Amazon prime is now the exclusive provider of Thursday Night Football. When I first heard the news on this, I instantly thought that this was a genius decision as football is the most watched sport in the United States. The regular season of Football draws in an average of over 17 million viewers. Now that Prime has the exclusive rights for Thursday night football, I believe that demand for the streaming platform will skyrocket.

Amazon is spending 1 billion dollars a year on Thursday Night Football. I think this is a really good price for Amazon because of the fact that they will most definitely witness a large increase in signups on their platform because of this. Amazon Prime currently charges $139 a year if people purchase an annual subscription. If one doesn't purchase an annual subscription, it is $14.99 a month. I believe that Thursday Night Football will encourage a lot more people to pay Amazon that money. I think that this is smart for more than just subscription money though. Amazon is also able to show ads throughout the games, and I think that that will also be a huge amount of revenue for them. I think that this will be well worth 1 billion dollars a year. 

Thursday Night Football has already been a success for Amazon so far. According to techcrunch.com, Amazon announced that the first game on Prime received 15.3 million viewers. Amazon also announced that they received a record number of signups that was even higher than major shopping days like Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday. Amazon already has around 200 million subscribers on Prime, and they are betting big that sports streaming will boost that number further. 

I think that it is safe to say that Thursday Night Football has, so far, been a huge success for Amazon, and I am very curious how much revenue from ads and signups they will be able to receive per year from this. I am also curious to see how many of those new subscribers will keep Prime over a multi year period. 

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2022 has been a rough year for most investors. The S&P 500 is down over 25% since the beginning of the year. One fund that has experienced the market downturn the worst is Ark Innovations which is managed by investor Cathie Wood. Ark Innovations is down almost 58% at time of writing and is down around 64% over the last 12 months. Things have not been going well at all for Ark Innovations.

The fund's biggest holding is Tesla. Tesla stock has skyrocketed over the last few years which has massively benefitted Ark Innovations. The fund currently has 9.56% of assets in Tesla stock. Their second biggest holding is Roku which is down almost 76% this year. Teledoc Health is their third biggest holding, and their stock is down over 73%. This is a trend with many of the stocks that are bought through this fund. Many of them are down over 70%.

It's important to look at the stocks that make up Ark Innovations to hypothesize on the future of the fund. I wouldn't want to buy this fund even at the cheaper price it is in because many of the stocks that it holds are stocks that I would not buy myself. Many of the stocks that Ark holds are stocks that I think are still overvalued even with the massive drop in price. Because of this, I have to conclude that Ark is still overvalued as well.

Ark Innovations has a lot of really risky plays. This makes sense as Ark Innovations entire point is to invest in innovative stocks. My issue with Ark is that it seems to invest into these stocks once they are already tremendously overvalued. Stocks like this are not a good position to be in during a market downturn.

Ark Innovations was up tremendously during the bull run that was 2020, but I believe that it didn't capitalize on this like it should have. Zoom, which is another major holding of Ark, made perfect sense to buy in 2020. It was experiencing massive adoption. It's a play that I wish I would have made myself. Now, however, I personally do not consider it a stock I would want to own. Zoom benefitted heavily by COVID, but it is becoming more and more unnecessary. Ark did good in buying the stock, but I believe it should have taken profits a long time ago. Instead, it remains one of their biggest holdings. 

I do believe that the future of Ark Innovations is bleak. I believe that the companies it owns are largely overvalued and still have a ways to fall. I hope that I am wrong and that the fund does well in the future.

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I try not to hold much cash. Cash is a problem because if one holds cash and just cash than they are technically getting poorer every single day as their money continues to lose worth. That said, I don't want no cash. I think it's smart to have some cash set aside for emergencies. I've heard people say that people need to have 6 months worth of expenses saved up in cash. Some people, however, say 3 months, and I have heard others say one should have an entire years worth of expenses saved. There is no real correct answer here. I like to have a years worth of expenses saved in cash, but for others, it makes more sense to save 3-6 months of expenses in cash and invest the rest. 

Not only do I believe that people should have an emergency fund of cash, I believe that people should also have cash set aside to take advantage of stock market opportunities. I call it the buy the dip fund. I like to have money set aside for when one of my stocks go on sale. That way I can take advantage of the decrease in price and accumulate a larger ownership percentage of the businesses I like. 

With the market's huge downturn, people are seeing massive drops in value of their holdings. It can be discouraging. With this in mind, I've seen a lot of people stop their buying of stocks and start hoarding cash instead. I don't think this is necessarily a bad strategy, but I am, myself, continuing to buy stocks. The reason for this is because no one actually knows when the market is going to start going back up, and I have no intention of trying to time the market. Also, I want to buy my stocks at a discount, so I want to keep buying during the way down so that I can accumulate as much stocks as possible. 

My goal right now is to build my "buy the dip fund" as much as possible while stocks continue to fall. I'm still buying the same amount of stocks every week as I normally do, but I am also saving up cash that I plan to invest later. I think it is important to have cash set aside for this, but I am not cutting down the amount I am investing each week even slightly. 

Most of my money is actually in an S&P 500 Index Fund and not in individual stocks. It's a boring way to invest, but 90% of active investors would be better off going 100% into the S&P. I like investing into individual stocks as well, but I prefer to have 60-70% of my portfolio in the S&P. With the cash I have set aside for "buying the dip", I want to put a lot of that in the S&P, but I really want to use that to lower my average stock buying price. SoFi, for instance, is a stock that I originally bought at $12 a share. My average share price for SoFi, however, is around $5. That's because I bought a large number of shares at $5 when the stock price crashed and lowered my average share price. Now, when SoFi trades at $12 again (which I think it will) I won't be broken even, I'll actually be up over 100%. 

So, is it time to hold cash? I think that cash has a purpose, and it can be good to have some on hand. I'd save up a few months of expenses, and I would also save up some extra for stock discounts. Everything else, however, I would invest.

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One of the easiest ways to take advantage of owning real estate is through purchasing REITs (real estate investment trusts). The two most famous REITs out there are VNQ (Vanguard Real Estate ETF) and SCHH (Schwab U.S. REIT ETF). In this article, I want to look at both of these REITs and give my opinion on which one of these is actually the better investment to make. 

The first thing I want to look at is how expensive it is to own these. VNQ has an expense ratio of .12% while SCHH has an expense ratio of .07%. This means that SCHH is a less expensive investment to make. While this is a point in favor of SCHH, the expense ratio does not really matter if you're making less money. SCHH offers a dividend yield of 2.13% while VNQ offers a dividend yield of 3.07%. This means that one would receive a higher dividend by investing in VNQ.

​Another thing I want to look at is past performance. Obviously, past performance does not necessarily predict future performance, but I do believe that it is important to look at. Over the last 5 years, VNQ has increased in value by 1.15%. That's not a huge return, but most people who own this ETF are not owning it for massive returns but are more holding it for the dividend. SCHH, on the other hand, fell by 4.85% over the last 5 years. VNQ also performed better over the last 10 years. Again, past performance does not always indicate future performance, but it is definitely worth considering. 

In conclusion, I think that VNQ is the better REIT. It's more expensive to invest in, but it offers a higher dividend and has increased in value faster. VNQ seems to be a good investment choice for those who just want to invest in something stable and collect passive income through dividends. 

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Farmland is historically a great investment. Owning it can be very profitable and through REITs centered on farmland, it's very easy to start taking advantage of it. My favorite REIT in this sector is the Gladstone Land Corporation (LAND).Farmland is a pretty low risk investment to make as the need for it is obvious, but it hasn't always been an easy investment to get into. In order to do it, one has to find land suitable for farming and buy it then either do all the work themselves or find someone else to do it for them and handle that business themselves. That's what makes REITs like LAND so appealing to me. I want the advantages of owning farmland without having to do all the work that it takes. 

LAND currently trades at an $808 million dollar valuation. As of August 9, 2022, they own 169 farms and 115,000 total acres. They own farmland in 15 states so far. They offer a dividend yield of 2.36% which is amazing in my opinion. At an $808 million dollar valuation and 115,000 acres of farmland in ownership, that's a cost of around $7,000 dollars an acre. 

LAND  has a beta of .84 which means the stock is less volatile than the market itself. It's a good stock choice for one that doesn't want to deal with as much market volatility but is looking for a good investment for dividends. That said, it is down around 30% YTD, which I believe is a good opportunity for new investors. 

I think that farmland is a great investment choice for many people, and I believe LAND is one of the best ways to take advantage of it without buying the land themselves. That said, LAND does possess some problems. They're debt has been a major strain on their earnings leaving them having to issue new shares to maintain their dividend. 

There are not many Farmland REITs out there, but one other one is called Farmland Partners Inc. It offers a lower divided, and I personally like LAND better as an investment, but its another REIT for farmland investors to consider.

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Betr is a new startup company focused on micro-betting. There are plenty of apps out there that let one bet on sports, but Betr is taking it to a whole new level. Imagine there's a baseball game and one wants to bet on it. They can easily bet on the outcome of the game through various apps, but Betr allows one to gamble on every play of the game. Let's say one thinks that the pitcher is going to throw a strike next. With Betr, one can bet their own money on that prediction. 

Betr caught my attention after it raised $50 million from strategic investors and institutional investors. Their investors include Florida Founders, 8vc, Aliya Capital Partners, Fuel Venture Capital and many others. They also received funding from Travis Scott and Ezekiel Elliot. I couldn't find what valuation they raised the money at, but I would predict that they sold around 10%-25% of the company during their funding raise which if I am right, they raised money at a $200,000,000-$500,000,000 valuation. They'll likely be raising money again, so I don't imagine them parting with more equity than that for a series A round of funding. 

That's a very impressive round of funding for a brand new company. I imagine that Betr is a good bet on an acquisition play as it is reasonable to believe that a larger sports-betting company could acquire them. For investors to make money off of this investment, one of three things must happen. Either Betr gets bought by a bigger company, Betr becomes publicly traded, or Betr remains private and investors get their money back through dividends. I believe that there is a good chance of the first two happening and no chance at the third. While I do believe Betr could be a good acquisition play, I also could imagine them going public at a much later date which would give their investors liquidity. 

The company is also launching a media play through Jake Paul who just created his own sports show through Betr. I could imagine them doing quite a bit with media to boost revenue for the company. I believe they will make revenue from this if they can find sponsors to advertise for during their shows. YouTube ads alone will not be a huge revenue source.

I think this is an interesting idea, but I also see some possible problems. Sports-betting is not legal in 16 states according to Insider.com. That means that Betr can not produce any revenue in those states except through its media side. Also, micro-betting is a very new idea and it is not yet known how much money is actually there for this. 

If I have the opportunity to invest in Betr, I could see myself doing so depending on the valuation at that time. It's an interesting idea, but I also believe it's a very risky investment. 

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Neil Patel recently wrote an article on the Motley Fool where he described crocs as his favorite growth stock of 2022. I found this interesting as this is not a stock that has really been on my radar. After reading his article, I was curious if I may have missed something, so I decided to do some research on it. Below, is my analysis of Crocs stock.
 
Crocs currently has a market cap of $4.93 billion at time of writing. They are trading at a p/e ratio of 9.57 which means that investors do not see much growth happening for this company. However, Crocs has experienced nice growth over the last few years. In 2019, Crocs did $1.23 billion in revenue and earned $119.5 million. In 2020, Crocs did $1.39 billion and earned $312.86 million. This is pretty nice growth, but in 2021, they did $2.31 billion and earned $725.69 million. They’re increasing their profits pretty dramatically and 2022 will likely be no different judging by their two quarterly reports released this year as they beat expected earnings per share by $.50 and $.58 respectively. One might look at this and think that this makes no sense for a company growing profits at this level to have a p/e ratio of less than 10.
 
On paper, I would agree with this sentiment, but there is a reason I haven’t bought this stock yet. I worry with Crocs that they are a benefit of a trend. Right now, Crocs are very popular, but I am not convinced that they will continue to be in the long run. Crocs did acquire HEYDUDES which I think is a good move as they are also very popular. It’ll be interesting to see if Crocs can stay in the limelight. Right now, I would agree that Crocs is undervalued, but I don’t know if they can keep up the growth. In 2018, Crocs was struggling. They announced they would close all their manufacturing facilities. They also announced they would close 160 retail stores. It looked like the Crocs brand was dying. Now, they look very strong, but I am not sure that will last for long. Another thing I do not like is that Crocs is in debt. In March 2021, Crocs had $341.1 million in debt. That’s not terrible considering their cash, but it is something investors should take note of.
 
I’m not buying this stock right now, but I will be adding it to my watchlist as a possible buy for the future.
 
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A few months ago, I stated that I believe that Disney is a better stock to hold than Netflix right now. I stated this largely because I believed that Disney's streaming platforms would skyrocket past Netflix. When one looks at the IP (intellectual property) owned by Disney, one can easily see how Disney could grow their platforms through the creation of content centered around their IP. Because of their valuable IP, I believed that Disney's platforms would grow very quickly. 

In Disney's latest quarterly report, they announced that they added 14.4 million new subscribers during the quarter which puts them at a total of 221.1 million subscribers across Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu. 152.1 million of those subscribers are on Disney+. Netflix, on the other hand, currently has 220.7 million subscribers. 

Disney+ will also be raising its prices soon and launching a cheaper ad supported tier. Netflix is also planning to launch a cheaper ad supported tier as well to help with growth. While Disney has been gaining subscribers, Netflix has been losing them. Last quarter, Netflix revealed that they had lost 970,000 subscribers. By releasing a cheaper tier with ads, Netflix hopes that it can more easily attract users. 

Disney did, however, reduce their long-term forecast for subscriber growth on Disney+. By 2024, Disney expects to have around 215 million to 245 million subscribers which is 15 million less than previously expected on both ends of the spectrum. It surprised me to see them lower their forecast. With a cheaper ad supported option coming out, I would have expected them to forecast more growth. 

Disney does, however, believe that Disney+ will achieve profitability by 2024. Right now, they are losing money on Disney+. They lost $1.1 billion on their streaming platform last quarter. I believe that this is a big advantage that Disney has over Netflix. Disney can afford for their streaming platforms to lose money, so they can focus on the long-term and spend more money on producing content. Netflix doesn't really have that benefit. 

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There is a lot I want to do with real estate. Condos are something that I have been talking a lot about lately as I believe that it will be very easy to make money off of renting out condos, but I recently realized that the biggest opportunity might be in Cabins. With Cabins, I would not want to rent these out to people who are wanting a home, but I would want to rent these out to people wanting a vacation. I'd probably use something like Airbnb or Verbo or something to do this. \

The reason I want to do this is because people are willing to spend quite a bit on vacations. I could probably rent a cabin out for $200-$300 a night. Let's say that I was only able to get $200. If I ONLY rented out the cabin on weekends, I would make $2400 a month off of these cabins. That is what I would expect to make. 

Obviously, I would likely finance the purchase off these cabins, and I believe i'd probably be paying around $1,000 a month for each cabin. This means that each cabin I own would profit $1400 a month. I would, however, have to pay someone for maintenance of the property, and I would have to pay a little for insurance on the cabin as well although I factored that part into the $1,000 payments. I'd realistically only be making around $1,100 a month on each cabin. 

However, once the cabins are paid off, I would be looking at around $1,800 dollars a month in profit. This is far more than I believe I would make off of my condo plan. 

The cabins really wouldn't be that expensive to build. What would be expensive is the property itself because it would have to be in pretty desirable locations. Of course that is not really a con because the better the location the more people would be willing to pay. 

I think that this could be an amazing way to make money. 

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I've been reading a book on the life of Warren Buffett called "The Snowball". It's a fantastic read so far. One of the reviews calls it the capitalist Bible, and I think that I have to agree with them. Towards the beginning, there is a speech that Warren Buffett is giving to a lot of other successful businessmen in Sun Valley, Idaho where he is talking about the danger of investing in innovation. This surprised me at first because I thought that of course one would want to invest in innovation. After reading the speech that he gave, I think I have to agree with Warren Buffett. After reading this, I added a lot of his points to my investment strategy. 

Warren Buffett showed evidence for this point by showing a few examples. One was cars. The car was probably the most important invention of all time. It drastically changed our entire way of life. How many people, however, made money from investing in car companies. Well, at one point there was 2,000+ car companies that one could invest in. All but 3 went out of business. Most of the companies people were investing money into failed. 

Warren Buffett also used airplanes to prove his point. The airplane was another amazing invention that changed the world. Again, one would expect people that bought airplane stocks to have made a nice profit. They didn't. Most people that invested in airplane companies actually lost money. Buffett then essentially said that if he saw the Wright brothers flying their plane he would hope that he would have enough foresight to shoot the plane down to help save capitalists from losing so much money. 

The overall point is that a lot of people believe that they should be investing in the future. They believe that they need to find the next big thing. Historically, that has been an amazing way to not make any money though. 

I believe that we will see another example that proves this point in the near future. Electric Vehicles (EVs) are believed by many to be the future. I agree with this. We have seen the creation of many EV companies. While I have no interest in trying to predict which of these companies will succeed and which one of these companies will fail, I will say that I believe more than most will go to 0. Most people that invest into EVs will lose money in my opinion. I do believe that EVs are the future, but I believe most EV investors will lose.

I also believe that this will be true for the metaverse. I actually agree that the metaverse is the future. I believe that VR will be the next big thing. Most VR companies, however, will fail in my opinion. Most of the people that invest in VR will lose money.

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