u/hotdogornothotdog124

My last few doctor visits have shown blood pressure readings of 140+/90+, but when I measure at home it consistently comes down to the mid 120s to mid 130s. Given that discrepancy, would it be accurate to say I likely don't have Stage 2 hypertension and am more in the Stage 1 range? My reasoning is that true Stage 2 hypertension would presumably keep readings elevated regardless of the setting.

Am I thinking about this correctly?

Thank you all in advance.

I sold my business in 2021.

Great valuation.

But here's the thing nobody tells you about selling at the top...

Everything ELSE you buy is also at the top.

(Funny how that works.)

It's been 5 years since that exit.

And I'm not going to sugarcoat it.

I made some BAD calls.

Look... I could beat myself up about it.

Call myself an idiot.

But nobody actually TAUGHT me this stuff.

So instead, I'll teach YOU.

Take it or leave it. Here's what I learned.

LESSON 1: Real estate is a trap dressed up in nice clothes.

I own some Airbnbs. Those are great. Cash flows nicely.

But US multi-families? Condos? Everything else?

DECIMATED.

And the thing that kills me most isn't the returns...

It's the LIQUIDITY.

When I moved to Dubai two years ago, I had Canadian properties I needed to offload.

One tenant was a disaster.

Every time a buyer came to view the place... they ran.

Then you factor in brokers, realtors, taxes, closing costs...

It becomes a full-time headache job you never signed up for.

Here's the uncomfortable truth:

S&P 500 vs real estate over the last 20 years?

Real estate doesn't win by nearly as much as your uncle thinks it does.

Never buying another property again.

HARD PASS.

LESSON 2: When you make money... predators smell it.

I'm a trusting guy. Always have been.

Big mistake.

Because the moment you get a little money...

A LOT of people suddenly want to "help" you with it.

(For a small fee, of course.)

Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.

They will ALWAYS say yes.

I wired $300,000 to someone I had never met in person.

Just... sent it.

Met them online. Did my due diligence. Felt good about it.

Felt a lot less good about it later.

Here's my rule now:

I will NOT invest in any fund or LP unless I personally know another LP who has been in that deal for a while... and actually vouches for it.

That's it. That's the whole filter.

Saves you from a LOT of expensive lessons.

LESSON 3: Dollar cost averaging into the S&P 500 is stupidly underrated.

I know.

I KNOW.

Entrepreneurs don't want to hear this.

We want the fast play. The big swing. The 10x deal.

(Watching paint dry is for other people.)

But if I could go back and tell my freshly-exited self ONE thing...

It would be: just put it all in the S&P.

That's it.

No drama. No due diligence calls. No wiring money to strangers.

Just slow, boring, CONSISTENT wealth building.

Turns out... that stuff actually works.

Who knew.

LESSON 4: Startups will humble you FAST.

Every single startup I invested in?

Zero.

Like not "bad return" zero.

ZERO zero.

But profitable small businesses?

Different story entirely.

One company I backed three years ago was doing around $100M in revenue.

This year they'll do $230M.

I already got my initial investment back.

And when they sell in the next 18 months...

I'm looking at a 3 to 5x return.

The difference?

They were PROFITABLE when I got in.

Not "growing fast and burning cash" profitable.

Actually. Making. Money.

I don't care how exciting the pitch deck is.

No profitability. No deal.

LESSON 5: Warren Buffett's #1 rule isn't just a cute saying.

"Never lose money."

I used to nod along when I heard that.

Then I actually lost money.

Now I understand.

Because losing capital isn't just painful in the moment...

It compounds AGAINST you on the way back.

You need a bigger win just to break even.

And here's the kicker...

The 80/20 rule is VERY real with investments.

20% of my deals generated 80% of my returns.

The other 80%?

Basically dead weight.

So protect your capital like it's your firstborn.

Because getting it back... is way harder than keeping it.

P.S. None of this is financial advice. I'm just a guy who learned some expensive lessons and decided to stop keeping them to himself. The best investment you can make right now? Probably just opening a brokerage account and turning on automatic contributions to an index fund. Boring as it sounds... it beats most of what I tried.