Hey everyone!

As you know, readers of this Journal know it is 100% free, except for your time, which I hold dear.

I make a small income from course sales, but it certainly doesn’t pay the bills. I could potentially place ads, but I don’t want to degrade the cleanliness of this email.

So the question you might ask is, Eddie, why are you doing this? Good question…

1. I enjoy typing and it helps me synthesize thoughts.

2. Interacting with you, learning from you, and sharing knowledge is extremely valuable.

3. When you network and communicate, you never know what doors might open.

4. Most of all, I LOVE seeing people level up their money game. That’s the goal here.

Having said that, if you wish to assist in the development of this weekly Journal, the number one way you can help me is to share it with your friends and family.

That, and responding with questions, concerns, feedback, advice - anything goes, and I answer every email.

Appreciate your time today and always.

Eddie

Personal Finance

Everywhere you look, you see rich people.

• People driving nice cars.

• Going on nice vacations.

• Getting the latest gadget.

• Etc.

But do all of those things actually represent wealth?

Without peeking into everyone’s bank accounts, I’d hazard to guess that most of the ‘richness’ we see is a major illusion. If everyone was rich, then why does Angus Reid say 51% of people can’t afford an unexpected $1,000 expense?

Thing is, all of those lavish items above are easily financed.

Especially if you have a good credit score.

But just because someone has a good credit score doesn’t mean they are rich. On the contrary.

No, it just means you are great at the buy now - pay later scheme.

In other words, you are good at living paycheck to paycheck.

It puts you at risk. Next month’s income? Already at risk. Your net worth? At risk.

I have talked about how the credit scoring system is dumb before - see Issue #18.

For those “easily financeable” people and things (buy now pay later - yay!), you could have a middle class person making $80,000 per year driving a BMW Model 3 on a 7 year finance plan that will cost them $130,000 after tax, for a depreciating “asset” by the way.

Meanwhile, you could have an upper class person making $300,000 per year driving a Toyota Corolla, siphoning his extra savings and plunking into a portfolio of low cost ETFs that go up.

See the difference?

Obviously, some debt is good, even great. Using a loan to invest in a productive asset can be a wonderful thing.

Just be careful what debt you use and what it’s actually for.

And remember this quote:

Stock Markets

Common mistakes in the stock market:

• Trading vs investing

• Timing the market

• Making decisions based on what CNN and Fox are saying

Real Estate

Going to be a busy December.

After a year of no investment activity, we have a deal under contract.

We will be raising approximately $10,000,000 in equity.

Some of you have registered interest in the past.

If still interested, please let me know.

1 Quote

A Question

We are going to Whistler this weekend - any recommendations for what to do with a 1 year old?

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Thank you

Eddie Gudewill, CFA

Investing Course

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