What a surprise!
After all this time bickering and obsessing over every nook and cranny of Twitter, last Monday Elon has finally become the largest shareholder of his favorite social media platform!
Itâs pretty impressive to see billionaires spend so much time on social media and still get 10x more done than the average person.Â
Itâs not like heâs Kim Kardashian who is heavily reliant on her 200m+ Instagram followers to establish her brand(s).Â
I guess no matter how many social media time limits and trackers we have, we are all human and addicted to dopamine hits and trivial things after all!
If weâve learned one thing during the pandemic, itâs that connection is desperately needed and in fact, will increase longevity. With guardrails of course.
So itâs safe to admit, billionaires get addicted to the suspiciously personalized algo as well. This confirms they are just like us who waste their time bickering with strangers across the globe getting no where!
Oh well! Not only did he get a 9.2% stake in Twitter, he tweeted away into a seat on the board.
What a surprise coming from someone who mentioned only last week he has plans for creating his own social media platform criticizing Twitterâs use of free speech.
I can only imagine what types of changes Elon wants on the platform now besides an edit button.
When you love something so much, no matter how destructive it may be for you, it seems to win us every time.
Whether or not Elon has been planning his dominant stake for a while now or went for it last minute, it is safe to say it is probably better than creating Truth Social 2.0 which has dealt with ongoing complaints, glitches, and a waitlist that abruptly ended.
Elonâs Escape
There is a lot we can read about Elon. If fact, we can doom-scroll all day and read every facet of his life, break down his net-worth calculation, and attempt to pronounce his kidsâ names who may not even have them.Â
Who knows! Thereâs just too much scrolling involved.
Besides his huge stake in Twitter and impressive achievements within his diversified ventures, it is quite unusual that he sold all of his real estate holdings and is officially a full-time renter.Â
Compared to his counterparts, Bill Gates is the largest owner of farmland in the U.S. and Jeff Bezos owns millions of acres of land in practically every major metropolis. Real estate is just too good to give up, signifying ownership, wealth, scarcity, and authenticity as a non-fungible asset yet once youâve hit jackpot, it is very likely it becomes a hassle more than a luxury.
Thereâs not a single billionaire or anyone on the Fortune 500 list that doesnât own some sort of real estate except for Elon.
I read the other day about âHomeless Billionaresâ and it seems to be a fad now. Hopefully not something the average American buys into, or shall I say, temporarily leaps through since real estate is one of the most advantageous assets to grow inflationary and volatile proof generational wealth in.
Not only is real estate considered a business with tax write offs and depreciates as it appreciates, it is also designed to build long-term wealth to incentivize saving and passive investing. It is practically guaranteed to go up overtime, builds utility, diversification, and is a hedge against inflation allowing the growth of numerous income sources.
At the end of the day, it is a physical tangible asset and many billionaires donât have the energy or mental willpower to hire more people to worry about their $700m real estate portfolio. They know they can afford a whole rural city in America if they really wanted to but it doesnât add any benefit when the gains are relatively insignificant compared to their daily market gains tied to their net-worth.
For all of us, renting isnât always a bad decision if your net worth is ~25x+ your living expenses or ~20x your pretax income. Disposable income allows you to be mobile and not have to worry about maintaining a property, something Elon chooses to do.
Investing 101
Besides Elonâs financial holdings and dealings, in a broader sense, what can we learn from his big social media move he made this week?
Itâs found in the basic principles of investing.
Invest in what you know, love, and use daily.
If you canât explain or recommend the service and or product to someone, itâs not recommended to have it live in your portfolio. As they say, the worst investment is not investing at all but if you choose to buy individual holdings and donât know nor care a clue about where your precious hard earned money is, buy into a basket of funds through an ETF, mutual fund or REIT instead for REAL real estate exposure without the hassle of managing or finding tenants!
Save your time, energy, mental capacity, and most importantly, money on what you understand instead. Thereâs a risk to everything so weigh them judiciously to reduce regret.
Bonus, even if you donât have an enormous stake in Twitter as the largest shareholder but still are a big proponent or enemy of the platform/product/service/community, etc. as a fractional shareholder, with your commitment, enthusiasm, and connections, thanks to capitalism, you can still tank or lift the stock with a powerful enough following, preferably through another social media platform!
If you want your investments to grow, you have more control than you think thanks to the power of the internet and being a shareholder! Invest in what you love and youâll feel powerful forever.