There’s a place for caution in the decision process of a big investor. Where is it?

Property investment is all about risk. If a guy (say Tom) doesn’t like property-related risks (currency, regime, liquidity, supply/demand ..), then he should stay away from property investments. Tom is not a serious investor. I feel most people I talk to are like this fictitious Tom. They keep thinking and reading and never acts because they are inherently uncomfortable with those risks.

If you are a serious investor, then you probably work on defining the acceptable levels of risks, and (optionally) defining the secondary risks you decide to leave out. If you don’t classify the risks as primary vs secondary, then you can get distracted and immobilized by 20+ risk factors.

Coming back to my opening question…. Caution needs to be balanced by optimism. Without optimism, the caution would crush us, always.

Some people don’t like the idea of optimism. In other words, they don’t believe there’s real prospect of realistic return more than 4% a year. They had better stay with insurance plans… risk averse.

(Optimism is bold. I see myself as a bold investor, not a reckless investor. I made a few big mistakes and now wiser.)