![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/VGT-Annual-returns.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIf you don’t run the business, diversification is your only option. To wit:<\/p>\n
I’ve been a big investor in residential and commercial real estate syndications. Things have changed. And rather quickly:<\/p>\n
+ Residential real estate has been hit with several important issues \u2013 rising interest rates, escalating insurance costs, overbuilding (hence falling rents) and lousy weather (floods and hurricanes)<\/p>\n
+ Commercial real estate, after covid lockups, has been hit with \u201cStay at Home\u201d employees, video calls (Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex Meetings and others) and rising interest rates.<\/p>\n
So, what are the alternatives?<\/p>\n
The simplest are two ETFs — VGT (Vanguard Technology ETF) and VOO (Vanguard S&P 500 ETF).<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s VGT — from Vanguard\u2019s site today — as of 03\/31\/2024. These are average annual returns. Not shabby.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
These are much higher returns than what our various real estate syndicators are offering us at present. And too many of them are making capital calls — basically asking their investors to dump good money after bad money.<\/p>\n
Another alternative: The S&P 500 Vanguard ETF which is called VOO. These are average annual returns:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/SP-500-ETF-VOO.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I took these charts directly off Vanguard’s web site this weekend.<\/p>\n
Buying these two ETFs does not involves picking and buying individual stocks.<\/p>\n
Buying these two funds is ideally suited to \u201cdollar cost averaging\u201d \u2013 what everyone and their children, who are gainfully employed at a real job, should be doing every month.<\/p>\n
Now, please tell me where my \u201clogic\u201d is wrong. I wish I had figured this out 27 years ago when we sold our publishing business.<\/p>\n
I realize I do personally pick individual stocks. It’s my lifelong love for technology.<\/p>\n
My favorites recently are Nvidia,\u00a0 Novo and LLY. I have gotten super excited about them, especially Nvidia. (Read recent blogs.)<\/p>\n
Sadly, they’re all now super expensive. You can see other stocks I own in the listing on the blog site. Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Curiously , Bitcoin has more than doubled in the last six months. My small stake will buy a small house. Maybe a bigger house in the next few months?\u00a0 Who knows?<\/p>\n Useful Tips<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n + “Send me $3. I’m begging…<\/em>” Endless texts on my iPhone. I have the solution: Reply with one word — “Stop.<\/strong>” It seems to work. I don’t know how to stop begging emails.<\/p>\n + You’re meant to get 3% (or whatever) benefits on your credit cards. But you have to “redeem” them, which means asking.<\/p>\n + You can use airline miles — and get the trip for free. But you have to ask. I just paid for a trip on Delta I could have gotten for free. Dumb me.<\/p>\n + All home automation will eventually fail. No replacement parts will be available when it does fail.<\/p>\n + LED bulbs will save you 85% in electricity and last forever. Amazon sells fine, cheap LED lightbulbs.<\/p>\n + If Delta forgets to put your TSEPre\/Global Entry<\/em> number on your boarding pass, go onto Chat. Ask for a human. They’ll fix your boarding passes manually. Their website can’t. Airline websites give awfulness a whole new meaning.<\/p>\n + Here are two Apple iPhones I own.<\/p>\n The on the right uses Verizon. I bought it new from Apple. It’s an iPhone 13 Pro Max. I bought the one on the left — an iPhone 11 — from Amazon for about a quarter the price of the phone on right. I bought it because I was furious at the increasingly awful service I’ve been getting from Verizon — dropped calls, no service, no signal. etc. On the Amazon refurb, I subscribed to something called Mint Mobile, which re-sells T-Mobile. It cost me $45 for the first three months — less than half of what I pay Verizon for one month.<\/p>\n Mint Mobile (aka T-Mobile) has not let me down. I can speak on it. I can receive calls on it. I can set it up as a Personal Hotspot for my laptop. And the iPhone 11 is a cute little, lighter phone with the same software as my bigger iPhone 13.<\/p>\n There are two morals to this story: You don’t need the latest iPhone. And you certainly do not need Verizon. And after their latest hacking incident (70 million customers and counting) you don’t need AT&T.<\/p>\n + I think it’s reasonable to avoid flying Boeing planes. Want more proof? Read today’s New York Times<\/em> cover story:<\/p>\n \u2018Shortcuts Everywhere\u2019: How Boeing Favored Speed Over Quality<\/strong>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Two-phones.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nProblems have plagued the manufacturer even after two fatal crashes, and many current and former employees blame its focus on making planes more quickly.<\/p>\n