Remember how skeptical you used to be??? After being burned in the market...
Isn't this different this time around? You're invested rather than just buying and hoping stuff goes up. That's a HUGE mental difference which WILL make a difference in your future. Being INVESTED and being comfortable being invested is what keeps you in the game.
Now -- A few posts back I told you guys about building 10,000 share investment in Energy Transfer Partners (ETP).... I was discussing the use of LIMIT ORDERS in order to insure I got a lower price during the day (you can set these for longer horizon if you choose that option). Well -- those shares are now UP 68 GRAND in just 3 or 4 days. MY POINT??? That's good money right? I would have blown those shares out so fast in the old days. I'd have scooped up the 68 Grand - had a 40% tax bill... and then been looking to put that back into something else. Sometimes that something else ate the rest of the gain the gubernut didn't take. THAT WAS STUPID.... Yes I made huge money on an annual basis "trading" -- but what I also did was paid monumental tax bills -- and my NET WORTH didn't go up. It was just trade trade trade.
Now -- I don't look at the paper gains... I look AHEAD at the dividend payments - what those are worth to me... and I pay a tiny fraction of the taxes I used to (my money is NOT in a IRA) --- and my net worth is growing. BIG CHANGE!!! HUGE!!! <Pretty Woman>