“Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” – Otto Von Bismark
I am often asked about passive investing.
You’re probably thinking about sitting on the beach, drink in hand, and enjoying life as the money rolls in. The good life!
But what does passive investing actually look like? What does it mean? Is it apartments, or houses, or even the stock market? Passive investment has turned into a catchall buzzword.
Well, I am here to take away some of that confusion and give you my three secrets of passive investing.
Secret 1: Nothing is truly passive
Some people would say passive investing doesn’t exist, and I have to say that this is true. Any investment takes time to learn about, invest in, and to follow.
No one cares about your money as much as you do.
Does this mean you should hoard your money in a bank or even under your mattress?
No way!
While one-hundred-percent passive investments may be a myth, that doesn’t mean that there are not investments that are more passive than others.
Take a look at everyone’s first example, owning and renting out a single-family home.
I started in single-family homes. I realized pretty quickly that even with property managers and construction workers it is still a lot of work. It only takes one middle of the night phone call to make you realize that you don’t have as much time as you wished.
Single-Family Rentals are not passive.
Think about it, if you can’t double, triple, or scale your investment to any degree; then you’re not really in a passive investment. But there are other options!
One of the best opportunities is multi-family syndication. What investment opportunities like these do is they take maintenance workload off of your shoulder. Instead of having to worry about the day-to-day, your efforts stay in the beginning stages – researching and investing.
With a degree of diligence from you in finding the investment, you don’t have to be involved in the active management down the road.
It is also scalable!
I know people that are invested in over 70 passive deals! Because there are teams of people helping run the day-to-day, you can put your money into this passive investing bucket and still free up your time.
Really, don’t we all want to have something that allows us to step back and enjoy ourselves?
On the flip side, I know a lot of people that see passive investing, and then they just look at deals and they never do anything.
The only time you’re going to get the benefits of investing is when you make a decision and have some skin in the game.
Secret 2: You need to take action
One of the hardest parts of investing in anything is getting started.
You look at all of these options, and you try to find the best one. You hope that it will make all your dreams come true, but then you never do anything about it.
This is analysis paralysis. You feel like you can’t make a move.
There is no shortage of advice on how to get past this. But the best thing to do is to just start moving.
Take some of that pressure of yourself and do the little things first. You don’t have to carry all that weight at once!
Look at five to ten deals, but only invest in one.
Regardless of how well it does, you will gain experience. And that is invaluable! Just think of all the deals you can make after you get started.
With this action, you have already set yourself up for success.
Even if your investment doesn’t go as well as you would like, you have gotten the ball rolling.
How do you find deals you may ask?
It’s easy!
There are so many great events or podcasts that you can check out! You can also go to meet-ups or network.
A great first step is to do a quick online search and see what is right for you.
There are also groups or investment clubs you can join! We have an investment club right here at Bronson Equity that you can join.
Remember, taking action now in passive investing can be the first step to saving you time in the future for what is most important to you.
“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great”
– Zig Ziglar
So, you took the first step. You have made your first investment.
Congrats! You are on the right track.
But now what?
Secret 3: Learn from your mistakes
People don’t like to hear that you are going to make mistakes, but it’s true.
You ARE going to make mistakes.
No matter what you do or how well you research, not everything is going to work out as you planned. You are not going to be perfect in life, and if you try you’re not going to end up happy.
But the secret to being successful in investing is that you have to be willing to learn from your mistakes.
Think of mistakes as part of your education. By being willing to learn from them, you will only have better opportunities in the future.
You live, and hopefully you learn.
Reflect on what you did, talk to other investors, and gain whatever key insights that will allow you to not make that mistake in the future.
Again, take action. Listen to podcasts or do whatever helps you learn from what you have done.
But wait… there’s more!
You don’t have to learn from only your mistakes. You can learn from the mistakes of others.
As the old saying goes:
“Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” – Otto Von Bismark
This is true in everything, but even more so in investing.
How many people do you know that have all their cash in a bank? Or they don’t have a retirement? Or do they keep making the same investing mistakes and never learn?
You don’t have to be like them.
By taking a step back and looking at the mistakes of yourself and others, you can become more and more successful with each lesson learned.
But that is not the only way to learn about passive investing!
If you are interested in learning more, we have a special report about investing. It compares the stock market to real estate, and it also includes how the pandemic affects your investment future.
If you are interested in investing with us, we are happy to answer any questions that you may have. Join our investment club today and we will be in touch!
