[bacon]

(01-25-2014 05:31 AM)cardguy Wrote:  

What money I have I am using to clear my mortgage.

And if I have any money left over I would rather buy a property (out-right) and rent it out.

Simple.

To me that is a better strategy than playing the stock market. Clear debts - and become a landowner.

Some people cannot sleep at night if their assests go down in value so stocks scare them. Many people sold all of their stocks at the bottom of the financial crisis in 08 thinking the sky was falling. If they had just weathered the storm or better yet bought more stocks at low prices at that time they would be fine financially today.

Your a young guy which means you have decades to weather whatever happens in the stock market especially in the short run. By investing in a couple investment properties(unless you are proficient at finding fixer uppers or getting great deals) you are limiting yourself by staying out of one of the best wealth creation vehicles out for regular folk. I agree cherry picking stocks is not for the average guy so low cost market index funds through vanguard would likely be your best bet.

Since your a contarian thinker who doesnt like to go with the crowd you should just wait until the next stock market downturn when the entire public is negative on the market. Then with the money you have been saving enter the market because that will be the time to make large profits(buy low sell high). The investing public is driven by two emotions: fear and greed. You can profit by understanding when these emotions get too extreme and to do the opposite. Right now the bullishness of the stock market (people had been talking about the stock market like it will rally forever) is finally coming to a close and the dow was down 300 pts yesterday. I would expect a big contraction in the stock market in the coming months since the bullishness had been high for a couple years. Essentially the market moves in waves and look for a super bearish entry point and you should profit nicely. Or just do dollar cost averaging either way you should be set.

TLDR the stock market may go down in the short run but for young people who will invest for decades its the best source of wealth creation in history for the average person.