Mark Moss has been a full-time investor for 25 years and has invested in businesses, real estate, stocks, gold, and crypto. He is a market analyst on YouTube and newsletter publisher.
“We don’t learn from our successes, we learn from our failures.”
Mark Moss
Worst investment ever
The young entrepreneur
Mark was just 18 when he started buying real estate. He was buying and fixing properties. Then he started building from the ground up, doing mixed-use buildings and commercial buildings. Mark knew how to make a lot of money. But could he keep the money?
Turning everything into gold
Mark was enjoying success. Every real estate project he touched thrived. He was steadily building his real estate portfolio, built himself a mansion, got married, had a kid, everything was great.
What he didn’t understand is what got him in trouble
Mark was smart enough to see the 2008 Real Estate crash coming. He had read a book, The Next Great Bubble Boom, by Harry Dent in which Dent kind of forecasted the crash. Mark knew he needed to get out and started selling every real estate that he had. But since he was doing development and these products took years, he got stuck with a couple of properties. Mark had put his entire energy into building his real estate portfolio.
His investments started losing value first by 6%, then by 18% and in no time by 60%. All along, Mark thought he would ride the tide, and so he kept pushing. However, when the drop hit 60%, he ended up losing everything. And it was because Mark didn’t understand that you don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Mark went from having a $20 million real estate portfolio to being millions of dollars in debt.
Helping others invest the right way
Mark prides himself on being good at making money. So after his worst investment ever, he dusted himself off and got up again. Mark was able to make money again. This time, he had to learn how to do it the right way. Today, his mission is to make sure other people don’t repeat his same mistake.
Lessons learned
Diversify your portfolio
Never put all your eggs in one basket. Diversify your portfolio by reinvesting your profits into different investments. Most people tend to put back profits into their initial investments. While this is ok, if your investment tanks, you lose everything.
Understand the basics of investing
If you’re starting to invest, be sure to understand the basics of investing so that you’re able to make sound decisions, and protect your wealth.
You have to create wealth first to invest
Investing is what you do with your money after you make it. You have to create wealth first, and then you invest what’s leftover. Then you protect your wealth through risk management.
Andrew’s takeaways
Creating, growing and protecting wealth are different things
One of the biggest mistakes that people make is to confuse, creating, growing, and protecting wealth. We create wealth through business. We grow wealth by investing what we’ve created, and we protect wealth through risk management measures such as a stop-loss, asset allocation, and diversifying your portfolio.
Actionable advice
Sit down and think about what you’re trying to do and where exactly you want to be. Then make a plan to get there because nobody is going to be able to tell that to you. You have to figure it out on your own.
No. 1 goal for the next 12 months
Mark’s goal for the next 12 months is to build cash flow and grow his wealth.
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Further reading mentioned
