Karaoke Forums

Steven, can I be your  LMAO first Ahole?   Please.  


I know what's coming.....

The $25,000 (That's just how much one guy lost) was in our individual company Personal Retirement Accounts.(PRA)   The company put in money for every hour we worked.    It was all lumped together.    They obviously made some bad desisions with the money, because during that crash everyone lost big time.     I always took my money out, I never trusted anything the company thought was good for me.    I didn't lose any money then.   I already spent it.    LMAO

Bigdog,

I don't beleive any of us here are talking about "Daytrading."  I have a question for you;  Do you have a stock investment account? Or have you ever traded using Ameritrade or any of the other firms?  

Also, taking care of ones own money and the financial future of ones own family is never a waste of time.

Wasting time, is trying to discuss (not argue) an issue with someone who has never personally experienced trying it but yet tells you, you are wrong.


Kelly

Exactly what I'm trying to convie, with karoke "I" run my gig; not somebody else.  Likewise with my money; I make my descisons, not what some person, firm or institution is pushing.  This was what Steve was trying to say also.

Kelly

I've got a decent diversification.  No fast trading for me, In actuality, it's not as if I don't have the time evenings when I can focus,  It's just that I don't enjoy this area enough to exert effort.. I have some in Vanguard Growth funds, plenty locked in higher yielding healthcare sector mutual funds. Some in  Corp Bonds (John Hancock Life Ins Sig notes), Plenty in equities, Con Ed, Clorox, McDonalds, Morgan Stanley, Pepsico..etc etc.. Cash equiv. IE... Metlife money market..Some in I-Bonds,..

No interest in ING direct, or any of the do it yourself stuff...

I'm no fool.  I call my mom regarding this stuff, it's not my fault that I was born !

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Never intended to say it was wrong or a waste of time.    But that kinda brings up the matter of making the investment desisions for you and your families future.    You can't afford to make any mistakes.    That alone puts the pressure cooker on high.    Just that most of the so call wallstreet experts have a hard time making money.    Then throw in stuff like ENRON, it will make you want to take the bridge.    I never got into investing.   First of all you have to have money to invest.   Too many ex wifes.   My grandfather died at 62, my uncle died at 53, my dad lost the back half of his heart at 56, lived 15 years after physically worthless.    I figure I'm somewhere in between all of that.     Second of all, I spend every nickel.     I was (was being the optimal word here)        married to a girl who's Grandfather was worth between 10-15 million, by my estimation.    When he died he left all of that money behind.   Then there was an eight year court battle over the money.     Now if I have my choice between leaving that 10 million or owing 10 million, when I die.     I'm going to owe it.     I just had a $100,000 Divorce, I'm still paying on.    I'm invested in women, couldn't have lost that much in the market.    LMAO    Women are a poor investment.       The sum total of my investing advice.

Touche Bigdog. . No harm, no foul.  Don't think I would have ever gone with ENRON.  I have found more stabilization in things that people actually use.  

First off, if I by a stock and it makes an 8 to 10% percent gain; I'm going to sell it.  You don't make money in stocks until you sell.  Sure you may tought that your stock is up 125%.  But you ain't got squat until you sell it.  And you may hang on to it too long.

I also don't like owning any stock for the long haul unless, 1. it pays a dividened, and 2. If the company were to go bottom up; I want to be assured that someone will come in and buy the company.

When a person gets up in the morning, what's usually the first things they do?  Anwser? Turn on the LIGHTS and take a P!$$. (WATER)  You will find that there are many utilities companies out there that are resonnably priced, and pay a nice quarterly dividend. Several in the 7 to 8% range.  People stop or slow down buying cars, TV's, computers.  They don't stop paying utility bills. (Unless they of course they intend to live on the streets)

Also, even if a utility company for some unknown reason were to go out of business.  I can guarantee that some other company is going to pick up all those miliions of customers.

Ins't online "banter" fun?

Kelly

The issue of self-investing or getting advice from a broker is a tough one.  The SEC requires the analytical side of investment firms to be independant from the trading side.  But in reality that's pretty hard to do.  You can bet that if a firm is underwriting an IPO their brokers are going to be pushing their clients pretty hard in the direction of the IPO.  

And lots of trading is a plus for any firm because that's how they make their money.  Whether your stock increases or decreases in value, they make money when you execute a trade.  It's very difficult to be totally objective.

I've always taken this approach.  I don't know a lot about investing in individual stocks.  I never will.  I did enough commercial lending during my banking career that I know that there is no way to accurately predict a company's long-term peformance.  Short term performance is a bit like predicting the weather.  The U.S. Weather Service can tell if a hurricane is coming.  They can't tell for sure if it's going to strike New Orleans or Pensacola.  

I can say from practical experience that many public company's are forced, by the analysts or big institutional investors, to make decisions that will result in a short-term gain simply to bolster stock value and not because it's a good long-term business decision for the company.  At some point in time a price is going to have to be paid for making that decision.  The decision itself, the timing of the decision and the after-effects are never disclosed.  So unless you can depend on a CEO to always make good decisions fo the long term benefit of the company and it's shareholders there is going to be risk that you can't manage.

Years ago I ran a mortgage company for the bank I worked for.  Our origination staff was not large enough for the amount of volume we wanted to generate.  To supplement our in-house production we bought mortgages from other originators around the country and we kept our eyes open for opportunities to acquire other orginators.

We found a company in Nashville that was looking to sell out.  After some prelilmnary investigation we decided it was worth taking a closer look.  We made arrangements to travel to Nashville to meet the owner and to look at his company close-up.   This was a small company with no capital of it's own, completely dependant on larger mortage companies to supply the cash for their loans.  The owner wanted to stay on to run the operation on our behalf.

We were set to visit Nashville on a Monday.  The Thursday before that the interest rate market tanked and mortgage rates shot up literally over night.  On Friday our prospect called to say that he was bankrupt.  During the preceding years mortgage rates had, for the most part, been declining.  He made money hand over fist because when rates decline the mortgages in his pipeline became more valuable.  He had become convinced that he was a genius and could call the turns in the market.  So instead of mitigating the interest rate risk inherent in his pipleline by hedging, he left himself completely unprotected.  He did this to avoid the cost of the hedging and because he knew that, being the genius he was, he would recognize when the interest rate market was going to change and he could react accordingly.  Now, he had mortages in his pipeline he couldn't fund because he did not have the cash to close them or make up the shortfall in value when he sold the mortgages.  

The moral of the story is that no one can call market turns.  The market reacts the way it does based on dozens of reasons.  Some of those reasons are apparent and some are not.  Markets are often affected as much by rumor and speculation as anything else.  And sometimes markets turn completely opposite from what one might ordinarily expect given a particular stimulus.

Whatever it is you are trying to get out of the market be aware that you need an investment strategy that is in line with your particular financial goals and the length of time you expect to be investing.  Your strategy will need to change as time passes.

No single strategy or way of approaching the market is right for everyone.  Figure out what is right for you and then puruse it.  But always remember; there are no guarantys.  Your capital is at risk—ALWAYS.  How much you risk and the degree of risk depends a lot on your strategy and appetite for failure.

Good luck to all of you.  Life can be hard in the land of the giants.

Larry

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"Life is too short for diet soda and lite beer"

Good post lbister!  That's what I was refering to in keeping your investments diversifed.  Different sectors of the markets are high or low dependent on the economic factors taking place at that time.  Certain markets constinatly go up and down because of this.

By keeping it diversifed you will have losses mixed with your gain,s but if properly managed, you can still make gains that out pace the savings and CD's.

And speaking of hurricanes, look at lumber and supply companys that you are interested in about 6 months prior to hurricane season.  Watch as the season get's closer that the stock will rise.  And when it hits, watch the stocks tend to jump up a bit.  Then you can sell.  I did that last year.  Only had the stock 3 months and only made $250.  But that was a gain of 6%.  And even after capital gains tax, I STILL made some money.   And that's the name of the game.  

I not a fan of "buy and hold."  though that has been the so called rule for many years as to how to make it big.  Yes, it is a proven fact that over the long haul, the owning of indivudal stocks will out pace any other form of investment.  But, it doesn't make sense to me to buy a stock at say $15 and see it rise 10 12 points and not capitalize on it, only to see it later drop to $10.  DON'T BE GREEDY!


Kelly

Kelly,

Twenty years ago I might have disagreed with you about "buy and hold'.  Today the world is a different place.  I am not convinced that the historic investing model is valid anymore.  I am also not convinced that there is a better model either.

Diversification is important.  That's one of the reason I like well-managed mutual funds.  The important element of that is "well-managed".  It's not uncommon for a top performing fund to exist for a number of years only to have it's managers turn the reins over to someone else so they can go out and get a new fund going.  The track record of the fund makes no difference at all once a new fund manager takes over.

In general, however, if you are young it's good to have a mix of value and income stocks.  Plus it's worth it to take a flyer now and then as long as you are investing money you know you can afford to lose.  Some times you strike it rich.  As you grow older, however, your need to safeguard your capital becomes more important.

The only thing I am confident of is that I do not have the requisite knowledge or experience to manage a portfolio or to make really good decsions.  And I am reminded of this almost daily when I look at the financial news.

Larry

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"Life is too short for diet soda and lite beer"

MY mom just informed me that I'm a dumb__it for not having an ING direct account.

_________________
Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Steven, tell her the Emigrantdirect account pays more!  After she checks it out and sees you are right maybe she'll think more of you.  ING is paying 4.25%  Emigrant is paying 4.65%.

Kelly

Thanks Kelly,  I'm giving her a call as we speak.

She wonder's if it's the Imigrant (or Emigrant) that's been around for years, out've NY ?   She also said "Hmmm" for awhile ING was the highest, also offering people $25 to open an account, but either way 4.2 or 4.6 makes alot more sense than having a few K sitting around in low interest checking accounts, etc....
and EMigrant of course sounds very good... and I'll look into it on the internet. Perhaps they are competing with ING ??

She also said "thanks"   ,  but her son's still an A--Hole !

btw... Is it possible that ING is down to 4.15 annual % yield ?

_________________
Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

It is "Emigrant" and yes they have been around for years.  Those figures I checked out on their respective web sites before I posted.

Kelly

Holy COW!!! I just checked my Emigrant site and they are paying 4.80%!!!!!


Kelly

Thanks Kelly, and I certainly believe you, only reason I was wondering is because in yesterdays mail I got the ING direct coupon and on it was written

"so we invite you to experience the FDIC-insured Orange Savings account with an impressive 4.15 annual percentage yield (variable rate, effective 4-30-06)"

But it's likely up now..

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

4.5%!!! That's a waste of time!

Go check this out:

http://www.tsp.gov/rates/returns-tsp.html

I'm putting 15K/yr in there.....I was 100% into the I fund till recently when the whole market took a dive....I'm hiding in the G fund at the moment till things pick up again.

In the last 12 months the I fund paid 28.9 %!

"The TSP is a retirement savings plan for civilians who are employed by the United States Government and members of the uniformed services."

That's like you Fed boys! Keeping all the good stuff for yourselves!  :D

Kelly

It's not like i'm selfish...I share me lots

Sure,  but what type liquidity do you have with such high rates ?   (Still, I'd love those rates today).. better than the 20+% Bull and Bear, and a few other places had around 1980. I was counting on at least 10% for 25 years to hit a mil

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".