At this stage of my life, I abhor risk...and do everything I can to avoid it at any cost. Hence why some keep telling me to have a much larger mortgage than I am comfortable with.

Pretty sure I'll be filing a 1040EZ this year...and I'm VERY okay with that. :peepwall:

You're full of &&&& too. :D

You'll have to tell me what I'm trying to keep up with? I'm simplifying and delegating every chance I get. More and more equals more bull**** to deal with. I've had plenty of that in the last 20 years. I'm headed for the simple life, my friend. Hope you are well...

You're retired, right Lance? I don't blame you one bit. I don't want a big mortgage when I retire either.

Not sure who is telling you to have a bigger mortgage then you're comfortable with, but they suck. :computer:


Who isn't full of SH%$ around here? :lol:

I just assumed you graduated from Investing 101 already.... my bad. :lol:

All joking aside, what is clearly illustrated in this discussion is the fact that we all have different situations.... different risk tolerances... and our differing ages and earning power drives a lot of these things. And that's why it's an Investing 102 discussion I guess. :)

I am happy whatever you are doing is working for you.

You are still without a cool car so you currently suck. :action-smiley-027:

Well, I'm kinda retired... ;) I'm not working a 9-5 anymore but I still have to do things to earn a living.

Mainly it's those that would rather have my money working for them while working for me that make suggestions such as this. Thankfully I quit listening to those types a LONG time ago.

I have three cool cars, they are all paid for. :D

My strategy will stay similar. I like a small to no mortgage on my primary, invest 15% of gross income into retirement (half into vehicles I can access like individual stocks or an index fund to give me flexibility for opportunity), and take advantage of the real estate cycles. Try to buy low and sell high with investment properties when the numbers are great and the market is pessimistic. This is what I know and I'm content with where it got me at 41. Get rich quick, hardly, but I like the view from the tortoise. I don't have the desire to start over if I can help it.

The hot rods are paid for (of course) but the 2 daily drivers still have a loan them -- why? Because the rate is 2%! (Same theme - I can make more return on that money in a bad year).

Hey, just because Dave Ramsey is scared to death of debt (due to his previous Bankruptcy) doesn't mean you have to be. :mock:

Not all debt is evil or crippling. It's a tool in the toolbox.

Keep on truckin buddy.... :cheers:

How do you think I've bought the 11+ properties I've owned? Using other peoples money. I read Rich Dad/Poor Dad as a young man. You aren't pulling the wool from my eyes. That's a big part of my financial success.

This reminds me of a good buddy in Phoenix. He always told me that he hated money in the bank and he leveraged it all out. He did extremely well and then went broke in 2008 including losing his primary residence. I'm talking from baller status to zero in no time flat plus a BK.

I know you are likely more conservative and have far better income stream than my buddy, but poor economies do come and so do bad streaks stocks and real estate. We've all been flourishing and riding a giant wave for a long time. Sounds kind of familiar.....

https://image.flaticon.com/icons/svg/25/25297.svg

:yes::yes:

Bummer about your buddy. You shoulda had him call me in 2007 .. woulda told him to sell his RE like I did. Greed is a b!tch.

Rich Dad / Poor Dad was a decent read .... in sophomore year of college. 😂

Not sure I’d consider myself a conservative investor, but we’re a dual income family now and my wife’s niche is like death and taxes ... it knows no economic cycle. So that’s nice.

While a 30-40% drop in local RE values (or rents) would suck in theory, it wouldn’t cause me to lose sleep at night. We’re not very leveraged.

We also drive 12 year old and 5 year old vehicles. So no baller status here.

I think you guys are hitting on a few good points that people often over look. Debt has been talked about here before but I'd wager a lot of people, for whatever reason, put their daily drivers in the "necessary debt" category and I disagree completely. My Tahoe is a 2006 that I bought two years ago with 135k. I'm looking at buying another toy that's less than 15k and at minimum 15 years old. I won't carry debt on them. My fiancee's Fit is a 2010 model that's long been paid for. Car's today are very reliable for the most part. Buying a used or older one for cash frees up so much money to be put into assets that actually appreciate. No car any of us are going to buy and use as a daily will appreciate. Unless you can write it off for work/taxes, it's costing you money. Finding ways to minimize that cost is great. Apply that same perspective to areas of your life where it's relevant and see how much more money you suddenly have available. I just think a lot of people aren't willing to truly be honest with themselves concerning what they really need to spend their money on. If they would, I think they'd be better off financially.