Senior day smiles
St. Joseph-Ogden senior Victoria Roberts is all smiles with her Senior Day cookie after SJO defeated St. Thomas More in their last home game of the season on May 10, 2012. The five-inning affair ended with the Spartans celebrating a 15-1 victory over the visiting Sabers. SJO went on to finish the season with a record of 41 wins and just one loss on their way to a third-place finish at the Illinois High School Association's state tournament in Peoria under head coach Randy Wolken.
(Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)
"Any cut to the Illinois state budget is a win for taxpayers," said Jim Tobin,
President of Taxpayers United of America (TUA). "However, a broad cut to the
state budget is not enough."
Tobin says the state of Illinois’s financial woes are due to the vast amount it
spends on lavish, overpromised retired government employee pensions.
"This is why Pritzker is really cutting the budget, he wants to divert pay from
current Illinois government employees to retired Illinois government employees,"
Tobin said in a release this morning. "Every year former Illinois government employees eat up even more of the state’s
budget.
In fact, the primary motivation for a $5 billion state income tax hike
that passed a few years ago was to transfer wealth from taxpayers to the black
hole that is the Illinois pension funds."
Pritzker calls the current state's budget woes a "nightmare scenario".
We've reached a critical juncture for our own state finances in this COVID
induced financial crisis," he said during his press conference in Chicago.
In June, Pritzker signed off on $43 billion dollar budget that began July 1
relied heavily on federal aid and borrowing to fill revenue shortfalls due to
the COVID-19-induced economic slowdown.
A memo from Deputy Gov. Dan Hynes and budget director Alexis Sturm to agency
directors stated the state's current budget "is only affordable in its current
form with federal support to bridge the pandemic-related shortfalls and that now
appears not to be forthcoming."
Illinois stands to lose out on $6.5 billion in revenue this year and next year.
Agency heads were given until Oct. 2 to outline their reductions for the current
year. This includes taking necessary measures from hiring freezes to
renegotiating on any planned spending commitments.
Tobin points out that governor's Illinois progressive income tax is purely a move to raise taxes.
"Pritzker’s income tax increase amendment, better described as an income theft amendment, is not what Illinois needs," he wrote. "Illinois taxpayers should vote no on November 3rd to the proposed amendment change, and demand Pritzker to cut spending further."
This is what so many people get caught up in "Expected Returns". In other words, which investment vehicle will make more money.
In reality, this is like comparing apples to oranges. The most convenient way to compare the returns is using the S&P 500 and a Vanguard Real Estate ETF and throwing them up side by side.
If I’m being honest, I think this is a lazy methodology and it is only used because of the convenience. In general, the returns will be comparable, but it will come down to the specific investment opportunity and it is lazy to make blanket statements about returns. Obviously, you need to invest in an asset that will create a return; however, there are other items to consider such as the investing experience, diversification, taxation, risk management, liquidity, and your financial goals.
Finally, something that is often overlooked in any investment is the experience of that investment.
When I say experience, I mean how is your investment going to make you feel, affect your sleep, make a societal impact, and so on. To this point, this article has been fact-driven, but the remainder of this section is 100% my personal opinion and it is absolutely biased towards real estate.
The stock market is great for people who want to put their money into a system to generate a long-term return without having to make many decisions. I worry about people who have all of their money tied up in the stock market and/or retirement accounts that are exclusively invested in the stock market (you can use them to invest in real estate too). The reason being, I don’t trust the decision makers that control these financial markets and I would rather have my money in Main Street real estate than on Wall Street.
Real estate is great for people who want to have more control over their investment, make a societal impact, and generate long-term wealth.
I love being able to create my own business plan, to meet my residents and give them a place to call home, and the proven path to create a generational financial impact. I worry about real estate investors who think that they will be able to get rich quick and think it will be easy money.
News flash … it’s a grind. There are a lot of bad actors in the industry that only care about money, and I think that is short-sighted in that this is long-term game.
In conclusion, the answer to this question should come from within and it should complement your financial goals and individual skill set.
To me, that means I should heavily invest in real estate and opportunistically invest in the stock market. To you, that could mean an entirely different investing strategy.
I encourage you to further your research on both of these topics and seek out reputable investors that have experience with both real estate and/or the stock market. When talking with other investors, make sure that you come into the conversation with an open mind, do your best to leave your biases at the door, and give yourself the chance to create a better financial future.
