Embrace Ownership

The investments that Iron Bay Research recommends will always be stocks. When you buy a stock, you are buying a piece of a company, plain and simple. The fact that it is a relatively small piece compared to the business as a whole can take away from this. Many individuals have dreams or aspirations of opening up a restaurant, or maybe trucking company, or maybe their own mechanic shop, or coffee shop, or furniture store. The stock market is an amazing opportunity that enables you to do something even better: buy into an existing company at a price of your choosing while making the companies financials available to you. 

Instead of a restaurant, you can buy the stock of McDonald’s or Dine Brands. Instead of starting a trucking company, you can buy stock in Old Dominion Freight Line or U-Haul. Or for a coffee shop, try Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. You get the idea. The best part is the stock market will tell you what these companies are for sale every second that the stock market is open. So, you can wait for a price that you find appropriate. “I wish I had known this fact sooner,” says Bryce Wade, Iron Bay Research’s Founder. “When I got out of the Army in 2016, my wife and I seriously considered opening a Domino’s Pizza franchise. If instead we had bought stock in Domino’s, we would have made a large amount of money. In 2018, I started flipping houses. If instead I had bought stock in a homebuilder like Lennar or D.R. Horton, I would have also made a large amount of money.”

There is a reason that a home purchase tends to be a person’s best investment that they ever make. Think about the amount of research and analysis that goes into it. They spend months or years picking out an area. They look around neighborhoods. Look for opportunities and growth. They use data analytics and research to look at 100s of homes. They price compare. If they are buying a rental property as an investment they research rental income, study expenses, and calculate return on investment. When they go under contract, they do inspections and appraisals to ensure it is a viable investment and the price is appropriate. After which, they tend to hold that property or investment for an average of 7 years. Think about someone wanting to open up a restaurant or other type of business. 

This analysis and caution for buying a tangible asset is very common, but almost nonexistent when it comes to buying a stock. If you asked your financial advisor what stocks were in a fund they pitched, or what those companies even did, they would struggle to answer, yet they are recommending you put your hard-earned money into those investments. Likely your friends recommend a stock because they heard it in the news but cannot layout how that companies differs from others. When you look at buying a stock with the same eyes that you would if you were to buy a home or a small business, you are sure to be far more successful. Stock investing is investing in businesses. So, buying a stock is buying a piece of a business and should be treated as such.

There are also other aspects that come with this. When you select individual stocks, you are able to better control how you “vote with your money.” If you want to support a certain industry or avoid another, you can. By using Iron Bay Research, you can better understand in what you are investing, and thus better support what you want to. The other option is to broadly invest your funds or retirement with a financial advisor or fund that will scatter your money amongst hundreds or thousands of different companies. By embracing ownership, you also gain better control of what your money supports and avoids.