2007 vs 2024: How do you want to look back on the decisions you made in 2024?
Today is the day to start preparing for your future. Many people in the business world have grown accustomed to low interest rates. For many years, 2-3% was the norm, and people would scoff at the thought of a 5% interest rate. Money was cheap, times were good, but as we have experienced lately, that is not always going to be the case.
Rates go up. Numbers go up. Many young people like to believe they are entitled to cheap money because that is the reality their parents got to experience. We are always quick to remember the good times and say things like, ‘If I just would have invested in 2008, I would be loaded.’ Yes, that’s true, but in 2008, you were scared to death that the entire world was going to crumble to pieces, so the thought of buying and holding cheap assets for a couple of years and reaping the benefits was far from most people’s minds.
We have a hard time looking at things on a grander scale. Do you know what the interest rate peaked at in March 1980? 20 percent!!! Think about that; people were buying properties at 20% interest. There were most likely some amazing seller financing deals at that time, around 15%, a value today which we would only feel comfortable paying to credit card companies, but that’s another story. My point is, relative to the last 5-10 years, today’s economic landscape feels alarming, but when we zoom out to 50-60 years, the numbers are a little more reasonable.
With that being said, NOW is the best time in your life to start looking at investing in real estate. It is not going anywhere. Real estate is REAL; nobody can take it from you. Stocks are like pulling the lever on a slot machine; you have zero control of the outcome. I think Warren Buffett put it best when he said:
“Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy only when others are fearful.”
This perfectly demonstrates the sentiment today; consumers are plagued by fear of the unknown. Unrest in the Middle East, looming political changes, social media scandals, food shortages, etc., all these play into our fear and cause us to feel separate and lost in a scary global landscape, but that doesn’t have to be the case if you don’t let it.
Find it within yourself to step outside your comfort zone. Write that offer, start that business, invest in yourself, and the universe will pay dividends to you. Invest in the fear mongered by social media, lobbyists, governments, and others, and the universe will keep you in that place of lack because that is obviously what you prefer.
I don’t wish to work with people who don’t want their lives to change. I want to work with people who want to create a new world. A better world, for themselves and those around them. A better world for our children.
Invest in yourself today. I want you to be able to tell my children you were brave when others were scared. You didn’t know what would happen, but you trusted yourself enough to know that trying and failing was magnitudes better than not trying at all.
Thank you for reading. I hope that some of this resonated with some of you. I truly wish you all the best.
Happy investing in 2024 and beyond!