What comes next ??????

[John_in_NC]

FDJake your an interesting guy. Don't really know what to think of most of what you said, but about the Real Estate part, no doubt now is the time to buy, if you can get a loan! I can't! My bank told me not to waste my time anymore. That isn't stopping me though. I am working on a deal right now, a BIG deal, on mobile home park right up the road from my house. I've known the owner for years, and he wants out, and i've wanted his park for years too. He is moving to costa rica because this country is "done" in his words. Though i'm VERY nervous about taking on such a huge expansion of my rental business at this time in the economy, maybe it's the best time? Working it at your angle might get me the best deal of all time for me. It won't be hard to convince him it's a buyers market and he will have to finance it. I know he is gonna want to lease it to me, but I just don't see any benefits in that.

Well thanks for your views, it's one the reasons I visit this board

[PositiveOutlook]

FDjake,

I don't view being passionate about the country's direction and at the same time taking advantage of opportunities that present themselves or are found as mutually exclusive.  After all, the Founding Fathers did both and they ALSO put their fortunes and lives on the line in the process WHILE they were prospering...

"In my mind the question isn't what political structure we'll live under.......That constantly CHANGES in this country.  Right now things have swung to the left......"

Yeah, I get and agree with the pendulum theory...  there is a difference here...  Picture a pendulum on a desk... if the pendulum were to swing one way, it would slide it that way, swing the other, and it negates the original move... however, if the pendulum swings too much one way it brings us to the edge and eventually over it.  I would argue that the swings to the left have not been "corrected" by swings to the right as the left swings have been more severe, and incrementally (through "gradualism") it has brought us to the edge in many ways distancing us from our founding.  When Congressman OPENLY say that they don't follow the Constitution, the pendulum needs to be corrected... 

"What WILL matter to YOU and your FAMILY is whether you PROSPER or SUFFER in the coming years.."

I totally agree BUT the government that we and our children have to live under plays a MAJOR role in the prospering and the suffering.  When you watch how easily it has become over the years for people to be manipulated (we all have to some extent, right), it is a HUGE concern...  we have to DEFEND the Constitution, and it takes more than arms... it takes diligence... sometimes self-interest needs to be put aside in the aggregate...  What good is a life spent becoming rich, especially when the government TAKES most of it when you die, when your kids suffer in the process from future tyranny and/or oppression?  I would argue that we are in the condition we are in BECAUSE people just want to live their own lives in apathy instead of stepping up.



If the government wants to steamroll their way through, a single rock (citizen) is not going to alter their path... it will roll right over him...  but if the rock is joined by more like-minded rock, it presents a force... it takes MANY rocks opposing the path to STOP the steamroller and/or redirect their path...


Continue to extract opportunity and riches from the country, that is what it is here for and backed up by our unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness... but don't forget that it also comes with a price...

[fdjake]

Great points....Especially about how the patriots literally put everything they had on the line to build this country. 

As far as the pendulum goes.....I disagree....This country has seen FAR more problems in the recent past than we face now....The DEBT is HUGE....But think about the 1960's.......Kennedy is assasinated, then King, then Bobby....We look back on that time in horror....IMAGINE LIVING THROUGH IT.....the MANSON family, Kent State....The drug culture...It must have looked like this country was DONE!!!  But the country and the economy EXPANDED.....During the darkest times....America GREW.....IMAGINE....Just imagine watching these people KILLED one after another....Whether you agreed or disagreed with their politics...It doesn't matter....Political figures were being wiped off the face of the earth at a rate never before seen in this country.  WE SURVIVED IT.......We'll survive this...

Look....The Dems have their shot RIGHT NOW......They're BLOWING IT.....That will be reflected in the mid cycle elections....People in this country have had it......IT HAPPENS OVER and OVER here.....That pendulum swings and swings.......That's were people get screwed selling the United States short.....They don't understand that the CHINESE can't REPLACE their entire GOVERMENT if they screw up.....WE CAN......AND DO.....It's a brilliant system....It's ugly at times....But NO ONE has come up with BETTER......The CHINESE?????   THAT is a PONZI scheme....The whole show is RIGGED....Wait till that cracks wide open....It's coming....WATCH!!!

AS for TAXES........The Goverment can only TAKE what you LET IT TAKE.....

Look at how WEALTHY individuals hold their Real Estate.....It's all in TRUSTS.....None of these people are about to do what AVERAGE AMERICANS DO.....Let the GOVERMENT determine who gets what, when, and how much.....Those decisions are made YEARS before.....the TAX CODE is used to THEIR ADVANTAGE...as is the LEGAL SYSTEM.

As I said.....The tax code in this country is complicated for a REASON.....Just like our judicial system is......Those that can AFFORD good tax planning GET IT......Those that can AFFORD good legal representation GET IT.....I didn't make those rules.....BUT....I DID make the SACRIFICES early on to ASSURE I was in that group.....It was a FREE CHOICE....Given to ANYONE in this country willing to work hard and sacrifice.....I know millionaires that have been in this country for only 15 years.....They broke their B@LLS getting what they have, and did it through back breaking work, not hand outs....They now enjoy the same level of TAX ADVICE and LEGAL ADVICE as I do.....THEY EARNED IT!!!!!  They have very little concern for future tyranny, as do I.....The only tyranny these business men face is in their HOMELANDS.....I talk to people all the time who CAN NOT believe the sh*T Americans complain about.....They can not believe how we DO NOTHING in a land that can provide you with EVERYTHING!!!!

That's my POINT.......Don't go around with your head in the sand at EXACTLY the time this rocket is about to blast off.....The last 100 years were all USA......Those 100 years made many other people filthy rich in other countries too....all on the coat tails of the USA.

Pay attention folks.......It ain't even close to being OVER here.....TOO MANY PEOPLE EXPECT IT........The HERD is buying GUNS & AMMO...They're buying it with their .30 cents on the dollar FLORIDA CONDO MONEY!!!!!!!!!

THINK

THINK

THINK

[propertymanager]

I'm all for doing everything you can to get ahead.  I'm sure that all of us on this forum that are successful are doing exactly what FDJake advocated:  using entities and the tax system to our advantage; buying real estate at huge discounts, etc.  However, I completely disagree that things will swing back to the right and make everything ok.  I also completely disagree that the US is in for a huge boom.  Finally, I still don't think the American people have ANY idea what the government is doing to them; their children; and grandchildren.  THE USA IS BROKE!  It's just that simple.  Our best days are behind us and our children will pay the price.  The government has not prevented a financial catastrophe - they've just postponed it and made sure that the collapse will be EVER MORE DEVASTATING!   Let's get real here.  The banks are NOT making money in a capitalist sense, they have only "recovered" because the Fed is loaning them money at nearly ZERO percent and they are loaning that money to the Treasury at 3%.  Fannie and Freddie are selling their toxic assets to the Fed and the government just announced that Fannie and Freddie have a blank check.  IT'S A PONZI SCHEME THAT WILL END AS ALL PONZI SCHEMES END - IN COLLAPSE!

I am not hearing that from the general public.  The general public thinks that everything will be ok and they are still acting accordingly.  Everything will NOT be ok.  I am predicting a financial collapse and civil unrest AT A MINIMUM and a revolution is a good possibility.  

 

[justin0419]

All this talk, at a minimum, has caused me to want to be even more aggressive in paying down debt - both personally and for our business.  It still didn't stop me from putting in an offer on another place today that I think is a good value.  I'm also going to continue fully funding our IRAs as we can never go back and make that up if we miss it. 
I do think we'll have to slow down our acquisitions for a couple reasons.  I don't think our bank is going to keep making loans to us at the rate we've been doing them lately.  Our rapid expansion lately has caused our account balances to dwindle quite a bit. 
I'm starting to notice more houses sit on the market at our price level than what was there a few months ago.  Whether that's directly related to lending, winter time, or fear - I'm not sure. 

[John_in_NC]

All this talk, at a minimum, has caused me to want to be even more aggressive in paying down debt - both personally and for our business. 

If you believe that helicopter ben and his cronies are going to try and inflate out of this mess (i do) then paying off that debt, even the person stuff, is a bad idea. Inflation rewards debt.