I'm not a pilot... yet. I recently left Wall Street and just started ground school. I was curious about this thread because I plan to continue my personal investments on the side but also maybe starting an advisory or small RIA / hedge fund on the side if I could.
I have traded or managed real estate, equities and fixed income. My 2 cents:
Real estate is a great asset class for pilots because it offers positive income streams, consistent inflation adjusted yields but most importantly tax incentives for owner operators. You don't have to actively manage for the most part and if you outsource management it's pretty much an absentee business. Do not over lever at this point in the cycle and go for base hits unless you are getting an asset really really really cheap. Put yourself in positive carry scenarios with fundamental upside.
Self Directed IRA's are great but there's also a lot of rules involved and a lot of the custodians are very shady 2 man operations. Go with larger FDIC covered institutions. The larger institutions are very strict with guideline where some of the smaller firms may not be. I just don't want to wake up and read in the Journal or FT that my custodians took all the money and now live in a non-extradition country.
Equities - where we are in the cycle it's hard to get really excited about equities and with rates increasing systemic leverage should decline eventually. Vol is still the best bet in my opinion but you would have to trade it actively, I mean be in front of a screen whenever you are not sleeping, to really take advantage of that trade. Don't mess with Vol ETF's - the rolls make them horrible and never carry well. You're just lighting money on fire and making it rain ashes.
Fixed Income - yields now do not really reflect real risk. BBB new issue at 4.5% still blows my mind. There is still a lot of offshore money coming into the system, just global macro it doesn't look attractive to me.
The above is not an order to buy nor sell securities. The above is not a recommendation to buy or sell securities nor does the above constitute legal nor tax advise. Please confer with a financial advisor or tax advisor before buying or selling any investment.
If you guys had advise for a guy just starting out what would it be?
If you could fly for any airline right now (very subjective question) where and why?
I took a look at some of the earnings reports for the 3 majors. Delta seems to be the most profitable but they have just hired 4,000 pilots over the last few years and I doubt they will need more by the time I get through training and the 1,500 hours and then time at a regional, or am I missing something?