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Originally Posted by Vegas69
Interesting info and I always like your common sense, fundamental approach. This quote fits nicely, "Success is a refined study of the obvious".
I'm certainly not saying this was obvious to me but it's not some mystical game either. I'll take your advice, do my research, and place my bets.
I go into Whole Foods for lunch quite often and I run into a gentleman in his mid eighties. Many times, we discuss life and philosophy. Today we got off on stocks. I discussed with him your common sense approach and he agreed that it was a winning approach for growth. He then admitted that he had been burned a majority of his life chasing the get rich quick stocks. It was clear that he had some serious resentment. I'd say that if he could rewind the tapes 30 years, he'd be the turtle, not the hare.
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Investing really is "obvious". I think deep down everyone knows what they should be doing. Doing it - is the part where most people fail.
Numbers don't lie. There's hundreds of websites that will tell you how much you need to retire with. Plug in age - savings amount - how long you expect to live and how much annual income you'd "LIKE TO" retire on. The amount you need is usually staggering. I think what happens is that nobody can actually see themselves ever getting that much money. So they just ignore the advice and keep on buying useless crap they don't really need at the peril of their own retirement in the future.
Let's face it - lots of people get lucky and pick up a nice chunk of change when their parents pass on. Their parents were smart enough to have a paid of house and some savings... Parents were luckier than we are - because many worked at jobs with pensions and great healthcare benefits. Most of us get NOTHING...
Investing can be a bumpy and discouraging road. Fears - greed - wanting only success and never being let down... Freaking out at the first investing disaster. Never learning about WHY they had a disaster.
Let's face it -- even if a guy buys a rental house - and he gets a good tenant that pays like clockwork. The next tenant can move in the middle of the night and cause lots of damage to the property. Suddenly there's 10 grand in carpet - paint - doors fixed - and appliances to replace. It sucks - but in the long term that's just a hiccup. 25 years go by and the house is paid for and becomes a cash cow. The 10 grand fix up becomes a tiny dip in the road.
ALL INVESTING has it's ups and downs. But if people just invest - understand that ups come with downs - and that the down part is just that - a part - in the end they'll become winners.
Investing has to be a holistic approach. At some point people need or want to quit working. In order to do that you have to have some income producing investments - but you also need to have the expenses in line. It's not rocket science to know that in order to spend 5 grand a month - you need to have at least 5 grand a month in income. Cut that expense to 3 grand - and bingo - you need less income. So "SAVING" and INVESTING... can and should be paying off the mortgage BEFORE your retirement - that might take making extra payments.... and you've got to put "X" amount away every month in income producing (compounding) investments to make your money grow.
Funny -- a friends father just passed away. The father had a condo here in Sun Valley... the friend figured it's paid for and they just got a nice freebie.... Well -- it wasn't paid for - in fact it's worth less than the mortgage. Now the friend is saddled with the house payment as well as the condo fee etc. Brings up my favorite saying: Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans...