[QUOTE=Flash68;418769]You did just what millions of other people did, and at least you've hung on and been okay. Many did not make it as you know.

I've been happy renting for 5 years and am getting back in now.

FLASH..

Amen brother.. I am no Real Estate Guru, but even I knew what was coming.

I sold my luxury home in 2006 and rented for three years... I bought back in , February of 2009.

I changed my life forever.. I had enough to buy the Home and retire, all at once..

Many just missed ALL the signs..Frankly I don't know how they did. In the bay area is was easy to see the bubble..Homes just do not go up 20K a month...And when they crashed, they crashed 100K a month..

I hit the curve right at the bottom. my neighbor bought two month before me, and is over 100K underwater...The window was very narrow.

I always say, luck is the meeting of Preparation and opportunity..

Was I lucky ? I prepared for years for the moves that I made.

So to me too, investing Can be with your primary Home, but normally it is not..But 2008 was not normal at all..

Exactly. My 30 year @ 4% will never be paid off early... unless I hit the lottery and get Weld cash. :lol:

FLASH.

Even if I was to get more cash, I would never pay off my home early..And now I am looking at a property that I may purchase at 3.6 %APR. Another Luxury home and sell the McMansion at a profit..

With these rates, We should keep the loan for the full term...

Congrats on your timing...Again, I too planned my exit and my entry..

Sure I wish that I put it all in the market in February of 2009, but I put in a couple hundred grand from the Luxury home sale, and then put down enough on the Home to make the payment doable without any stress..

I knew the home prices would stay low, but I did not see the rates staying low, and even going lower.. So I did not get it all right..If I had seen the future, I would have made even more moves to secure my wealth, but we never know what is going to happen..

But we can sure plan it well if we are smart, patient, and not greedy..Also I sold the Luxury home normally, and I bought an REO..Now I am low balling a Short Sale luxury home just to see if I get it...It would give me more instant equity, but it is a long shot...

That's a whole nuther different batch of tens of millions of people who did that. :lol:

Right on Mike, you nailed it. :thumbsup:

I was lucky enough to unload a few at the right time myself. I also felt the dam was going to give way. I, like most, didn't think it would recede to the level it did. I figured I needed a place to live and I don't like moving that much. :unibrow: That decision cost me a cool 200k. My primary here was up to nearly 500k in 2006 and I sold it for 285k in 2010(25k more than I paid in 2003 not including improvements) to move into my current primary. I did have a 15 year note for most of the time so I was able to recover all the equity out of my back pocket and parlay it.

Looking back, I should have sold it when I made the choice to unload some investment properties. The old mentality that you need to own your home was faulty. You never lose on real estate right? Then you have the old adage that you don't default on a debt. I've seen so many people walk away or I've short sold their homes. Another reason to keep a 30 year note. If the **** hits the fan and you are forced to walk away, you aren't walking away from so much capital. I can honestly say I could walk away and not feel bad about it. I wouldn't like the consequences but sometimes it's a business decision.

[QUOTE=Bucketlist2012;418639]

..I am 52 with 27 years left on my loan..just like I want it....[/QUOTE


You've alluded that you are retired and apparently making this those payments from investment earnings. But I'm curious about the wisdom of being in this situation while working to make the payment. I'm 53 with roughly 23 years on my current 30 year mortgage, and I view it as having to work until age 76 if I want to keep the current house beyond retirement.

[QUOTE=billscamaros;418930]

I'm 59 years old this summer (August) and have 23 years left on a 30 year mortgage.... and I retired when I was 41....

The key is to keep your WIFE working 'til she's old and grey...

So I don't understand your question. :unibrow:

On a happier note -- those of you that own Banco Santander (STD) should see a nice pop in stock values with this news (which is what I've said all along - is that STD was suffering a decline in share price because it's painted with a broad brush of "spanish banks")....


Santander: EU Aid to Foster Completion of Bank-Sector Reforms
Published June 09, 2012
| Dow Jones Newswires
advertisement
Spain's Banco Santander SA (STD, SAN.MC), the country's largest lender by market value, said Saturday that Spain's plans to request up to EUR100 billion in aid from the European Union for its ailing banks should help complete the restructuring of the country's financial sector.
Santander said in a statement that the agreement by the Eurogroup enables Spain's state-backed Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring to "obtain funds in very favorable conditions.
"These funds will go toward recapitalizing those institutions that cannot meet their capital needs with their own resources," the bank added.
The capital injections will eliminate uncertainty and contribute to the country's economic recovery, it said.
Santander and chief local rival Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA, BBVA.MC) are among the local banks that won't require external financial assistance to meet required capital needs, according to International Monetary Fund assessments.

Greg, I know a little about how you became wealthy but I'd really like to hear your story from ground zero. It's one thing to strike it rich, it's another to keep it.

[QUOTE=billscamaros;418930]Bill

Maybe someone else can chime in, but you may want to refinance at today's rates, with a 15 year loan...Some 15 year loans are 2.9 right now.. That would put you at 68, but you may be able to pay it down sooner, or have additional income that could retire you at 65..With a paid off house..

Hope that helps...Yo Greg, any ideas ?

Mike

[QUOTE=Bucketlist2012;418934]That sounds like a great idea as long as he can swing the payment.

[QUOTE=Bucketlist2012;418934]Yes, I'll go to a shorter loan period, but not in this current house. It's a great place at this point where I still have kids at home. Upon retirement, I'll downsize to a house in a different part of the state, closer to my family. I've got that part planned out.

I do live in an area, though, where I still see people my age (and older) constantly moving up to bigger and nicer homes. My goal is to retire into a paid off mortgage. But several comments in this thread regarding not tying that money up prompted my question.

Greg .... my wife insists that she's only 29, so I've got that part covered!

That would take a book.... but I can tell you that really hitting pay dirt for us was more luck than smarts. I was a made a partner in a multi million dollar business in New York City in my mid 20's... Sold out in 1983 and moved back to the west coast... had enough money to live decently and start a new business as a wholesale distributor in the patio furniture industry and at the same time Gwen went to work @ Microsoft in 1984... when they had a whopping 600 employees and PRE IPO... My business went gangbusters and at the same time MSFT went nuts too. BUT and here's the big BUTT.... many of our friends that had MORE stock options than we had by 5 times... they've gone broke and many are back working! We stayed in our same house - and invested our windfall. One of those investments that was made more recently (7 or 8 years ago now) just rang the bell in an all cash transaction (it's public info) for 2.25 Billion.... and we owned 1% of all the outstanding shares... so once again it was luck. For us - this was icing on the cake and came late stage in the scheme of things. We went from a very comfortable early retirement to being able to do almost anything we want. Not private jet rich but set up pretty nicely and luckily at a stage of life that let's us do a few things we'd like to do.

Here's the real take away from what I've learned over the years.... and I'm talking about handling money and watching others mishandle it.

All of us - regardless of where we are in life - have the ability to spend more than we earn.

To this day I marvel at what others have... I look around and think "geezus - how do they do that?! They must be really rich!"

I've stated earlier that all our friends have second homes... we don't. They're all still working, we're not. They have "stuff" and expenses... we have cash that earns income. :unibrow:


Wealth is a variable statement that depends more on the desires of the person than the amount available in the bank.


My Mother in law lives in a great little house... 1/3rd the size of the family home which was sold after an early death of my Father in law. She's been retired since then (1983) and has about 350K invested + Social Security. She lives great and has traveled etc. Buys a new Honda Accord every 4 or 5 years and pays cash. There's the key -- owns the house - no payments - saves money even to this day (in other words she spends less than her income). She doesn't have that much income but doesn't need much either! She is wealthy compared to my parents that never had anything but had a Cadillac in the driveway and couldn't live unless I helped them every month AND I owned the home they lived in. (they're both deceased now)


INVESTING EARLY in life is the key to real success LATER in life.


If you want to live well for a long time - you need to either be really lucky (me) or be really diligent EARLY in your careers... and invest rather than piss away money. Whether that's buying a rental house... and every time you get more dough you buy another... and then parlay that into a fourplex... or you invest in a business of your own.... or you just work and pound every extra dime into the stock market...... ALL OF THESE STRATEGIES REQUIRE TIME TO PAY OFF.

You need to put yourself into a position in order to be "lucky" later. Even if this means you drive your old car for 4 years AFTER you finished paying it off... BUT you have to put that same payment in the bank every month so when the next car purchase is made -- you buy a late model USED car and pay cash and keep pounding the payment you would have been making in the bank.

Wealth - or being "comfortable" doesn't require great wealth. It requires great management of what is available and that might mean that there is some tradeoff in the "appearance" of wealth now for the real "wealth" that will come later.... when all those azzholes are still working as greeters at Wal-Mart when they're 73.... and you're sitting in your lawn chair at a car show in Santa Barbara.


I will tell you something else that I don't think can be understood but I'm going to try to put it into perspective and this is just purely a personal "how a guy lives" kind of statement.

The entire time I was in Italy -- in very world class hotels -- eating at the worlds best restaurants -- being driven around in a MBZ.... I said a 100 times to Gwen "I'd just as soon be in Willows eating Mexican food with my friends" -- and I MEANT IT.

So wealth - to me - is really more about getting to some level of life's little pleasures that you enjoy and that doesn't mean they have to be expensive or the best or the biggest - or the baddest in the universe. I'd live in a shoebox house in Wenatchee and have a used Yugo before I'd go back to work to keep what I have now. Because to me - the only thing I have of real value is my time and no amount of money can get me more of that. :thumbsup:

Dang Greg...

Great advise.


I am still working on my Wife to understand your post fully. She came from nothing, no prom, no money, nothing...

I came from a fairly nice background. My Dad was a doctor, and we had Trawler's when I was growing up. I never knew the value of the dollar, and I suffered for that greatly..

But in the end, my parents lost everything due to mis management of money.

From that I learned a great lesson.. Never to repeat what my parents did.

Over my Life , I have been luckier than smart. Sure I sold a home years ago, only to have it go up 500K in the next few years, OUCH.. But I let it go and moved on.

Now 20 years later, I am not Rich, but doing OK. Also watching and capitalizing on the Bubble from 2006 to 2008 helped greatly..Remember that I had seen the bubble before and I was on the losing end.

That loss prepared me to see the bubble of 2006.. "The past does not equal the Future.."

So, I am working on the Wife to understand why I have put XXXXXX amount of Dollars into Investments that I will NOT touch. I call it my Generator of Electricity.. Without it , I have no power. Or Income..

I have so many friends that will not listen, and want it all now.. I give them tips, and Kiplinger's , ect... and they do the EXACT opposite.

If they live a long life, they are screwed...If I live a long life, I will be OK, and maybe more than OK if I do it right..

It takes years to achieve wealth, and wealth is a relative term. Two years ago at 50, I was given my last rites on my death Bed, and had my Attorney and his Notary writing my will in the Hospital..Now that is service...Costly but needed.

So Health to me is Wealth. And having all my basic needs covered. Sure I am working on the next level because I do want more, but I will NOT risk what I have to get there.

It isn't how much you make, it is what you keep.. And what you do with what you keep, that gets you to the good life..

Great stuff Greg. :cheers:

My twenties was filled with great income and more THINGS than anyone needs in a lifetime. I really think if the booming economy would've happened in my 30's I would've made some different decisions. I made many good ones but pissed away more money than I care to think about. :lol: Had one hell of a time so I have no regrets.

Now, in my mid thirties, I'm thinking exactly the opposite. I have clients that are exactly as your describe. 60-70 years old with two nickels to rub together. They have a distinct look of desperation in their eyes. Most of us have to work a lot harder to make a buck and to me that should really open your eyes. How long do you want to keep breaking your back to sustain your lifestyle? Make the changs now. The older you get, the harder financial independence will be before you're to old to give a damn.

I like your comment about percieved wealth. You can still have nice things if you buy used and right.

Your Mother in law is a prime example of why I said you many never regret paying off your home. She's got a fixed income and virtually no bills. Where's the risk? I bet she sleeps like a baby.

I've preached many times -- about controlling the expenses -- then you don't need as much income if you don't have much outgo!!

Where most go awry is that they wait too long to start on their saving/investing. Then -- unless there's a super lucky event... they're just so far behind the curve they can never catch up.

Then there's the attitude that I run into all the time where people have just given up... or say to me... "well... I don't have 10 grand to invest". No - and they never will - because you don't save 10 grand at a whack -- you save $50 bucks a week and eventually you have $2 grand... and so on.

I've really come to the conclusion that it's MIND SET not income levels or even luck.

When I was in business --- I'd pitch a deal to a dealer here in Seattle and the guy would say to me --- well... if I could have 4 colors in that trailer load instead of 3 you have a deal. Okay then! Dude - let's rock and roll! Same deal pitched to a dealer in Portland - and the guy would stare down at his feet and say... Gee... I could never do anything like that.

Yep! You're right buddy - because you have a failure attitude! They have a plan to fail not a plan to succeed. I used to call Portland the "welfare attitude" -- they always let someone else taste all the success. Seattle dealers had the "can do" attitude -- they would rise to the challenge and tackle it head on. It's why I moved from Portland to Seattle in 1984... It was all about the attitude.

Thanks for sharing Greg. Lots of real lessons in your stories.

A truer word has never been spoken.

I always say....ATTITUDE is ALTITUDE..:thumbsup:


Bad attitude and you are with the Turkey's...On the ground

Great attitude and you fly with the Eagle's...High in the Sky.

A survivalist once said that if you put two people in the jungle and the expert has the bad attitude, and the rookie has the great attitude..The rookie will find a way to survive, and the whiner will die..

Also how you talk to yourself....If you say"WHY is this happening to me", you will find an answer to make you happy, but you WON'T succeed.

If you ask yourself, "HOW am I going to fix this or do this", you will also find the answer and you WILL succeed..

I have used these techniques since 1989.. And they work..

Also surround yourself with successful people. They leave clues to success and tales of their failures, and that will accelerate your learning curve..

Amen, Thanks Greg...

You get me motivated even more than I am, and when I share my thoughts to you guys, it just makes me better at what I do.:cheers: :woot:

Well.... we're really just blabbing... no different than hanging out at the track or in the "shed"... but to me - it's all good discussion. And frankly - people don't have enough of these kinds of discussions.

:cheers:

Absolutely. A detour from car-related BS is a good thing sometimes. :woot:

Also some guys may be reading and not posting, and they will learn things that are very important in Life..

It is called taking control of your life and your surroundings. I know I do, and I know you guys do..

But for those that don't , there is more to investing than just buying something.

It is a mind set..

Speaking of Cars...Now that I have the car built, I may want to freshen up my LT-1... No LS since it is a number's matching Car, but it is almost time for some wicked power...

I have 20K miles on it now, and in Dog years, that is 140K miles...It has been run hard...

Pull the LT-1 out and build another motor so as not to damage the original motor. Or, put an LT1 in there and build it :D

More people need to discuss money. We would all be better off. Unfortunately, not only are we a materialistic society but we are also American. We wanted all yesterday. If we all do our part to help and control ourselves, maybe others will take notice as well and start following the lead we've set. I've given up on trying to outright convince people. All I can do is set the example and go from there. At least that's my attitude anyway.

I don't know who said "money can't buy you happiness".... but they must have been broke because they sure as hell didn't know what they were talking about!

Profiting on the Greek Crash?
 

I just read about many Europeans shuffling out of the Euro and into properties in London (and the GBP).

So, if (and that's a big "if") Greece leaves the Euro and goes back to the Drachma, the currency is devalued (to meet the current government needs) and / or crashes, will you try to take advantage of the situation? What will you do?

I suspect there will be a fair amount of chaos when this happens.

Personally, I hope and pray for the very best for the present southern Euro-zone. It is a very difficult time, with 22% unemployment in Greece and 24.4% in Spain.

http://rt.com/business/news/greek-dr...rg-trades-769/

Thoughts?

I agree with the attitude comments 100% but it's not that easy. I always tell Kelli, when I feel good, attitude isn't a problem. Nothing puts a big hitch in my giddy up. I'm one of those guys that never gets a really good nights sleep for multiple reasons. I offset that with eating better and excercising. There are days when I'm junk. Tired as hell and absolutely no motivation. I know my boy Dave can relate with his health problems. The older I get, the more crucial diet and exercise have become. We all know people that live like complete slobs and seem to have endles energy. That's not me. Without health, the rest doesn't matter.

I can relate......diet and excercise are extremely important as we get older and a good nights sleep probably tops the list. If I practiced as much as I preached I'd probably look like Shwarzenager.
Might be time for a Lat-G diet and excercise thread/sticky.....discussions on healthy meals and work out programs.......might help motivate?

Man did you say a mouthful of truth.. I was a man who was conquering the earth until 2 years ago when I had my Major Heart Infection that turned into a major brain lesion/seizure.. It has been a long road back.

Your words of Sleep Problems and your use of the word "junk", are the exact words I use to describe myself some days. In fact I was just thinking about my Diet 10 minutes ago when I got back outta bed. I would have sworn that I had written your post. WOW..

I still have the great attitude that I speak of, but I get EXACTLY what you are saying... The reason you have not seen me at an event to spank my car and send me home, is because of my feelings of "junk".. I am a newbie/old guy, and I know i would not win an event, but I don't come because I cannot plan to drive and hang out and then race, and then drive home..It is just too dangerous and not good for my health...

I have and am having more sleep tests, and I haven't worked in 2 years. Thank God that I have my investments. I planned to work until I was 57 or so, but it had to happen at 50..

Man, your post hit Home hard Todd... I hope you and I and others get through the exhaustion..

I am working on my Diet and the exercise is something I need to get back too soon. But being exhausted and trying to exercise may cause another seizure, so I gotta be careful.

Mike

Health is definately key. I stopped drinking 3 years ago just to stop, I didn't have a problem drinking or any health concerns, I just woke up one day and had enough. Now I watch my diet and feel good. Of course, like most, my sleep usually consists of 4 or 5 hours which isn't healthy IMO. Once I take care of the sleeping issues and my investments continue upward, the wealth shall follow.

This thread is full of great info. I am sure I have missed some things here and there, but I am curious if anybody is familiar with or participates in Infinite Banking. It is a concept I am looking into as a piece of my investment strategy. Interested to see if anybody has any experience or thoughts.

Don't bother with schemes and "tax advantaged" pitches... just save up excess cash and invest it properly and forget all the other stuff.

Anything that involves life insurance is a joke... just do it the right way and you'll be farther ahead.

Since I don't invest in Mutual Funds or have a 401K or IRA --- I wasn't aware that there were rules changes about FINALLY showing the actual costs for participants to be in these plans!


http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_new...ticipants?lite

Good to know.

I only have 10% of my assets in a 401K, so it will be nice to know the mumbo jumbo fees..

90% of my assets (investable), are in Schwab.

I get several "on line" investing letters -- I glance at them and try to find any nugget of info that may be something of interest. This morning one was touting British Petroleum (BP) and their 5% dividend.

After a quick read - I went to Schwab to research this name.

Remember this is the very company that recently had the big Gulf spill -- so has some HUGE potential liabilities etc.... BUT sometimes you can catch a beaten up stock like this and make some money when it rebounds.... so the name was at least worth a quick look.

BUT -- Here is why I'm posting.... true the dividend is 5% - true it's been beaten down.... BUT MY FRIENDS -- DO NOT FORGET TO CHECK THAT TOTAL RETURN and this thing is a GIANT PIG..... It has a NEGATIVE T/R for one year - 3 year and 5 year!!! It's 5 year T/R is MINUS 29%

So this is just a reminder -- before you buy - DO THE WORK! And don't forget that what gets you way ahead of the game is a stock that pays you a dividend AND has growth too! If they don't -- move on.....

When BP dropped like a rock after the spill, I looked at it but passed on it.. From the outside , it looked like something that would rise back up. But like you said, once you peeled back the layers, it was not worth it.. :cheers:

awww c'mon guys. youre hurting my feelings now:mad:

(I work for bp up here in washington!)

They never spilled any oil -- not their fault -- and they never inhaled....


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

yeah, it was all Halliburton's fault. Oh wait.......:rofl: :D

I imagine BP will eventually rebound but it may be a number of years and they may have to go through some major changes first. I'm not willing to wait or gamble so no BP for me.

Between Kevin Costner lending his knowledge and attempting to plug the hole with multiple "junk shots" I don't what we could have done differently:rolleyes:

Honestly though my take on bp, and i must admit im a little biased, is that the only major unknown remaining with the gulf spill is what the EPA is going to fine for the spill. Since the government basically gives the EPA whatever they want whenever they want and never seems to question them, they can either fine bp to the point where it makes it a very hard and long road to recovery...or they can impose a reasonable fine based off what bp has already payed out to help fix the situation. I strongly feel that if the latter is done, then investors may have more confidence in the company and the stock price will rise. But, im not expert and my guess is as good as anybodys, its just my take!

Aman....

A lot went on behind the scenes and the blame game is hard to figure out..

You are still our Lat-G brother, no matter where you work.. :cheers:

Was it BP. Halliburton, or someone else at fault ? For me, it is impossible to say, so I will not throw stones at anyone...:thumbsup: