Comments on: building wealth in an age of thieves

By: The Building Insurancer

The Building Insurancer — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:51:51 +0000

“Yet at the same time, the basic principles remain: invest in index funds. Live below your means. Save until you have an adequate emergency fund. Make sure your insurance (!!) is adequate and up-to-date. Eat, drink and be happy.” – i should always keep this in mind. I'm living above my means and it's hurting my finances.

By: Lucinda

Lucinda — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:41:58 +0000

I started buying antiques at house sales, reselling them for at least double what I paid, then reinvesting the profits in higher quality items. As long as I keep compounding my money, I'll surpass what my broker ever did for me. There's a guy in Northfield, Illinois - a dealer/collector of 45 years who will teach and help anyone who wants to learn. He's at http://www.31corp.com.

By: fathersez

fathersez — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:38:31 +0000

The age of thieves! Well said. Now only if these guys were treated as thieves, then maybe the next generation may not be that susceptible to thievery.

By: lisa

lisa — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:10:39 +0000

the AIG building also looks like it was made of cards.not very steady or strong. Wish I'd noticed that before!

By: smartenup

smartenup — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:11:21 +0000

Surely, you must be crazy?

An insane person is someone who keeps doing the same thing (investing in the stock market) and expecting the same result (becoming wealthy) only it never works out that way. Yet, they keep right on doing it.

Wall Street is corrupt. Always was and always will be. No politician is going to change it. Not in 1987. Not in 2001 and not in 2008.

You'd be better off investing your money with drug dealers or art thieves.

Eventually one day, after you've lost your shirt, you'll get over it. Notice that the windows on the AIG building are mirrors?

Here's looking at you, kid.

By: plonkee

plonkee — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:07:23 +0000

If you're close to retirement, and have all your money invested shouldn't you have moved much of it over to safer investments by now?

Part of the thing here is that I'm so far away from retirement now, that other than the basics (move to safer investments) I'm not sure that I've actually got a feel for how you manage your move into retirement. Hopefully that'll be something for the personal finance community of the future to talk about.

By: deepali

deepali — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:21:10 +0000

I'm going for that last line. There is no stock market where I'm moving to.

By: Craig Kessler

Craig Kessler — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:05:08 +0000

Sadly it seems that there is little we can do. A lot of these stable institutions are losing money and taking because of it a lot of investing confidence is being taken away.

Craig
www.budgetpulse.com

By: bripblap

bripblap — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:31:11 +0000

Plonkee, I guess I'd say that index funds at least broaden your risk across multiple industries and (in my case, investing in a lot of international index funds) across countries. Investing in an individual stock concentrates your risk dramatically.

I think everything SHOULD be fine long term but it's hardly assured. I can be sanguine since I'm still at least a few years away from retirement, but I feel bad for someone here in the US who has no pension and was counting on cashing in their IRA/401(k)s to retire in the next year or two. We'll see, I guess…

By: Moneymonk

Moneymonk — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:07:18 +0000

The last statement will never change. Stick to it.

Stop chasing high returns

Be the Tortuise and not the hare