Investing 102

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by AU Doc

Haha! Thanks for the recap!

I started reading this backwards from the newest posts and saw mention of real-estate. It caught my interest because after researching rental properties a few times over the years I've always dismissed the idea as not fitting my investment style. Investing in a management company hadn't occurred to me before, so it's something new to consider.

After that, I went to the beginning of the thread and now I realize the predominant wisdom is more of a buy and hold stocks strategy. Interestingly, that fits pretty well with my investing philosophy. In the last 10 years or so I've probably sold about that many stocks, maybe double that (not counting rebalancing and the like). I still have positions in most of the stocks I've bought over the years. There are a few I should probably ditch, though.

That said, I like to hear what ideas other people have. There are without doubt diversification avenues I haven't considered.

Check with your accountant and lawyer about whether or not they know people in the Real Estate LLC (Limited Liability Corp) business. That's how I got started in them many many (25+) years ago. They've been staggeringly good investments for me. Caveat here -- they are NOT suitable for retirement accounts such as IRA and 401's etc. Do not invest in them with that money!

The other couple of great investments I use - again - via my accountant (their customers) or my law firm etc is mortgage investments - where I hold the mortgage secured, of course, by the Deed of trust.... These typically pay above market (the stock market - which I look for an average of 5% dividend) rates and after the people pay me monthly for years and years -- they still owe me most all of the principal. LOL

Caveat -- real estate is THE WORST EVER investment for liquidity. If you can't hold thru a 10 year bear market or longer.... don't bother.

By the way ----- you missed one extremely important investing strategy that is 100% important here --- not just investment in stocks -- but DIVIDEND PAYING STOCKS WITH GROWTH. You'll read more about why this is critically important along the way.