@mrsCALoki: I'm just curious. How did your husband build his wealth? I'd love to hear his success stories.
I was not around to see. In general I guess I know. He had a rule as a teenager that 25% of what he earned went into savings / investments. When he he got his first real job he would add part of every raise to the savings. He was a prof and then left that to work in industry. He jumped around a lot and each time he got a huge raise. Once he hit the 'C' level a big part of the bonus and stock options. His first wife was a department head and also brought in money. They did not have kids and adopted only one. Kids are expensive. When he stopped travelling he taught part time and invested all that money. Even an average MBA grad from a good school has an average life time ea income over $3 million. I do not know how much LL made, but I do know he must have saved at least 30 or 40 %.
In the 70s through 90s he mostly invested in stock and real estate. He also switched between US and Canadian and rode the rise and fall of your dollar. In the early 2000s he invested the bulk in gold (except for a bath tub full of shares in a couple of companies. Gold is all gone now except for a couple of dozen coins that are more of a collection than an investment. One of each type thing. He gets excited when he gets over 500% return on an investment. I cannot imagine what he will be like if he ever has a year where he does not get at least 100%.
In general I guess he practised what he preaches:
1) Figure out where and what people will be buying in the future and be there first to sell it to them.
2) Never be part of the herd. The herd gets mediocre return on money.
3) Never fall in love with an investment. Look at it every day and determine if you should be keeping it.
4) Never get greedy. Take you profit and run. Do not try for the last 5 or 10%.
5) If investment gurus and counsellors knew what they were doing they would be rich.
6) Have a yearly report card on how you are doing. Keep them and compare year over year.
7) Invest in trends, not in spots prices.
8) Making money requires work. (Now that he is retired he still spends 4 or 5 hours most days studying trends.)
9) Be careful of the schemes / never underestimate the stupidity of politicians / the average investor is average / think things through for yourself.
10) Condos are just boxes of air not real-estate. Selling air can be profitable until the suckers catch on.
His advice to me was to get my MBA and a Phd in statistics so I could invest wisely.