Thursday 30 May 2013

An introduction

By: Mark Frentz
Akerahomes.com

I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while now. As I learn about investments and what is offered I am really eager to share it with others. Information is incredibly important for all of us, especially when it comes to finances because there are so many options available to any individual.

The purpose of this blog will be to help anyone how to think about new ways of investing hard earned money, but I want to be as honest and clear as possible from the outset... I am absolutely biased! I will share some of this bias in my introduction and am sure you will be able to pick up on it as you navigate this blog I am dedicating to my family first, then anyone who is interested in learning more about financial investing. I am passionate about helping people and have been this way as long as I can remember. While I realize not everyone has the same struggles my hope is that this blog will provide information that helps.

So... who am I?

I was born and grew up in Calgary, Alberta and, while I have lived overseas for about a decade in my 20s, am now living in Calgary again; a city that I love for many reasons... But why do I start with my childhood? Because as far back as I can remember I have always wanted to help people. My earliest childhood dream jobs were always something to do with being a doctor or a vet. I've always been drawn to listen to other people's stories and help in some way if I can. Early on I was often frustrated at not being able to 'change the world', but when I moved out of my parent's house and was on my own I found I was empowered to finally do something about situations I saw around me.

For 7 years this passion to help others took me to China; first Tibet and then two of the other provinces for the purpose of studying a people, culture, and language in order to better understand how to meet some needs in a nation I definitely did not understand when I went. While I had planned on living the rest of my life in China, my wife and I decided to come back to Canada for the birth of our eldest child and have chosen to stay in Canada which left me with a major inner dilemma: how can I fulfill my passion to help people in Canada where everyone has everything they need? Well, I have had some interesting jobs since being back in Calgary. These include working for a church, a homeless shelter, and a group home for mentally and/or physically handicapped individuals, but realized that I want to help in different ways which has led me to two fields: The first is counseling (helping people emotionally/psychologically) and the second is real estate (helping people with shelter as well as financially). These two fields, I have found, really fit who I am and what I am passionate about because I now am able, in some ways, to help others internally deal with life and all it brings as well as with one of most basic of human needs (shelter). It's my goal to help as many people as possible live healthy in three ways: psychologically/relationally, financially, and securely in sound housing.

 Why trust what I have to say?

I smile when I think of this question and have two answers for it. The first is... DON'T! Don't trust what anyone has to say outright. It is much better to take what someone says and seek to test it. In the end, my hope is that everyone who reads this blog will test what I have to say, not accept it outright. I believe the validity of what I write will be proven by your testing, so go ahead and start asking more questions from more people. Remember, this is a blog for educational purposes. I'm writing it not to convince others, but to get you thinking in ways you may not have thought before which will encourage you to take charge of your future.  I love learning and hope you will receive something valuable even if simply a reason to learn more.

The second answer I will give is a little of my investing and family background. I will give a brief answer here, but am sure I will share more as time goes by in this blog. I grew up with a father who worked with integrity and generosity in a business full of sharks. He was a Real Estate agent and, while I didn't realize it at the time, I grew up with a basic understanding of real estate right from the beginning through hearing stories around the dinner table as well as going to dad's office on Saturday mornings or coming on the odd appointment every once in a while.

From being saturated with how 'real estate makes sense' on a daily basis I ended up purchasing my first property at the age of 21. I bought this with my brother and it ended up paying for my post secondary education. I lost sight of how profitable real estate could be while I was focused on 'helping change the world for the better' by living overseas, but did still had my money invested in real estate in some form or other for part of that time. When my wife and I moved back to Canada I tried out another investing idea... the stock market. While I believe that the stock market is something that some people can do well in... I didn't. I actually lost quite a bit of money in the stock market even while the market was going up. There are reasons this happened that I won't go into here, but I admit it was much more my fault than the market's or any other reason.

Since the big loss I took in investing in stocks I was on the lookout for ways to take care of my family long term through investing creatively, but without a lot of risk, and remembered real estate. My first purchase at this time was a creative real estate deal where I bought a home and lived in half of it. The other half paying for the mortgage was a good idea and has helped my family a great deal, but most of what I will come to you with in this blog is from what I have learned in the past 2-3 years. I have taken multiple real estate investing courses and have some really incredible people in my life that have taught me a ton. At one time I believed that as long as real estate is a long term strategy it won't have a lot of risk and can be great for making money. Now I realize that if real estate investing is done properly, with due diligence and the knowledge needed to reduce risk it can be done in numerous ways with very little risk. On the other hand, if real estate investing is not done in these ways, it can be extremely risky and can hurt a family, financially, for many years no matter how long the investment is held onto. 

I hope this introduction serves as a glimpse at who I am. I will be honest with you about both my failures and successes and hope it will provide help for you in determining how to invest as well as why you are doing things the way you are. Most people I know tend to invest in ways they don't really understand. The reason they give for what they do is simply: that's what everyone does. The fact is that you have worked hard for the money you currently have and it is worth taking time to think about what you are going to do with that money in order to take care of your family long term. Enjoy the blog!