Cash Is King: Investing in REIT Preferreds to Generate Long-term Income
Simon Wadsworth was for 16 years Chief Financial Officer of a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust. During his tenure there, the company's capitalization grew from $200 million to $3.5 billion. Since his retirement at the end of 2009 he continues as a Director and invests in his own portfolio of REIT Preferreds. He is a graduate of Cambridge University in England, and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.  Simon champions REIT Preferred investments as both a personal testimony and as a proponent of retiree prosperity. Beginning in January 2009 he made a series of personal investments in REIT Preferreds, mostly in the latter half of 2009 and in 2010. Calculated on an internal rate of return basis, the investments returned 78% in 2009 and 33% in 2010, for an overall annualized Internal Rate of Return of 50%, far in excess of the averages for REIT Preferreds over the same time period. While these spectacular investment returns cannot be repeated, it is reasonable to expect that more modest returns in the high single digits can be achieved.