My Top 5 Investing Non-Negotiables

I recall when I was about 12 years old an old friend of my mom’s told me about a relative of his who purchased a whole bunch of stock at one price, sold it for a profit, and got rich overnight. I clearly remember thinking “man, if someone could just teach me how to do that!” This was my first introduction to “investing”: the idea that you can just pick the right stock, get lucky and end up rich. As I got older, I learned about mutual funds, annuities, life insurance, and other retail financial products. From there, I began to dive deep into the world of alternative investing. Things like real estate, private lending, note investing, bullion, and a few others. I learned there are good and bad in that world and began to focus on assets that I have a high level of control over.

After almost 15 years of investing experience, I want to share with you what I’ve deemed are the most important components that an investment must provide me with.

Here they are:

1. A real asset that I control. By a real asset, I mean something that is more than just a digit on a screen or a piece of paper. I prefer tangible assets because a tangible asset can’t just disappear. Paper and digits can. Control means that I can direct the outcomes of the asset and I am the final decision maker on it. I don’t personally like the idea that I can buy a stock, or a token…