My plans for success in 2019
First of all I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year. If you have made some New Year resolutions I really hope you are sticking to them and you will stick to them throughout the whole year. As many of you know most New Year resolutions only last in the first, or maybe the second month of the year. A good example would be the weight loss resolutions. It is a nightmare going to the gym in January, but after January gyms seem to clear out a little bit. For this reason I am not a huge fan of New Year resolutions. We do not need a New Year to begin achieving our goals. We need a strong mentality every day to be able to reach success. If for some reason we fall off track one day, we need to be strong enough to tackle our goals the next day. We need to stay on the grind every single day, and sooner than later it will pay off.
For those of you who follow me on Instagram, I know I have not been as active as I used to be before, but I felt like I am putting too much time into the page and not achieving enough results. Repeating the same quotes as the other Instagram pages gives you no value at all. Also, reading all the quotes, listening to motivational videos does not mean anything unless you put in some work yourself. For that reason I have cut back on time spent on Instagram. Those of you who read my previous posts understand that getting rich does not happen overnight. You all know that it is a journey and not just a quick dopamine rush from reading a motivational quote. You have to work on your own success and not just wait for the dopamine rush that only lasts a couple of hours max. For that reason, be on the lookout for whenever I release something new but focus on your own journey the most.
For 2018, I have achieved the goal of the Five Dollar Challenge. If you have not read that post click here to read it, but to sum it all up one would need to save five dollars every single day throughout the year. I can’t emphasize it enough of how important it is to save and live a frugal life to become successful. If you don’t want to take my word for it, feel free to read the book The Millionaire Next Door. I guarantee it will surprise you how truly successful people live. I have invested my savings up until the month of May. But the crypto currency market started to take a big hit during the spring, and the stock market was way too bullish for me to put more money into it. For that reason I have not invested my savings since May and just watched on the sideline how both the crypto market and the stock market took more hits for the rest of the year. I still have all of my investments from the five dollar challenge and most of my investments outside of the five dollar challenge as well. As the saying goes, you only lose when you sell. I am paying close attention to the markets and will be investing accordingly.
As I was able to save five dollars every single day during 2018, and some more, I am challenging myself to save at least ten dollars every single day. So for the year of 2019 I will be doing the ten dollar challenge. This might be a bit more difficult but I will remind myself every day that I need to stick to the plan in order to achieve the goal. If the ten dollar challenge is a bit too much for you feel free to stick to the five dollar challenge, but make sure you stick to it every single day! Now let me explain my plans for success in 2019.
The stock market
You have probably seen the talk about a recession all over the news ever since the stock market went into a big correction. This correction has wiped out most of the gains of 2018 for most people. My portfolio is also down a little bit, but it did not take such a huge hit since most of my investments happened in 2017 and as I have mentioned before I have stopped investing in May because the stock market looked way to bullish. In 2019 stocks have the potential to crash just as they did in 2008, but it might also trade sideways as we enter a bear market and eventually enter a recession? None of us have a crystal ball to see into the future. For that reason we could only make plans and stick to them. As for me, I will not be buying any more stocks unless they retrace at least 50% from their all-time high. I actually hope we will be trading sideways for the year 2019 so I could accumulate more capital for the crash. I already have a small possession of capital but I am looking to be able to reach for the bucket when it’s raining gold as Warren Buffett would say.
The crypto currency market
Most of the crypto currencies are down at least 90% from their all-time high. I have started looking into the market during September of 2017. I was very skeptical at the beginning and for that reason I did not get in at first. I have made my investments during October and November of 2017. In December when all of the charts went parabolic I was too greedy to get out of the market. I had one of my exchange account hacked and a bigger portion of my portfolio stolen. I have also lost small portions on stupid coins I should have not gotten into. I have studied the dot com bubble and the total market cap was nowhere near the crash of the dot com bubble. For that reason I have stayed in the market to be able to make up for the amount stolen from me and for the amount I have lost in stupid gambling. The result of my greediness is that my portfolio is down a lot now. However I still have all of my crypto currencies I have believed in originally. I still believe they will thrive in the near future. I am almost positive that 90% of the coins will not make it at the end but those that make it there is future. Nasdaq, Fidelity and all these other big names would not be looking into it otherwise. When regulation is figured out I believe there is still a lot of money to be made in crypto. However don’t trust every exchange with your money. If you are in the U.S. and if you are new to crypto I would start with Coinbase, until you learn more about the space. I would also store all the investments on a Ledger or any other hardware wallet. For crypto currency investments I have about three times the capital saved that I have for stock market investments. I will still be adding to this capital but not as heavily as to my other investments. I also have not pulled the trigger on anything even with the markets being down about 90%. There is still too much talk and interest about crypto. If interest dies off or if there will be a capitulation phase that is when I will be investing my saved up capital into crypto currencies. Until then I will be adding very small portions to my capital.
The real estate market
I look at the real estate market as a safe haven for investments. Even though it is not easy to maintain property, making sure it is always occupied; I still like it the best. Depending on your location real estate prices might be in their own bubble right now. I do not live in such an area, but the properties are overvalued in my area as well. The bubble will need to pop soon. Sales have already slowed down, and the stock market being on the edge of collapse it is just a matter of time. Also if the government keeps on hiking rates it will come sooner than later. I have always wanted to own real estate outside of our own home. For that reason I have started to save for the down payment of a single family or a duplex as a start. Most of my savings will be going towards this during 2019. Hopefully the bubble won’t pop just yet and the stock market will trade sideways or even have another rally, so I could accumulate enough until the crash does come.
The precious metals market
Looking back at the crash of 2008, precious metals market was a safe haven for investors. Gold and silver was rising fairly well since the dot com bubble, but with the crash of 2008 came a huge rally for both. Since then both gold and silver had retracements. There should be a little more retracement if the stock market crashes but precious metals could be a safe haven once again for investors. The previous rally has created a lot of gold and silver bugs who are crazy about their precious metals. Also, most of the older generation will not be investing in crypto for sure, so there is a big market for precious metals as well. The easiest way to invest in precious metals is miner stocks and ETFs. The best way to invest in precious metals is holding physical metals, but that is also the hardest. You have to find a way to store it, you have to pay a premium when buying it, and you have to take a cut when selling physical. However it looks to be the best way for storing wealth as of right now. I am keeping a close eye on the precious metals market as well. I do not have capital saved for this market, but if I see that the market starts to rally, I will be reorganizing my capital from the other markets or I might just invest my emergency savings into gold and silver.
To sum it all up, I have most of my capital saved for crypto since that has corrected about 90% since previous highs and I will not be adding a lot more capital to it. The second most capital is saved for a down payment on a single family or a duplex, and I will be contributing most of my savings here. The third most capital is saved for stocks, and I am looking to add more capital until there is a crash. If I see the precious metals market starting to rally I will be reorganizing my capital or spending my emergency savings on that market. Remember none of this is financial advice; these are just my ideas and what I see in the markets. Do your own research on the markets and invest accordingly. The most important is that you have set goals, you stick to them, and you become more successful day by day! Until the next post…