“They will try to steal your light and use it as a weapon against you. But there’s a piece of good news: they don’t have the patience to control it, like you do.” Amanda Lovelace
Where is your light? Do you still have it, did you let someone take it or make it so dim that you can barely see it, let alone feel it?
I am not 100% sure what Amanda Lovelace means by “light” in her poem, but I believe that it is that drive to get you to do the thing(s) that you were put here on earth to do. Over time, just living can dim your light.
Those failures or near misses can add up and really wear you down. Remember that it is those failures that teach you. Success, especially accidental success, teaches nothing.
We have all heard of folks who talk about investments and say that they have never lost. I guess it could be true, but as I tell patients when they are looking for a surgeon; a surgeon who tells you they have had no complications (failures) has not been operating very long.
An investor who has not had a loss, who cannot tell you how they got out of a mess, who cannot tell you a horror story followed by what they learned from it, has not been investing long enough and I do not recommend that you give them your money, at least not a big chunk of it.
Know that the best investors lose money, when you start investing, you will likely lose money.
It’s smart to start small, especially when you are investing with someone that you do not know well. The other option is to really get to know who you are investing with. What is their philosophy of investing, cash flow, appreciation, tax benefits? It is possible to have them all, but generally, investors lean one way or another.
Does their philosophy match yours? Will what they are investing in, get you where you want to go in the time frame that you are working with?
There are so many questions to ask and many of you know it is not just the answer that you want to pay attention to, you want to pay attention to how the question is answered.
The best thing about real estate investing through syndications is that you have the opportunity to get to know who you are investing with.
Unlike your 401K investment where most blindly give their money to some faceless, nameless person and expect them to meet your needs. If putting your money in a bag and handing it out the window to a guy in a suit walking into a building that looks good sounds good to you, then 401K is for you.
If you want to know who you are investing with, know their strengths and weaknesses, have their phone number on your phone and they answer when you call, let’s talk.
