RE:RE:RE:I hope you’ve all taken profitI can't take it anymore. Everyday watching gold get smashed, my gold companies dropping like Trump's approval ratings. I give up, capitulate. So I have sold all my gold and embraced the new one third investing plan, made popular by those Rainbow Investors,and others who aren't quite sure what to do , but have some extra money to do it with, since they can't spend it on restaurants or holidays these days.The frustrating thing about gold and gold companies is that they are constantly doing the opposite of what logic, old rules, common sense etc. says they should. Time to go all in on crazy: seems like the only way to make money these days.
The first one third is to put ,uh, one third, into real estate. So I bought a nice little house in downtown Vancouver. Seemed a little expensive at $1.5 mill , but with a 2% 25 year mortgage my monthly payment is only $8500, add in a few thousand more for taxes, ins. maintenance, etc. but subtract the $2000 rent I can get and it should work out to about 10 grand a month. I found a nice couple that want to rent. The guy seems like a bit of a head banger, but harmless; and the gal doesn't seem like she was recently a man so much ,as that she might have been another species all together: like maybe a cocker spaniel. Can they do that now? And I am totally ok with that. Anyway she had her bottle of little white pills, always handy, and they seemed to keep a smile on her face. The house is a little two bedroom job, and maybe not a fixer upper so much as a not worth fixing. But of course I didn't buy it for the house but the land. The lot is 3000 sq ft which works out to $500 a sq ft, check my numbers if you wish. Now I figure you could put a nice 2 person tent on a hundred sq ft and have a little left for a tiny yard. A hundred sq ft would only be fifty thousand. I think these days even homeless people must have fifty thou.
So the house will cost me about a hundred thou a year, net, and so if interest rates stay at 2% for the next 25 years, they are promising that aren't they? ; after 25 years I will own the place and would have put in $2.5 mill , but just imagine what the house might be worth, assuming capitalism has lasted that long. Could be billions. This looks real easy to make money this thirds way.
The second one third is to put one third into the best stock around. And without a doubt that has to be Tesla. It has had an amazing run and why would that not continue? Sure it is run by a lunatic, but whole countries are run by those now. And sure it is worth more than all the German car makers combined, or more than Toyota. If Tesla triples from here , as I am counting on, it will be worth more than all the car companies in the world. That would be amazing. Yeah there is going to be more and more serious competition. Like Audi, BMW, Mercedes for example are starting to make some truly spectacular electric cars. One goes from 0 to 100 km/hr in 3 seconds!. That's like a drag racer. They are a little expensive at the moment, but they are doing some good things with batteries that are better than Tesla's and once they start pumping a few hundred thousands a year out, the price will drop. But which would you trust more for reliability and build quality: a Tesla or a BMW? And Toyota is going all in on electric, and they also have a better battery. They will pump out millions a year, and if they are like the Corolla they will last 30 years, and be half the price of a Tesla. But who wants a Toyota? Well, looking out my window at traffic , it seems about half the folk driving do. And I do hear talk about how Tesla is now at it's Blackberry moment. Unless you are really young, you will remember when Blackberry was the first, and for awhile, the only smart phone, and RIM, the parent company was worth vast amounts of money. The share price was strato. But the competition ,mostly Apple at the start, saw what they were doing and very quickly did it better and very quickly indeed Blackberry was no more, as a smart phone maker. But forget that. As long as the share price continues up, there is money to be made. Doesn't matter that by any sane accounting Tesla is valued at 10 times what it should be, and as high as 100 times . That kind of thinking is for losers. And I don't want to be a loser anymore.
And maybe the more clever of you have guessed by now what the final one third will be. Yes, I have put one third of my retirement income money into, wait for it, Bitcoin. And sure there are some issues. Like I hear that many North Korean, Russian, Bulgarian, etc. computer experts, hackers, etc. are moving from credit card fraud, breaking into Gov systems, etc. and focusing solely on Bitcoin. But the technology does seem quite something, and so far unbreakable, but it does seem really really stupid that huge amounts of electricity, the thing that is going to save the world from burning up if the world is indeed saved, is wasted making Bitcoins. And they say it is money, but first of all if I have money I can put it in the bank and collect interest, even if it is paltry at this time, and secondly why would governments allow a competing money system. Distribution, and especially control of money is mostly what governments do. I think an argument could also be made that Bitcoin is at it's Blackberry moment as well. Bitcoins success , at least in becoming worth a lot, could very much be its down fall. No reason governments wont step in, perhaps with the help of big tech, and develop a system that has all the features of a crypto like Bitcoin, but without the gambling on price, and without the fear of theft, and the connection to bad guys using it as a way to avoid the law. And of course there is lots of talk about this, already. Doesn't mean Bitcoin will disappear, but as soon as people think it has reached its maximum price there will be no reason to hold it, and the price will drop like, well, make up your own.
The thing I like about Bitcoin is that it might be in a big bubble, but there is really no way to know that. It is just a number. If you look at my run down house in Vancouver , is it reasonable that someone would give me fifty thousand for enough area to put up a tent? Or my Tesla shares. Is it reasonable that a company that consistently does not show a profit, and is facing huge competition threats , to be worth as much as all the car companies, which is basically what people are betting when they buy shares now. But Bitcoin is not based on anything. Is it money ? The US dollar has a very specific value, more or less based on what the US is worth. And that's the beauty of Bitcoin. If you ignore the threats I mentioned, then it is worth what you think it is. More importantly, it is worth what you think someone else will pay for yours in the future if you buy one now. And that thinking is based on nothing. They talk about scarcity. Ok. I can think of many scarce things, and some have novelty value, but many have none. And the thing about bubbles is that they are the best way to make money, often quickly. And bubbles are about the only show in town these days it seems. And that is why institutional, smart, whatever, investors are into Bitcoin these days. But if you are an amateur, you should realize that the pros never sleep, or at least their algorithms never sleep, and at the first indication that the balloon has popped they will be out, while the amateurs are sleeping , or have their finger up their , or perhaps their boyfriends, ... And if the pros are smart , they will have the skills to see a popped balloon , where the amateurs will think it is just a little leak that will soon be patched, and keep buying. So there will be a big transfer from the little guys , to the pros, which is what always happens when balloons go bust. Sure some amateurs might make out ok, the ones that bought at $10 thou a few months ago, and are getting out now, but another thing about bubbles is that so often greed and exuberance takes over, common sense is thrown to the wind, and when people see the big pile they have amassed , they just want more. And they will wait after it turns, waiting for the next big up, and follow it down , all the way to the bottom. Happens a lot. I speak from experience.
Anyway, wish me luck,have a nice day, whatever.