I am 24 What did you have to do to get a ferrari?

Trust me........I know alot about realestate.
Obviously not in Countries that will give anyone a loan that does not care whether they go bankrupt or not.

 

yes. in our country, aggressive lending practices have really hurt those people who are too eager to buy homes--they aren't ready (money and knowledge wise) and get pushed into the homes by 'creative' means. and voila, they get into trouble--lose their homes. foreclosure rates have been growing quite a bit in my state... me, i'm in the beginning stages of trying to buy my own home...been a big goal for a long time, just trying to overcome many life hurdles that have kept that goal out of reach thus far....

 

Hope everything works out for you.
I know many people here that are just buying their first home after many of lifes hurdles. I am very happy to be where I am. These friends are alot older than I. They have just had different circumstances in life. I have been very fortunate I reckon. Wish them the best and you also. Everyones dream to own their own home. Good luck mate.

 

For all the 'doubters' of real estate, you really are not as informed as you should be... Take a look at www.creonline.com and read a bit, you might learn something. It's amazing what a little motivation will do to a seller!

 

I started reading the archives on the website since couple months ago. Yes, it is really motivating especially the success stories. They also made Real Estate look easier through "How-To" articles. My parents also do Real Estate and house flippings so I'm kind of knowledgeable about them. Knowledgeable enough to have some talks about basics and a little bit of expert side.

 

Again with this? Well I'll just post what I posted a few months back.

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Micheal, as an engineer myself, I had a few questions for you. I see PM/email are disabled, but if you wouldn't mind chatting, please shoot me an email at
[email protected]

Cheers!

 

$10.96 a day is roughly $330 a month. if you know any 20 somethings that can put away $330 month and average 10% over 40 years, i'd like to meet them. in addition, using the cpi as the inflater, a dollar in 2005 is worth 16 cents compared to a dollar in 1965, 40 years ago. using the same numbers, 1.9m in 40 years would be about 300k in todays buying power. That would almost get you into the top 40% at retirement. i don't know if putting $330 a month into the s&p for a lifetime is the greatest advice.

 

Male or female?

 

I've been observing for a while, but I never post, I'm pretty much an independent observer here, but I felt I had to say something since a few people were jumping all over this 18 year old kid.
Not for nothing, but everything James Bond said is pretty much legitimate. He does talk the talk in so far as I can see. The real estate market in the US is quite different here than anywhere else in the world. Good for you James Bond, if your 18 and have 15 deals done already you're well on your way to being financially independent. A word of advice though, I wouldn't go around telling people your doing real estate investing at only 18, keep that to yourself, many people don't like to see very young people succeed so quickly. Now get off the Ferrari site before you do something stupid like blow your cash flow on an F430, there's got to be some 18 year old impulsivity left in you.

 

I said pleeeeeeease

 

Thats to get maintnence on the mclaren.... not a tank of gas. Gas for a ferrari costs the same as gas for any other car, nothing special. Just premium at any gas station.

 

I do.

It is simple, effective, and cheap. Especially since the s&p consistanly beats 70-80% of actively managed funds, year after year, decade after decade. It is a passively mananged portfolio, so your profits aren't gonna get eaten up with unneccessary fees. The fees on actively managed funds are about 1.5%. The fees on an s&p index are so low that with some funds you pay less than 1/10 of a percent in fees. Meaning that if you made 10% with the s&p index you would keep 9.9%, or 99% of the profits. Where as if an actively managed fund was able to earn that 10% in reality it would only be 8.5% after you paid all the fees to the fund managers. In other words you only get to keep 85% of the profits, and would be loosing 15% to management fees, on a fund that gets beat over 70% of the time by the easier, simpler, and cheaper s&p index.

So yeah, I do think it's great advice. Especially for someone just starting out investing.

Now if they can't even muster the self discipline to do something as simple as saving a little over $10 a day, then what good would more advanced financial advice be? They aren't gonna follow it anyway, so why waist my time explaining it.

 

fees are even lower depending on the assets in the account.

 

There are any number of ways to invest money, but it's hard to beat continuous investing in an ETF for a long time. I did a spreadsheet which assumes someone invests $100 per month (multiply the following numbers by 3.3 to get the results for $330 per month) continuously from various starting periods to now. These results are the most realistic because they account for the incremental gains or losses in the S&P as each contribution is made.

If you had invested $100 per month in the S&P from 1960 to now, you would have $539.5K versus contributions of $56.4K. For comparison a 5% bond would have returned $226.4K in the same period. For that 47 year period, the average yearly S&P return was around 8%.

If you had invested beginning in 1970, 37 years to now, you would have $317.6K in the S&P versus $128.1K in bonds with an average yearly S&P return of 8.8%.

If you had invested beginning in 1980, 27 years to now, you would have $138.9K in the S&P versus $68.3K in bonds with an average yearly S&P return of 10.3%.

Notice that the average returns have been rising slightly, this is due to the 80's/90's bull market. Will that continue? Hard to say. But if you look at the first 27 years from 1960, as a comparison, you would have only $81.9K versus $68.3K; while the first 27 years starting from 1970 would get you $157.9K in the S&P versus $68.3K in bonds. In other words, even in the worst 27 year period (1960 to 1987), the S&P still left you better off than bonds.

This doesn't include the effect of taxes, since tax-free accounts are available now (unlike 1960). This also assumes a flat $ contribution rate, whereas the more sensible scenario is to have a flat % contribution rate so that contributions increase as income/inflation increases.

There are certainly ways someone could attempt to increase those returns with active management or with other investment vehicles; but putting money in an S&P ETF or blend of large-cap, small-cap & international ETF's is a way that only requires the discipline to save and the time to open a brokerage account and doesn't require developing the skills of a hedge fund manager, property manager, etc.

 

Shakespeare:
All the world is a stage and we are just actors in it.

Socrates:
We don't really change, we just change the roles we play.

Socrates preceded William by a few years, so my guess is Wm got the idea from Socrates, not the other way around.

An education is the most important thing you can have.
But it's tougher for English and Poli Sci majors than for people with degrees in science, business (accounting or finance) or law. If you want to make alot of money you should either be in sales or own your own business.

If you want to make alot of money working for somebody else, you either have had to go to a top school with the right major and/or have connections.

If you don't have specific goals and a detailed plan for getting there, you are probably just another dreamer who expects luck to bail them out.

Find a mentor who is successful. Talk to him/her and listen to their advice. There are websites where you can get advice for free. Use every resource you can. It's a competitive world. Those who make the extra effort usually succeed.

Good luck.
The world is your oyster. Go for it.

Hope this helps.

PNH
2002 360 F1 Spider
Unemployed AKA retired. Sold my business after 30 years.

 

You need to start investing as early as possible in life. You don't need to invest huge amounts, but you need to have your money invested as long as possible. Start investing 10% of your income (as a minimum) and you'll be amazed at the growth of your money over time.

Whether you live in the US, UK or Antarctica the time value of money never changes. Set up automatic deductions from your paychecks so that you never even see the money hit your checking account.

 

I will buy you one.....



After you make me 3x what the price tag is