Is anyone rich here?
Yeah no. I bought a platinum wedding band the first time I got married. Platinum hasn't increased hardly at all in the two decades since. You're better off stealing catalytic converted.
That is happening across the country but where you are misinformed is who owns these rentals. It is not the mom and pops like the O.P. that own half a dozen rentals who can afford to let them sit.
It is the **** eating corporations and wall street investment funds. If they don't make a profit the fedsor stockholders bail them out.
If you and I lose money on a rental we have to bail ourselves out.
Currently giant hedge funds and international corporations are buying up rentals and trailer parks as fast as they can get funding.
I often laugh at the people who make fun of "trailer trash" without realizing their 401k is invested in trailer parks.
Don't forget, those owners get to write off those losses.
OP:
First, ANY employer match you have, make sure you max it out. This is likely a 401K, and they're pretty safe. You can contact the fund and talk to them about active management. You sit back and trust them, and they try not to make bad decisions that will cost them all their jobs.
OP, you can lose your nuts buying stocks. Buy mutual funds. This is telling someone else, here's $X, spend it like it's yours, because your pay depends on how much it increases in value. Let them dick with moving it around.
Example: I bought Smile Direct Club stock. Then they went out of business. Now, I have one share of nothing. That was $3 wasted and those pricks at invisalign are ruling the market.
I also bought 693 shares of Peyax (a fund type) at $20/share. It's unlikely that they'll go out of business, because they have hundreds of stocks. Their value goes up, it goes down, but if Krispy Kreme (for example) files for bankruptcy, the fund doesn't go broke because that's only a small part of what they're invested in. They'll have more in Krispy Kreme than your entire net worth, but it's small to them. My Peyax is now $34.97/share so I've made $10,374 on it. I have all dividends (money they pay you to own their stock, that they pay at various time intervals) set to reinvest in the fund, so that money increases my net stock value.
Be careful with dividends. You can get some OXLC and it pays nice dividends, but if they fold, you're left holding the bag. You want to make sure that the stock doesn't slowly go to zero. Let's say you buy $5k in OXLC. Are you going to make $5k in dividends if the stock goes slowly to zero in two years? Not likely. 3M also has dividends. They're not as high as OXLC, but they're more stable. I can buy 3M products (and I do, actually), but I can't buy OXLC branded anything at the store. OXLC is reinvesting my money and I'm hoping they don't run off with it.
Best advice, contact a fiduciary. Get that they're a fiduciary in writing. They will put your needs first.
And remember, it's only a loss if you
sell it at a loss. Don't sweat markets going up n down unless you need that money
right now.