[Matt SF]

[quote=j]A 2% increase in mortgage rates will halt home sales, so the Fed will not leave the market.[/quote]

I agree. Ironically, it was government intervention that helped cause the real estate bubble in the first place, but the same intervention will be required to prevent further devaluation.

And one more reason, among many, that I don’t buy the “this is the time to invest in real estate” argument from some RE investors. I don’t think DC will allow rates to increase simply because they’ll never clear their books of the inventory (and shadow inventory).

[Matt SF]

[quote=j]A 2% increase in mortgage rates will halt home sales, so the Fed will not leave the market.[/quote]

I agree. Ironically, it was government intervention that helped cause the real estate bubble in the first place, but the same intervention will be required to prevent further devaluation.

And one more reason, among many, that I don’t buy the “this is the time to invest in real estate” argument from some RE investors. I don’t think DC will allow rates to increase simply because they’ll never clear their books of the inventory (and shadow inventory).

[Matt SF]

[quote=j]A 2% increase in mortgage rates will halt home sales, so the Fed will not leave the market.[/quote]

I agree. Ironically, it was government intervention that helped cause the real estate bubble in the first place, but the same intervention will be required to prevent further devaluation.

And one more reason, among many, that I don’t buy the “this is the time to invest in real estate” argument from some RE investors. I don’t think DC will allow rates to increase simply because they’ll never clear their books of the inventory (and shadow inventory).

[Matt SF]

[quote=j]A 2% increase in mortgage rates will halt home sales, so the Fed will not leave the market.[/quote]

I agree. Ironically, it was government intervention that helped cause the real estate bubble in the first place, but the same intervention will be required to prevent further devaluation.

And one more reason, among many, that I don’t buy the “this is the time to invest in real estate” argument from some RE investors. I don’t think DC will allow rates to increase simply because they’ll never clear their books of the inventory (and shadow inventory).

[Matt SF]

[quote=j]A 2% increase in mortgage rates will halt home sales, so the Fed will not leave the market.[/quote]

I agree. Ironically, it was government intervention that helped cause the real estate bubble in the first place, but the same intervention will be required to prevent further devaluation.

And one more reason, among many, that I don’t buy the “this is the time to invest in real estate” argument from some RE investors. I don’t think DC will allow rates to increase simply because they’ll never clear their books of the inventory (and shadow inventory).

[Matt SF]

FPs will charge anywhere from 1% of assets or fee based (the best kind) around $100/hr, but I don’t really think hiring a FP is in your best interests if you’re just doing budgeting or basic personal finance.

FP’s are great if you’re new to investing or you’re not a very disciplined investor, but just for matters of reducing spending, paying an additional $100 per month on your mortgage, or trying to cut your credit card debt, their expertise really isn’t that valuable. I say this because they’re only going to tell you to “spend less, save more, create a budget, stick to it, and call me when you have money to invest.”

Lots of personal finance blogs give this sort of advice for free, as well as budgeting sites like Mint, Quicken, or even Plain Jane Excel, should help you meet your needs.

My advice would be to track how much money you save every month (percent saved of bring home income), track necessary vs. discretionary spending every month, and if you need additional motivation, calculate how much money you’re paying in interest (bank profits) every month.

[Matt SF]

FPs will charge anywhere from 1% of assets or fee based (the best kind) around $100/hr, but I don’t really think hiring a FP is in your best interests if you’re just doing budgeting or basic personal finance.

FP’s are great if you’re new to investing or you’re not a very disciplined investor, but just for matters of reducing spending, paying an additional $100 per month on your mortgage, or trying to cut your credit card debt, their expertise really isn’t that valuable. I say this because they’re only going to tell you to “spend less, save more, create a budget, stick to it, and call me when you have money to invest.”

Lots of personal finance blogs give this sort of advice for free, as well as budgeting sites like Mint, Quicken, or even Plain Jane Excel, should help you meet your needs.

My advice would be to track how much money you save every month (percent saved of bring home income), track necessary vs. discretionary spending every month, and if you need additional motivation, calculate how much money you’re paying in interest (bank profits) every month.

[Matt SF]

FPs will charge anywhere from 1% of assets or fee based (the best kind) around $100/hr, but I don’t really think hiring a FP is in your best interests if you’re just doing budgeting or basic personal finance.

FP’s are great if you’re new to investing or you’re not a very disciplined investor, but just for matters of reducing spending, paying an additional $100 per month on your mortgage, or trying to cut your credit card debt, their expertise really isn’t that valuable. I say this because they’re only going to tell you to “spend less, save more, create a budget, stick to it, and call me when you have money to invest.”

Lots of personal finance blogs give this sort of advice for free, as well as budgeting sites like Mint, Quicken, or even Plain Jane Excel, should help you meet your needs.

My advice would be to track how much money you save every month (percent saved of bring home income), track necessary vs. discretionary spending every month, and if you need additional motivation, calculate how much money you’re paying in interest (bank profits) every month.

[Matt SF]

FPs will charge anywhere from 1% of assets or fee based (the best kind) around $100/hr, but I don’t really think hiring a FP is in your best interests if you’re just doing budgeting or basic personal finance.

FP’s are great if you’re new to investing or you’re not a very disciplined investor, but just for matters of reducing spending, paying an additional $100 per month on your mortgage, or trying to cut your credit card debt, their expertise really isn’t that valuable. I say this because they’re only going to tell you to “spend less, save more, create a budget, stick to it, and call me when you have money to invest.”

Lots of personal finance blogs give this sort of advice for free, as well as budgeting sites like Mint, Quicken, or even Plain Jane Excel, should help you meet your needs.

My advice would be to track how much money you save every month (percent saved of bring home income), track necessary vs. discretionary spending every month, and if you need additional motivation, calculate how much money you’re paying in interest (bank profits) every month.

[Matt SF]

FPs will charge anywhere from 1% of assets or fee based (the best kind) around $100/hr, but I don’t really think hiring a FP is in your best interests if you’re just doing budgeting or basic personal finance.

FP’s are great if you’re new to investing or you’re not a very disciplined investor, but just for matters of reducing spending, paying an additional $100 per month on your mortgage, or trying to cut your credit card debt, their expertise really isn’t that valuable. I say this because they’re only going to tell you to “spend less, save more, create a budget, stick to it, and call me when you have money to invest.”

Lots of personal finance blogs give this sort of advice for free, as well as budgeting sites like Mint, Quicken, or even Plain Jane Excel, should help you meet your needs.

My advice would be to track how much money you save every month (percent saved of bring home income), track necessary vs. discretionary spending every month, and if you need additional motivation, calculate how much money you’re paying in interest (bank profits) every month.

[Matt SF]

@ temeculaguy

Yeah, I’d say you’re dead on. I’ve been saying for a while that we’re looking at a potential gold bubble due the rampant speculation in the basic commodity and the several gold ETFs that have sprung up of late (7 at last count I think), and all the cheesy ads pumping gold as the next sure thing.

Retail investors are usually the last to get in on the bubble since they’re usually the least informed and fall for the worst ads possible, so I’d say using your friends as an observational metric is justifiable. For example, think back to all those Countrywide and DiTech ads for home equity loans and liar loans back in 2000 to 2006.

But what I find disturbing are the ads that pump gold just like they did real estate back in the mid 2000s. Phrases like “X can’t go down in value”, where they once said this for real estate because “we all know real estate never depreciates”. Yeah, right!

But I certainly won’t deny that gold proponents have a strong case. I still think the US Dollar has some problems and will continue to depreciate maybe a little faster than it has in the past, but I think gold may have ran too far to fast due to speculators and momentum investors.

So as a long term investor, and most gold investors like to think of themselves as buy & hold investors, I think the big question you have to ask yourself is do you really want to buy something that’s tripled in price over the last 5 years or buy something else that’s fallen 50% of more?

Also, I wrote a post a few months ago saying “10 reasons you shouldn’t invest in gold” and man, did I get slammed! The gold bugs teed off on me bigtime!

[Matt SF]

@ temeculaguy

Yeah, I’d say you’re dead on. I’ve been saying for a while that we’re looking at a potential gold bubble due the rampant speculation in the basic commodity and the several gold ETFs that have sprung up of late (7 at last count I think), and all the cheesy ads pumping gold as the next sure thing.

Retail investors are usually the last to get in on the bubble since they’re usually the least informed and fall for the worst ads possible, so I’d say using your friends as an observational metric is justifiable. For example, think back to all those Countrywide and DiTech ads for home equity loans and liar loans back in 2000 to 2006.

But what I find disturbing are the ads that pump gold just like they did real estate back in the mid 2000s. Phrases like “X can’t go down in value”, where they once said this for real estate because “we all know real estate never depreciates”. Yeah, right!

But I certainly won’t deny that gold proponents have a strong case. I still think the US Dollar has some problems and will continue to depreciate maybe a little faster than it has in the past, but I think gold may have ran too far to fast due to speculators and momentum investors.

So as a long term investor, and most gold investors like to think of themselves as buy & hold investors, I think the big question you have to ask yourself is do you really want to buy something that’s tripled in price over the last 5 years or buy something else that’s fallen 50% of more?

Also, I wrote a post a few months ago saying “10 reasons you shouldn’t invest in gold” and man, did I get slammed! The gold bugs teed off on me bigtime!

[Matt SF]

@ temeculaguy

Yeah, I’d say you’re dead on. I’ve been saying for a while that we’re looking at a potential gold bubble due the rampant speculation in the basic commodity and the several gold ETFs that have sprung up of late (7 at last count I think), and all the cheesy ads pumping gold as the next sure thing.

Retail investors are usually the last to get in on the bubble since they’re usually the least informed and fall for the worst ads possible, so I’d say using your friends as an observational metric is justifiable. For example, think back to all those Countrywide and DiTech ads for home equity loans and liar loans back in 2000 to 2006.

But what I find disturbing are the ads that pump gold just like they did real estate back in the mid 2000s. Phrases like “X can’t go down in value”, where they once said this for real estate because “we all know real estate never depreciates”. Yeah, right!

But I certainly won’t deny that gold proponents have a strong case. I still think the US Dollar has some problems and will continue to depreciate maybe a little faster than it has in the past, but I think gold may have ran too far to fast due to speculators and momentum investors.

So as a long term investor, and most gold investors like to think of themselves as buy & hold investors, I think the big question you have to ask yourself is do you really want to buy something that’s tripled in price over the last 5 years or buy something else that’s fallen 50% of more?

Also, I wrote a post a few months ago saying “10 reasons you shouldn’t invest in gold” and man, did I get slammed! The gold bugs teed off on me bigtime!

[Matt SF]

@ temeculaguy

Yeah, I’d say you’re dead on. I’ve been saying for a while that we’re looking at a potential gold bubble due the rampant speculation in the basic commodity and the several gold ETFs that have sprung up of late (7 at last count I think), and all the cheesy ads pumping gold as the next sure thing.

Retail investors are usually the last to get in on the bubble since they’re usually the least informed and fall for the worst ads possible, so I’d say using your friends as an observational metric is justifiable. For example, think back to all those Countrywide and DiTech ads for home equity loans and liar loans back in 2000 to 2006.

But what I find disturbing are the ads that pump gold just like they did real estate back in the mid 2000s. Phrases like “X can’t go down in value”, where they once said this for real estate because “we all know real estate never depreciates”. Yeah, right!

But I certainly won’t deny that gold proponents have a strong case. I still think the US Dollar has some problems and will continue to depreciate maybe a little faster than it has in the past, but I think gold may have ran too far to fast due to speculators and momentum investors.

So as a long term investor, and most gold investors like to think of themselves as buy & hold investors, I think the big question you have to ask yourself is do you really want to buy something that’s tripled in price over the last 5 years or buy something else that’s fallen 50% of more?

Also, I wrote a post a few months ago saying “10 reasons you shouldn’t invest in gold” and man, did I get slammed! The gold bugs teed off on me bigtime!

[Matt SF]

@ temeculaguy

Yeah, I’d say you’re dead on. I’ve been saying for a while that we’re looking at a potential gold bubble due the rampant speculation in the basic commodity and the several gold ETFs that have sprung up of late (7 at last count I think), and all the cheesy ads pumping gold as the next sure thing.

Retail investors are usually the last to get in on the bubble since they’re usually the least informed and fall for the worst ads possible, so I’d say using your friends as an observational metric is justifiable. For example, think back to all those Countrywide and DiTech ads for home equity loans and liar loans back in 2000 to 2006.

But what I find disturbing are the ads that pump gold just like they did real estate back in the mid 2000s. Phrases like “X can’t go down in value”, where they once said this for real estate because “we all know real estate never depreciates”. Yeah, right!

But I certainly won’t deny that gold proponents have a strong case. I still think the US Dollar has some problems and will continue to depreciate maybe a little faster than it has in the past, but I think gold may have ran too far to fast due to speculators and momentum investors.

So as a long term investor, and most gold investors like to think of themselves as buy & hold investors, I think the big question you have to ask yourself is do you really want to buy something that’s tripled in price over the last 5 years or buy something else that’s fallen 50% of more?

Also, I wrote a post a few months ago saying “10 reasons you shouldn’t invest in gold” and man, did I get slammed! The gold bugs teed off on me bigtime!

[Author]

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