Lesson 3: Invest your money

As I said at the start of this article ... you know the difference between investing your money and spending it. Most of us just find a way to make our spending feel like an investment.
 
But as a Rev N You reader we know that you've taken a good look at your finances and we hope you've taken measures to invest more money than you used to. And we also hope that you've been learning how you can invest it into real estate. But, just in case you still haven't started buying real estate I wanted to share what Michael Masterson asked me when I was sitting with him and some other folks from Early to Rise one evening after the conference was over.
 
We'd all been chatting about plenty of different things ... from the excellent words of Clayton Makepeace that were shared at the event, to the interesting people we'd all met at the conference, to the cigars Mary Ellen Tribby presented to Michael Masterson as a gift in celebration of Early to Rise's 10th anniversary.
 
It was a fairly light and friendly conversation when Michael Masterson turned his total attention to me. He'd mentioned the previous day that he'd like to see me a bit more involved with Early to Rise ... writing a few more articles for his publication and maybe work on a few other things with the group ... but we hadn't talked about anything related to that in this conversation when he turned to me with a serious face and said "I need to know some things. I have some questions for you."
 
The other people at the table naturally turned their attention to me too. "Oh boy - I'm on the hot seat! Everyone's listening" I thought. 
 
His first question: "Are you buying real estate right now?"
 
Phew...easy to answer ... "Yes".
 
What specifically am I buying he asked. "Residential... mostly single family homes or duplexes".
 
No reaction on his face... my mind is racing thinking about what he's been writing about lately. Has he been talking about real estate in his newsletters I wondered? Am I about to fall into a trap because I haven't been reading the newsletter as much as I used to?
 
He asked where I was buying: "On the west coast of Canada and in the interior of B.C." I replied.
 
We talked about this for a minute more or so, and then he nodded. He seemed satisfied.
 
Even though I felt like I'd given him answers that he was happy with, I wanted to know what he was doing.
 
He said he was buying single family homes right now. The time is right to be buying properties to hold for the long term.
 
We agree ...
 
Of course, there are definitely some markets in North America that haven't seen the worst of it yet. In fact, even in many parts of Canada where the media is headlining the "housing market recovery" we believe caution is still required because there are probably still some tough days ahead of us, but with buy and hold investing you don't have to buy at the absolute bottom of the market to make a bundle!
 
We've said it a dozen times ... you'll make money through the positive cash flow and the pay down of the mortgage by your tenants even if the value of your property doesn't go up. Plus, you'll enjoy some significant tax benefits along the way. And if you buy right, and hold onto the property for the years to come, unless history doesn't repeat itself for the first time in housing history you can rest assured that your property value will virtually double in the next 10 - 15 years.
 
So maybe Michael Masterson no longer follows his own advice about watching television  ... but if he's buying single family homes and thinks now is a good time to learn about buy and hold investing then I believe you should be paying attention.
 
And you definitely should be listening to his message about making good decisions. In every moment you have the chance to make choices that make you richer or make you poorer. You can choose to ask people good questions that enrich the conversation and add to your connection. You can choose to turn off the television and work on improving your skills or plan your investments. And you can choose to invest your money instead of spending it. You can choose to buy at least one piece of property this year to start growing your wealth now!

Published on December 4th, 2009

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