One of the Best Investments of My Life
My first life-altering investment happened right after I left Wall Street and was about to pursue medical school...
Although I had saved up years of Wall Street bonuses, I needed more than money to get into medical school. So I worked as a unit clerk in a hospital and as a University of Wisconsin lab assistant to punch up my resume for my medical-school applications.
While working in the lab, I learned that the director and a friend of mine were studying and exploring new forms of "gene therapy." They wanted to start a company around it... And they asked me to look over their business plan and consider investing.
As a young guy with capital, it was an easy decision to bet on these smart guys. Several of my friends and family members did, too.
I put up tens of thousands of dollars... and this investment turned out to be one of the best of my life.
Every $10,000 turned into $175,000.
You see, my investment earned me shares of a private gene-therapy company called Mirus Bio from its founding in 1997... I held them until pharmaceutical giant Roche paid $125 million in cash to buy us out in 2008.
Even my little brother borrowed money while in medical school for the venture, making 17 times his investment. He paid off most of his tuition with his gains.
My investment in this small company that yielded quadruple-digit gains is the type of investment most folks can only dream of.
Few average investors have access to things like private equity, venture capital, or pre-IPO investments.
These are all edges the wealthy have over just about everyone else, and they're nearly impossible to overcome... unless you have connections.
That's why, today, I want to introduce the new lead analyst joining our ranks at our corporate affiliate Wide Moat Research – the brilliant entrepreneur, investor, and confidant to billionaires, Brad Thomas.
Brad has an incredible story. He amassed an eight-figure fortune in real estate development... then lost nearly everything in a partnership that went sideways during the great financial crisis. Near bankruptcy – and worried about how he was going to support his five young kids – Brad built everything back, better.
Now, he's detailing the secret of how he rebuilt his wealth far faster than he ever imagined possible... by tapping into the insights of some of the richest and most successful people in the world.
See, across his incredible career, Brad has acquired a deep contact list of multimillionaires and billionaires. Some of them you may have heard of, but there are dozens more you haven't. Many of these folks prefer to enjoy their wealth completely out of the public eye – and have more than enough resources to keep it that way.
These contacts are the kind of "leg up" in investing you simply can't buy... or replicate in any way. Their insights and ideas are the key to how Brad rebuilt his personal fortune – quickly and sustainably. And now, he's sharing them with his subscribers at Wide Moat.
If you haven't taken the time to hear Brad's story and learn why he believes a small group of stocks is going to absolutely soar during the next Donald Trump administration, click here.
Now, let's dig into the Q&A... As always, keep sending your comments, questions, and topic suggestions to feedback@healthandwealthbulletin.com. My team and I read every e-mail.
Q: What do you think of monk fruit as natural sweetener to use in place of sugar? Thanks. – C.P.
A: Monk fruit is an extract derived from a plant native to China. Although it's more natural than the most popular artificial sweeteners, we still don't know much about how it affects one's health. We do know that it won't cause your blood sugar to spike, and some research points to potential antioxidant properties. But the fact remains, it's just not that well researched yet.
Also, depending on the type you buy, your monk fruit could be blended with other sweeteners – usually either dextrose or erythritol.
Dextrose is known to cause spikes in blood sugar. And erythritol gives some folks digestive issues, like bloating, gas, and diarrhea... But that's not all.
Erythritol made headlines last year when a team of researchers from the U.S. and Europe studied its long-term effects on the cardiovascular system. They looked at the circulating levels of erythritol in the blood samples of 2,149 people from the U.S. and 833 people from Europe, whose ages ranged from 55 to 81 and who had cardiovascular disease or risk factors for developing it.
The researchers found higher levels of erythritol in the blood of people with chronic cardiovascular disease, as well as folks who experienced a heart attack or stroke, or who had died during a three-year follow-up period.
They also found a correlation between the amount of erythritol and risk of experiencing a cardiovascular incident... Of all the U.S. participants, those who had the most erythritol in their blood (the top 25% of the group) were, on average, 2.5 times more likely to experience a heart attack, stroke, or death compared with the folks who had the least amount of erythritol in their blood (bottom 25% of the group).
As for the European folks, their associated risk was greater. Those in the top 25% were 4.5 times more likely to experience a heart attack, stroke, or death compared with those in the bottom 25%.
That's a massive risk increase.
Researchers also found that erythritol can trigger and heighten clotting risk in healthy individuals.
Our advice? Get as far away as you can from monk fruit that has been blended with other sweeteners, as it can be dangerous stuff. And until pure monk fruit is studied in greater depth, we'd avoid that, too.
What We're Reading...
- Did you miss it? Investors can't help but screw up their returns.
- Something different: Orcas are wearing dead salmon hats.
Here's to our health, wealth, and a great retirement,
Dr. David Eifrig and the Health & Wealth Bulletin Research Team
December 6, 2024