I am curious. What do you guys do for a living?

[Autodidact]

@Autodidact: what do your real estate investments look like? Do you own properties where you collect rent from tenants? Flipping homes? I have dabbled in investment property in the past, earned slim profits. May look at it again though if worthwhile.

It's pretty diversified but the most lucrative comes from buying commercial properties in emerging markets, specifically countries with high economic growth. It's much better to have a business as a tenant than "Joe" and his family.

 

[riskaddict]

I'm starting a tree farm. Not Christmas trees but trees for landscaping purposes/business parks etc. I know a couple of guys from my golf pro days that know the science of this shit inside and out. The one guys also started a solar company probably 6 years ago and he said it's getting pretty saturated and the competition is a bitch. I also work in the credit card industry (portfolio risk analyst) if I didn't actually have to go in it would seem like passive income because I don't do much it's boring as shit but benefits are sick which helps if you have kids. But I love working outside and landscape design has been a passion of mine forever. I have taken a couple of CAD classes but mostly self taught. I feel like this is something I could do for the rest of my life and be happy everyday I wake up which I have found over the last several years is one of the most important things in life.

 

[dealmaker]

I ask this because I have been in a bit of a soul searching mode lately.

A bit about me: my main source of income is my RIA - for those unfamiliar, RIA's manage client portfolios and/or sub-advise portfolios of other firms. It has been a decent way to make a living for the most part but lately there seem to be headwinds.

The past year has been tough on many diverse model based strategies; many RIAs including myself have experienced some amount of client redemptions. An added irritant is the 'robo-advisors' who do plain vanilla strategic asset allocation ('SAA') for zero fees or almost zero fees - we tactical RIAs have lost a lot of business to the robos.

Another depressing thing looming is the potential new SEC regulation banning or limiting derivative based ETFs and funds, which is the bulk of what I trade for clients.

I am left wondering if I might just be better off closing shop and going to work for a large firm (in what capacity I have no idea). Or should I continue running my RIA but purchase a second unrelated business to smooth out my revenue stream through the lean times.

So I am very curious what you guys are doing to earn a living? Are you living off your trading gains? Do you work in the industry? An unrelated industry? Are you a business owner? What kind of business?

Anything you can share would be helpful in generating some fresh thinking in my own head. Thanks.

I trade full-time...

 

[Handle123]

I grew up in Construction family, so on my real estate rentals which I often do some of repairs I can lay brick, carpentry, plumbing, sheet rock, wiring, can operate back hoe, but no more roofing, getting too old bending over that much. I have several small businesses so always looking for more sales so cold calling and even door to door, good exercise. I been doing more in farming industry and cattle raising as I want to go in that direction in few years. I have been in military-disabled Vet, worked for government and have a CDL and driven over one million miles safely, 49 states and yes, have traded inside the truck with either wifi or hubs. I work jobs I love to do and don't consider work, trading more like a game to me.

 

[lawrence-lugar]

I trade full-time...

Me 2. -- well not literally full time, more like part-time...and the rest of the day...i'm rather bored as duck.

 

[Trader22]

i get paid to hate on marketsurfer for a living ops:

Love the name. 2016 shall be fun to trade

 

[WildBill]

I have seen laundromats for sale. I have also looked into buying a Car Wash (I can see myself as the guy from Breaking Bad!). These types of businesses are pretty much immune to recession, automation, globalization.

I know a guy that made a fortune with laundromats. Car washes are a losing proposition if you are located in California.

 

[Savoy]

I've never heard of that. What is it?

it can provide you with MASSIVE edge over your RIA competitors....basically, after the pension protection act of 2006 there is a new style of advisors that basically check people's retirement plan holdings and tell them whether or not they pass various benchmarks and criteria...if they dont, you recommend different fund options to replace lets a small cap growth fund or large value etc...you also check to see how expense ratios are erelative to other funds. what you do is charge bips on their overall assets....

in essence, you are providing a service to make sure that people's investments are optimally effective.

 

[Turveyd]

R123, yeah kinda, not living near London means kinda restricted mainly just Dev in house software for Ringway for my sins, part time hours really!

 

[R1234]

it can provide you with MASSIVE edge over your RIA competitors....basically, after the pension protection act of 2006 there is a new style of advisors that basically check people's retirement plan holdings and tell them whether or not they pass various benchmarks and criteria...if they dont, you recommend different fund options to replace lets a small cap growth fund or large value etc...you also check to see how expense ratios are erelative to other funds. what you do is charge bips on their overall assets....

in essence, you are providing a service to make sure that people's investments are optimally effective.

Interesting - would love to add that service. But as always, prospecting new clients for this activity would be a herculean challenge because I'm a one man shop.