Grandma OR The Genie Offering 3 Wishes — Who’re Ya Gonna Believe?

Posted @ 11:33 am - Filed under Real Estate Investing, Retirement, Cash Flow, Retirement Income, BawldGuy Axiom

A couple months ago I wrote a post talking ’bout those who insist on chasing phantom cash flow properties. They hear the stories, even view the so called ‘proof’ of income and expenses showing Garden of Eden properties spinning of double digit cash on cash returns. These returns come from locations reminiscent of Wally ‘n Beaver’s neighborhood, with tenants who must surely have been friends of June Cleaver.

Yeah, and mutual funds will generate 10% annual returns for your 401(k) account, year after year. Divide that number by two, then subtract a little more, and you’ll then be rowing your leaky retirement dinghy on Lake Reality.

This week alone I’ve spoken with four real estate investors who rubbed that lamp and made their wishes while putting their hard earned investment capital into Lake Cash Flow, only to find the lake was home to the vicious cash flow eating piranha. They fell prey to the same approach that’s gotten us where we are today. What’s that you ask?

It’s the school of wishful thinking. It says even though somebody who should know better says up is down, then it must be OK. It says that you can create a real estate version of your personal ATM simply by puttin’ your money in the slot and waitin’ for the cash to come back at ya in an orderly, predictable fashion.

Pullleeease.

Here’s the post mentioned above. Read it while picturing Grandma. Real Estate Investors: Chasing Pretend Cash Flow Surest Path To Pretend Retirement coulda been written by most of our grandmas.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 18th, 2008 at 11:33 am and is filed under Real Estate Investing, Retirement, Cash Flow, Retirement Income, BawldGuy Axiom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.