Opportunity Cost's True Price

There have been numerous threads on the board where people question whether or not buy-and-hold strategies or fix-and-flip strategies are superior.  I have found that both sides of the debate have compelling arguments to make.  A lot really depends on your goals and how much of your time, energy, and effort you are willing to trade for wealth.  

There seems to be little effort given to accounting for the time that money sits around idle in accounts for fix-and-flip/rehab project though.  From an annualized return on investment perspective people can make very high returns using this strategy.  I have seen many, many projects with returns in excess of 200% annually.  However, these returns are rarely annualized properly because money generally sits in an account for a period of time while one waits for the next good opportunity to come along.  A ton of effort is also dumped into sourcing new deals which is not accounted for.  My guess is that most people's eye popping annualized returns are decreased considerably when they take these additional factors into account.  

I am still a fan of a balanced approach where investors generate as much cash as they can through rehab projects, day jobs, or other short-term cash generating solutions.  Stuffing this money into passive investments that generate in excess of 20% ROE may not be optimal from a financial standpoint, but it does serve to build passive income.  Passive income will, over the long haul, allow one to design a lifestyle of his or her choosing and spend their time as they see fit.  After all time is the most valuable resource any of us have and there is definitely a limited supply of it!