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I am just curious when people started investing beyond traditional investment options. When did you branch out to real estate, maybe business ventures etc? I am thinking about doing something other than stocks/bonds and see if I can make leverage work in my favor. Given that these asset classes are less liquid and potentially more risky, what % of your net worth would you dedicate to them and when?
I am just curious when people started investing beyond traditional investment options. When did you branch out to real estate, maybe business ventures etc? I am thinking about doing something other than stocks/bonds and see if I can make leverage work in my favor. Given that these asset classes are less liquid and potentially more risky, what % of your net worth would you dedicate to them and when?
Thanks!
Do you consider it morally acceptable to default if a leveraged venture goes wrong? Or would you scrimp on lifestyle and pay every penny back as promised?
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Many of us started 'collector / business' investing in or before Jr High. (coins, cars, 4H market animal)
I was late with stocks at age 18, bought first home at age 19 (it became 'investment property' by age 22, nearly 30 properties since)
Find your passion and success coefficient and pursue that for 30- 50% of holdings, but stay diversified.
There are many types of RE and collector / special interest investing. Identify what best fits you and brings you ez success. (Some friends do classic cars, FOREX, private hard money lending, franchises, land leasing, forestry leasing, business venture capital / start-ups, commercial development speculation, inventions, music, performance venues, adventure travel hosting, daredevil excursions...)
Wealth building does NOT come from wage income (unless you are strategically working at low / no tax rate in a US protectorate or war zone)...
I'm getting old, so I keep investments at about 30% speculative, 30% growth, and 30% income / cash producing. the extra 10% floats to current most favorable investment.
Quote:
morally acceptable to default if a leveraged venture goes wrong?
good point!
At age 18, I 'inherited' a lot of 'bad debt' of a disabled parent, which had been lent by family and friends. That set me back MANY yrs (at $1.65/ hr). And directed my path / value set for the future. Yes, I repay as possible (nearly always possible, often is NECESSARY)
Private equity is a great way to lose all of your money. Just ask these NFL guys who put huge sums of money into Ponzi schemes if not investments that just plain bombed. If you insist then don't put more than 5% in private equity.
Whenever available stick to using OPM [Other People's Money].
My father took night classes on investing when I was a teenager. He lost a lot of money doing that.
When I was 25, I was a fulltime college student, I was working fulltime for Minimum-Wage, and that year I bought a Tri-plex. A home for my family and two rental houses. The rental income carried the mortgage / insurance / property taxes / repairs.
At our next location we got a Five-plex, at the next location another Tri-plex, at the next location a Four-plex.
In every case, I had to front some green for the closing. Then each property ran strictly on OPM. I put my salary income at principal-only payments. Because doing the math, I got a great return on my money doing it that way. I never made interest payments from my salary income.
Our decision was brought on by circumstance. We always knew our condo had great potential as an investment property, but we didn't realize just how much money was to be made until my husband accepted a job opportunity overseas and we looked at the comparable rentals in our neighborhood.
We wanted to move to a better house/neighborhood and realized we had saved enough for a good downpayment without having to sell our first home. Market at the time was, and still is, hot for rentals in Houston so house rented well in less than a week.
Then we moved to NY and rented out second home. This second home is producing positive cashflow after paying for everything, so also happened by circumstance, but made sense financially...
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
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When we got an inheritance.
Our retirement portfolio was all stocks/bonds or derivatives of S/B. We however hold no bonds.
really, a matter of diversification.
I have a small collection of firearms that have appreciated quite decently. Tho I would say they are less risky than traditional investments, not more.
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