Comments for The Investment Fiduciary

Comment on Top 10 Reasons You Can’t Get Rich Buying Facebook Stocks by Michael Zhuang

Michael Zhuang — Sat, 19 May 2012 21:02:29 +0000

Jerry,

Thanks for the reminder. I must say flipping is not my specialty.

Buying FB at this level is foolish, but it’s not illegal to hope there are more foolish people who would buy at even higher prices.

Michael

Comment on Top 10 Reasons You Can’t Get Rich Buying Facebook Stocks by Jerry

Jerry — Sat, 19 May 2012 14:04:08 +0000

Michael,
It is easy to see that Daniel wants to be a speculator, not an investor. He is talking about going for the quick profit in his comment. Why else would his username be an outdated marketing slogan “How to Flip Houses” with a URL and website designed to stroke his own ego? Forget it, Michael, it looks like he’s not here to learn from you. Let him learn the hard way that if he jumps into the Facebook IPO to make a fast buck, he’ll be a guppy swimming with the piranha venture capitalists and barracuda banks who designed the deals, wrote the contracts, got cheap stock pre-IPO, and set the initial stock price way before any public investors saw the offer. If he thinks this deal is “too good to be true”, then he deserves to get in at the top and ride it down. Is it correct that most IPOs get bid up quickly to over-valued levels, then drop off to a more sane stock price after a few months? regards,
Jerry

Comment on Top 10 Reasons You Can’t Get Rich Buying Facebook Stocks by Michael Zhuang

Michael Zhuang — Sat, 19 May 2012 09:58:11 +0000

First of all Daniel, FB is not a fund. The lockup period for FB IPO is only 3 months, an indication all of the insiders want to get out before too late. I expect a wave a selling in three month …

Comment on Top 10 Reasons You Can’t Get Rich Buying Facebook Stocks by How to Flip Houses

How to Flip Houses — Fri, 18 May 2012 22:09:51 +0000

Okay, I agree… that perhaps FB may not be a long-term AWESOME fund to invest in… but it’d be wise for people to get in on the stock during it’s first few days during & after the IPO… and ride the short-term speculation wave… and then sell of their share of stocks & make their money by cashing out quick.

Just my 2 cents. -Daniel

Comment on Be Careful When Buying a Condo as a Rental Property by Michael Zhuang

Michael Zhuang — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:34:05 +0000

Eric,

I realize that. In fact, there has been a 180% change in the low end of the market in the last 18 months. When I purchased my first rental 18 months ago, ton of cheap houses were sitting on the market for months, some years without so much an inquiry. By the time I closed the first purchase 10 months later investors have already cleared out cheap houses on the market.

In my latest purchase, I have 4 other bidders and I had to bid rather aggressively. The seller (a bank) was asking for $90k, I won the bid with $98k.

No only small time investors like myself are swooping in, big hedge funds are getting into actions as well. The best time has passed, but great deals still exist.

Comment on Be Careful When Buying a Condo as a Rental Property by ericwalters747

ericwalters747 — Thu, 17 May 2012 08:40:29 +0000

Cheers Michael – my observation from this side of the Pacific is that you are in a great position to capitalise on the clean-up from the 2004 through 2007 property bubble: but you might only have another year or so to get that advantage as the market slowly catches up with the ‘backlog’! Cheers, Eric Walters

Comment on Be Careful When Buying a Condo as a Rental Property by Michael Zhuang

Michael Zhuang — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:21:15 +0000

Here the law requires seller to disclose all material facts and buyer may back out of a contract if that is not done.

In fact, I was able to purchase a very similar condo unit at a neighboring community for $98k (a bit higher than the original $88). I have found that rental returns are monotonic to distance from the city center. Washingtong DC downtown rental return is about 3%. The condo I purchased is at the edge of DC metropolitan area. Going further out is farmland.

Comment on Successful Entrepreneur, Personal Finance Failure by ericwalters747

ericwalters747 — Tue, 15 May 2012 07:00:40 +0000

Reblogged this on wealth management continuum and commented: Entrepreneurial Baby-Boomers often suffer from dependence on their business as their retirement nest-egg: lack of diversification; and uncontrolled market timing often seriously impact them ...

Comment on Successful Entrepreneur, Personal Finance Failure by ericwalters747

ericwalters747 — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:57:58 +0000

It is apparently a universally overlooked factor (as we see evidence of it in Australia as well) that the ‘baby boomers, even the entrepreneurial ones, were not raised in an environment of understanding the concept of ‘setting aside for a rainy day (the future)’ – and governments everywhere benefited from their rampant consumerism (spend, spend, spend).
It wasn’t until the ’80′s that laws started to arise that facilitated a ‘retirement savings’ strategy – and in Australia at least, in the early days, each change of employment provided an opportunity to ‘cash it in’ and acquire a property, fund a business start-up, etc. For many of us, the business we started back then has always been looked upon as the retirement nest-egg for our ultimate retirement.
As you aptly point out, this has not bode well for most – lack of diversification; and market timing, have often interfered with the ‘(best?) laid plans’.

Comment on Be Careful When Buying a Condo as a Rental Property by ericwalters747

ericwalters747 — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:42:34 +0000

Sometimes regulation (and good practice processes) are a blessing: if you were entering the contract in a jurisdiction with the legal framework we have in Queensland, Australia, the contract would have carried clauses to protect the purchaser from such ‘unknowns’ at time of contracting – and thus saving time and legal fees as will arise in your instance.
A 14% return on a rental property certainly would be a ‘no brainer’ – but as our securities regulator (ASIC) says: if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!

Comment on Variable Annuity Fees You Don’t Know You are Paying by Michael Zhuang

Michael Zhuang — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:27:35 +0000

Anon,

This is my opinion, not a personalized advice. I trust Vanguard, they will not have layers upon layers of hidden fees. But still you have to consider carefully whether VA is right for you: with VA, you save on capital gain taxes and will end up paying income taxes which are at a higher rate.

Michael

Comment on Variable Annuity Fees You Don’t Know You are Paying by anon

anon — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:10:44 +0000

What do you think about the Vanguard Variable Annuity?

Comment on Be Careful When Buying a Condo as a Rental Property by Tim Phillips

Tim Phillips — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:24:47 +0000

Nice. Keep up the good advice.

Tim.

Comment on Successful Entrepreneur, Personal Finance Failure by Michael Zhuang

Michael Zhuang — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:00:23 +0000

Robert,

It’s amazing, isn’t it? People who are very good at making money aren’t good at keeping it.

Michael

Comment on Successful Entrepreneur, Personal Finance Failure by DIY Investor

DIY Investor — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:52:44 +0000

I’ve also found that many successful entrepreneurs have a hard time understanding diversification because they are used to the 100% backing of a single idea. In fact, at my former job at a financial planning firm the president’s retirement was based on selling his business. All his eggs were in one basket.

Comment on Be Careful When Buying a Condo as a Rental Property by Michael Zhuang

Michael Zhuang — Wed, 09 May 2012 17:57:08 +0000

Tim,

I just censored the politically incorrect word.

Michael