When I think about the hundreds of folks who have helped shape me over the decades, I reflect back on some of these great ideas. I also think about some of the not so good words of wisdom shared.

One that jumps out at me was - A HUD home at any price is a good investment.

What is some advice you have received that didn't advance your investing career?

"The love of money is the root of all evil"

"The rich are greedy"

"The government should fix this or that"

"Vote democrat"

"Go to school to make more money"

The brainwashing will ruin your life. Especially depending on who is doing it.

Off the top of my head I disagree with the phrase "Free Money" when people talk about those on the government dole.

It isn't free, you are helping to pay for it and still being taxed as income when you get it back.

But my dad used to say that holding was not smart. Buy, fix, sell was all that was on his mind.

I have not had a W2 since 2012. No more clock punching. I work hard when I feel like it. Holding has been simpler, once I got the hang of it.

Hhmmm...

My father-in-law advocated strongly that we pick individual stocks rather than just putting our money in mutual funds. "You can't afford to give up the higher returns you'll get by doing that." After losing about $30K, we quietly stopped doing that.

He also expressed significant concerns over our decision to invest in real estate. DH left the workforce at age 50, I never worked outside the home (other than our rentals) and our net worth is now almost double what his is, despite the fact that he worked good jobs his entire life and is still an active stock trader.

I came from a middle class background and my only advice was go to school, get a good job, and pay off your house.

I wish my parents were more savvy with money. Everything I had to learn was by myself and usually the hard way. They did teach me to work hard for what you want.

The worse advise is no advice.

At least if you get some bad advise you can evaluate it, think on it, and choose if it works for you.

I got all kinds of advice from my parent types.

My blood father said work all the hours you can in a factory. Live like a king until the OT stops and then fret over life itself.

My stepfather (Dad) said work all you can to make sure the bills are paid and you can still enjoy life.

My mother just spent money like it was going out of style.

The latest gurus selling their materials. The premise: Buy, refinance with cash-out, go blow that on the high-life.

They quietly ignored the other half of that equation: The property rent has to cover the expenses and mortgage without being in the red which significantly reduces the number of deals that work. I have seen countless guys lose everything over the years by taking the deals that they could clear the most cash on when refinancing and ignoring the cash-flow analysis.

Speaking of gurus, there's a guy I formerly followed on FB who was constantly raising the question "what's holding you back?". The idea is to create urgency and FOMO where there need be none. It's a well known selling technique to create or promote some basic dissatisfaction with one's station so you can be "sold" a solution. In this instance, the "solution" is to buy his course or to invest in his syndications. When this era ends, history will not judge the gurus or their sycophants kindly.

I don't know Phil, I did that with a few places and it worked out pretty well.

As long as you realize the rate will adjust so you can plan accordingly it can be a decent thing.

I bought five duplexes at one time. ARM was I think prime plus 1.5. I also had HELOCs put on all five at the same time. This helped to cover my out of pocket.

We paid down one HELOC and then used the extra toward another, rinse and repeat. We went thru a couple of ARM adjustments but it was when the rate was plummeting. My mortgages actually got cheaper by a little a few times.

By the time rates were ready to climb we had paid off the HELOCs and had enough equity to refinance with standard 30 year mortgages.

I really miss the guy that staged all of this. He ended up going to work for a bank and running a crew out of country. Man he was a genius.

This was all before the crash where people blamed the banks for giving them McMansion loans when they worked for minimum wage.