I’m not getting out completely. But I looked at my overall wealth plan (or lack thereof)…And noticed that 75%+ was tied to stock/stockmarket… So i needed an excuse to diversify. Don’t want to blow it completely.[/quote]
Wow 75% of your net worth in the stock market is quite a hefty portion. No way I feel comfortable with that big of an amount, even considering I’m not yet an old fart (but not getting any younger either).
I know things move in cycles but you make a few bad choices or sectors and you can really get wiped out. So it’s all about diversification. I had a few friends in the financial sector that should have known better.
However, their idea of “diversification” was putting some money in Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Lehman Bros. Obviously the entire sector crashed and it’s not even a matter of some of them coming back because crap like LEH went out of business and Citigroup may never came back strong.
I probably have too much of my net worth in real estate but I feel more comfortable in non-leveraged real estate that is spinning off cash flow each month and has 0% chance of going to $0 unlike stocks.
Definitely I think you need a healthy balance. Actually you’ve probably done well if you continued buying in the market especially after the crash.
I did well shorting it on the way down but should have jumped back in for the ride up too. That’s one regret I have.
[quote=The-Shoveler]I have to go with NSR, HOA’s unless they are providing services such as pools/club houses and you can make use of them, they are just a waste of money and hassle.
Most Cities now have CCR’s so whats the point ?[/quote]
I agree. I actually don’t mind HOA if the management is very good and as you mentioned there are lots of services like pool, tennis courts, clubhouse, security gates/guards.
I live in Santaluz and I think the HOA is excellent! The fees actually went down $10 this year compared to last year. And they do an amazing job with keeping all 3,800 acres immaculate. The $440 fees include garbage pick up, high speed Internet (my house gets 20 MB service) and digital cable with some premium channels.
But I don’t get the communities that have HOA where there isn’t a pool, clubhouse or really anything.
Also, some of these HOA fees in buildings are insane! A few downtown are $800 a month. I just saw one in Miami Beach on a 1 bedroom 1 bathroom with no services other than a pool and doorman and the monthly HOA fees are $1050! The funny thing is units in that building are selling for like $125,000. So imagine paying $12,600 a year on HOA fees on a $125,000 property.
