Recently, we were invited to our dear friends’ house for dinner. We had a lovely time – especially after the long Covid lockdown, mandated by the government. All of us had worked in the automotive industry. Both of our friends stuck to their careers until retirement. Today, they are financially stable.
Once upon a time, so were we, with plenty of savings to last a lifetime. Then when the 2000 crash hit and lost so much of the value in our 401(k), I became very concerned about “potentially losing it all” because I had no clue how to protect our funds that were being managed on Wall Street. In fact, this was the origin of the main title of my monthly blog, “Investing Outside of Wall Street.”
Late 2004, at the age of 55, for the first time in my life, I chose to go into the then-unknown territory of real-estate investing. Gutsy? Yes. Stupid? Maybe. Did I have a choice? Perhaps others would disagree but my answer is, “No.”
Without getting into the details that are discussed elsewhere, it has been a steep learning curve ever since. In the process, I lost a lot of money, and learned a lot, too.
Looking back, especially in light of our friends’ case, it appears that, if only I could have trusted Wall Street, we may have come out just fine financially. But I couldn’t. Relying on Wall Street became no longer an option for me, especially after what had happened in 2000. The year 2008 validated my choice to have been a correct one.
If I chose to do nothing with savings, we may have been better off financially – at least from today’s vantage point. That said, I have much greater control over the real estate that we own, whereas everything I had in 401(k) was at the mercy of Wall Street.
Thanks to having learned the ropes of investing in real estate, psychologically – if not yet financially – I am at a much better place today than had I not chosen the path of financial independence.
Bottom line: No regrets whatsoever.
Happy Investing!
