Spending more time on property today- my rich business partner is eager to buy either a property to renovate or land to buy. I'm looking at all ways of making money in property. Contact me if you have something very good!

Spending more time on property today- my rich business partner is eager to buy either a property to renovate or land to buy. I'm looking at all ways of making money in property. Contact me if you have something very good!

Property

Spending more time on property today- my rich business partner is eager to buy either a property to renovate or land to buy. I'm looking at all ways of making money in property. Contact me if you have something very good!

Shares

"Be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy..."

Some gold from Buffet there...

And it's something I need to do more with shares...

When shares are soaring up and there is POSITIVE SENTIMENT... that may be the time to sell shares...

When shares are falling with NEGATIVE SENTIMENT that may be the time to buy...

I'm quite good at the latter... need to work on the former. Look at highs for shares and sell around there... can always buy back if they go cheaper.

Placebo

Placebo really do have some of the best lyrics... I can't wait to smash out some powerful writing myself...

IG don't worry I haven't forgotten about you... you're still on my... HIT LIST :)

"Reminds me that it's killing time... on this fateful day."

Property

One thing I've said to my boss/partner recently is... fuck online...

Because I've spent so much time online doing things- but REAL LIFE is real...

So I'm taking all the opportunities to go and view properties and meet people... and I'm learning from that despite being not that 'prepared'...

Because property really is a people business- I may even do an article on that. I need to get deeper relationships with builders, lawyers etc... and the only way to do that really is meet them in person if they are quality...

I like this comment so far so it's going on my website www.markhowitt.blogspot.com

People who know me know how TIGHT I am with money... and there's part of me that's a bit... you could say UNSURE about even potentially paying for a HOTEL FOR ONE NIGHT... (it will be first time I have actually paid for a hotel myself if it works out being that for years... had plenty of nice ones paid for me by doing sales though)... but I think the PAYOFF is worth it...

I've even started to think about the review I will write after the event lol... I will make sure it's accurate etc...

Because anyone who's saying it's BAD should have been on it before etc not just heard about it... there are plenty of people who've been who've said it's GOOD...

Anyway... back to goal day.

Only take the qualifications you want

Blasting this out as a Facebook exclusive... for now...

Only take the qualifications you want...

This has been buzzing around my mind for a while so feel like getting it out...

Only take the qualifications you want...

Since my driving test I don't think I have taken any 'official government' qualifications... I took plenty before though...

If I think back to my time at uni... in terms of an actual education a lot of the time the teachers weren't very motivated or efficient about teaching. Not enough feedback, not enough care...

Whenever you want to learn something you have to ask... what's in it for me?

In a good job you will learn more than in typical education because the business will want you to learn. I've worked in plenty of businesses which have worked 7 days a week. I've worked 14 days in a row before.

My mentality has been for a number of years that every day is goal day. And sure I 'pace myself'... because a lot of studies show that if you work more than 40 hours a week you become less efficient...

Yet in summary- find the best teachers for the learning YOU want.

"If you can read you don't have to wonder about me."

Just thought up one of my 'late night lines'... this one is good enough for me to write it out here...

"If you can read you don't have to wonder about me."

Ha... that does sound arrogant... and you can change the ending a bit depending on the context... but for anyone in the world if they want to actually 'get to know me'... just read my blog... if you really want to get to know me read my novel...

109,000 views on www.markhowitt.blogpost.com now... more to come... pushing my boundaries and want to do more property soon... ideally in the future want to do some videos yet I think I will always come back to writing to say what's on my mind more clearly.

Long Term

Long term thinking...

So I didn't go out last night... haven't been for the last few Saturdays...

I thought about it a bit... but I guess preserving my energy levels, saving money and petrol and getting my sleep pattern better outweighed going out...

It wouldn't have been a BAD decision either way... and I will be 'going out' more in future...

But with property I know I have a lot of things to do and learn so I need to be focused on it. Time to start getting results...

Shares and Property

Reposting this article I did over a year ago now as some will not have seen it... relates to both property and shares. Many people make contact with me for share advice.

I am further along on my property journey now yet will still say property is quite a lot more complex than shares. Plus you have to work with a number of other people where you could just do shares by yourself...

Let's get right into this...

Another FREE quality article.

What does your capital allocation say about how you feel about shares?

Most people in the UK and worldwide know nothing or very little about shares directly. Of their own volition they probably have put no money in shares.

I reckon less than 10% of people in the UK have actively decided to put money into shares. It will be higher who have money in shares via a 'pension pot' though.

So... of those people... how many short shares? I reckon less than 1% of people in the UK short shares.

All that matters in shares is how much money you make. For many years I have just been 'long term buy and hold' and that generally is a fine way to do it. It beats cash in the bank...

However...

Obviously shares do not go up in a straight line. Over the last 2 weeks the FTSE 100 has fallen about 10%. In general with shares when there is a fall there is a steep fall...

So how much you have allocated in shares should reflect how confident you feel in your shares... and the economic situation as a whole.

Ben Graham's rule of thumb is interesting. He says that if you're 75% in shares you should be very positive about the market... if you're 25% in shares you're very negative about the market.

The thing is, even for say a year, it might not be a bad thing to have a high percentage of your wealth in cash. If you have 80% of your wealth in cash and quality shares drop say 30% then may be the time to pounce...

This has been on my mind quite a lot... let's see if I can get the right words out...

I think in general it would be BAD to have the vast majority of your wealth in cash for most or all of your life. Especially with interest rates as they currently are- in the UK you're lucky to get 1% in a savings account now and millions of people get nothing. How much you have in cash does depend to an extent how much interest rates are. If they were 10% then it might make sense to have at least 30% in cash, maybe more.

It will be a long time if ever if we see 10% in the UK though.

At the same time... ideally I don't think it's ALWAYS good to have a high percentage of your wealth, say over 75%, in shares. Because there are always sharp drops from time to time and then you can lose a lot of money. Warren Buffet has a ton of cash piled away right now to pounce on good shares. Who knows, maybe he is even buying right now, it could well be a good time to do so.

The amount of cash you have in shares depends on many things... and how much time you can dedicate to it. I dedicate quite a lot but I am not like Chris Bailey who regularly sleeps 3 or 4 hours a day then spends the vast majority of the rest of his time on shares. There are people who are better analysts of shares than I am in some ways. I still spend quite a lot of time on shares though and believe after almost twenty years in the game my instincts are good. There is always more to learn. As long as I have enough money I will be doing shares for the rest of my life.

Of course Ben Graham is dead now. In the 70s there were much better interest rates than there are now and in general it was harder for smaller or private investors to invest in shares.

In the current climate it can be tempting for people in the UK to have a high percentage of their money in shares. After all there are millions of people getting no money in interest from their bank.

Also you can obviously money allocated to things other than 'cash and shares'. Off the top of my head there is cryptocurrency, gold, oil, property...

Most people at some point will have quite a lot of their money tied up in property because they need a house to live in. Property is a solid investment which over the long term consistently rises. I would like to invest in property more, although it is a different skillset and more challenging in some ways than investing in shares.

But how much should you have in shares as a percentage?

It depends how positive or good value you think shares are. However there are other ways to make money with shares. You can short them. I have just started doing and learning about this. Shorting a share or index is an expression of a negative attitude towards the markets.

In general you can say having money in shares is positive towards the market, cash is neutral and shorting is negative.

So your capital allocation should reflect your view on this. At some times it may be fine to have a decent amount of 'negative' attitude towards the market. Or stay 'neutral' with say 20% of your cash or more so you can pounce on good opportunities.

This article is one I just keep coming back to...

The key thing to remember about high yield shares is that plenty of opportunities will usually be there. OK so it can be a bit annoying perhaps thinking of having a lot of cash stuck making practically no interest.... and that interest being paid once a year. However shares with good yields can get even better. Look at Imperial Brands as a recent example.

Dividend cover is key... because remember a company can cut a dividend to nothing at an instant. Then you have a big capital loss AND no dividend. Look at Capita as an example. Even a good history of dividend payments can't stop a cut. I can see why some people want dividend cover to be two times cash available. I think I will look for at least 1.7 myself. You can look at 'free cash flow' and possible extra capex.

Imperial Brands btw... I bought more shares and think the share is really cheap at this price. A PE of 10.75 can EASILY go to 15 for a tobacco company and British Amercian Tobacco has traded at around a 20 PE. Imperial are saying they are going to increase the dividend by 10% per year too.

In fact I would rather have good dividend cover and a history of nice increasing yield than a very high dividend yield. It's down to 'free cash flow'... I probably should research this more in companies.

But they key point is... wait until you see a GREAT opportunity for either shares or spreads. Good opportunities will be there most days... great opportunities? If you know shares and spend a lot of time looking at the market hopefully you will see two a month, maybe more. Especially if you know a lot about shorting shares which I have plenty to learn about.

Real life examples...

I instinctively felt in 2016 that we would vote for Brexit yet I was stuck in my 'long term buy and hold' mindset. What I should have done before Brexit is selling practically everything then buy back shortly after Brexit when there were many great value shares.

People like Warren Buffet and Chris Bailey often have a sizeable amount of cash to pounce on good opportunities. Chris had quite a lot of cash available so has been able to take advantage of the recent downturn. I have less cash overall as a percentage but still may take advantage of it.

Property Chat

Ben Beitler Mark Howitt thanks for expanding on this.
Risk appetite will certainly drive the ROI you seek.
You could consider being a lender with the cash you have and on a B2B arrangement can be a private 'bridging' lender with similar rates circa 8% to 12% pa.
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Mark Howitt
Mark Howitt Yes thanks have looked at this and may do it as long as I can learn from the person as well. Already have a potential offer of 13% which I will probably do.
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Mark Howitt
Mark Howitt Because some people get this and some people don't... the value I can add in share advice and other things is at least the same as someone who is good at property can bring...
I don't want to be arrogant and it may seem like that but factually I have been share investing for over 20 years have 180,000 views on my share articles worldwide... and my share mentor is certainly in the top 0.1% of share investors in the world in terms of analytical ability.
Been good networking so far and hoping for more... deeper relationships and quality over quantity though.

Viewing is actually for next week... goal today is to book another viewing.

Will do at least a quick article on my house viewing today. WF1 postcode for weekday viewings at the moment... contact me if you have interesting ones!

Will do at least a quick article on my house viewing today. WF1 postcode for weekday viewings at the moment... contact me if you have interesting ones!

Got a potential viewing of a house this week- good practical learning!

Got a potential viewing of a house this week- good practical learning!

Property

More time will be spent on property today- I need to take more ACTION :) Happy to hear about joint ventures and opportunities in West and South Yorkshire mainly...

I have done one buy to let, have shares in property companies and have been researching this area for four years so I'm only going to go for a very good deal. I know the returns good people make. Yet I believe I can bring a lot of mutual value in other areas too- if people see this then there's a much better chance we can do a deal.

I can buy several properties outright if needed yet know people who are richer than me who can invest too. So I'm ready to hear from you if you're good!

Positive Day For Shares Today :) £££

Positive Day For Shares Today :) £££

More time to be spent on property today including looking at Liz Baitson 's deals... happy to network and hear from other good property people!

More time to be spent on property today including looking at Liz Baitson 's deals... happy to network and hear from other good property people!