RISK RISK RISK!! De-Risking the foundation for an investment portfolio is an idea like no other. Why not start with that and venture into the riskier ones?

That was my philosophy when I started investing in general. Plus, it’s a good way to launch yourself into the investing arena as a beginner. I have always felt that the best long-term strategy is to start investing with low-risk assets before venturing into high-risk ones, though the high-riskier ones could burn you and give you a “never to be forgotten” crash course or make you an “overnight millionaire”.

As part of my initial learning process, real estate has always been the best asset class to start with and is also why it is the investment asset of choice for generations of investors and businessmen who “have made it”.

A few years on, having dabbled with investing in all types of asset classes available out there, I still love the stability of real estate despite the low returns. However, as the saying goes, “Where there is a will, there is a way”, and with that, I keep hunting for those sweet sweet high return deals to invest what I’ve got into.

To begin with, in real estate, I started off by building a house in my home country, just to have an accessible location to crash without paying rent, in case things go South. Construction is complete but modifications and setting up shop goes on, and sometimes feels like it’ll never end. I plan to develop this into a rental unit to list for short-term rentals, given my country is a popular tourist destination.

For step 2, I decided to embark on buying simple land assets. It’s raw, and although it may not be continually yielding, it’s a good store of value investment in my opinion, especially, if at the right location. I chose to invest in a commercial and residential plot in Brazil and the USA, respectively. A couple of years on, the asking price has increased on both plots, with the commercial plot doing far better due to development in tourism in the location of the plot.

Researching the developer, the location, and the plot area within the development was a very important part of the thinking process and I have learned the most about Doing Your Own Research from this class in real estate investing.

I then decided to venture into more liquid, faster yielding, but slightly riskier real estate crowdfunding investments in off-plan as well as plan rental-ready apartment units in Dubai and Indonesia. The properties I co-invested in Dubai have been performing extremely well due to the post-pandemic travel boom in the city and amazing locations, such as the tallest tower in the world.

On the flip side, however, the post-pandemic downturn in Indonesia negatively affected my off-plan units due to construction delays and bleak economic factors in the country. Overall, the fact that I had diversified across countries and asset types really helped me out here.

I have hence ventured into a highly diversified mix of land, commercial real estate, and crowdfunded apartments with dividend payments monthly. I plan to list and liquidate the residential plot I own very soon to reinvest it into a few whole apartments while holding onto the commercial plots and co-owned apartments. I have earmarked a couple of locations for the reinvestment with low costs, high rental yields, and great neighborhoods, which will be shared in my articles.

The aforesaid is a highly summarized summary of my real estate portfolio and investing journey. Coming from a scientific research background and being a ‘deep-diving DYOR’ researcher, I have been able to carefully weed out services and invest as safely as possible for my personal portfolios.

Moreover, having experienced investing firsthand, and with some advice from investing mentors, I thought that it would be great to share my research and involve a community of investors in sharing and spreading our collective tales of success. Just like good ol’ Benny Franklin said: “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I will learn.”

Articles in this publication will include my personal experiences in real estate investing, as well as research summaries and reviews on products and services that I am looking into or that have already helped me invest wisely, reduce risk, diversify better, and aim for the highest returns in the shortest time. I aim to hopefully inspire other retail investors like me, to embark on an exciting journey of real estate investing and achieve the sweetness of financial freedom and passive income way before retirement age.

DISCLOSURE:

None of these articles constitute financial advice. Articles are highly summarised to make it easy for the reader and save your time, so please DYOR further before putting your hard-earned money into any product mentioned.

Please note that the tech industry evolves rapidly and this article's information is correct at the time of publishing. As Heraclitus said, “Change is the only constant”, so if anything sounds old or off please holler on the socials or comment here so everyone stays peeled.

Affiliate links may be included in these articles and signups through these links are highly appreciated. These links support better research and quality writing and help you find the right products with less hassle, so it’s a win-win :) Great care is taken to ensure the links are from authentic, non-spammy sources.

Stay up to date on the latest stories by signing up for the newsletter. Please don’t mark these emails as spam, instead, you can easily unsubscribe.