Been paying attention to the stock market again.....

[68BabyBlue]

I have a close friend a couple years younger than me, who spent 38 years working as an machinery maintenance guy in a local steel mill. He loaded my truck the last decade he worked, and we would laugh about how folks would never guess the value of our investments by looking at us. He maxed out his company 40l(k) plan as soon as it became available in his 20s. Placed it all in US stock market index funds, and never moved anything around, just held on. He never made any outside investments, and retired a multimillionaire, at 62. I followed a similar strategy, but because of the initial expense and lost earnings of attending law school, my friend did better.

The strategy described in the previous post is indeed the method of the truly wealthy. One reason I kept my law license for two decades after I left the profession was for access to inside information not available to mainstream folks. I attended several presentations by a high end attorney who handled estates over $20 million. He was a tax attorney, an accountant, and a registered stock broker, until PA banned attorneys from selling financial instruments to clients because of some scandals with bad players. I followed his advice for "poor people," those with a net worth under $5 million, and it served me well. It sure is a relative thing.

 

[VANDAN]

Just had a meet with my Financial guy last week. We both Agreed the current Market is being kept afloat by about 8-10 Tech stocks, and Stability is not there. I told him to shave our profits where they still are, and Prepare for what's coming. As the US Fed Note Depriciates, the stocks May go up, but the Dollar's Actual Value IS dropping rapidly, as most current Staple Prices prove that. I know not many here want to look this way, but Diversifying Some of your Funds, into "other" options, may make a Huge difference in the days ahead...

 

[70bigblockdodge]

There are some good buys out there. If you have the money and time you could do well.

 

[Garceau]

I wish I had started a few years earlier - but I was lucky enough that as I promoted here and there, I was able to put a few extra bucks each month in. I was really fortunate enough that I was able to start putting bigger dollar amounts in about 2008 after W crashed the market some, the realty industry was in shambles and everything was bottoming out. From 2008-2016 I made great ROI. At some points it was 60+% while others were just recovering what they lost. Again, timing my timing was great. Theirs not so much.

The last few years I havent seen much growth, no real loss either....since I have no plans to cashout/sell in the near future its not a concern for me yet.

I have about 6 more years to retirement - I would love to see one more big push and growth in it..... i pay someone to manage mine and they do a pretty good job.

 

[Fran Blacker]

@Cranky if you watch Varney Fox Business 9am until 12 pm Mon to Fri. He has Guys who pick companies stock to buy and some not to. Varney bought some of these. He bought Uber and has made 10% on it in 3 months. The guy that recommended says it has another 10% . I can't invest in stocks I'd go nuts. I take 5% on CD's.

 

[Cranky]

When I first started trading it was through the company and there was only one stock we could trade and it was their own stock....which was XON which is now XOM and it wasn't regulated on how often we traded it and there was not cost but years later it got regulated how often we could trade in the name of 'protecting' us. I'm guessing my first trade was in 84 because my 1st wife was apprehensive about me doing that and we were still married at that point. Women, but I had been paper trading and so I jumped in doubling my money in a years' time. I was hooked lol. Retired in 06 with a decent chunk of change and then made 100g during the next 12 months and then things just turned to crap when I started diversifying. Only have two stocks these days with one that's paying a good dividend but the Scamdemic knocked me down some...

 

[Sam69sat]

 

[Cranky]

View attachment 1553863

They just filed for bankruptcy, right?

 

[Cranky]

@Cranky if you watch Varney Fox Business 9am until 12 pm Mon to Fri. He has Guys who pick companies stock to buy and some not to. Varney bought some of these. He bought Uber and has made 10% on it in 3 months. The guy that recommended says it has another 10% . I can't invest in stocks I'd go nuts. I take 5% on CD's.

8 to 11 here and I set it up on my DVR last night.....and I've always been somewhat calm but just have to trust myself more pretty much. A 'well educated' buddy of mine used to call me about certain stocks to buy or sell and well, trusted him to know more than me but turns out he wasn't nearly as good of a stock picker as I thought and both he and I realized it finally lol

 

[Hey-O]

QQQ

 

[Cranky]

QQQ

I used to do the SQQQ's and did pretty good with it...

 

[68BabyBlue]

8 to 11 here and I set it up on my DVR last night.....and I've always been somewhat calm but just have to trust myself more pretty much. A 'well educated' buddy of mine used to call me about certain stocks to buy or sell and well, trusted him to know more than me but turns out he wasn't nearly as good of a stock picker as I thought and both he and I realized it finally lol

The absolutely worst investment I made in my life was a rental property I bought in 1980, just as interest rates were hitting double digits. Did the deal on the advice of a college buddy, who had done well as an accounting major, was already making big bucks at a big 8 firm, I was driving a truck. I figured he was a lot smarter when it came to money. Three years later, I got in a cash crunch after law school, and had to liquidate the property. With mortgage rates at 14%, I took a bath, losing 50% of my investment, which at the time, was everything I had. Had I put the money in a CD, I would have made 35%.

Turned out my friend was really good at earning money, not so good at investing it. I saw this play out years later, after he got kicked out of his corporate job, a few years after I lost mine. The sting of that early experience left me determined to find my own financial direction, and I never made a mistake of that magnitude again.

 

[Cranky]

The absolutely worst investment I made in my life was a rental property I bought in 1980, just as interest rates were hitting double digits. Did the deal on the advice of a college buddy, who had done well as an accounting major, was already making big bucks at a big 8 firm, I was driving a truck. I figured he was a lot smarter when it came to money. Three years later, I got in a cash crunch after law school, and had to liquidate the property. With mortgage rates at 14%, I took a bath, losing 50% of my investment, which at the time, was everything I had. Had I put the money in a CD, I would have made 35%.

Turned out my friend was really good at earning money, not so good at investing it. I saw this play out years later, after he got kicked out of his corporate job, a few years after I lost mine. The sting of that early experience left me determined to find my own financial direction, and I never made a mistake of that magnitude again.

In the late 70's I helped my sister and her husband with rental properties. They also owned an old time hardware store and I helped out in that too but man, the rental stuff was a rpita! At one point they had 50 units in duplexes, 4 plexes, separate houses etc. Some were decent properties while others were plain slum stuff.

Several years ago a good friend of my wife started buying old town houses and the wife wanted to do the same but I said no and I think that was one of the things that I pissed her off on and that was fine with me as I didn't want any part of dealing with the pubic again and especially so after making a decent go with a mom and pop sales and rentals furniture store. Long story short, the X now lives in one of those townhouses (they flooded during Harvey too) and she and her friend had a bad falling out about something kind of stooopid. That 'friendship' was a ticking time bomb anyways imo.

 

[YY1]

First rule of rental property according to YY1-

Be a damned good accountant.

Second rule-

Make your money on "the buy".

Third rule-

Be realistic.

Fourth rule-

Know your market.

Fifth rule-

Know your limitations.

 

[YY1]

Rentals have been nothing but good for us.

Sure you have the occasional deadbeat and the occasional idiot that does damage, or takes your stuff along with theirs, but all that needs to be factored in with the rest of the bookkeeping.

We just spent 12K rehabbing a property after a tenant that was there for 8.5 years.
It was a PITA and it took 2 months to do it (lost income), but...

In that 8.5 years, those tenants paid the house off for us, while at the same time paid half of all of our bills for both residential rentals we own, and paid half the bills for our residence including mortgage payment, insurance, utilities, and cable. The tenants in the other house paid the other half.

 

[YY1]

During the advertisement period we learned a few things about the market in that specific neighborhood, including one property owner that bought an inflated value house for 240K and can't rent it out for anything close to covering their payments.

They have it advertised at $2k but the market is at $1700-$1850.

Both ours went for $1835 with lawn service included.

Their weren't as many folks beating down the door as last time, but there were plenty to choose from.

One is a pro auto painter making 95K. The wife's parents helped them move in their lexus SUV.

Not sure what that family is doing renting (and renting 1150 sq ft at that), but we'll be glad to take their money.

Interestingly, this is the third time both have turned over at the same time.

Fortunately the other one had basically zero damage, and rented in a week.

 

[Michael_]

Well there's a lot of money to be made if you have access to insider information, high frequency trading or another way to cheat.
There may be other working "systems" everyone can use but unfortunately if so you won't find them using google and i haven't figured it out yet. (Otherwise i would be in las vegas right now enjoying my life)

But i would really appreciate if someone could put me in the know (send PM) since

I followed his advice for "poor people," those with a net worth under $5 million

i'm VERY poor. Please help!

Placed it all in US stock market index funds, and never moved anything around, just held on.

I agree using something like an S&P 500 ETF like VOO or SPY or a Total Stock Market ETF like VTI seems to be the only reasonable thing to do if you don't have an edge (see above) over the majority of other players.
Depending on the goal i would might combine VOO with SCHD.
Unfortunately the return isn't really great and not even guaranteed. I've heard many retirees didn't recover financially after the 2008 crash.
Also right now i would be frightened putting a lump sum into the market. I think there is a high possibility for an at least 40% crash within the next 3 years. Most likely within 6 months after the next elections no matter if the democraps or republicans will win.

I think you should diversify into investment/rental properties but this again is hard to do for poor people with a net worth under 5 million $$$. (Investing in stocks + having paid off house + paying cash for investment properties)

 

[Cranky]

Well there's a lot of money to be made if you have access to insider information, high frequency trading or another way to cheat.
There may be other working "systems" everyone can use but unfortunately if so you won't find them using google and i haven't figured it out yet. (Otherwise i would be in las vegas right now enjoying my life)

But i would really appreciate if someone could put me in the know (send PM) since



i'm VERY poor. Please help!



I agree using something like an S&P 500 ETF like VOO or SPY or a Total Stock Market ETF like VTI seems to be the only reasonable thing to do if you don't have an edge (see above) over the majority of other players.
Depending on the goal i would might combine VOO with SCHD.
Unfortunately the return isn't really great and not even guaranteed. I've heard many retirees didn't recover financially after the 2008 crash.
Also right now i would be frightened putting a lump sum into the market. I think there is a high possibility for an at least 40% crash within the next 3 years. Most likely within 6 months after the next elections no matter if the democraps or republicans will win.

I think you should diversify into investment/rental properties but this again is hard to do for poor people with a net worth under 5 million $$$. (Investing in stocks + having paid off house + paying cash for investment properties)

I did fairly well and didn't 'cheat'......started out trading XOM when it was just XON and since I was working in the oil industry, it was easy to follow oil prices and figure pretty close when the stock was going to move. Plus it wasn't hard to do a trade and make 50 cents per trade and with enough shares, it wasn't hard to make 500 bucks per round trip. Started out with 12k around 83-84 and double it within one year. Hit a snag on Black Monday but didn't take too long to get back to even and move on.

 

[Michael_]

I did fairly well and didn't 'cheat'......started out trading XOM when it was just XON and since I was working in the oil industry, it was easy to follow oil prices and figure pretty close when the stock was going to move. Plus it wasn't hard to do a trade and make 50 cents per trade and with enough shares, it wasn't hard to make 500 bucks per round trip. Started out with 12k around 83-84 and double it within one year. Hit a snag on Black Monday but didn't take too long to get back to even and move on.

But this sounds like you actually had an edge over the regular retail investor.
Not cheating but someone working at mc donalds probably would not have done as well.

 

[dadsbee]

All I ask is the Dow stay above 35000 into January so I can make my 2024 withdrawal...