2018, The Year That Wasn’t by Bill Roberts

2018, The Year That Wasn’t 

Looking back on this past year is like looking out the window of a train as you travel endlessly across the plains. Nothingness, stretching on forever.

My year began with two back-to-back hospital stays, followed up by a couple of months of home rest.

And it didn’t get any better as the year progressed.

Business was slow.

It seemed like I spent the entire year getting “ready.”

Even  my backyard gardening was a flop. Some critter found his way into my yard and seemed to like everything I was growing. He didn’t destroy the plants, just helped himself to the produce. I would watch the tomatoes grow, and just before I was ready to harvest them, he got there first. His sense of timing was eerie.

Well, I did get ready (for next year).

Together with a client, I put together a land development project. One that we will do as a syndication. And it fulfills my criteria for a “One Hit Wonder,” so I expect next year to be great. We are going to build an Assisted Care facility. Our LLC “owns” the real estate, and will be Landlord to another corporation we will establish to run the business. If you want to know what a “One Hit Wonder” is check out this post: One Hit Wonder  Sorry, I can’t invite you to join us. This is only for California residents.

But, moving on….

Years ago Panch’ (Eric Estrada) was advertising lots around some lakes in the Arkansas Ozarks. My wife wanted to buy one of those lots. I’m not sure why. Maybe she just liked Eric Estrada.

Anyway, this year I bought one of those lots (for a lot less than when Eric was pitching them).

Eventually, we will build a vacation home on the lot.

We have other property we intend to build on also. We didn’t do it this year. We just got ready. We visited our lot in the mountains above San Bernardino. All the lots around ours are built on. It is good for property values, but bad for access to build on our lot. But the view of the lake is priceless, so I guess we will have to bite the bullet and just build it regardless of the cost. My goal is to have at least five  vacation properties where we like to visit, that we can put on the weekly rental market when we aren’t there. I call this my Five Resort Plan, another of my retirement strategies.

Speaking of which….

My Baby Boomer Retirement Planning practice will change direction next year. I will be doing workshops. Putting this together is another one of my “getting ready” steps.

I will be “selling” self-directed Roth IRAs, syndications, and Granny Flats (ADUs).

And I plan on doing a series of video/pod casts on my “40 Acres And A John Deere Tractor” theme. It is one of my Retirement Strategies for our generation.

My “plan” is to do this as a travelogue of our journey to establish our farm and farm business. Again, getting ready, but not doing.

In 2018 a new social media platform was announced. WebTalk will be everything good from Face Book, LinkedIn, and YouTube, with none of the bad. Everybody complains about FB making billions of dollars from our activity and personal data. WebTalk will address this by first offering better validation of its users, and by sharing its revenue with us. I spent this year getting ready. I have over 100 members in my network (well over). I’m ready for next year. I’m done inviting, but if you want to join here is the link: WebTalk

I also belong to a Network Marketing Opportunity that I view as a better retirement plan than what most people have, especially Social Security. 

I plan on getting an endless stream of income from this opportunity.

But this year all I did was build up my structure, increasing the amount I will receive. My target date for it to start paying out to me is 2020. So, another year of getting ready. But it will be worth the wait. I don’t “recruit” anyone to this MLM because so many people have bad ideas about what it entails. However, with that said I will talk about it with you if you call me. That is the only way I recruit.

Anyway, I believe in having Multiple Streams of Income for retirement. 

2018 wasn’t only a non-year for me, but a not-so-good year for you, too, if you are invested in the stock market (your IRA or 401(k) maybe?). Depending on how you are invested, the market is down 6-10% for the year, or more than 50% if you took a chance on China. Oh well, it will probably come back.

That is another good reason to buy real estate syndications.

I am looking forward to 2019 being a very good year. I hope it is a good year for you, as well.

Happy New Year.