#anecdotally ive seen a lot of people drop the series

[hmsmilkbone]

honestly. I don't really have a lot of interest in jjk anymore, which is super frustrating as the story foundation is really interesting. I have my favorite characters, and I'm not really interested in reading beyond this point.

As a whole, I'm not a huge fan of dropping stories just because they don't go the way you want. In general I personally try not to do this, but stories where the author clearly hates the material or the audience so much they're willing to destroy the story to do so are not enjoyable. I really don't think gege even really likes writing jjk anymore.

There may be some change that I hear about months from now where something worked out one way or the other, but in general I feel like this story is not going to resolve in a way that feels like reading it was a worthwhile experience. And like, for good OR bad. Not every story has a happy ending, but this is really not particularly interesting and I don't feel the need to continue a story where the writer isn't even interested in what happens or how it advances anything outside of their personal pettiness. Feels very much like grr Martin. All the meaningless death and abuse without any real redeeming qualities.

I'm trying to remind myself that not every author wants to be a storyteller. Not every story is good. It's ok to read stories that aren't the best simply because you want to see where it goes, but gege isn't superior in some way, and i dont 'trust that he's cooking'. Even if the story turns around in an interesting or strategic way, I really am not particularly impressed. Ordinarily I would stay along for the ride, but I can't bring myself to care about something even the author doesn't care about. :/

[therealestatesparkblog]

"The Sky is Falling!": Why Stock Market Swings Shouldn't Scare Real Estate Investors

Concerned about the massive stock market swings weve seen the past few months? Many people are. After all, the headlines have been devastating! Here are a few from the past couple months: A CNBC post Oct. 31 was entitled The Stock Market Lost Nearly $2 Trillion in October. Heres What Happened. On Nov. 20, The New York Times wrote, Stocks Fall, Wiping Out Gains for 2018. Market Crash Underway was the name of a Forbes piece published Dec. 6. Andperhaps most dramaticallyCNNtitled a Dec. 31 article 2018 Was the Worst for Stocks in 10 Years.

So, Are You Scared? Im not. If youre heavily invested in real estate, like me, youre probably sleeping well at nightnot glued to your laptop, enjoying the third season of A Series of Unfortunate Eventsand chomping on semi-boneless ham. My kids would never have known about the crash if they hadnt heard the nervous commentators voice on FOX News Radio. (We switched it back to classic rock immediately thereafter.) Real estate investors are not speculators. Or at least we shouldnt be. We have the opportunity to buy hard assets with measurable earnings and, therefore, quantifiable values. Why Speculate When You Can Invest? I look at it this way. Investing is when your principal is generally safe, and you have an opportunity to make a profit. Speculating is when your principal is not at all safe, and you have the chance to make a profit. Ive written about this in detail in the past.

Here are some anecdotal examples of speculating vs. investing: When my friends and I dropped hundreds of thousands down a North Dakota hole in the ground, wildcatting for a new oilfield, we were speculating.When I bought an expensive parcel of highly leveraged waterfront property, counting on a change in the zoning, I was speculating.When I invested in a self-storage facility, with a known, quantifiable income stream and demographics showing opportunities for more revenue, I was investing. Paul Samuelson, the fist American winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, once said,Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas. Speculating is fun! Its exciting! You can watch your bank account grow and plan that trip to Maui to visit Brandon Turner! Meanwhile, I often find that investing is frankly boring. And investing in real estate can be particularly boring at times. Like Samuelson said, its like watching grass grow or watching paint dry. When Speculating Goes Wrong My friends who invested in Bitcoin had a lot more fun in 2017 than I did. They watched their investments double again and again. One of my friends, a smart financial planner, even convinced someone to loan him money to buy a McMansion with his unrealized cryptocurrency earnings as collateral. Then there was 2018. Bitcoin lost over 80 percent of its value (compared to December 2017), and its still dropping. I hate to say I told you so, but I predicted as much (on Dec. 8, 2017, to be exactabout a week before Bitcoin hit its all-time high of over $18,000). Related:Bitcoin or Real Estate: Which is the Better Investment?

Courtesy of Google.com To be clear, I easily could have been wrong. Bitcoin could have gone up to two or three or ten times that levelor dropped to zero.Thats the problem with speculating. Speculating often makes wild assumptions using massive unknowns to reach its conclusions. And when factoring in human greed and some peoples natural bent toward optimism, it can be deadly. Real estate is different. Or at least it should be, if done right. And thats why Im sleeping like a baby in the midst of all this market turmoil. Related:4 Reasons Cryptocurrencies & Blockchain Technology Are Poised to Transform Real Estate In a funny way, I guess the boredom of truly investing helps me sleep even sounder. Unlike a friend who is always on call, or sleeping with one eye open as the 24/7 world markets respond to and predict market swings, Im busy hanging out with my wife and kids and playing my new Schecter bass. Did you just call me boring? Guilty as charged.

How about you? How are you reacting to the latest stock market volatility? Has your real estate portfolio experienced any volatility lately? Let me know in a comment below. https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/why-stock-market-swings-dont-scare-re-investors