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Dennis Fassett

I'm a real estate investor in Metro Detroit.

My primary focus right now is wholesaling, but I also own a portfolio of profitable rental properties. And I work a full time day job.

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Gut Check Time: 5 Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires

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I read a great piece in Money Magazine a while back.

It’s more about mindset than the market, but I found it to be highly relevant to what we’re doing in REI, so I wanted to pass along their analysis.

The author stated that he gleaned his information from his 5-year study on the habits of 233 self-made millionaires.

His two biggest takeaways were:

  • Nearly every one of the millionaires attributed their success in life to habits they learned primarily from their parents or some mentor in life, and
  • The secret to success is daily habits.

He says that he’s identified more than 300 of what he calls “Rich Habits,” and he wrote about 5 of them in the piece. At first I was surprised how much they aligned with real estate investing. But then as I thought more about it, I realized that it’s about focus and habits, and that those are transferrable to anything we do.

So here’s his top five “Rich Habits.” Some of them are no brainers, and #3 is huge, but the point is to make this worthwhile to your business, why not take a critical look at what you’re doing to see if it aligns with what the 233 self-made millionaires are doing? I’ll bet you’ll find, like I did, that there’s a lot of room for improvement.

1. They Create Multiple Streams of Income

Self-made millionaires do not rely on only a single source of income. They develop multiple streams. Three seemed to be the magic number in my study. Sixty-five percent had three or more streams of income that they created over time.

Diversifying your sources of income allows you to weather the economic downturns that always occur in life. These downturns are not as severe to the rich as they are to the poor. The poor put “one pole in one pond” and when their single income stream is negatively impacted in some way, they suffer financially.

Conversely, the rich have “several poles in several ponds” and are able to draw income from other sources when one source is temporarily impaired.

2. They Dream-Set Before They Goal-Set

Dream-Setting is the act of clearly defining a dream. Sixty-four percent of the millionaires in my study were pursuing one single dream. Here’s the 2-step process to Dream-Setting:

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Ignore the National Talking Heads

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dennisfassett.com

“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

~ Obi Wan Kenobi

I’ll bet you thought that old Obi Wan was talking about Mos Eisley, right?

Well, he wasn’t. It’s a little known fact that when he said that, he was actually referring to real estate investing in the City of Detroit.

Shocking?

You wouldn’t think so if you’ve been here.

Not only have I been to Detroit, I live here. Believe me, when I say that the parts of Detroit that I’ll actually venture into make the Mos Eisley Cantina look like a day care center.

And that’s on a good day.

Do not Enter – for Real

This is me being completely serious. As a heart attack. Stay away – for your own physical safety and financial well-being.

Trust me on this. There are areas on the East Side that the cops won’t even go in to.

I bring this up because of the brain donors at CNNMoney.com.

Once again, one of their ilk stumbled upon a mere speck of information and then wildly extrapolated that microscopic speck into what they consider actionable intelligence.

But in fact, it ended up neither actionable nor intelligent. But because they’re CNN, they didn’t notice.

The piece I’m referring to is titled: “Want to make money as a landlord? Try Detroit.”

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Don’t Fight the Tape

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dennisfassett.com

We had this old saying back in my investment banking days:

“Don’t fight the tape.”

It was a phrase that we used in finance that basically cautioned you not to bet or trade against the trend in the markets.

It was a REALLY old saying because the term “tape” referred to the ticker tape machine that the old timers used to have on their desks to get stock prices delivered to them before AOL, E-Trade, and iPhones.

The crazy thing was, we rolled our eyes and used the term a ton back then because there always seemed to be some bonehead clown who swore that he had developed a “system” or “strategy” that would beat the market.

The streets were littered with the carcasses of these guys, because the market chewed them up and spit them out without skipping a beat or even noticing them.

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Cigar Review: Rocky Patel Nicaraguan Torpedo

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Rocky Patel Nicaraguan Torpedo

 

Wow. It’s rare when I find a truly great cigar for under $10 a stick. And it’s like finding a unicorn when I find one under six bucks.

But I found one. The Rocky Patel Nicaraguan Torpedo.

My dealer, Famous Smoke Shop, sells them. They go for – get this $5.20 a stick individually, and you can get a pack of 5 for $21.95 as of this writing. And they’re awesome.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the pack was their construction. It was absolutely beautiful. Perfectly rolled, firm to the feel, and a gorgeous wrapper. I had to check the label to make sure they were the right cigars. They’re listed as a natural wrapper, but they were so dark they looked like maduros.

In this era of mass produced “premium” cigars I often find that the smoking end of torpedoes are wrapped sloppily, and that makes clipping them a challenge so they don’t unroll. Not these. Each one in the five pack was wrapped perfectly with no extra wrapper bunched up and no gaps in the wrapping. Clipping them was a breeze.

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Cigar Review: Arturo Fuente Chateau Fuente Sun Grown Queen B

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A_Fuente_chateau_fuente_QueenB_single

I don’t normally start my cigar reviews talking about my wife, but she’s relevant to the story so stay with me.

Truth be told, my cigar habits are pretty boring. Having enjoyed them now for going on 25 years, I know what I like and I tend to stick to it for my “daily driver” cigar, my “yard work” cigar, and when I occasionally go upscale.

Old habits die hard I guess.

That’s where my wife comes in. She buys me cigars for pretty much every occasion throughout the year that requires some sort of greeting card. And I don’t think in all these years of her doing that she’s bought me the same one twice. So that way I get to sample a bunch of different cigars every year.

I asked her once several years ago how she selects them, because the ones she comes home with are always were unique looking in one way or another. When I asked her about her selection “process”, she said she always picks the ones that are the most interesting in the way they look or the way they’re packaged.

I thought that was intriguing, because I had never cared about that until she mentioned it. But since then I’ve started to notice.

Which brings me to my review of the Arturo Fuente Chateau Fuente Sun Grown Queen B torpedo.

It is flat out a beautiful cigar that is in turn beautifully packaged. From the classic red and gold Arturo Fuente Casa Reserva label to the cedar wrap to the band of red ribbon at the bottom.

It’s definitely a cigar that my wife would pick. And when I got them I was hoping that they would smoke as good as they looked. And I was not disapponted.

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Cigar Review: The Romeo Y Julieta Reserve Toro

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Romeo Y Julieta Reserve Toro

If you’ve been reading my stuff here you may not know that for some time I’ve been doing cigar reviews.

Why have I not posted any of them here?

Yeah great question. But today that changes.

While I do have my favorites, I also like to experiment on occasion and try a cigar I haven’t smoked before. I plan to bring you reviews of both going forward.

To start I’m going to review a new one for me – the Romeo Y Julieta Reserve Toro.

I’ve been smoking cigars since I was in grad school in 1991, and so I’m very familiar with the Romeo Y Julieta brand. From my experience they’ve been great quality cigars, flavorful smokes, and reasonably priced. They never made it into my regular rotation however, because I never felt that they really stood out from the crowd.

Their Reserve line has changed that.

The company describes the line like this:

Romeo y Julieta Habana Reserve premium cigars are the most full-flavored Romeo y Julieta cigars ever! Handmade in the Flor de Copan factory in Honduras, the Habana Reserve combines Romeo y Julieta’s legendary smoothness with the rich, hearty flavor of only the most choice Nicaraguan & Honduran long-filler tobaccos, seamlessly rolled in dark, oily Nicaraguan wrapper leaves. A marvelously robust cigar brimming with earthy-spicy tobacco flavors on a long finish with a sweet and spicy aroma, too.

After smoking three of them this week, I agree. This is a GREAT cigar. Let me run down my evaluation of the four categories:

Taste
This cigar had a great taste – I give it a 91/100. It’s billed as a full bodied cigar, but I didn’t find it to be all that strong. It had a smooth earthy/woody taste that was light on my palate and didn’t hang around all evening. I do think though that they might get overpowered by my Macallan 12, but it would be an excellent complement to perhaps a port or a lighter scotch. It’s a great all-around smoke.