CW 799 FBF - Defending Investments Against Demons of Risk/Inflation-Doug Utberg

The world of investing involves many considerations. Chief among these are the two “Demons” of investing that must both be defeated in order to realize success. The first demon is risk, and the second is inflation. Risk comes from the fact that future returns are uncertain, and it is not possible to foresee all future events. Investments that seem ‘safe’ may turn out to have hidden dangers that we did not notice. Risk can never be eliminated, it can only be managed. The best way to do this is by properly diversifying your investments so that they are not all subject to the same market shocks. The second demon of investing is inflation. Inflation is especially difficult because it erodes the value of your dollars. Defeating the demon of inflation requires investment in multi-dimensional assets that are optimized to defeat inflation. Income properties meet this criteria well because the property itself holds real value by nature of the replacement cost of the structure, the loan allows you to have a fixed cost of capital for three decades, and the cash flow is pushed up by inflation while you cost structure remains flat because of the fixed-rate financing.