(October 6, 2016 at 12:08 pm)Tiberius Wrote: Someone on reddit explained the difference between Bill Gates losses and Donald Trump's quite well.
The losses that Gates had were based on "potential" net worth, not actualized worth. Most of Bill Gates' net worth comes from the stock market, and his "losses" were the result of stocks going down in value, but that doesn't mean he lost money; in fact the stocks were still worth more than when he bought them.
Say you buy a stock for $1, and its value goes up to $1,000. Your net worth has increased 99,900%, but you don't have to pay any taxes unless you sell the stock for money (which counts as capital gains). If the stock crashes to $250, your net worth has decreased by 75%, but you're still up 24,900% from what you originally paid.
As for Steve Jobs, he took back Apple in 1997 when it was already failing as a business. That loss would have likely occurred whether or not he was CEO. The year after the loss, Apple made a profit of several hundred million, and then of course turned Apple into the 9th richest company in the world.
I've had a 7 figure loss in the value of my farmland of late. It's not for sale, and I'm unconcerned about it. It's actually an opportunity as the loss of value is affecting everyone in the area and a significant deal might materialize. Now am I smart/lucky enough to pull this off ??
Ideally, I'd jump on a bargain adjacent to me, using existing land as collateral, as values rise my ROI would be significant, and a small tract I farm but find inconvenient due to it's distance and configuration (not all fields are square) might be for sale after values rebound to apply to the amount owed on the larger tract.
There are some other angles to the low dollar value of farmland right now that are of significance but I won't go into that. Suffice to say, it looks like I'm placed as well as I can be for hopefully growing the bottom line here.
As for Trumple shucking a billion, meh, looks like he made money on it. Hope I can do 2% as well for myself with my 'paper' losses.
The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it.
