By his own admission, he had 200 million from his dad in 1982. That's the amount he had even with your 4 way split theory.
A diversified portfolio comprised of the S&P 500 companies would have achieved similar results. First index fund became available in 1989 as IPS to select investors and fully fledged SPDR was available to public in 1993. The fact that Trump's net worth is half of what it could be had he just let his inherited money sit tells you all that needs to be known about his business acumen.
Do you know how much is 200 million in 1986 terms? It's worth roughly 500 million to 1 billion in terms of purchasing power today depending on estimates. He was born into wealth, and you make it sound like he worked his way up there. He had his dad's real estate empire and connections. Even if he let the New York properties he inherited sit, he'd probably can sell them for more than a billion today.
Because not all of them went into business? Is it that hard to figure out? Off the top of my head, one of them is a circuit court judge and another died of alcoholism. Donald was the only one that took on his father's business empire. Think before you nuthug him.
You're obviously wrong. Look up Index Participation Shares and Standard & Poor's Depository Receipts.
That's the part people easily overlook. It's much easier to get from rich to wealthy than going from middle class to rich. Trump on the other hand, was born wealthy and his record is average at best.
Trump himself inherited his father's business, the biggest chunk of Fred Trump's wealth. He admitted it himself in his book Art of the Deal. How is that not getting through your head? Are you being argumentative just for the sake of argument?
LOL at your googling skills. You went from not understanding how having siblings had anything to do with the argument to knowing he had a circuit court judge sister and an alcoholic brother? It's quite evident that you take an argument and Google it in order formulate a defense. In your earlier post you admitted that you couldn't buy an index in the 80s and now you're taking the opposite position.
Get on topic. We're discussing whether or not Trump is a good businessman.
Donald Trump borrowed money from his dad in the late 1970's to start a business, then inherited his father's empire altogether in the 1980's. He took the lion's share of his father's wealth. That's 200 million in 1982, with purchasing power of 500 to 1 billion today. His wealth had not kept pace with the growth of S&P 500 Index even with all his "deals", thus he's not that great of a businessman.
Are you investing in index funds? What is your investment strategy?
Yes, I have money in three different index funds. One being S&P 500 Index, one healthcare and the other defence. On top of that, my RRSP (Canadian version of 401K) is kept in a consumer staples heavy equity funds. I'm a buy and hold guy.
If true, at least you're not being a hypocrite. But to suggest trump should've had the foresight to invest all of his money in an index fund back in the 80s is a little bit silly if index fund investing wasn't anything back then. As I said initially, it's Monday morning quarterbacking.
The S&P 500 and DOW both existed for decades, and Trump could have easily purchase shares in companies being offered. You are aware that people were advised to have a diversified portfolio even before index funds arrived right? It's common sense. The fact that Trump's wealth is only half of what passive investment in S&P 500 could have been doesn't do him much credit.
Putting everything in one basket is the most moronic thing you can do with your money, and good chance to piss it all away. The first thing any competent financial adviser and stockbroker will tell you is to diversify your investment sources.
