This year is crazy, but crazy good not crazy bad, with way to may financial thoughts over-flooding my brain.

Financial Madness:

I admit, I’ve been caught up in the incredible stock market rally… until lately.  While I was beating the market earlier, I’ve bought some more risky stocks lately that have taken my return down quite a bit.  Oh, I’m still up for the year so far, but I hit my highs a month or so ago.

Okay, that’s the stock market, on real estate front, I’m still looking for my first investment property, but with a catch!  I want to buy a property that cost as much as a mid-level luxury car.  Perhaps something like a high-end Lexus, but definitely no where close to the cost of a Ferrari…  So ideally, I would like to find a duplex or high that requires a little bit of work, but cost less thank 100k.  At this point in my life, I would like to just get a taste of what it’s like to be a landlord, then decide from there.

Primary Residence Thoughts:

I would also like to buy a bigger house.  Not that I need one, it’s just seems like a good investment while rates are relatively low.  But even this is maddening!  I want to buy a house that provides benefit from a taxes perspective, and one that I believe will rise in value more quickly than my current house has.  We were luck in that fact that our house value didn’t really drop during the “Great Recession”, but while this in and of itself was a blessing, it also means that any bigger house that I buy in the city also hasn’t declined in price.  So for me, I get now benefit from lower house prices.

Why do I want to say in my city? I don’t, but since my kids are in school and have established a place in the system, I won’t uproot them and move to a different city.  Financially maddening, but my kids come first… even when it hurts.

Speaking of kids, in the neighborhoods that I’m looking at, we are doing research to see how live in those areas so that I can ensure that there are kids that my kids can play with.  Perhaps I’m spoiling my kids?

My Personal Financial Thoughts:

I’m starting to realize that I’ve been too conservative with managing money, and while being in such a state is better than being in deep debt, it’s still not an optimal solution.  At one time in the past, I believed that financial asset class diversification was only for the millionaire and up crowd, but lately I’ve changed my mind.  I now believe that those options should be explored as part of any financial plan.  So gold (precious metals), currencies and other investment avenues is something that I’m considering, but not acting on currently.

Even thought I’m considering all financial avenues, I’m focusing primarily on stocks and real estate opportunities.  In a future post, I’ll share more of my financial thoughts and why I’m seriously thinking of buying a new house, rental property, and investing more in the stock market all at the same time.

Bests,

Don