What’s my secret?

Friends at home in Florida think that I have some sort of “Golden Touch.”

They want to know my secret to repeatedly making great investment decisions.

Usually, I just shrug off their questions without much of an answer. “Just good luck,” I’ll say. Or something like that.

[ad#Google Adsense 336×280-IA]The thing is, I do have a “secret” that helps guide my investment choices.

Even better, it is not hard to understand or to put into action.

Today, I’ll show you what I do…

And I hope you will always remember it.

My friends at home have seen me succeed over and over again.

Usually, it appeared from the outside that what I was doing was a bit crazy.

I wasn’t. I was simply following the secret…

For example:

  • My friends looked at me like I was crazy in the mid-2000s. Back then, they were all buying real estate. I was buying gold coins. As you can guess, my friends were clobbered in real estate, but I came out ahead.
  • My friends know that when the financial world looked like it was ending in 2008, I took out a home-equity loan to buy stocks. (That was the first and only time I’ve ever done that.) I doubled that money pretty quickly and used those profits to pay off that loan. I’ve been saying “buy stocks” ever since.
  • In recent years, I’ve been buying large properties in Florida for 80%-90% less than what they sold for at their peaks. It’s already working out well… One of these properties – a few hundred acres – is currently listed for a price more than five times what I paid for it. (That price was suggested by the realtor, not by me.)

So what is my secret?

I call it “The One Critical Thing.”

My secret to success is figuring out the One Critical Thing… and investing accordingly.

Most aspects of life have at least One Critical Thing that’s the key to success. (Some things have two or more Critical Things.) The trick is finding that One Critical Thing and sticking with it.

Take golf, for example… golf has a few Critical Things, like:

1. Don’t swing too hard/keep your head still.
​2. Don’t take big risks.

If you simply do these two things, you can become an extremely good golfer. I’m sure of it.

Finding that One Critical Thing can bring you a bit of peace and clarity. Most people get bogged down by too much noise and advice, and most of it is not that helpful.

When you start to feel bogged down and overwhelmed, just return to the Critical Things. Chances are you’ll come out ahead.

Human nature is a funny thing, though…

Even when we know these Critical Things… even when they are obvious… we still want to fight them. Go back to the golf example. We want to bend these rules, test them, take them to their limits, and ultimately break them.

We want to think that this time is different. It is not.

So what I want to find are these Critical Things – both in the markets and in life.

The way I make the biggest money – by far – is when human nature gets in the way… when people think the Critical Thing no longer matters.

That happened in the three examples I gave at the beginning of this story. When I see people forgetting about what matters, I simply bet that the Critical Thing will end up mattering after all.

It’s simple.

Good investing,

Steve Sjuggerud

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Source: DailyWealth