Money, investments, and other financial stuff

[Firm]

Anyone invested in markets? (stocks, crypto) Holy $%&! What a bloodbath! Especially crypto. Everything is red and going down. Even metals are struggling to maintain a normal pace. I haven't seen this level of volatility in years. Looking at my portfolio is very depressing. 

No crypto for me, I have a few stocks, outside of the company I work for, it's mostly oil/energy stuff and it's done really well lately. My dad is big into  gold and silver, he's been raving about how well he's done on it....I think it's a bubble. There's a cohort out there who believe that the global economy (or at least the US) will be reverting to the Gold Standard, so they're hoarding. Reality will set in eventually and it'll stabilize

[Revelations]

Yeah, aside from silver I don't do much in metals. Scared money goes into silver/gold, so obviously investors are looking for safe havens right now. Us peons aren't privy to what's going to happen so I guess we wait ands see.

[Revelations]

And for the US going to a gold standard again, that's certainly been rumored for some time. I'm not sure they can do it with their dollar. Seems to be a global shift away from USD that's been going on slowly for some years. At this point I think it's become to inflationary and the US debit is off the charts. Who knows, if we knew for sure we could probably start planning our early retirement!

[Blizzard]

Yep, if we went that route it would be in the Pensacola / Destin area and it's similar, right now you're looking at $4-6K/week to rent something similar, and that's typically what people do, couple families, or a larger family gathering. Places are booked solid April-November.

We go a couple times a year, and have a loyalty deal with one of the resorts down there that gets us a nice ocean view balcony room for about $2500/week....But it's just a room, not a house or even a condo. Which is part of my motivation here, if I am already spending ~$5K/year on rent down there, that would cover a good chunk of my operating cost if used some cash to buy a modest beach house that we could rent when not using it.

Course, there's risk....it's dependent on the vacation market, there's hurricanes to worry about, travel back and fourth when stuff goes wrong, etc. Plus, acquisition cost is relatively high. Locally here in the Memphis area you can find newer starter-home type detached properties for ~$200K, and they rent for $2.5-3K/month....While boring, the return on something like that, is pretty good, especially if you grab 3-4 of them. 

My aunt and uncle have had a place in Boca Raton, Florida since the 2000s, and the economics of owning there make it impossible to rent and make any money. They have a condo on the beach and while acquisition prices are semi-reasonable considering you're on the beach in a super desirable town (you can buy a decent beachfront condo there for around $1-1.2M USD), operating costs are INSANE. I'm talking insurance for your unit in the $5-8K range, property taxes of $20K and condo fees of $30-40K. Almost all buildings flat-out prohibit short-term rentals, so you're stuck with seasonal rentals only, and from what I hear you can rent for 3 months in the winter for around $25K USD. Even if you find seasonal rentals for the entire year (you probably won't), you're barely covering your operating costs let alone the acquisition costs. I guess it could make more sense with a single-family home, but 90% of Boca is HOAs and the areas that aren't are either sketch or start at $5M+...

There's been a massive property dump by snowbirds lately that flooded the FL market. Besides the politics (I've heard of anglo Canadians being evicted of a bar), the exchange rate makes living there just too expensive. A lot of Canucks now choose places like Mexico, Portugal or Spain.

I think this is blown out of proportion a bit....I literally spend 100% of my time in the US, and travel to different cities usually once a month and never have I ever felt unwelcome or discriminated.
Now, if you're in a bar and you're mouthing off about how much better Canada is, yeah, you'll probably find some trouble. But the same would be true of an American in a Canadian bar.

Agreed. I consider myself a proud Canadian but I've never once felt unsafe or unwelcome in the US, including my few visits since the last election. Just keep your mouth shut, don't go looking for trouble, and you'll be fine. On a recent work trip in northern Mississippi, I had dinner at the hotel bar and the other guests there were extremely interested in me, they had never met a Canadian before, hahahaha.

You're right that cost of living has skyrocketed in Florida in the last 5-10 years, but when I was there over the holidays I still saw a TON of Canadian license plates. It's still the closest place to Canada with tropical weather, lots to do, and the only one within driving distance. I find the whole Trump scare overblown - Florida is still way safer than somewhere like Cuba or Mexico.

[Johnnymac]

Yeah, aside from silver I don't do much in metals. Scared money goes into silver/gold, so obviously investors are looking for safe havens right now. Us peons aren't privy to what's going to happen so I guess we wait ands see.

We are definitely seeing some market fluctuations but that is just a part of the cycle.  In a lot of ways a recession can provide greater opportunities for future gains, but certainly not great when you are close to retirement and have a higher risk portfolio than maybe should at that stage.

A lot of conspiracy about how AI will impact the stock market and the whole currency system.  I just keep plugging away in the hopes that over the long haul things will be good.

[Firm]

Yep, if we went that route it would be in the Pensacola / Destin area and it's similar, right now you're looking at $4-6K/week to rent something similar, and that's typically what people do, couple families, or a larger family gathering. Places are booked solid April-November.

We go a couple times a year, and have a loyalty deal with one of the resorts down there that gets us a nice ocean view balcony room for about $2500/week....But it's just a room, not a house or even a condo. Which is part of my motivation here, if I am already spending ~$5K/year on rent down there, that would cover a good chunk of my operating cost if used some cash to buy a modest beach house that we could rent when not using it.

Course, there's risk....it's dependent on the vacation market, there's hurricanes to worry about, travel back and fourth when stuff goes wrong, etc. Plus, acquisition cost is relatively high. Locally here in the Memphis area you can find newer starter-home type detached properties for ~$200K, and they rent for $2.5-3K/month....While boring, the return on something like that, is pretty good, especially if you grab 3-4 of them. 

My aunt and uncle have had a place in Boca Raton, Florida since the 2000s, and the economics of owning there make it impossible to rent and make any money. They have a condo on the beach and while acquisition prices are semi-reasonable considering you're on the beach in a super desirable town (you can buy a decent beachfront condo there for around $1-1.2M USD), operating costs are INSANE. I'm talking insurance for your unit in the $5-8K range, property taxes of $20K and condo fees of $30-40K. Almost all buildings flat-out prohibit short-term rentals, so you're stuck with seasonal rentals only, and from what I hear you can rent for 3 months in the winter for around $25K USD. Even if you find seasonal rentals for the entire year (you probably won't), you're barely covering your operating costs let alone the acquisition costs. I guess it could make more sense with a single-family home, but 90% of Boca is HOAs and the areas that aren't are either sketch or start at $5M+...

There's been a massive property dump by snowbirds lately that flooded the FL market. Besides the politics (I've heard of anglo Canadians being evicted of a bar), the exchange rate makes living there just too expensive. A lot of Canucks now choose places like Mexico, Portugal or Spain.

I think this is blown out of proportion a bit....I literally spend 100% of my time in the US, and travel to different cities usually once a month and never have I ever felt unwelcome or discriminated.
Now, if you're in a bar and you're mouthing off about how much better Canada is, yeah, you'll probably find some trouble. But the same would be true of an American in a Canadian bar.

Agreed. I consider myself a proud Canadian but I've never once felt unsafe or unwelcome in the US, including my few visits since the last election. Just keep your mouth shut, don't go looking for trouble, and you'll be fine. On a recent work trip in northern Mississippi, I had dinner at the hotel bar and the other guests there were extremely interested in me, they had never met a Canadian before, hahahaha.

You're right that cost of living has skyrocketed in Florida in the last 5-10 years, but when I was there over the holidays I still saw a TON of Canadian license plates. It's still the closest place to Canada with tropical weather, lots to do, and the only one within driving distance. I find the whole Trump scare overblown - Florida is still way safer than somewhere like Cuba or Mexico.

Yep, and Florida's cost problem is mostly limited to the coastal areas, and spots with lots of rental/tourism. I know quite a few people who live in Florida, in more rural areas, who haven't really seen much impact.

If you're in North Mississippi again let me know and we can grab a drink...I am just about 20 minutes from the Mississippi line on the Tennessee side. I am in Southaven / Olive Branch all the time. And yeah, not many Canadians down here.....I know of two other transplants here.

[RRocket]

....I literally spend 100% of my time in the US, and travel to different cities usually once a month and never have I ever felt unwelcome or discriminated.

That's because you're lily white. And living in the state of the birthplace of the KKK.  White skin tones play very well there and to the South.

Can confirm if your wife was brown, you'd be singing a different tune.

I mean...today, the President of the US put up a post with African Americans depicted as apes..then doubled down on it....so it's no surprise that red states in particular are cesspools of racism and xenophobia.

[Johnnymac]

While Ron isn't wrong with the whole racism in the US, I will say generally speaking (especially around the Canada/US border) that when in the US a lot of the hospitality type businesses are super happy to see Canadians due to how much they have suffered from the lack of tourists in those areas.  While it would make sense that a lot of Florida, Arizona, maybe Texas and California still get a decent share of Canadian tourist, it's the other states that seem to be suffering from the lack of.

My neighbor takes a month every fall and goes to Maui and this past November while he was there they went browsing some open houses and all the realtors were stating that the prices have gone down noticeably due to non-US residents selling their vacation properties and choosing to get out of the US altogether.  Not sure if that's fully true, but it's probably something seen in certain locals in the US.