Let’s challenge these assumptions!
Click download link to listen on this device: Download Show
It was really fun! Thanks Lore
Big Al
When you back out mortgage interest, repairs, real “real estate investments” looking forward to a realtor fee to rub salt in the wound.
“You should live in the most modest home your wife will let you!”
What I meant to type:
When you back out mortgage interest, repairs, real estate taxes most people are underwater in their “real estate investments” looking forward to a realtor fee to rub salt in the wound.
“You should live in the most modest home your wife will let you!”
I always did wonder about the 5% to 7% commission. Seems a bit exorbitant to me!
Big Al
Don’t think I’ve forgotten that line, Dennis.
Ditch the wife and live even cheaper! 🙂
No thnx.
Think I’ll hang onto my adult supervision, aka the designated driver!
ALWAYS THE BEST WAY TO GO, BJ!
Big Al
Amen BJ!
I would have a real problem without the Little Blonde Lady!
Big Al
From a Bob Hope celebrity roast:
Don Rickles or Milton Berle or someone reading a letter, to Bob:
“You told me that when you made it big, you’d come back and get me. That was 30 years ago, and I’m still here. Come back home, now. Signed, your wife.”
I am usually fairly fully in the stockmarket, but sometimes modtly long, sometimes mostly short.
If what you said about real estate were true. Please explain how the richest people on average made their money in real estate. Read Forbes list.
All timing cfs.
But you know that!
Big Al
How many have made any money in real estate since 2008?
How many have lost life savings ,their relationships,their careers in real estate and the stock markets?
In Indonesia I can buy a new one bedroom house for $4,500.
The Canadian and US stock markets are a scam. The real estate market was a bubble scam.
Physical gold and silver,royalty companies and mining trusts along with gold and silver bullion have provided the only safe havens in the resource arena,bar some miracle company that has done everything right.
It’s funny that Al says you’re an idiot if you don’t diversify. Some very notable people feel otherwise. I agree with them.
“Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense to those who know what they are doing.”
“Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.” –Warren Buffett
“Diversification is something that stock brokers came up with to protect themselves, so they wouldn’t get sued for making bad investment choices for clients.”
“The way to get rich is to put your eggs in one basket, but watch that basket very carefully. And make sure you have the right basket.”
–Jim Rogers
I would rather consider increasing my allocation to gold bullion than to invest in sectors that are still in a bear market. Until there are real solutions to the global debt problem, everything except gold is a speculation of sorts. Cash is still king in this environment and the king of cash is GOLD.
I stand by my belief in diversification.
Nothing personal, just what I believe!
Big Al
Al, you made it personal when called people who don’t diversify “idiots”. The “right” way is the way that works for each individual. Some (most) people should diversify, but those who dedicate themselves to understanding their investments, and are “hands-on,” are likely to maximize their gains by focusing their capital on one sector. Sprott is another who does this. It sure has worked for me, too.
Cut housing prices by 60% and they will get compelling.
As for getting a college education, certainly many degrees are a waste of time and are a form of status seeking, but the problem is try to get by without one!!
Truth is, most employers should look for high IQ, good work ethic and then compatability when selecting employees for jobs.
College degrees are largely an inefficient means to screen for that now, thanks to grade inflation, worthless degrees and the fact that everyone has a ‘degree’ of some form.
I agree on each point. Here’s a clip of Peter Schiff talking to people with useless degrees and student debt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXpwAOHJsxg
From the video “About” page:
For those of you who feel a college degree is essential to financial success consider John D Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and Cornelius Vanderbilt. Rockefeller dropped out of high school and began working full-time at age 16. Carnegie didn’t even go to high school and began working full-time at age 13. Vanderbilt dropped out of school at age 11, and by age 16 had started his own ferry business. All three were born poor and became self-made billionaires, who attained estimated net worths (in today’s dollars) of approximately $670, $300. and $175 billion respectively. To put those numbers into perspective, the richest living American, Bill Gates, who dropped out of Harvard during his sophomore year, has an estimated net worth of just $65 billion.
For the record Matthew,
I have never believed that a college degree was essential for financial success and security.
Big Al
Having done some kind of trouble-shooting for over 30 years, I’ve learned that unspoken assumptions are one of the chief bane’s of the human mind. We need to assume things, or else you’d be potty training every day, but when it comes to understanding systems, customs, ideas, politics, etc., making unfounded assumptions (often based on passing opinions) is ignorant at best, ruinous at worst.
Here’s the Logic Primer I wrote up for my company…it needs some updating, but I wrote it a few years ago initially as an exercise for building a course on troubleshooting, and decided to make it a bit entertaining, and put it out there.
http://www.agaas.com/technical/logicprimer/
(BTW…sorry for a short editorial, but no one has yet ever been interested in a critical thinking or troubleshooting course, despite the apparent lamentations of HR departments everywhere that they can’t find people with critical thinking skills. Seems to me like it would a good skill, but seems I was wrong…!)
Excellent discussion. Thanks.