Some people buy a lottery ticket every paycheck, I buy a few stocks. I don’t often sell them, and I’m sure anyone serious would weep if I called my mess a portfolio, but I like having some.
@Pantheist I use it more like a little savings account. I don’t notice the money missing from my paycheck and eventually I have money in case I need it.
@michaelahess On a tip from a non-technical friend, I bought TSLA in January. I got nervous in June and sold. If only all my friends’ advice turned out so well-.
Anyone here have an opinion on Acorns/similar apps? Acorns rounds all your purchases (up) to the nearest dollar and invests the change in a basket of products. I used it for awhile but I wasn’t investing enough (i.e., I had no money to spend) to make it worthwhile.
http://share.robinhood.com/jasonf274
Robinhood no fees, invest a little in nice boring index funds every month and you will definitely make more than your savings account.
@DVDBZN they are slow to make your money available. It takes 3 days to transfer money from your bank to your account. During that time they accrue interest on the money. Any dividends or money you are not actively using in your account is accruing interest for Robinhood.
@Pantheist thanks! Also got Groupon. I don’t know enough about stocks to recommend anything serious but my investment of about 500 dollars has gained 10 percent since April. Anything over 0.5% beats my savings account. I think of it more as gambling money.
@Jasonf1984 Haha thank you- I referred my wife, so in the end got about 15 bucks worth of free stock. I don’t have the money to really put much in it, but it’s better than buying scratchers when I’m drunk.
@DVDBZN Don’t pay, use Robinhood. If you want a managed fund that charges a fee, get an IRA from Vanguard or Fidelity. I also keep just shy of 10k in Wealthfront, so as not to accrue fees. So far it’s doing pretty good actually.
@DVDBZN Robinhood allows you to purchase individual stocks. For instance, 1 share of General Electric or 26 shares of Twitter, etc. I assume you can purchase the ETFs through Robinhood, though I’ve never tried. Stash is limited to the ETFs. Regarding the fee issue, considering traditional brokers can charge up to $20-something per transaction, the $1 per month that Stash charges is nominal. I say this in comparison to keeping your money in a savings account with less than or right around 1% interest vs. the 8.25% return I have with Stash at the moment.
@miko1coinbase.com makes it pretty easy, but I’m no expert. They have had some issues, though, so you might read-up on that. I think true nerds like to interact with the exchange directly somehow.
My 403b is stock heavy but managed by someone. I just dump a % of my paycheck and get a match from the boss. It’s stock and real estate heavy right now
i did actually “play” the stock market in elementary school. i don’t know if this is something teacher still do with kids, this was back in the early 90s.
every once in a blue moon i’ll get a check for something like fifty cents as a result of stock my grampa had as a GE employee. also used to have stock in a company i worked for that was given to me as a gift (presumably because they liked me and wanted me to stay on) but i was laid off shortly thereafter because my boss really resented me being there.
also recall having some mutual funds as a kid maybe? a bit of a blur. i know my dad followed stocks, i remember when he would drive me to meet my grampa half way to my grandparents house (so i could go there and my dad could go to work) and we’d stop at the gas station for a wall street journal. i would then read the ‘world news’ blurb and the stock updates to him as he drove and we listened to fast classical music on the radio. (my dad called it “hurry up music.”) every once in awhile he’d return not only with the paper but also a roll of lifesavers for me.
My employer does a full match up to 5% for 401k, so I make use of that. It lets me distribute existing and new assets across a variety of funds whenever I want.
Employer also does a 15% discount on company stock, so I do a 1% salary automated purchase every month. Adds up after a while.
After I sold my house and moved across the country two years ago (rent a condo now), I put the proceeds from the house and some other cash savings in a Vanguard index fund. Turned out to be good timing.
I started a Roth IRA with some extra savings several years back through Oppenheimer and need to transfer it out to a lower-fee manager now that I won’t incur a penalty.
In the crash of 2008, I saw BoA at something like $2 and decided I had to get in. Bought a few hundred bucks of several large-profile firms and semi-researched outliers that were at nearly historic lows. Took a bath on some, the rest helped me upgrade to a bigger/nicer house.
I’m ~30 years out from traditional retirement, so I should probably take more risks, but I just don’t have the time to be a competent high-trade-volume investor, and I’m very risk-averse anyway.
I totally forgot that a 401k counts as stock. I have one of those. Depending on what chart I read, I don’t have enough money in it, but according to the people that handle my 401k, I have twice as much as the average person my age. Guess it proves that we are all failing then.
I move stuff around occasionally. Diversified, of course. My employer-sponsored plan alerted me recently that I have “too much” invested in the company. That’s because their stock has done much better than the market as a whole. Dunno if that should motivate me to redistribute it.
If you play in stocks be sure to remember what demography means for that… the baby boom bubble eventually wrecks everything they pass through. That is going to include the stock market and bond market. While I didn’t have the knowledge to run the numbers I did correspond with someone who had published an article on exactly this. Short version. When more boomers are taking money out rather than putting it in, the value is going to go down as there are less people in the generations that normally seriously contribute to retirement funds. Several years after the stock market drop the bond market will follow.
The other issue that demography predicts is that just like the boomers drove housing prices up in the last 1970’s as they were starting to buy houses in significant numbers, as they start downsizing the big houses will decrease in value due to so many on the market, fewer buyers in the age range that typically buys them and that they will compete with younger buyers for smaller, mostly one story homes which will drive those prices up.
Adding to the misery will be that many of the McMansions are build with materials that will be reaching the end of their life as the boomers are selling, will be expensive to fix and that will decrease the value even more.
Of course if there is an uptick in foreign investment in the stock market at a level that will balance out the boomers selling so they have money to live on that could change things… however world wide there was the boom after WW2 and other countries will be in the same state of affairs with population declines. Of course if the countries were most of their population is younger become “richer” then more can invest abroad…but that is a big “if”.
@f00l yup - drove housing prices up, stock prices up, caused colleges to expand, made toys r us successful (and be able to have a babies R us) and now look - colleges over built and so recruiting some kids to go who would likely be better served in trade schools, toys r us in chapter 13 after closing may of their stores and babies r us… the services needed for that generation will expand to meet the need and then end up overbuilt (so those of you still alive then sell that stock prior to major drop in the number of boomers…). Hmm maybe this is why a certain group of legislatures want to cut medicaid (since around 1/2 the people on it are old and in nursing homes) - to “fix” the “social security” problem. Or remove pre-existing conditions protections. Kill 'em off early and save money. Yah think? Of course most of that DC bunch have also had an empathy lobotomy and are pretty self centered, so perhaps they aren’t even thinking of that consequence of what they are up to.
Where’s the “I’m too broke to buy stock, that’s why I shop here” option.
Did some trading back in the day but now I just maintain a boring portfolio. Plus bitcoin which is… less boring.
I ought to fire up my thinkorswim software and see what it’s like now.
/image thinkorswim platform
I’ve got a small amount invested for fun. I just like to talk about them and have them for fun.
Some people buy a lottery ticket every paycheck, I buy a few stocks. I don’t often sell them, and I’m sure anyone serious would weep if I called my mess a portfolio, but I like having some.
My work has a stock purchase plan. A little bit comes out every paycheck and every six months they buy me stock at a discount.
@RiotDemon Can you resell it immediately for a profit?
@Pantheist sort of. I can resell it right away, but then I’m supposed to pay taxes on it. If I wait two years, I don’t have to pay taxes.
There’s also a $19.95 fee for any stock sale I make… So it would be better to sell a bunch at once so I don’t get fees all over the place.
@RiotDemon gotcha, makes sense.
@Pantheist I use it more like a little savings account. I don’t notice the money missing from my paycheck and eventually I have money in case I need it.
@RiotDemon I get that. It’s better than my method of stuffing money in a can when I’m flush.
@Pantheist the best part is that I have to really work to get a hold of the money. I can’t use it right away.
@RiotDemon that’s key
No
The stock market plays me.
@f00l in mother Russia, stock market plays you!
/giphy yakov smirnoff
@f00l
Does 401K count as a money manager?
@2many2no I say so. Now, most of my lil egg is in safe investment. Getting to close to the end, as in “old”.
Single stocks are gambling. Shudder.
@2many2no That’s what I’m going with for this poll
Tesla stock is my only vice.
@michaelahess On a tip from a non-technical friend, I bought TSLA in January. I got nervous in June and sold. If only all my friends’ advice turned out so well-.
There are three constants in this world - Death, Taxes, and $VRX will always be down 1% when the market is flat.
Anyone here have an opinion on Acorns/similar apps? Acorns rounds all your purchases (up) to the nearest dollar and invests the change in a basket of products. I used it for awhile but I wasn’t investing enough (i.e., I had no money to spend) to make it worthwhile.
http://share.robinhood.com/jasonf274
Robinhood no fees, invest a little in nice boring index funds every month and you will definitely make more than your savings account.
@Jasonf1984
No fees? How do they make money then?
@DVDBZN they are slow to make your money available. It takes 3 days to transfer money from your bank to your account. During that time they accrue interest on the money. Any dividends or money you are not actively using in your account is accruing interest for Robinhood.
@Jasonf1984 I put in a buck and got a free share of grpn. What did you get?
@Pantheist thanks! Also got Groupon. I don’t know enough about stocks to recommend anything serious but my investment of about 500 dollars has gained 10 percent since April. Anything over 0.5% beats my savings account. I think of it more as gambling money.
@Jasonf1984 Haha thank you- I referred my wife, so in the end got about 15 bucks worth of free stock. I don’t have the money to really put much in it, but it’s better than buying scratchers when I’m drunk.
I have a 403b through my employer if that counts.
Acorns, Stash, Robinhood, Wealthsimple, and Betterment. Investing through them all. Acorns and Stash are the best.
@andym
How is Robinhood different from Stash? I have Stash, and would like to try out Robinhood.
@DVDBZN Don’t pay, use Robinhood. If you want a managed fund that charges a fee, get an IRA from Vanguard or Fidelity. I also keep just shy of 10k in Wealthfront, so as not to accrue fees. So far it’s doing pretty good actually.
@DVDBZN Robinhood allows you to purchase individual stocks. For instance, 1 share of General Electric or 26 shares of Twitter, etc. I assume you can purchase the ETFs through Robinhood, though I’ve never tried. Stash is limited to the ETFs. Regarding the fee issue, considering traditional brokers can charge up to $20-something per transaction, the $1 per month that Stash charges is nominal. I say this in comparison to keeping your money in a savings account with less than or right around 1% interest vs. the 8.25% return I have with Stash at the moment.
Where can I buy bitcoins? Where do I keep it when boughten.
@miko1 coinbase.com makes it pretty easy, but I’m no expert. They have had some issues, though, so you might read-up on that. I think true nerds like to interact with the exchange directly somehow.
Majority goes into 401k.
Then some just for playing around. Sometimes I do well. sometimes I do not, yeah looking at you FDA for the last one.
@MrMark Right there with you. Recent “do well” side OTTR. Recent “not so well” side ELIO.
My 403b is stock heavy but managed by someone. I just dump a % of my paycheck and get a match from the boss. It’s stock and real estate heavy right now
i did actually “play” the stock market in elementary school. i don’t know if this is something teacher still do with kids, this was back in the early 90s.
every once in a blue moon i’ll get a check for something like fifty cents as a result of stock my grampa had as a GE employee. also used to have stock in a company i worked for that was given to me as a gift (presumably because they liked me and wanted me to stay on) but i was laid off shortly thereafter because my boss really resented me being there.
also recall having some mutual funds as a kid maybe? a bit of a blur. i know my dad followed stocks, i remember when he would drive me to meet my grampa half way to my grandparents house (so i could go there and my dad could go to work) and we’d stop at the gas station for a wall street journal. i would then read the ‘world news’ blurb and the stock updates to him as he drove and we listened to fast classical music on the radio. (my dad called it “hurry up music.”) every once in awhile he’d return not only with the paper but also a roll of lifesavers for me.
In the crash of 2008, I saw BoA at something like $2 and decided I had to get in. Bought a few hundred bucks of several large-profile firms and semi-researched outliers that were at nearly historic lows. Took a bath on some, the rest helped me upgrade to a bigger/nicer house.
I’m ~30 years out from traditional retirement, so I should probably take more risks, but I just don’t have the time to be a competent high-trade-volume investor, and I’m very risk-averse anyway.
I totally forgot that a 401k counts as stock. I have one of those. Depending on what chart I read, I don’t have enough money in it, but according to the people that handle my 401k, I have twice as much as the average person my age. Guess it proves that we are all failing then.
I move stuff around occasionally. Diversified, of course. My employer-sponsored plan alerted me recently that I have “too much” invested in the company. That’s because their stock has done much better than the market as a whole. Dunno if that should motivate me to redistribute it.
@PocketBrain
I hope you work for an honest company.
But Enron …
Have you noticed that all the stuff they said wasn’t gonna happen when they repealed the usury laws has happened?
@cranky1950 There are 40 “title pawns” in a 10-mile radius of here.
@cranky1950
Duh.
If you play in stocks be sure to remember what demography means for that… the baby boom bubble eventually wrecks everything they pass through. That is going to include the stock market and bond market. While I didn’t have the knowledge to run the numbers I did correspond with someone who had published an article on exactly this. Short version. When more boomers are taking money out rather than putting it in, the value is going to go down as there are less people in the generations that normally seriously contribute to retirement funds. Several years after the stock market drop the bond market will follow.
The other issue that demography predicts is that just like the boomers drove housing prices up in the last 1970’s as they were starting to buy houses in significant numbers, as they start downsizing the big houses will decrease in value due to so many on the market, fewer buyers in the age range that typically buys them and that they will compete with younger buyers for smaller, mostly one story homes which will drive those prices up.
Adding to the misery will be that many of the McMansions are build with materials that will be reaching the end of their life as the boomers are selling, will be expensive to fix and that will decrease the value even more.
Of course if there is an uptick in foreign investment in the stock market at a level that will balance out the boomers selling so they have money to live on that could change things… however world wide there was the boom after WW2 and other countries will be in the same state of affairs with population declines. Of course if the countries were most of their population is younger become “richer” then more can invest abroad…but that is a big “if”.
Demography - can’t really do much about that…
@Kidsandliz awww quitcher bellyachin and MAGA
@Kidsandliz
It’s our special generational virtue.
@f00l yup - drove housing prices up, stock prices up, caused colleges to expand, made toys r us successful (and be able to have a babies R us) and now look - colleges over built and so recruiting some kids to go who would likely be better served in trade schools, toys r us in chapter 13 after closing may of their stores and babies r us… the services needed for that generation will expand to meet the need and then end up overbuilt (so those of you still alive then sell that stock prior to major drop in the number of boomers…). Hmm maybe this is why a certain group of legislatures want to cut medicaid (since around 1/2 the people on it are old and in nursing homes) - to “fix” the “social security” problem. Or remove pre-existing conditions protections. Kill 'em off early and save money. Yah think? Of course most of that DC bunch have also had an empathy lobotomy and are pretty self centered, so perhaps they aren’t even thinking of that consequence of what they are up to.