Quote for Today:

“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy things they don’t want to impress people that they don’t like.”

― Will Rogers

(Source)

Let’s get far, far away from politics today with the news that the Mega Millions lottery is up to $625 million.

That sizable sum is up for grabs for whatever four-leaf-clover-holding, horseshoe-rubbing, rabbit-foot-carrying individual can correctly predict its six randomly selected numbers.

The would-have-been winning digits last night that nobody got were 12-14-26-28-33, with the Mega Ball being 09.

Tempted? Even just a little?

Of course you are! How could you not be?

The thought of instant riches has an obvious allure, promising an immediate exit from the rat race and all of its discouraging bosses, obnoxious coworkers (even social distancing can’t solve that problem), mortgages, worries about kids’ college funding, etc., etc., etc.

Just like that, with the draw of a handful of number-stamped spheres, you’re living on easy streets! A dream come true!

Problem is, for most people, it really is nothing more than a dream. As Fox Business points out, “The odds of winning Powerball are one in 292.2 million. They’re even steeper for Mega Millions, at one in 302.5 million.”

In short, I wouldn’t bet your piggy bank on the possibility.

Euro Pacific Capital CEO and Strategist Peter Schiff certainly didn’t earn his net worth of $80 million that way. Nor did Shark Tank star Mark Cuban – and he’s got $4.1 billion!

I mention these men because both made statements about cryptocurrency the other day. Schiff, for his part, says that, “All bitcoin is the latest iteration of fool’s gold, and anybody buying it is ultimately a fool.”

For those investing in it, don’t blame me for his bold-faced language. I’m just the messenger. The same goes for this next part, capitalization and all…

Because while Cuban turns out to have been an early-in investor to the idea – and still owns shares in certain e-money investments – he tweeted this out:

“If you are taking on debt that you can’t afford to pay back to invest in crypto (or stocks or currencies), YOU ARE A FOOL and there is a 99% chance you will lose EVERYTHING.”

Considering how Cuban does believe some cryptocurrency names will survive the coming crash he’s predicting, it appears he’s a lot more bullish on the speculative investment than Schiff. Then again, with billions and billions of dollars to play with, he can afford to be more daring with bits and pieces of his fortune.

If you’re more along the lines of Schiff’s “mere” millions and millions, you might want to devote more to being defensive right about now. (Might I suggest REITs?)

One way or the other, you should DEFINITELY take Cuban’s advise against going into debt for any investment. If you can’t do it with cash on hand, you probably shouldn’t do it at all.

I already told you a few days ago to stick with quality. Now I’m urging you to stick with sanity too.

The World According to Commercial Real Estate

My team and I continue to work extremely hard to build a world-class business that helps investors navigate the REIT sector. That’s why we’re constantly looking for ideas that will help you optimize returns while simultaneously helping you sleep well at night (SWAN).

As usual, that includes the Daily REITBeat snippets below:

• American Tower (AMT) entered into definitive agreements with Telefónica to acquire Telxius Towers. The business involves about 31,000 communications sites across Germany and Spain, as well as throughout Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Argentina. The total price tag for these acquisitions is around $9.4 billion.
• Gladstone Land (LAND) is offering newly-designated Series D cumulative term preferred stock. The issuance is meant to fund the redemption of its outstanding 6.375% Series A preferreds in the next month at $25.0486979 per share.
• Kimco Realty (KIM) appointed Henry Moniz to its board, effective immediately, which expands its directors to nine.

Moving right along, there’s some pondering to be done from yesterday’s biggest losers, as shown below.

(Source: The Daily REITBeat)

As you can see, three net lease REITs were the worst performers yesterday. But I would caution you to take long-term views of this short-term snapshot.

The most effective investors learn how to look past the surface to the greater potential beneath it.

Happy Investing