Investment

Investment Combating Bias In Investment Decisions December 17, 2021/Investment The great Warren Buffet once said that you don’t need a super high IQ to be a great investor. What you need is the right temperament. What exactly is the right temperament? A lot of it has to do with being able to self-examine and stay…

Investment Draw the Right Lessons to Win Long Term December 17, 2021/Investment As a professional investor, people constantly ask for my take on the markets or particular investment moves. I can’t evaluate everybody’s ideas, but I can help people think more clearly. My experience in business (and in life) tells me that humans are not…

Investment Are You Investing Enough for Retirement? December 17, 2021/Investment Some people intend to work until they die. Everybody else had better be preparing for retirement. Unfortunately, many American households aren’t saving enough. Depending on how you slice the data, the average household might have as little as a few thousand dollars set aside. That’s…

Investment Look Past the Doom and Gloom December 17, 2021/Investment There’s an old saying that economists have predicted nine of the last five recessions. Downturns are inevitable, but when it comes to the US economy, the pessimists are usually wrong. These days it’s particularly easy to get caught up in all the negativity. A pandemic…

Investment Vaccine Investments Will Have Significant RoI for America December 16, 2021/Investment There has been a lot of debate recently about how much money should be spent upfront investing in vaccine options to fight the virus, how to spend it, and who should pay. In my opinion, the business case is pretty cut-and-dry. So far,…

Investment Short Sellers Only Profit From Others’ Pain? December 16, 2021/Investment   In a time when people are suffering, there’s something uncomfortable about people who win when the markets lose. But even if profit from others’ failure is distasteful, contrarian investors play a vital role. Take the German fintech darling Wirecard. Until just a few…

Investment Are You An Investor, Or Gambler? December 16, 2021/Investment There’s an old saying in poker. Look around the table. If you haven’t figured out who the patsy is within 5 minutes, you’re the patsy. In recent months, there has been a surge in amateur day traders. Robinhood is the most well known of several…

Investment What To Do When Interest Rates Are Extremely Low? December 16, 2021/Investment   Mixed economic indicators and volatile markets lead many to tread lightly in making investment decisions. These conditions also create great opportunities for skilled, niche investors like Alliance. The headline indicator recently has been interest rates, and those are now at historic…

Investment The Vision Fund Is Entering The Danger Zone December 16, 2021/Investment SoftBank’s Vision Fund will very likely end up becoming a cautionary tale. All investors can take valuable lessons from their mistakes. For those who aren’t familiar, Vision Fund is a $100 billion investment fund based in Japan. They’ve made a name for themselves…

Investment Investors Focused on Loss Aversion Fall Behind December 16, 2021/Investment Financial markets have been volatile recently. That might not change for a while. What is a savvy investor to do? To understand the right moves in challenging times, we need experience, discipline, and some knowledge of psychology too. The human mind is full of…

Investment After Wildfires New Healthy Forests Grow December 16, 2021/Investment In the midst of the current crisis, we can get ahead of ourselves thinking about the long term. Now is a time to largely focus on the here and now as we look to mitigate the worst case scenarios. My heart goes out to everybody…

Investment More to Investing than Making Money? December 13, 2021/Investment There’s an ongoing debate about the goals of investing. Focus on making money vs. prioritizing environmental and social progress along with financial returns? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with pursuing non-financial goals, but I do question the impact of efforts so far. It appears…

Investment Data Driven, or Foolish? December 13, 2021/Investment Data doesn’t lie. But does it tell the truth? The current fixation on data analytics suggests that data is the only basis for sound decision-making. To succeed, we should rid ourselves of human bias and depend on cold hard numbers. This is foolish. Data is a tool,…

Investment How Do You Measure Good Intentions? December 13, 2021/Investment   Investors care more than ever about the environmental and social impact of companies they invest in. In the big picture, this is progress towards making the world a better place. But when it comes to influencing business decisions, we should be careful about good…

Investment Follow the Growth December 13, 2021/Investment   Supply-and-Demand is a key factor in real estate investing. When we look at Supply, we ask ourselves: How much developed land is there, how is it zoned, and how is this projected to change over time? When we look at Demand: we ask ourselves: How many people…

Investment How Well Do You Incorporate Probabilities? December 13, 2021/Investment   Most people are really bad at thinking clearly and rationally about (uncertain) future events. No surprise — our brains evolved to make snap judgements in very uncertain and potentially very deadly environments. Making carefully calibrated decisions based on large amounts of data isn’t easy,…

Investment Moral Hazard in the Housing Market December 8, 2021/Investment I love sports, and not for the usual reasons. While I played as a kid and I still have a few favorite teams, what really keeps me interested is the way athletics highlight our values, our excellence, and our progress. The values behind sports are…

Investment Remote Workers Are Impacting Commercial Real Estate December 8, 2021/Investment I’m always watching demographic and economic trends. It’s one way we unearth high value deals from across the US. A very interesting trend that continues to pick up steam is remote working. Thanks to communications apps, on-demand transportation, and other internet-enabled wizardry, remote work…

Investment Nobody Wins a Trade War December 8, 2021/Investment Nobody wins in a trade war. For the last few years, I’ve been keeping my eye on the trade situation, looking for signs of how it might affect the economy. While the US has a strong and resilient economy, there could be bumps in the road…

Investment Social Engineering Has Failed In Housing December 7, 2021/Investment   Social engineering in housing is a failure. America’s top tier cities are increasingly unaffordable for middle class renters. Ironically, the problem seems to be worst in the country’s most famously progressive cities, like New York, San Francisco, and Boston. Clearly, well-intentioned policies like rent…

Investment What Do ‘Board Members’ Do Exactly? December 7, 2021/Investment Oversight is supposed to be the primary purpose of a board of directors, but I don’t know if that’s really what they’re doing. From Boeing’s terrible blunder with their new 737, to fraud at Wells Fargo, to tragic incompetence at Yahoo (and so many other…

Investment Learning from Warren Buffett’s Mistake December 7, 2021/Investment Berkshire Hathaway is taking a multibillion dollar write-down on Kraft Heinz, a recent major acquisition. This is surprising for fans of Berkshire’s legendary leader, Warren Buffett. Known as the Oracle of Omaha, Buffett is famous for his fantastically successful use of fundamentals-driven value investing. When the…

Investment Many Companies Are Ignoring a Big Risk December 7, 2021/Investment Long term investing is all about risk assessment. Many companies, particularly public ones, are overlooking something important. Risks of a changing climate may be altering the risk profiles of companies physical property and supply chains. More impactful floods, draughts, and hurricanes are different kinds…

Investment Case Study: Creating a Great Property Profile December 7, 2021/Investment Alliance recently closed out another great deal: $2 million profit and 25% IRR for our investors. This deal highlights some of our team’s great strengths, and I am proud to share the story. We found the medical property up for sale with a few…

Investment Some States are Friendlier to Business December 7, 2021/Investment America remains the most productive, innovative, and wealthy country on Earth. We’re home to world leading industries, with global talent and capital. What’s our secret? One simple factor that distinguishes the United States from many of our industrialized peers: America is business-friendly, and making business…

Investment University or Hedge Fund? December 7, 2021/Investment As a parent with one kid in college and two more approaching college-age, the quality of their education is always on my mind. As an investor, I also see that tuition costs have been rising steadily for a long time, and I wonder what that’s doing to…

Investment Why It’s Easy to Get Things Totally Wrong December 7, 2021/Investment In today’s world, we’re bombarded with information from every direction. With more books, articles, studies, and datasets that ever, we should be getting wiser. Unfortunately, things don’t really work that way. Information overload can make it harder to find the truth — what…

Investment Private Ownership is Good for Risk Taking December 7, 2021/Investment People who know me know that I appreciate risk takers and entrepreneurs. Their willingness to dream big and go all-in on their beliefs drives us all forward. Elon Musk, CEO of several high profile companies, has been an interesting one to follow. Last week,…

Investment Alliance Case Study: Unlocking Resale Value December 7, 2021/Investment Negotiation is at the heart of the real estate investing. Doing it well requires sound analysis and and an understanding of your counterparty’s motivations. Together, these elements bring out a calm, patient confidence that enables a company like Alliance out-maneuver, and find win-wins, with the…

Investment Invest Greedily When Others Are Fearful December 7, 2021/Investment   We live in a time of great uncertainty, and smart people are wondering where they should put their money to weather any coming storms. More on that later. First, interest rates are important for understanding the investment environment, so I included a chart of…

Investment Life Is A Marathon, Not A Sprint December 7, 2021/Investment Business today is more demanding than ever. Information is king, and everybody wants quick responses. Long hours, instant responsiveness, and lots of coffee can help close more deals, but work isn’t everything. Always being well-informed and connected to the action feels exciting, but at…

Investment The Essential Ingredient for Business December 7, 2021/Investment There’s an old saying that says trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets. In life and in business, every single encounter or transaction is an opportunity to put another drop in the trust bucket. It’s also a chance to squander years of goodwill with…

Investment No Risk, No Reward December 7, 2021/Investment   I love the saying no risk, no reward. It’s equally true for investing and for a life well lived. If you’re not in the game, you can’t win anything, and taking too little risk is like sitting on the sidelines and watching others take all the…

Investment Use Leverage Wisely December 7, 2021/Investment When you’re ready to make a real estate investment, there are a lot of bases you need to cover, but none is more important than financing. You can get everything else right, but if you over-leverage, you’re gambling instead of investing. Over-leveraging is the biggest financial error I…

Investment Is Your Kid’s College Tuition A Good Investment? December 7, 2021/Investment   College is supposed to educate our kids and make them ready for a competitive world, but is the system working? I’m shocked by the lack of basic skills in research, analysis, and mathematics demonstrated by many recent college grads. The capacity to…

Investment What Is The Right Amount To Invest In Index Funds? December 7, 2021/Investment When I hear friends talking up the wonders of index funds, I have conflicted feelings. On one hand, it’s great that they want to invest. On the other hand, index funds are not a golden ticket. By playing a game of…

Investment What Makes An Attractive Borrower December 6, 2021/Investment   Everybody knows the old saying in real estate: location location location. In my deal-making part of the industry, there’s another version: reputation reputation reputation. Being known for good judgement smooths the deal making process amazingly. This is particularly true when it comes to raising capital.…

Investment Winning Big for Investors December 6, 2021/Investment Recently, I’ve received messages from our readers asking for more details on how our ideas translate into real returns for investors. To illustrate how Alliance converts expertise into profits, I want to share the story of a recent deal. Background In 2013, our team identified a great…

Investment Creative Dealmaking Delivers Returns December 6, 2021/Investment Thank you to all the readers who wrote in last week after we published our story about the hospital investment that turned into a big win. Since we received such a warm response to the last case study, I want to share another story that further illustrates…

Investment Political Risk and Investing December 6, 2021/Investment There’s no avoiding it — we’ve live in a volatile time in American politics. Despite the polarization and frustration, there is still at least one key area where Americans broadly agree. Whatever our political affiliations, all of us want growth and stability in our investments. Does political…

Investment Technology Is Making Business More Efficient December 6, 2021/Investment There has never been a better time for getting things done. With new tools, a savvy businessman can do more work, better, faster, and cheaper than ever before. In the real estate business, that means we can find, vet, finance, and manage real estate with…

Investment Hurricanes Won’t Change Our Approach December 6, 2021/Investment Alliance invests heavily in the South — areas that have just been battered by back-to-back major hurricanes. As the affected communities work to put their lives back together, they’re on my mind and in my heart. At the same time, I’ve never been happier with my…

Investment Alliance Case Study: Relationships + Research = Profit December 6, 2021/Investment After receiving a great response to earlier stories about real Alliance deals, I’d like to share another high level picture of one of Alliance’s great recent investments. Background For investors with risk tolerance, early 2009 was a buyer’s market. The stock market was…

Investment Know Your Counterparty December 6, 2021/Investment The more things change, the more they stay the same. From the dawn of humanity, we have been social creatures who achieve great things through collective effort. Whether the situation is cooperative (personal relationships), adversarial (war), or mix of the two (business), we have to deal with other…

Investment When to Sell an Asset December 6, 2021/Investment   Good investors are also storytellers. An investment is a bet that we see potential others have missed (or undervalued). We buy when we have a theory of how and when the asset will reach its potential. Correctly laying out the story at the start gives…