Be One of the Smart Ones

 

So, in last week’s post I told you a bit about the lady in Paris that suddenly found out one of the paintings in her house, one that she thought was just an average painting (the one you see above), was extremely valuable and it went on to sell for $26 million dollars!  Wow, what a shock that must have been for her! But have you read that many people who all of a sudden win the lottery or suddenly come into a huge fortune blow the money in short order or are scammed out of it? The problem is that most of the time, people who haven’t earned the money over time are clueless and just don’t know how to handle it. Most of these people start spending it like crazy and or they are taken to the cleaners by scam artist.

Compare that overnight super-rich person to a person who has worked for years and saved every extra dollar they could. The smart ones don’t go out and buy a brand-new car that will immediately drop in value. The smart ones buy a used car and put whatever extra money they have into savings. Then they slowly build up enough money to buy an asset that goes up in value and, if they’re really smart, when they sell that asset at a profit, they reinvest that profit in another appreciating asset. Over the years, those small savings and investments can grow into a fortune.  And if you have made your money that way, then you most likely won’t be like those who suddenly came into big money and spent it all or got scammed out of it.

It will be very interesting to try to follow the Paris lady and see if she goes crazy with her money, following the typical lottery winners. Please, Paris lady, be cautious and wise with that $26 million. Don’t put your money with someone else who makes promises of huge returns.

Years ago, I met a guy who told me that he could give me a 10% return, per month, on my money, guaranteed! Remember the old saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” I had a friend who had invested about $300,000 dollars with this guy who said it was going to get a great return and guaranteed it. I was pretty darn sure it would not be even close to that. And yes, my friend lost his entire investment, and the bad guy in now serving time in prison. Not that him being in prison gives my friend any of his money back.

So, I sure hope you see the huge benefit of saving all the dollars you can and investing them wisely. Do the research carefully. It’s my advice and experience that you should invest your savings in income producing real estate. It almost always goes up in value and even if the appreciation is very slow, if you have purchased wisely, you will have tenants paying off the mortgage. That’s what the smart ones do!