If you are an investor, it's important to practice taking profits to pay for a better life. If you never utilize your gains and die with too much money, you have completely lost the point of investing!
One of my favorite areas to take profits is in the stock market and convert the proceeds into real assets like real estate. This way, I increase the chances that my profits will last and provide utility for a very long time.
I rote this post in 2H2020 when stocks and real estate were climbing hard. And in retrospect, I really do appreciate taking some profits on the way to pay for a better life.
Practice Taking Profits To Live Your Best Life
What's the point of investing money? To pay for a better life. I think many of us forget that investing is just a means to an end.
We set up our automatic bi-weekly investment contributions, come up with a better dollar cost averaging framework, and never touch our money because we want to grow our nest egg as large as possible.But eventually, we must spend, or else there's really no point.
My #1 reason for saving and investing money is so that I never have to work for someone out of necessity ever again. I make this happen by building as many passive income streams as possible.
Can you imagine being in an arranged marriage (check out Indian Matchmaking on Netflix for a clue)?That's kind of what work is like because there are always new people coming in where you had no say in their hiring. You put up with people you don't likebecause you need the money. Eventually, you'll have enough where you will make a change.
During my first two years of early retirement I was only about 75% sure I had made the right move. Therefore, I continued to live frugally and stayeddisciplined with my saving and investing habits. I invested 100% of my severance check in a couple principal protected structured notes so I wouldn't be tempted to spend any of it.
It's been over eight years since I last worked for someone else. During this time, I've come torealizethe fear of running out of money in retirement is completely overblown. We are adaptable and stronger than we know. If necessary, there are so many ways to make extra money.
Taking Profits To Pay For A Better Life
With such a massive rebound in the stock market and real estate market in 2020+, I continue to take profits to ensure that all this saving and investing doesn't go to waste. It would be such a shame to lose 30% again like we did in March 2020.
Here's a past example from 2016 where I took profits to pay for a better life. Even though stocks continued to go up since 2016, I'm very happy that I was able to enjoy my investment over the past four years.
On May 30, 2012, I invested part of my severancein a 100%principal protected DJIA structured notepaying a 0.5% annual yield. Today, this noteisworth $202,335, a 35% increase. I didn't invest naked long because I just left my job and the economic environment was still very uncertain after the housing bust. If I did, I'd probably be up closer to 45%.
As a retiree, my annualinvestment goalis to earn a4% – 6%return, or 3X the 10-year bond yield. Given this structured notehas yielded closer to an 8% annual return since inception, I'm taking profits on 100% of the profits, i.e., selling $52,335 worth of notes and letting the original principal balance of $150,000 ride.
What will I bespending this funny money on? Perhaps ona new mid-life crisis rideI've been writing so much about? Nah.
Taking Profits To Spend On Home Remodeling
I'll be spending it onbuildinga new retaining wall to solidify the foundation of my home,a new 275 sqft deck off the master bedroom, and replacing two, 50 year old cracked aluminum windows witha new 12 foot wide sliding door which will connectthe master bedroom onto the deck!
When I bought my fixer upper in early 2014, Iimagined all the expansion potential possibilities. But expandingcosts money, and it's always a good idea to take your time when making permanent changes. Further, to reduce the pain,it sometimes feels better ifspending is spreadout over a longer period of time.
Two Phases Of Expansion
In Phase I,I spent roughly $130,000 to redo the entire interior of my house. You get the best bang for your buck expanding bathrooms, remodelingkitchens and doing the necessities, such as updating the electrical. Now it's on to Phase II.
Phase II consists of some superfluous stuff that has a lower return on investment, e.g., landscaping.For the longest time, I'vewanted sliding glass doors off my master bedroom that connected to a nicedeck that overlooked the ocean. I imagined stepping outsidefor a morning stretch after a good night's rest.On a warm afternoon, I'd relax in a lounge chair, drinking a Moscow Mule froma chilled copper cup before the sun set.
Having always lived on the eastern side of the city,I never imaginedthere werehomes with ocean views in San Francisco which I could afford. Every other major city in the world with panoramic ocean viewstrade atunaffordablepremiums,so it wasn't until early 2014, when a sizable CD came due, that I ever bothered to look.
Sensing an opportunity, I made the move to on the one handincrease passive income by renting out my old house and on the other purchasemy ideal San Francisco home for the second half of my life.
Spending The Profits By Building A Deck
Step 1: Clear The Room
It's a foggy August morning.I spent about 30 minutes covering all my furniture with plastic wrap to prepare for the demolition. You've really got to take your time remodeling because
I spent hours painting the wall and the window trims a couple years ago. If I had planned my remodeling perfectly, I would have installed these doors and built a deck first, and then painted the interior.
Step 2: Remove Windows AndTrim
Step 3: Remove Sheetrock
It's always fascinating to open up the walls and see what lies beneath. One time I found some old coins from the 1920s and a newspaper article in my old house. The big issue with installing a sliding glass door was figuring out how to install it without the upper floor collapsing due to the removal of the center support column.
Step 4: Install Temporary Wall To Support Upstairs
Before removing the center support column between the two windows, my contractor had to build this temporary support wall. He also installed two new support columns to the left and right of the sliding door frame. Temporary problem solved!
Step 5: Install Header And Sliding Doors
Notice the massive new support header above the door. For bigger jobs, I highly recommend everyone pay up for a licensed contractor who will get a permit. Safety is paramount. My contractor will not cover up the walls until the inspector gives the OK.
I'm pretty pumped with this project because I've gone from a 9 footwide viewing area to a 12 footwide viewing area. The new sliding door has double pane glass for better sound and temperature insulation. The view is what makes this project a home run, and I can't wait to take some pictures on a clear day!
Installing this door and replacing the header took four guys one day to complete: 8am – 6pm. After the inspection, my guyswill come back to sheetrock, mud, sand, and paint the inside and outside of the house. They'll also install an electrical outlet for the deck and two LED lamps. Finally, they willinstall three more support beams below the bedroom. The total cost for the door, labor and permits is about $15,000.
Spending $15,000 on this home improvement project feels so much better than keeping the $15,000 invested in astock market that provides zero utility. If the stock market goes up another 5% this year, that's an extra $750 return. Whoopdeedoo. If the market declines, then I'm happy I took some profits to enjoy something much more permanent.
Identify what you value and spend your profits accordingly.
Step #6: Enjoy The Sun!
Now looking for deck furniture and a hot tub for five. Check out how awesome the deck turned out below. The deck acted like a second backyard for my son when he was young. The easy access from the main bedroom was wonderful. So was watching the sunsets.
If you're interest in know about the cost of building a deck, I wrote a new post about it. I ended up building another deck in 2022 for my rental property. I had to change out the foggy window, so I figured I might as well install French doors and build a deck.
It Feels Like Free Money
“I'm always told whento buy, but I'm never told when to sell.” – Anonymous mutual fund manager.
Whenever you're taking profits to pay for something awesome, it feels like free money. After a long enough time passes, the investments you made will start feeling like undeserved, free money. This is especially true if you get a nice severance check for leaving a job you wanted to leave anyway.
It'ssurreal that you can lock up moneyand then potentially havea lot more money years later while doing nothing. But that's the power of investing in asset classes that historically go up.It just takes time to play out.
Just be aware that bullmarkets make us feel invincible. We start thinking we are smarter than we really are. In reality, all we're doing is riding a tram into the sky. We don't know when the tram will stop or break. Nor do weknowwhether we'll be forced to get off at an inopportune time.
During good times, it's important to tell and askyourself two things:
1) You are not an investing genius, so stop thinking you are one.
2) How do I make the good times last longer?
Telling yourself you are not an investing genius forces you to have a hard look at yournet worth compositionandinvestment asset allocation. The goal is to know your actual risk tolerance andnot take outsized risk. When times are good, we tend to overestimate how much risk we can take.
Asking yourself “How do I make the good times last longer?” makes you consider future goals.For example, if your investment proceeds will help put your kid through college for an easier life, you willhave made one of the most generous and profitable investments ever!
Contemplate a world where your children have nohuge student debt andcan pursue their interests instead of a paycheck. Would that make them happy? If your children are happy, would they not love and appreciate what you've done for them?If this were so, as a parentwould you not be content?
I'm still waiting for my daughter to be born, so besides writing posts about what I'll teach my daughter in the meantime, I'm going to get the house done up so that mom and dad will have gotten all their projects out of the way so they can focus 100% on being good parents. Besides, thisnew sliding door and deck has a 20+ year warranty. That's a nice way to make the good times last longer.
Never Forget The Reasons Why You Invest
Unless I was constantly taking profits to spend on necessities and the joys of living,I'll neverrank stocksas my favorite assetclass to build wealth. For frugal people who tend to live way below their means taking profits to spend is hard to do. The same goes for people who fear missing out on more gains due to greed.
For those of you who areolder,have your financial ducks in order, and are getting a little demotivated by the constant investing mantra, I encourage you to utilize some of your paper profits for something more tangible.
Go through an exercise of saying, “My investment in X paid for Y.”
Here are some examples:
My investment in Google paid for my daughter's education.
My investment in GE paid for my compact car.
My investment in the S&P 500 index paid for my kitchen.
My investment in an Apple structured note paid for the downpayment on my house.
My investment in VNQ, a Vanguard REIT, paid for my parents' two week cruise.
My investment in Hawaiian Airlinesbought 10round-trip San Francisco-Honoluluplane tickets.
My investment in VYM is paying monthly dividends, which pays for my gym membership.
My investment in Netflix enabled me toretire early.
If you find yourself going through the exercise and realizing your investments haven't paid for anything, you've got some work to do! You're either not investing enough or you've forgotten your purpose for investing. Taking profits will help fulfill your investing purpose.
The goal is to always tether your investments to real things. As soon as you identify what your investments have bought or will buy, you'll be much happier.
As we've all discovered during this global pandemic, life is not certain. Therefore, why not use some of our money to pay for some uncertainty. We certainly are!
Invest In Real Estate More Strategically
Real estate is my favorite way to achieving financial freedom because it is a tangible asset that is less volatile, provides utility, and generates income. Stocks are fine, but stock yields are low and stocks are much more volatile.
The combination of rising rents and rising real estate prices builds tremendous wealth over the long term. Meanwhile, there are more ways to invest in areas of the country where valuations are lower and net rental yields are higher thanks to crowdfunding.
Take a look at my two favorite real estate crowdfunding platforms. Both are free to sign up and explore.
Fundrise: A way for accredited and non-accredited investors to diversify into real estate through private eFunds. Fundrise has been around since 2012 and has consistently generated steady returns, no matter what the stock market is doing. The real estate platform has over 300,000 investors and manages over $3 billion.
CrowdStreet: A way for accredited investors to invest in individual real estate opportunities mostly in 18-hour cities. 18-hour cities are secondary cities with lower valuations, higher rental yields, and potentially higher growth due to job growth and demographic trends.
I've personally invested$810,000in real estate crowdfunding across 18 projects to take advantage of lower valuations in the heartland of America. My real estate investments account for roughly 50% of my current passive income of ~$300,000.
Best Wealth Management Software
The best way to build wealth is to get a handle on your finances by signing up withPersonal Capital. They are afree online platform which aggregates all your financial accounts on their Dashboard so you can see where you can optimize.
Before Personal Capital, I had to log into eight different systems to track 28 different accounts (brokerage, multiple banks, 401K, etc) to track my finances. Now, I can just log into Personal Capital to see how my stock accounts are doing, how my net worth is progressing, and where my spending is going. You also get your net worth amount sent to your inbox weekly.
One of their best tools is the 401K Fee Analyzer which has helped mesave over $1,700in annual portfolio fees I had no idea I was paying. You just click on the Investment Tab and run your portfolio through their fee analyzer with one click of the button.
They've also come out with their incredible Retirement Planning Calculator that uses your linked accounts to run a Monte Carlo simulation to figure out your financial future. You can input various income and expense variables to see the outcomes. Definitely check to see how your finances are shaping up as it's free.
