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Real estate has been and will continue to be how wealth is made. Jumping in during the unusual real estate frenzy of these past several years is actually not the way to create wealth, unless your timing put you in as the wave was rising.
The r.e. appreciations that we witnessed in the past several years were an anomaly, not the norm. The 'bust' that people refer to is a misnomer, it is simply values settling to where they should be. It's a tough thing to accept, especially if someone bought one year or two years ago in an over-heated market and is trying to sell today. There are alot of stressed people in our area, that's for sure.
You have to look at your investments by the decade, not the day. If you look at a graph, stock & commodity markets & real estate values in the short term will look like a zig-zag. But if you look at the same investments over a 10 - 20 year period, more often than not the line will be angled UP.
Real Estate is still the way to go, as well as mutual funds. The markets have not reached the highs yet. This is a country of abundance, and the place many people still want to be. That will continue to feed the need for housing. I firmly believe that we can't run scared because of a blip on the screen. I'll keep my money in real estate.
Most of my money goes into my mortgage, insurance, and various other bills. As far as investing goes, I have tons of bonds from when I was a child (probably around 120 or so) and a few stocks. Right now I have a good chunk of Chevron, Exxon-Mobil (bought it a couple months ago), and a few shares of Berkshire-Hathaway which my dad bought back in the 70's.
I should buy a stake in a few more companies but I guess I'm not "in" on all the good bets. Anyone have advice?
We bought our first home a couple years ago. Granted we don't live in an over-inflated area, but it probably would be hard to sell right now and make much of a profit. No worries though, we plan on staying here a while. It will even out eventually.
Where's the button for "All of the above?" Haha, not like I am loaded, but diversification of assets is the way to go. I have money allocated to stable stocks like national banks, 401K, IRA, savings accounts, and real estate (primary residence). I'm pretty happy with my investments at my age, but I also have a tendency to blow money on a lot of junk... like mathjak107. I like his answer the best!
We have our house and the bills that go with it. My wife has her 401K and another investment (don't remember what it is right now). Since we love photos, video and using a computer, last Dec. we bought a new $600 digital camera and a new desktop and laptop computers. This year, as an early Christmas gift, we bought a nice $700 DVD disc Video Camcorder (electronic investments). Some people we have talked to, that have kids, look at us and say "must be nice" (spending out money for camera equipment and computers) and then we tell them that we don't have kids at home and they say "that does make the difference".
Haha, I know! We only have 16 A shares so we really don't have much voting right in the company although we are invited to the annual shareholders meeting in Omaha (Pop usually goes). He bought 20 shares total back in the 70's but he sold 4 in the 80's to pay for some of my school expenses.
I really should become a more saavy investor but I haven't found the time yet.
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my money
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