The Landlord

In both ancient and modern times, countless wealthy investors have built and sustained their fortunes using no asset class other than physical real estate. While twentieth and twenty-first century standards of what makes a prudent portfolio might be critical of an investment strategy that only includes a single asset class, especially one that tends to be illiquid and capital-heavy, there are many lessons investors in other asset classes can learn from real estate investors. This chapter takes that closer look not only at real estate, but also at gold as a complementary asset in the category of “hard” assets, in contrast to the “paper” stock and bond assets that get more of the attention in other chapters of this book.