Round Table Reflections on Rental Property or Dividend Stocks exercise

Thank you everyone who participated in our exercise on which we would prefer - a rental property or dividend stocks?

Again I stress there is no "right" or "wrong" answers, only opinions. Who is to judge whose opinion is better?

For those who have attended workshops or trainings, at the end of the session, there usually is a round the table reflections from the participants and facilitators.

Let's start with me! 

Tip! Always start your reflections early. If wait till the end, whatever you want to say has already been said by others - boring!


1.  I noticed from the responses, there are broadly 2 groups of decision makers - one group thinks from the head; the other from the heart.


2.  It's interesting most of the respondents are bloggers themselves. Some I know better than others. Most have chosen and gave the reasons why that are in harmony to what they have previously blogged about - their investment philosophy. But a minority, eh.... have responded in a way that's not really "aligned" with what they have blogged in the past... A bit of 自相矛盾... Wink.


3. Guess why I added the genie element to the question? Have you noticed when we ask a question, we get 10,000 questions back? It's human tendency to renegotiate, counter-offer, argue, and do everything else just so we don't have to answer the questions directly.

Have you noticed one blogger who have no problems commenting everywhere, very self-assured, confident, simply can't bring himself to have a bit of fun with this exercise? Why do you think so?   

The one minute dateline is just a subtle cue not to think too much. One respondent picked up on it. Wink. 


4. Most of the time, opportunities do not come in a nice cookie-cutter packaging or format that we prefer. For example, how do I reply if I prefer gold or cash right here right now? Especially if I am of the opinion both rental properties and dividend stocks may suffer a correction soon?

To choose either rental property or dividend stocks will create cognitive dissonance in me. And that's painful. But I still want the million $...

La papillion has successfully demonstrated a way out!

Just choose either one, the genie does not care which you choose. Reasons why? Can say I happy what! Isn't that a good enough reason?

If we choose dividend stocks, we can sell them off this coming Tuesday. If we choose rental property, OK, may take longer as in weeks or months to sell it off, but still very doable.

Either way, we still can convert it to whatever we really prefer once we have sold them off. Wink.

It can be gold, money market funds, or blow it all on wine women and song!

See?

Who says to be financially literate we should read more financial books?

Those who are parents, you may want to encourage your children to read widely - yes, even those frivolous fiction stuffs like 1001 Arabian Nights. Wink.