Stimulis….
If I’ve been talking more about Roman history than I usually do, that’s because I’m constantly being reminded of it recently–in bad ways. The stimulus package reminds me uncomfortably of the standard response of Roman Emperors to bad economic times–that is, to invent money. (They devalued the currency. We just print more. Pretty much, same diff.) Theoretically, they’d pay back the debt created by these acts. Somehow, it never happened that way.
Heck, I still don’t understand what the bank bailout was supposed to achieve, or rather by what means it was supposed to achieve it…. :-/
I have no idea what I want to invest in anymore–or where to invest, for that matter. If I lived in my hometown, where real estate prices stayed sane, the economy is solid, and growth is steady, I’d have half a dozen four-plexes by now. (The one where I lived when I was a baby is for sale, BTW!) Here? I’d need half a million just to get off the ground, and then the value would implode. Not good.
The DH’s been putting money into Starbucks, Panera Bread Company, and Apple. Now he’s fretting because he’ll have too much invested in too few companies, and he’s going to have to re-organize again. Did I mention he has a pie chart? He bores me with this stuff on a daily basis.
Though he promises me that when the economy recovers, we’ll be rich from all the BBY stocks and stock options they’re giving him right now, at low cost! We’ll see…
Comment by Bekke — February 8, 2009 @ 10:57 pm
Ouch–Starbucks? Panera, definitely. Apple….yeah, probably. I’m hoping we’re pouring money in at the ground floor here, not, you know, right before the floor drops out from under us!
I LOVE lots of things about where we live. But I drool over the opportunities in my hometown. I mean, we’re talking about properties that cost maybe $850/mo for mortgage, insurance, and taxes, with about, say $150 a month of maintenance, that have full occupation and bring in a revenue of $1800 a month. Initial investment? About $28k. That’s 34% ROI per YEAR (that’s profits/investment). Holymoley, is all I have to say. Holy-freaking-moley. And I’m not talking about one or two opportunities, here. I’m not talking about fixer-uppers, either. Or this being some rare, freak thing. I’m talking about there being at least half a dozen four-plexes like this, on sale at this very moment. A fixer-upper four-plex goes for about a third as much, I kid you not!
With only 80% occupancy (actual occupancy is higher in that town), you’d have a profit of $46k a year on six units. Set aside $28k for a down payment on another unit each year, and after a while, you wouldn’t WANT any other job.
*shakes head* It’s pretty impressive, that’s for sure!
Comment by Lydia — February 8, 2009 @ 11:20 pm
What can I say? He has faith in Starbucks’ resilience.
And this you can probably excuse me for, but I’m pretty burned on the whole idea of real estate as an investment opportunity. If the DH ever suggests we get into that, I’ll probably throttle him. We got our assessment just before the new year. Our house is now officially valued at half of what we paid for it. But hey, at least our property tax will go down.
Comment by Bekke — February 9, 2009 @ 9:00 am
I wouldn’t invest in real estate here, either! But my hometown’s been pretty impervious to the price fluctuations, so it never really went up when everything else did. The bottom temporarily rose so that the very cheapest houses were more expensive, but the even moderate houses hardly bumped up at all.
The assessment’s got to be pretty painful, though….
Comment by Lydia — February 9, 2009 @ 9:06 am