Wow, things got ugly fast, didn’t they?

The stock market is in a free fall and many people are losing significant amounts of money. Even worse, the covers have been pulled back on Bitcoin. It’s not the safe investment everyone seemed to think it was.

I feel for Raju. I really do.

The exact same thing exact thing happened to me in the 2008 real estate crash. I lost five years of 80 hour workweeks. However, I walked away from this loss with many valuable lessons. I walked away a different person and I think Raju will walk away from his loss a different person too.

Both Raju and I suffered the consequences of leverage. Leverage is great in an appreciating market. However, it’s lethal in a falling market.

To become a truly successful investor, you have to conquer two incredibly strong emotions. The first battle is with…

GREED

Untamed greed will – at some point in time – bring you misery. It certainly brought me a great deal of misery. Anytime you borrow money to speculate, you’re taking massive risk whether you realize it or not.

You’re speculating with any investment where you need the market value to increase in order to profit.

In my humble opinion, any asset that doesn’t pay you for owning it is a speculative investment. You’re essentially gambling that the market value of the asset will increase at some point in the future.

I got my arse kicked speculating. This homie don’t play that game.

Trust me, this strategy isn’t easy. I have passed up some supposed “great opportunities” because I’m not willing to speculate. Several of these opportunities surrounded speculative businesses.

The only way to avoid speculation is to learn to harness greed.

The second strong emotion we must battle is…

FEAR

This would probably be a good time for me to plug this podcast:

Right now there’s obviously a massive amount of fear flowing through the markets. This situation has created many incredible investment opportunities for those who have the ability to face their fears.

The Coronavirus is brutal and we’re certainly going to have a challenging year.

I’m worried about our parents. I’m worried about our neighbors. I’m worried about anyone who has current health complications and the risks they face. And finally, I’m extremely worried about every health professional that will unselfishly risk their lives for us.

However, I think we must remain optimistic that the brightest minds throughout the world will eventually uncover a successful treatment to fight the Coronavirus. As time passes, things will – hopefully – get back to normal.

Because I’m optimistic for the future, I’m trying to overcome this short-term fear in order to acquire incredible income-producing assets that have been offered at significant discount.

Apple is down 15%
Disney is down 30%
AT&T is down 15%
Starbucks is down 23%
Exxon is down 34%
Anheuser-Busch is down 40%
Dunkin Doughnuts is down 29%
McDonalds is down 21%

Great businesses stand the test of time.

We don’t have to try and wait for the bottom of the market. Instead we can invest for the long-term by investing small amounts each day.

In fact, you now have the opportunity to increase your ownership of incredible income-producing assets. Assets that will continue to deliver income to your family for decades.

Yes, it is hard to do.

However, try and keep this in mind:

Your cashflow in 2030 depends heavily on what you do (or don’t do) over the next few months.

There’s always several opportunities in every adversity.


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