mrmirz

Do a google search for the article title and click the WSJ search result and you'll be able to view without the paywall.

But yeah, no mention of TOR in that article.

Similarly (and probably off topic), Amazon is not nearly to the scale of Walmart when you look at overall sales. Walmart's overall revenue is about 5x.

It may seem like Walmart is following the footsteps of Sears, but they are not out of the game yet. They need to face the innovator's dilemma head on and do it quickly because the broader issue is their e-commerce growth rate is declining instead of accelerating and the way people shop is fundamentally changing. They need to be dominant in e-commerce to be a dominant retailer in the future.

Walmart is better positioned than anyone to take on Amazon online. Their massive distribution footprint is a huge asset they are not leveraging. They need to morph into a logistics company and announce an all-encompassing same-day delivery service. They also need to completely re-haul their web/mobile UX.

I would gladly buy from Walmart. Amazon is just a lot easier right now. In the end, Amazon is not all that differentiated and if Walmart had some strong technological leadership, they could certainly close the e-commerce gap.

The article is using median numbers. There are of course regional differences in real estate investment and I was thinking about doing a follow up article on that specifically. I tried to somewhat address this by saying

"There are many mistakes that people could make that would cause their real estate investment to be a less than favorable one. Rushing into home ownership, buying in a region that is failing economically, getting sucked into a loan that is less than optimal, or even being uneducated or less informed about your options could result in a negative outcome."

Saving $200 on your mortgage!? Where do you live?

That's a great point. If you are willing to have a tenant living with you it would definitely be a way to leverage your real estate investment for a better return. I think most people aren't willing to do this though.

In my analysis I did include a 3% inflation rate for rent increases as well as property tax increases. The analysis is looking at the long term 30 year outcome of taking the net balance you have renting and putting it into a higher return investment. In many cases you can do better even though you're making rent payments.