A great article on what happens to returns if you sit on the sidelines with cash. I was stunned by the reduction in returns if you miss even just the 3 best up days of the year.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/24/went-...oull-make.html

Good call Greg and Mike. I had forgotten about the income limit associated with Roth IRAs.

YES!!! I've called his out several times in the last 500 pages... That if you're out or trying to "time" the market and even miss the one or two big up days --- you might have missed the entire market move for the year. It's why I typically state, that if you're an investor, just put your money in on a regular basis over time - and as time goes by it will take care of you - even if you bought at the very peak. If you're regular - you'll also have bought some shares at lower prices - and in the end, 20 years from now it will look dirt cheap!

GoPro Nose Dive
 

Well I hope someone out there used their GoPro camera to record the nosedive their shares have taken. Back in July of 2014 I bought 10 shares for the hell of it (with money I can afford to lose, not that I wanted to) at $42.90 and just checked to see them at $10.75. :G-Dub:

It's not only about company match, lets not forget that 401k's allow you to reduce your taxable income and have more substantial annual limits.

Of course we'd all like to know that we're going to make so much money off our investments in retirement that we'll pay the tax now and avoid it later, but I'm not confident enough to make that declaration. For me personally, I'll use the same principles of diversification and apply them to my before-tax and after-tax investments.

Go Pro appears to be a one trick pony. I don't know if that's accurate or not, but most of the best performing stocks don't have one customer and are capable of serving the many.They have other products that can smooth out the wrinkles when a competitor takes market share or the market fizzles out. I'm sure there are exceptions, but even Apple has phones, laptops, desktops, ipods, and ipads.

GoPro (GPRO)
 

I think we've all written about the IPO market (gambling) many times here.... these are stocks that are incredibly volatile... and for every one that hits it big time - there's dozens that are complete flops.

We also discussed GoPro (GPRO) and the fact that they only had basically one thing going - a video camera.... And while as car guys - or people that are active - requiring this style of camera... After you have a couple of them... what's the real market? So this "flop" doesn't come as any surprise to me at all. My only surprise in all of this - is that there's not been a competitor ride in that's taken ALL of the market - with an even smaller easier to use version.

I for one just couldn't see the sustainability in GPRO, yes i use and like the product, but just can't see them selling them to "each" person....They may have some hidden markets i cant' see, but im "trying" to buy quality divi's...

I wasn't expecting much from GoPro. When the shares doubled in price I wanted to sell but thought the short-term capitol gains taxes would wipe out any profit. I should've just taken the chance anyway.

I hope that you all have been able to "take in" and comprehend what has been TWO ---- Fundamental changes ---- in McDonalds (MCD) and Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG). Wow! Who'd have known we'd get such a clean basic lesson played out almost simultaneously!

McDonalds was sliding to nowhere.... a lack of growth in sales... profits declining. They CHANGE the CEO and change a couple of menu items (adding breakfast all day) and BAM! The stock takes off and sales jump etc.

While that didn't seem like a big deal to newbies.... it is! But beware -- a change like that (CEO) doesn't always work out quite so well. My point is more that you need to be aware of changes and give so extra attention to them. They can be very important.


Chipotle has a food safety problem -- I'd call that a very HUGE fundamental change -- and their stock tanked. That would be a pretty obvious "result". Any time you hear a company having a "safety" issue - your antennas better perk right up because that's not going to work out well for your shares!

Now.... we just saw the results reported for CMG. Not good - in fact - I'd say they were horrible.

Here's the SECOND fundamental change we would want to watch for. Can they get the consumer confidence back? Is this a buying opportunity? Can they turn this very damaging problem around and regain the public trust? They MUST regain the trust of the consumer. Period. They can't open a bunch of new stores and have that be good news on their quarterly reports. They have to get the customer back. The fundamental change?? How they go about doing that..... Or do they fail? I can't think of a worse problem to have to deal with.