All Forum Posts by: Darius Ogloza

After 35 years of investing and living through three market and one real estate crash,  I have learned that the key is to stay sufficiently liquid (so you do not have to sell during inevitable downturns) and diversify your assets so that you have eggs in more than one basket.  By all means, put some money in the 401(k).  Pick a good diversified equity fund from among the choices presented to you.  Include some small cap exposure.   You will not regret it.  

Investing is work. There is no excuse for failing to do your research, especially if you are investing at a distance/out of state. For example, in Rochester NY, a property east of Culver Road will fetch $20K-$50K more than a property just west of Culver Road. If you do not know that, or the reasons why that is true, you are simply not ready to invest in that market regardless of what some snake oil salesman tells you about cash flow/IRR or other metrics.

Unless you've straddled both of these worlds (Midwest/South and the West/East Coasts) it is really difficult to understand how different these markets really are. For example, when living in Northwest Ohio in the early 1980's, my wife and I were paying $250/month in rent for a small one bedroom apartment.  Recently, a friend has told me that her daughter, living in the same town, is sharing a two bedroom for $300/month each.  In the early 1990's my wife and I rented a 3 bedroom/two full bath house in Sausalito for $1,700/month.   Just last month, we leased our 500 square foot condo on Russian Hill in SF for $3,000/month.  Anecdotal evidence for sure but it illustrates just how disproportional these markets can be/have been for the past 40 years.