 Well, a recession is certainly ahead. So it's time now to see how to take advantage of the recession coming of the stock market crash that has been and might come again and really create wealth for yourself for the long term. Good day, fellow investors. My name is Sven Kirlien. I'm an independent investor, private investor, and a stock market researcher. I discuss stock analysis, I research the market and I also give inputs on the right mindset you should have when it comes to investing. In this video, we'll be about mindset. I'll share my story, my let's say hope you find it entertaining story with some Hyundai's and some crazy things like that to motivate you to be on the right path when it comes to wealth building, long term mindset investing so that you're not scared of this current situation, recession and perhaps the next stock market crash. Now, yesterday we discussed how the economy is down, how it will be really difficult, how there will be repercussions for a long-term inflation probably in some sectors. Always keep in mind, as Buffett would say, when it's raining gold, put out the big bucket because that's the best time to create opportunities, great investments that will keep paying dividends for the rest of your life. Now, just a warning, this will be a difficult video. It's not a video, okay, buy this, buy that, buy this, buy that and it will go up like stocks or something like that. Now, this video is about mindset, about really programming your mind to do the right thing over a long, boring period of time so that you use the power of compounding over time that creates wealth. It's not that thanks to the recession you'll get rich in six months. No, in five, 10 years, you might be much better off and then over the next recessions that I guarantee you those will come again, you will become richer and richer. So, it's not about stock prices and investing never is and also taking advantages of recessions isn't buying, I don't know, a month ago at the market's bottom. It is about investing, it's about thinking long-term, not short-term, so if you're a long-term investor, please subscribe to this channel and click like for the YouTube algorithm. The first tip I have for you is to be a financial fortress. When you are a financial fortress, when there is a recession, it means opportunity. If you're not a financial fortress, a recession means panic and people do stupid things in panic. 2018 letter to shareholders Buffett discussed his huge cash pile, 112 billion, now it's 124 billion on Berkshire's balance sheet. And many people attacked him because of the cash pile, of the huge cash pile and he says that he always wants to be a financial fortress because that makes him sure he will be there to play another day, another game, he will never be wiped out and he can let the power of compounding work into eternity. You don't need to have 124 billion in cash, however, that is 20% of his, let's say, wealth of Berkshire's wealth in a normal economic environment. 20%, so you might want to think when things are really good, I want to have 20% of my cash, of my wealth in cash. And when you have that, everything becomes much easier in a recession that usually doesn't last long. Also, market crashes don't last long. So you can deploy that, you can use it for safety for whatever, but it's important that you have it. And how do you have such security? Let me give you some personal examples. So this is the car that I bought in 2014. The first tip to becoming a financial fortress is spending less than what you make. Very simple tip, but few adhere to that. It's saving money, you need to save money. I drove this car from 2014 to 2016. We made 50,000 kilometers with that, about, what, 70,000 miles with this car that I bought for 650 euros. Yes, I was making 65,000 per year in 2014. More than 100,000 per year in 2016. And this is the car I was driving around. This was the car I used, I put them on my suit and then I want to teach accounting in such a car. You can call me crazy, whatever, it made me a lot of money. Then in 2016, as I was making a lot of money and even more money, we upscaled and I bought this car because we had the kids so we needed something safer. So we bought this for 1,650 euros. This was a really, really luxurious car, five years younger than the other one. And then again, we made about 50,000 kilometers with that one. Then only in 2018, after making really a lot of money on the first two cars, not on them, but on the investments next to them, then only then I bought exactly this car that was discussed in the magazine. But still, it was a seven year old car that we paid 15,000 euros. We have it now for two years, made also 50,000, 60,000 kilometers with it. No issues, drives perfectly. And I'm sure I'm going to drive it for another five years because I'm not going to take a loan or something to have a fancy car. Simply a car brings me from A to B and I don't have to renounce great investments because my money is locked up in a car or a car loan. And this allows me to take opportunities when the stock market crashed. This is the SAP 500, didn't buy the SAP 500, but many stocks crashed 50, 60, 70% over the last three months that I have been buying because I had cash and I don't have any financial burdens. So if you want to become a financial fortress, no financial burdens, spend less than what you make, think about that mindset, think about when you have to buy something or you want to buy something. If I spend 20,000 on a car, what's the opportunity cost? What's the opportunity cost if I spend 5,000 on a car? 15,000 compounded at 20% over five years because 20, 25% returns in crisis are possible. It is 15, it's not 15,000, 15 can be 60, 100,000 is what you have spent on that fancy new car that you thought you spent 20,000, but it costed you opportunity cost wise more than hundreds, thousands. Long term, it cost you millions. You don't need to be as frugal as I was a chip skater, so however, you can just save $5 a day, $150 a month. Over 40 years, it accumulates with an 8% return to almost half a million dollars. My father was smoking, if he hadn't smoked and he would have invested that money, and yes, he was talking about Microsoft stocks in 1991, he would have probably 5 million now, not even 500,000, even more just from one Frappuccino a day, one pack of cigarettes a day. Then the next tip is to have a security caution, always have more security sources because that prevents you from doing stupid things and selling. A lot of people had money, let's say in stocks, no security caution, get fired during a situation like this. The outlook is bleak, and then they sell at the worst possible time. Those that were selling in March, those were selling in panic, and that's usually the worst time to sell. So you need to have a security caution to be protected from yourself doing something stupid. Then step number three, think about credit availability. If you don't have any stupid credit card that or something like that, fancy card that, then you can go to the bank like I did this week and you can ask for a loan. So now interest rates, I asked for a mortgage rate, we're looking for a house, and then recessions create opportunities, lower interest rates, no competition when buying, you can bargain on the price, and you can really make deals of a lifetime because there is a lot of supply and everybody is scared to be buying, being greedy when others are fearful, and be fearful when others are greedy. So always look for opportunities, especially during crisis, crashes, recessions, those abound, and be sure to pick one and be sure to invest in one that you like. Now, another one, don't bet, invest. 90% of the talk going around stock markets real estate is about the price going up and down. I don't care about the price going up and down, that's something that is outside my influence. What I can care about is the business, the earnings yield, the long-term average dividend, the sector, what can I expect from the business? The market is always irrational, one day it will go up, one day it will go down, but you buy the business that has usually a stable long-term upward trend, if it's a good business. The market will always go up and down. You can buy more when it is irrational, when it's panicking, when it is manic-depressive, and you can sell to others when they are extremely exuberant. This is investing. Yes, stock prices will go up someday, when I don't know, but when I buy the earnings, the business, and I'm happy, as a business owner, then I don't care about the ups and downs. Okay, I will take advantage of the ups when it fits my personal requirements, when I don't want to buy a yacht or something. But I will not panic when it's down, because I know why I bought it at that yield. For example, the S&P 500 earnings yield is now 4.68%. If you're happy with that yield, okay, the S&P 500 might not come back to the previous highs in, I don't know, 10 years, but if you're happy with 4.68%, that is likely to be your return over time. Then always keep learning. You never know when the opportunities and where the opportunities will come. This is something so clear, but so less mentioned, and I always learn about new businesses, and so I keep my mind sharp and keep looking for opportunities. And then the most important thing you have to know, these two shall pass. If you look at what happened over the last 120 years in the stock market, I don't know, 1953, the Korean War, two world wars, one Great Depression, European debt crisis in 2012, Boston bombing, rise of ISIS that few are mentioning now oil price decline, terror attacks in 2015, Brexit in 2016, et cetera, et cetera. There is always something that is happening, but if you find a good business, if you find a good investment, then it's likely that it will deliver great returns no matter the ups and downs of the market. So what am I doing? I've been buying stocks relatively heavy over the last month. I have deployed my 20% of cash that I had at the big, before the crisis started in February. I'm now looking at credit availability for mortgage to increase my returns a little bit. And I'm spending less and the difference between what I spent and the cash, I'm trying to deploy it in nice businesses, good businesses that are likely to bring me great returns over the long term. So to sum up, be a financial fortress, spend less than what you make, look for cheap credit, don't buy dumb stuff, don't do stupid things and sell in panic. If you're a financial fortress, you don't have to do that. So keep that in mind. And these are the fundamentals that make you do great deals during a recession or stock market crashes because you have a different perspective than 95% of the others that make the irrational market. They are exuberant when stocks go up, they panic when stocks go down. You just have to do the opposite. But to do the opposite, you need to have the fundamentals. Thank you for watching. I'll see you tomorrow when we'll discuss how to deploy your money during a crash. Stocks go up and down volatility. When is the right time to buy? So please subscribe, click that notification bell. We'll discuss that tomorrow. Also click like for the YouTube algorithm and ask me anything in the comments or check my website or send me an email if you want to ask me a private question. Thank you and I'll see you in the next video.