Investing 102

[GregWeld]

Ray -- # 1 congratulations on doing HALF your job... the savings early part! But you slacker -- you then promptly ignored MAKING YOUR MONEY WORK FOR YOU. No days off -- no sick pay... You need to pay a bit of attention to your money or they (I pretend every dollar is one employee!) walk off the job when you're not looking.

This is not to say you start to become a micro manager! It means that you need to pay attention and if you're guys are slacking - you need to do a bit of work yourself and see if you can't' get some of those guys "retrained" or "redeployed".

Go back and read from page one -- that's your homework assignment... and see if you can get reengaged and make that dream come back to life! It's not too late.

Originally Posted by lmnop

Hey Greg
Thanks for the reply and the sympathy. You are right it is a tax differed account; although it has made so little money the tax is not a consideration. I read a couple of books about saving/investing when I was in my late teens and one mentioned if you save $1000 a year from age 20 to 40 and then stopped you would be way ahead rather than saving double the amount from age 40 to 60 or something like that. So I figured I would get ahead of the game and save $20k by age 20. I was a mechanic working in a mine and I saved money pretty quick. Every time I put money in the fund seemed to drop but I wasn’t worried as I believed in the long term magic I read about. Well I am still waiting for the magic. I have been jaded towards investing ever since. I felt like I did everything right and it didn’t pay off. Thanks to this thread I feel inspired to take another look at it. At minimum I need to re-invest and get rid of the useless mutual fund.
Ray

[RECOVERY ROOM]

Makes good sense to me

[Bucketlist2012]

So I just thought I would share something to motivate the crowd...

One of my things is to see how things are going with my money over coffee.

The Total balance does not really matter, although we all want it to be going up..It always does, but sometimes it takes large Temporary hits.

But I just love when i wake up before dawn to make coffee, and when i check the account activity, A bunch of my assets have deposited Dividends into my account overnight as I slept...

It all gets reinvested.. But a bunch of money, as i slept...

But first you must manage your money, i.e. credit debt and consumer debt, save the money to put to work, i.e. live within your means, work smart and hard, and some sacrifice and boring unflashyness, i. e. no new car loan every 3 years to look cool.

Then the money that you put to work, is really working for you....While you sleep..

I used to dream of this as a kid believe it or not...Success was on my mind at an early age..

Life, a drug addiction, and a divorce, threw me off my game for years, but i always turned the boat into the wind and at an angle over the waves in the storm..

And now words like portfolio, net worth, money management/budgeting, dividends, yield, ROI, disposable income, and passive income, i.e. the overnight dividends, are always on my mind..

Because the wolf is always at the door...

I appreciate all the insight Greg and others share. I will do my part to share without straying from the CORE of the thread. Investing 102..

Mike V

[sik68]

I was channel surfing last night, and wound up watching Cramer...he was interviewing a board member of Dominion (D), an energy production & distribution company. The two talked a lot about providing energy for the exponentially growing data center industry. Cramer wrapped up the segment with "this is the energy provider to own."

Greg, looking at the 10 year (+66%) and Dividend (4.22%), something that would get your blessing?

[LS1-IROC]

Thanks to Greg and some of the other knowledgeable guys, I'm meeting with Chuck tomorrow to get into the game!

Time to get these slacker employees I have in savings to back to work

[Bucketlist2012]

Originally Posted by LS1-IROC

Thanks to Greg and some of the other knowledgeable guys, I'm meeting with Chuck tomorrow to get into the game!

Time to get these slacker employees I have in savings to back to work

Good job... You will be surprised if you keep your debt( consumer debt interest) low, and your hard earned money to work..

Time, and the right moves, will over time, blow your mind...

Yes the wrong moves suck, but you can minimize the losses with the right strategy and funds that are strong tested long term assets as Greg mentions..

I have 10 % of my money in a company 401K just because they match 10% , and i take the free money by matching it..

But 90% of it , is in a Schwab account that is not controlled by the 401K people...Much better deal for me anyways.

But as Greg mentioned before, TAXES, and each person's DIFFERENT situation, means more homework to come up with an indivdualized plan...

But I am 52...For those much younger....You want to be as Fortunate as Greg ??? Start early and get passionate..


OMG...I just sounded like ,Tommy Vu...

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by LS1-IROC

Thanks to Greg and some of the other knowledgeable guys, I'm meeting with Chuck tomorrow to get into the game!

Time to get these slacker employees I have in savings to back to work

I hope RAY chimes in here --- I'd love to know what Mutual Fund he was in just so I could check it out - and that he doesn't take my "slacker" comment as a personal attack -- it was meant to be funny - like guys hanging out in the shop... busting each others chops.

I really do think of my money as one dollar is one employee... My job is to manage my employees. They don't need to be super stars - they just need to be always doing the best job for me that they can. And I have different "divisions" for them to work in. The "accountants" are boring steady eddy guys - Then there's the sales team (higher risk) - etc. Some times I have to just flat fire some of them.... and some times some of them need "re-training" (rebalancing)...

[GregWeld]

Along the lines that Solar was mentioning -- since it's the first of the month -- I wake up to some TAX FREE MUNI payments... So let me explain a little bit about this --- Tax free bonds pay all 'over the place' -- so when you have a bunch of them you're always getting "something" generally around the 1st or the 15th of the month. There are TWO periods in the year when I get really really nice payments --- June and December... the rest of the time it amounts to a few thousand per month.. but June and December is a happy place.

Dividends will pay like this as well.... you go along and nothing - more nothing and then BAM! In they come. The more stocks you own - the more spread out they become. Different "quarters" - different pay dates - different "EX" dates. But once the STREAM starts (takes at least 6 months) then it seems you're getting something all the time.

I've got a sizable amount of shares (25,000) in Annaly Capital Management (NLY) and January 26th I got a dividend of $14,250. I mention this because this is what you're after.... Think about that -- I get that 4 times a year. I don't care who you are - that's like free money!

Here's the INTEREST (TAX FREE) I got just today (being the 1st).

02/01/12

Cash
DIVIDEND RECEIVED
AMEREN ILL CO PFD 4.92% AILLM


$738.00 USD


02/01/12

Cash
MUNI EXEMPT INT
WALLA WALLA WASH WTR & WASTEWTR REV REF 03.87500% 08/01/2017 BDS SER. 2005 932238BY3


$968.75 USD


02/01/12

Cash
DIVIDEND RECEIVED
WASHINGTON GAS LT CO PFD $4.80 WGLCO


$690.00 USD


02/01/12

Cash
DIVIDEND RECEIVED
WISCONSIN PUB SVC CP PFD 5% WIPSO


$693.75 USD

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by sik68

I was channel surfing last night, and wound up watching Cramer...he was interviewing a board member of Dominion (D), an energy production & distribution company. The two talked a lot about providing energy for the exponentially growing data center industry. Cramer wrapped up the segment with "this is the energy provider to own."

Greg, looking at the 10 year (+66%) and Dividend (4.22%), something that would get your blessing?

Yeah buddy -- ya got GROWTH and a very nice dividend... I don't own this one - I own Con Edison (ED) and this is like the "COKE VS PEPSI" debate -- own either one or both... Good for you watching and listening and then DOING YOUR HOMEWORK.

Think about these "utilities".... everybody has to pay their power bill every month... buy the best of breed and kick back. They bring stability to your account -- a nice dividend and decent growth... all the things we're looking for.

[bdahlg68]

For any Fidelity 401k people that want to avoid mutual funds, see if you are able to sign up for Brokeragelink and put your investments into that. Brokeragelink allows you to invest in the market like any other account and not be stuck with the mutual funds allowed by your plan.