Your best nvestments

[brewer12345]

OK, now that we have had the wail of sorrows investment thread, how about some examples of really outstanding investments to balance things out? But not everyone can say "g*ld"...

[Maximillion]

I started out with a 1 bedroom house on which I had put $2,000 on the $26,000 price in 1974, and in 1990 we were in our 5'th House, Mortgage Free(prepayment and short amortized Mortgage) , later sold for $500,000.

Built our Retirement home from our plans after buying a lot, for $300,000 in 1999, now able to sell for $450,000(all capital gains on Primary Residence are Tax Free in Canada, Mortgage Interest is NOT deductible).

[farmerEd]

My best investment has also been in RE...in 99 I pulled almost all the money out of the stock market and bought my farm...200 acres, with gobs of frontage on the street.

I paid $395K in 1999, and now based on local comps could likely sell as a whole for $3M-$3.5M. If I decide to split up and develop the property myself, I could get almost 80 building lots out of the place at $60-$100K each.

Unfortunately, I have no plans to sell the place, so its my kids that will probably benefit in 50 years or so - assuming I don't donate the whole place to a land preserve before I go to that big barn in the sky.

[tryan]

Gold ... schmold!

Real estate is where it's at ... bought half a dozen properties at HUD auctions in the early 90's. Prices ranged from 5k to 19k. Now selling these properties for 180-200k. Rents aren't bad either (1000-1200/mo).

Wouldn't be FIRE'd today without them.

[riskadverse]

Silver in the 80's
Trading international mutual funds in the late 90's
Real Estate 2000 to 2005

. . . looking around now

[saluki9]

Also RE. I bought into a limited partnership that purchased a building housing an applebees restaurant. We sold it 5 months later for a 50% profit.

[cj]

Well, there were always the early 1980's when a money market fund got you upwards of 15%. We didn't know anything about investing back then, but it sure seemed good to us!

CJ

[bpp]

Just about anything I have bought in the last 3 years has done great. Of course, everything did correspondingly miserably in the 3 years before that.

Bpp

[Papi]

An easy one to remember for me. *In about 1997 I bought a sizeable position in QualComm at about $3.50 (split-adjusted). *In 1999, I was in the process of moving and I was so busy (and computer was down) that I didn't pay any attention to the markets. * After we finally settled in and I had the computer back and running, I found out that QualComm had soared to $92 (again, split-adjusted) !! * Yowzer!! *I couldn't hit the "Sell" button fast enough *

My second best investment was holding Cisco for almost the entire 1990s, but bailing out about the same time as the QualComm holding.

[BigMoneyJim]

My best investment: Starting my 401(k) at age 21 and contributing the max. I didn't really understand things then, but a graph I saw in company training made me understand the power of compounding, and I knew I'd thank myself in the future. And I am. I didn't manage it perfectly by any means, and I took out half as a loan during the biggest stock run-up, but still it's been the best ongoing thing I've done financially in my adult life.

A close second would be paying off the debt. After being as much as $30k in consumer debt ($20k unsecured CC plus $10k balance on the pickup truck), having no debt at all is an amazing feeling of freedom and power. My vacations, expensive car repairs and new toys are already paid for when I get them. It's a novel concept to me still. (100% debt free 1 1/2 years; no interest paid in over 2 years) And the net return is in the neighborhood of 10% - 20% depending on what the debt was costing me and what my savings are earning.

Those two combined have put me in a pretty good position at age 36. I've said before that sometimes I feel like the poor guy at this forum, but I know I'm way, way ahead of most other 36-year-olds.

[yakers]

Well, its about as boring as any possible investment but I have been well served by contributing the max to my TSP (401k) type investment fund, pretty much index fund choices and low fees. No match and I could only contribute 5% of pay until the last few years when the rate went to the standard allowed by IRS. Just DCA and forget it and 20 years later its over $200k. This with my pension and paid off house is the core of "my plan". It may not be exciting but it is my "best" investment other than staying married. Now, my one tech fund was for my younger son's college account, that was exciting. Boring is better.

[Craig]

BS and MBA, putting myself through school, with $800 in loans, no grants. Different times.

Two acres with a home, bought out of foreclosure in 1991, Paradise Valley, AZ. Split into two, one-acre parcels. Wonderful place to live, great returns. If you ever buy acreage, split it up while the law allows ... greatly increases the returns, and pesky neighbors and bureaucrats love to restrict what you can do with your land.

Sold the acreage, rolled the gains over into two rental homes (1031 exchange), and those have done great as well. However ... rents are still poor ... but better than raw land.

After that, precious metals and international stock funds. We're very fortunate.

[youbet]

Purchased stock in a startup bank in our little town when it was a house trailer on a gravel lot in 1971.* Stock price and dividends determined by bank board of directors and liquidity determined by a list of names kept at the bank of people interested in buying some shares.* Split multiple times over the years.* For a minimal investment, wound up owning almost 0.5% of the bank!* In 1998, our little bank was purchased and became a branch of a large Chicago bank and the check I received made me take off my glasses and wipe my eyes.* It was really wonderful.........and lucky! Strictly an impulse buy on my part.

[Shredder]

The Best? I don't remember, but I was flying high on internet stocks, lots of doubles and triples and more. till the hammer fell of course. Now I'm in stogy old mutual funds and index funds......shredder

[scrinch]

Never really made any spectacularly good or bad investments. Just kept working and saving. Avoided the internet runup and freefall for the most part. Paid off the house. So the best investment was probably the 6 years in college to get a BS and MS. That led to the job which led to the rest. Booorrring.

[HFWR]

VGPMX, up 85% in seven months. SOLD!! :P

[Nords]

Originally Posted by brewer12345

OK, now that we have had the wail of sorrows investment thread, how about some examples of really outstanding investments to balance things out?*

C'mon, what a bunch of typical guy sentiments-- you rookies.

My best investment has been my spouse. Without her annoying questions persistent interest in real estate & stocks, her nagging thoughtful observations, and her nagging timely reminders, I would've been stumbling around out there from one financial advisor (and paycheck) to the next.

Mother's Day. May 14. You're welcome.

[brewer12345]

Originally Posted by Nords

My best investment has been my spouse.*

Yeah, but what's your cost basis?

[Cool Dood]

I'll bet it's paid good dividends...

[brewer12345]

Originally Posted by Cool Dood

I'll bet it's paid good dividends...

Quarterly?!