Question for the older Bus Nuts

[Bill in KS]

Hind sight is always 20/20 so share what you see now.

If you were a guy in your 30's , debt free including your house / business / bus.   What would you have invested in / or done a bit different to help ya retire sooner or set ya up with a thicker wallet come retirement age. 

Only options I see right now are:

The stock market ( I personally don't trust people holding my money and don't believe it will be a sure bet when I'm of age to pull it out)

Build a real estate portfolio ( Not really excited about baby sitting people and thier messy life styles)

Stash it in a cookie jar and let inflation win the race.

Thxs
Bill in KS

[Cary and Don]

From personal experience.  DO NOT BUY A RESTAURANT OR BAR.

From others experience.  Nursing homes and funeral homes. They retired very well
                                  Low income, government subsidized two bedroom housing.  Not apartments or condos.  Not three
                                  or more bedrooms.  Not in bad neighborhoods.  They did very well also.

What we didn't do?     Microsoft and Block Buster in 1988,  the restaurant seemed like a better idea.

Don and Cary

[viento1]

To be Thirty and debt free than we want to know what you are doing

How about Private firms that have NEVER had a loss, proven track record, bla bla bla. Stock market is all retail, real estate is on sale if you have time and patience. Gold? well if you are hardcore and feel a new world currency backed by gold is the only global solution to this crisis - imagine the money

Lets add to this,

To all the success stories who have lived through previous market disasters. Where do you see opportunity in todays market?

[boogiethecat]

Fun story... there was this old dude, A.W. Coggeshal, who ran a used plumbing store here in San Diego. He was a greasy old fart and sat in his dirty little used toilet shop all day waiting for some sucker (like me) who needed a 1905 vintage part probably only worth $5, so he could con ya out of $25 for it because he had it and knew you needed it or you wouldn't be there in the first place.  It was clearly just a game for him but I figured it was because he was old, cantankerous and probably lonely, sitting in his messy little shop all day doing mostly nothing.  And I clearly didn't like him at all.
One day I was there and I thought it funny that a city-slick lawyer-looking guy with a briefcase was walking out of the place mumbling something like "yes Mr. Coggeshal, we have an appointment for next Tuesday at 9am sharp, I'll be there right on time"... it struck me a little funny because the slick guy definitely had A.W. on some kind of pedestal, but I didn't know what, and truthfully it didn't matter. But it went into the archives of my brain for some strange reason, as I paid A.W too much for the part I needed.

Fast forward about 15 years or so, I'm sitting in a Ben 'n Jerrys waiting to get some ice cream, and I see a copy of "the reader" which is a local rag about local people and also has good classified ads.  The reader has this way of picking some subject and then writing 10-15 pages on it... and this week it was about the recent death of 84 year old A.W. Coggeshal.  I remembered the name and wondered why the reader would choose to spend it's spread on this old fart, so I read on...

Turns out young A.W. leased some land during world war 2 that was right next to Convair aircraft (a giant maker of war planes in the day), and then rented that land to convair workers to park their cars for 50c a week or something like that.  He saved up the rental money and eventually bought the land, which is where his plumbing shop ended up being located.  Apparently he kept doing stuff like this until one day he found himself worth perhaps as much as 50 million dollars, owning, amongst others, a few entire city blocks right in the heart of Downtown San Diego!  
But he was basically a guy that didn't let his bucks get to his head, and enjoyed the plumbing shop life more than the fast-rich lane.

When he died, he left well more than half his fortune to the local rowing clubs, charities for kids, The San Diego Community Foundation, and worthy institutions of the like.  He was actually quite the benefactor of many, many cool non-profit organizations.  Had I not read that story I'd have never known, and until that moment I'd held A.W. as one of the most unlikable people I'd ever met.  Funny that he was actually one of the kindest, biggest hearted people you would ever run across... you'd never know it from meeting him at his shop!!

The point of all this: What was the secret to his riches?  
He was quoted in that article as saying simply:

"Buy in the path of progress, the rest will take care of itself"

I took it to heart, and well, it worked great for me... pretty simple... and if I were to give you any advice Bill, that would be it...

[Ed Hackenbruch]

We had a neighbor that lived in a wreck of a house, drove an old Honda car till it fell apart in his driveway, never got another car, dressed in rags, didn't like people much, and one year complained that he had to pay $ 2 million in income taxes. When he died he left $ 21 million to a think tank back east somewhere. If he had spent some money on heat and better food and health care, he might have lived a lot longer. He made most of his money in the stock market but i heard that he freelanced and wrote software for Mr. Gates.    I know more people that have made more money in the stock market than in real estate. The secret is to buy your stocks and hang onto them, don't sell when the market drops, just wait it out..

[luvrbus]

Long term investment real estate more tax write-offs short term stock market but you need to be careful in that one know what you are doing the bad thing now with the capital gain tax so low you never know where that is headed. I watch that very close if they even talk about raising capital gains I'll dump every stock I own.

Then you have the dirty word here on the board fuel futures that has been real good for us in the past year and a half 


good luck invest wisely   

[pipopak]

I am blessed with some kind of "reverse Midas touch"'. Everything I touch turns into rust, dust or ashes. So if you have an enemy send me a little money, I will either buy stock or enter partnership with him/her and in a short time you will see the rotten body being paraded around. Guaranteed to work 100%.

[gus]

The stock market is a dangerous place for the innocent. It is for the big guys, not us little ones - they just take our money!

If you do get into the market never invest more than half your money and only what you can afford to loose.

Real estate is good if you can afford to let it ride for years. DO NOT get into rental property unless you hire a manager!!

A guaranteed interest rate  annuity is good for younger people, worthless for us old guys.

Unless you are willing to spend full time at it you need to invest with a money management company like UBS. Same rules as the market, only what you are willing to lose and half of your total.

[luvrbus]

Don't be afraid of the market just careful I bought Ford for 2 dollars (everyone said I was nuts) it went to 16 a share I sold at 15 then bought back when it dipped it's back to around 10 dollars now invest wisely and don't panic good stocks will bounce back in time it is kinda fun once you get the hang of it lol

good luck

[artvonne]

  Ride the wave, whatever wave you can find, and know that market intimately. Buy low, sell high. Only buy when prices are rising. Seems to work with just about everything from metals to real estate to stocks. Do it backwards and you'll be broke so fast you'll wonder what happened.

[Len Silva]

To be Thirty and debt free than we want to know what you are doing

How about Private firms that have NEVER had a loss, proven track record, bla bla bla. Stock market is all retail, real estate is on sale if you have time and patience. Gold? well if you are hardcore and feel a new world currency backed by gold is the only global solution to this crisis - imagine the money

Lets add to this,

To all the success stories who have lived through previous market disasters. Where do you see opportunity in todays market?

If you were the type who responded to economic crisis in panic mode as many are today, you might have bought gold in 1980 at $615.00.  You would not have seen that price again until 2007.

There are people buying gold today at $1680.00 and I do believe that they will lose big time if kept as a long term investment.

Other than that, I can't help you.  I have lost in the stock market and in real estate over the past ten years or so.

[gus]

There are lots of get rich stories but the fact is that the stock market is no place for the little guy, I can't stress that enough.

I was in it for 30 years and, except for the fun, I could have done as well with my money in a savings account - I'm a slow learner!!

[PP]

I had lots of advice I would gladly share with anyone that would listen, and then 2008 came along and the rest is history....

[Brassman]

Buy real estate, please. 

[artvonne]

I had lots of advice I would gladly share with anyone that would listen, and then 2008 came along and the rest is history....

  Oh man does that ring true. Years back I thought everyone should own a house, or land, I used to preach it. Today I could not in good conscience suggest anyone buy a house unless they want to be stuck in it. Our son and daughter in law are already over $50K upside down, and the county just dropped their appraised value another $29K. They are stuck. And to tell the truth, I think it will drop much more.

  Now I'm thinking completely different. Converting assets to cash, not buying luxuries or things we don't need, I'm in survival mode. I think we would be very wise to learn everything the folks who survived the Great Depression knew and put it into practice praying we never need it.