I was at work this week when someone asked me what investment opportunity I suggest they look into if they had some dry powder sitting around. This person was looking for stock or bond suggestions, something nice, comfortable, and mainstream. When I told them my proposals the look on their face was a mixture of horror, laughter, shock, & confusion. My recommendations?
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- Liberian real estate.
- Bitcoin.
- Your financial education.
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Granted, I shamelessly stole the Liberian real estate idea from our very own Daniel Ameduri as he mentioned it on the most recent Wealth and Purpose Show. The other ideas are my own which I plagiarized from others while doing my regular financial & money making research.
“Liberian real estate? What are you crazy…you know ebola is there right?”
“Bitcoin? Isn’t that for buying drugs or something? Seems illegal.”
“Financial education? I have a degree in finance…I already know what I’m doing here.”
While my examples vary in levels of extremity, the idea is that I’ve trained my mind to look for the most hated assets when seeking out investment opportunities. Liberian real estate is an obvious example of a detested holding. There is literally blood in the streets in Liberia as the country struggles to cope with the growing ebola pandemic. While most people see this as a great opportunity to get the hell out, I’m wondering if there was was ever a better opportunity to buy rental properties in the region. Surely demand to live in Liberia is steadily sinking given the health crisis, nonetheless, people will return. Ebola will end. When? I don’t know…but I want to be leveraged to the upside when the recovery begins.
With bitcoin, most people know absolutely nothing about it and assume it’s a tool for illegal drug trade on the internet given its association with the late Silk Road. Naturally this ties into the lack of financial education endemic of today’s world. While bitcoin isn’t necessarily hated by the general public, it is hated (or feared?) by banks, whether they say so or not. What about financial education? Well that means people would have to pick up a book to read, go to a seminar, and put some work in outside of their jobs. From my experience, anything that gets in the way of Sunday Night Football or Keeping Up With The Kardashians is hated by the herd. Simply put, people hate working and those who actually do work will see that the ROI on using your brain has unlimited upside.
As opened minded readers you need to train your minds to look outside the mainstream suggestions you are bombarded with on a daily basis. What do people hate? What do people hate DOING? By investing your money and time in those things you will inevitably be rewarded as long as you’ve put in the time and research that no one else bothers to do. When Cyprus crashed due to the bail ins what did visionary individuals like Doug Casey do? They “bought” Cyprus, hand over fist. A similar legend of investment success, Rick Rule, has been quoted as saying “I love investments that are hated”.
Train your mind to look into the burning building everyone is fleeing. Coach yourself to seek out those “non” opportunities where emotions and sentiment are vicious, hated, and bloody. In the end, the crafty contrarian will thrive on that which is despised by others.