You know, this is a conversation I have had many times with my friends. It concerns the idea around why their portfolios are not really going anywhere.
For example, I had a friend once at work who came to me and said,
“You know, Johnny, my 401k, really, when you adjust it for inflation or anything else, has not risen a whole lot since 2008. I keep putting in. Every time I do and get ahead, something happens and brings it back down.”
“I would have been better off just taking it out and buying some farmland.”
Now, there’s many of you who can resonate with that thought.
It really appears the passive days of investing are over. Even if you are successful at getting some sort of return, inflation is eating up your spending power.
Really, outperforming is your only way out of this mess. And your financial advisor at the local plaza in town is not going to do anything to help you. They’re salespeople. They’re not managers. They’re just selling product and getting the commission off your money.
So what can you do?
Well, you’re going to have to take the rings yourself. You know the old saying, no one cares more about your money than you do. Well, that’s true.
So it’s going to be up to you to make something happen. That’s part of the reason I started this. It is to actually show you what is possible.
It took me a long time to figure out how to consistently generate 20% or more every year. And it wasn’t some special trick. Actually, it was avoiding all the special tricks everyone tries to sell you.
It’s just common sense. Buy low, sell high. But that’s hard to do.
It feels wrong. That’s what makes it work. It’s because it goes against the natural grain of everyone else’s psychology.
That’s enough for today.
We’ll talk more at another time.
Signing off, Jonathan.