But the paper world has far more impact on real estate investing than many real estate investors realize.

And when those worlds collide, it’s often a painful shock to real estate investors.

The 2008 financial crisis is a perfect case in point.

When the paper world started securitizing mortgages on Main Street real estate, and then created derivatives from those securities in order to place HUGE paper bets in Wall Street’s casinos …

… when the bets went bad it decimated Main Street real estate.  MANY surprised real estate investors were CRUSHED.

Of course, central banks around the world fired up printing presses and papered over the whole mess … reflating stocks, bonds, and real estate.

Those who got in the game AFTER the crash … or got in position BEFORE the crash … have ridden that reflation wave to build big fat balance sheets.

So it’s all good … right?

But there’s been some tremors in financial markers which make us think it’s a good time to check our financial earthquake preparedness.

And those early warning signs are in the PAPER world …

You’ve probably noticed the stock market’s been jittery.  Which is actually great for real estate … because more people are interested in it, and rightfully so.

But the stock market’s gyrations have baffled many financial TV talking heads.

Earnings are up, they say.  Jobs are up.  Hourly wages are up. Unemployment is down.  Taxes are down.  It’s all good … they say.

And YES … all those things are good.  Good for stocks.  Good for real estate.

But … the dollar has been falling … against gold, against the yen, and certainly against Bitcoin.

What might that mean?

It could that a weak dollar (in spite of a strong economy) means … for whatever reason … big dollar holders are selling.

Our friend Simon Black recently wrote an interesting piece on this topic.

But understanding the causes and opportunities is a BIG discussion … so we’re dedicating two full days with top experts to dig into it.

We realize compared to shopping for properties, negotiating deals, arranging financing, and getting properties prepped for sale or rent … all this financial jabber isn’t very exciting for real estate investors.

We get it.

We spend most of our time chasing opportunities as well.  Offense is fun.  And most of the events we promote focus on building wealth through real estate.

But twice a year, at our annual Investor Summit at Sea™ in the spring, and the New Orleans Investment Conference in the fall …

… we bring the worlds of real estate, paper, and commodities all together to compare notes, and get outside our real estate paradigm.

At the very least, we learn new things, meet new people, discover other interesting investment opportunities … and have a good time.

That’s a good investment right there.

Of course, if we pick up just one great idea, relationship, or insight that helps us avoid a problem or grab an opportunity sooner … it’s a GREAT investment.

We found the BEST real estate deal of our lives … at a conference.  Just sayin’…