As inequality in wealth, income, and consumption comes to an ever-growing gap, what steps are you taking to make sure you are on the right side of the equation?
The Federal Reserve posted a study on their website about inequality in 3 dimensions that is incredibly depressing. Besides Global Warming, the greatest problem of our time is the growing inequality in wealth.
This problem of inequality is the main reason as to why I started this blog.
So, the real question is… Are we doing the proper things to fix the problem or are we doing things that exacerbate the problem?
########ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL?########
So many of us hope that our finances are going to work out. We hope that we get better jobs in the future, we hope to have the magic lottery ticket, and we hope that we get what we deserve.
There is nothing wrong with hoping for the best, but the problem arises when our hopes mix with expectations. Having high expectations will leave us in despair when we do not meet those expectations. Instead, we should control our expectations… and our lives.
One aspect of taking control of our lives is to stop hoping and praying for the best and take matters into our own hands instead. I hate to break it to you, but if you are in a bad place in life, stuck in a rut, or simply just need a boost, no knight in shining armor is going to come and save the day – you need to take control of your life!
Your retirement fund isn’t going to figure itself out, your boss isn’t going to give you the raise/promotion you deserve, and your dreams are not going to come true by simply hoping that things will work themselves out.
We don’t get what we deserve, we only get what we work for.
So, stop and take a long hard look at your life – are you working towards your goals? or asleep at the wheel?
It’s pretty hard to get where you want to go if you are asleep at the wheel.
########Take Control########
There are pessimists in life and there are optimists. Some people are believers, others are non-believers. People that can put you down or people that can bring you up.
My point is that life is very binary… and so are people.
Either you are the type of person who will bitch and moan about all their problems and why they can’t do the things they want to do. OR! You are the type of person who gets shit (metaphoric or literal) thrown in your face and you manage to have a good attitude about it.
You can’t control what happens to you in a given day, but you can control how you react to it.
The same theory applies to any and all investment opportunities. Either you are on the defense about a certain topic or you are on the offense. You can be a risk taker and take a chance in life, or you can keep maintaining the status quo of your life.
Maybe you think Bitcoin is a complete fraud with no intrinsic value or you think Bitcoin will revolutionize the world. Either way, there are opportunities just waiting for us to take advantage of!
##########Opportunity Is Under Our Noses##########
The best example I can think about when I think about being asleep at the wheel of the car called life is… Amazon.com!
Amazon (AMZN) has been the #1 performing stock in the history of the U.S. stock market. Starting from an IPO price of $1.79 in 1997 to a price of $1,362.54 (as of Jan 23rd, 2018) translates into a %79,117.44 gain in just about 20 years.
We literally could have bought Amazon.com stock at any price in the past 20 years and made a reasonable profit as Amazon seems to be hitting all-time highs every day.
As so many of us buy (and even sell) things on Amazon, I would think that way more of us would own Amazon stock! However, the reality is that barely any of us own shares of AMZN directly. This is a shame since Amazon has revolutionized the world in more than one way.
With the price point of $1,300, it is pretty difficult to buy a single share of Amazon stock today. Don’t give up hope though! There are plenty of promising companies that are up and coming that we use every day. You have undoubtedly heard of Twitter (TWTR) or Square (SQ), which are both run by CEO Jack Dorsey. Maybe you heard of a company called Groupon (GRPN) or another called Yelp (YELP) which help consumers find the latest and greatest experiences. Or up and coming e-commerce companies; Shopify (SHOP), Mercado Libre (MELI), Etsy (ETSY) and Wayfair (W).
My point is that there are opportunities everywhere – in stocks, entrepreneurial pursuits, cryptocurrencies, real estate, and many more assets that I will be diving into in future articles.
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Thanks for reading!
Jack
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P.S.S. The above is meant to be read as general purpose information and is not investing advice as I am not aware of your particular situation and risk appetite. I may also have a personal interest in stocks mentioned above.