals. THEN go out and look at starting your own Real Estate Development Company.

It's just like the guy that wants to start up his own Restaurant. He does not just wake up one day, run to the bank and say give me $100,000 to start up my own Restaurant with no experience, no connections, he's never operated ANY business before, nothing. All the guy has is a hope, a prayer and some faith, which are all GOOD, but they surely aren't enough in this case (sorry Church goers).

Instead, the guy would work for someone else's Restaurant as a staff member and then move up to a Manager. After managing his Restaurant for some time and learning all of the ins and outs, THEN he branches out on his own to operate his own Restaurant.

Do the same thing with Real Estate or if you want to open up your own Business in general, WORK for someone else in that area first and then branch out. There's only so much you are going to learn from "books" and classes, I would couple that learning procedure with hands-on experience working for someone else who is currently doing what you WANT to be doing.

What troubles me is that advocates for Stocks or Real Estate, ALWAYS seem to emphasize to newbies that they don't have to do a lot of learning before they get started. They always (and I mean always) push these guys to just run out and start investing to LEARN MORE as they go. I've been on Investment Forums arguing with these guys for days over this crap. I fundamentally disagree with that notion. Rule Number One of Investing is to NEVER INVEST IN WHAT YOU DON'T FULLY UNDERSTAND.

 

[Skyline]

Tenacity,

I'm trying to get an understanding of both investing and real estate. I don't think I'll jump right in from the start but I need to start somewhere and I was thinking about bonds.

Where do I go from there?

 

[Vice]

Tenacity,

I'm trying to get an understanding of both investing and real estate. I don't think I'll jump right in from the start but I need to start somewhere and I was thinking about bonds.

Where do I go from there?

Just read Rich Dad Poor Dad and a few other books; you'll figure it out from there,

 

[prison/con.net]

you haven't researched this at ALL, or you'd know that "public service sector' jobs mean that you don't have to repay your student loans. but it take 5 years of work to get forgiveness of 5 years of loans.

no two people ever evaluate a home or biz price much closer than 10% to each other. That difference can be a LOT of money, on some properties. as in 100,000 difference.

I would never touch single family unit real estate. It's very hard to find people with solid jobs, etc, to keep on paying $800+ per month rent. It's EASY to find a dozen or more who'll pay $75 per week, and those dozen can live in the same building as you'd rent to a single family for $800 per month. So why settle for 10k per year of income, when you can have 40k per year, with the same investment? Why have the place sitting empty some of the time, due to tenant's loss of job, illness, etc? the cheap rental rooms (in the proper area), you'll have a WAITING list of tenants.

 

[prison/con.net]

there IS no "fully understanding" the stock market. Waren Buffet doesn't understand it, nobody does/can. All you CAN do is get the odds on your side, and PRAY that the inevitable mess up doesn't happen to you before you've built enough wealth to be able to ride it out.

 

[Tenacity]

there IS no "fully understanding" the stock market. Waren Buffet doesn't understand it, nobody does/can. All you CAN do is get the odds on your side, and PRAY that the inevitable mess up doesn't happen to you before you've built enough wealth to be able to ride it out.

Sounds like gambling to me if you are relying on a hope and a prayer. The Stock Market is pretty much gambling, while not totally in the same category, it's pretty much founded on the same principles.

You study XYZ company, you say their price range should be between $22 - $28. You see that they are trading at $18 right now and you buy because they are trading a discount. You hold it until they get to the $22 - $28 range, once they are more to the $28 side of things you decide to sell it because that's what you think is the "peak" of the stock unless you believe the company is a continued growth company that will keep growing.

Buffet says the main rule of investing is to NEVER lose money and I take up that same approach. Too many people in the "Investment Community" tell newbies to just jump the hell in and start losing money so they can "learn" how to do it right. That is the stupidest advice I have ever heard when it comes to business, yet a significantly LARGE portion of the Investment Community preaches this.

Tenacity says study, study more and study more, and invest in a way that you protect your principal while getting "enough" growth on it to beat inflation and taxes. If you do that, you are a prudent investor. If you are investing and losing money hand over fist, you might as well have taken that money and went down to the Titty Bar. At least you would have gotten some enjoyment out of "flushing it down the toilet" instead of losing it to the (let's just call it what it is) scam of a financial trading system that we have right now.