Investing 102

[SSLance]

I hear ya... My Mother in Law wanted to invest in cable TV back in the late 70s but my Father in Law wouldn't let her. Said "nobody will ever pay for TV when they can get it for free"

To this day they still don't have cable TV in the house.



Anyway, that's a bummer as it really is pretty decent software.

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by SSLance

I hear ya... My Mother in Law wanted to invest in cable TV back in the late 70s but my Father in Law wouldn't let her. Said "nobody will ever pay for TV when they can get it for free"

To this day they still don't have cable TV in the house.



Anyway, that's a bummer as it really is pretty decent software.

I tried!


They just only do the Quicken Home and Business for Windows... and their other products are about a year behind OS Mac wise...


I tried running the Mac / Windows thing -- blew it off a couple computers ago - I just don't need the hassle -- and I'm truly a Windows hater. I eff'd with that crap for 25 years - making everyone else's computers run - and fixing settings - and downloading endless "fixes"... NOW -- NO WAY! I open my little Mac up and just use it - and if someone calls and asks how to do "x" - I just say "sorry... don't run that crap anymore so I have no clue". Life is good now. :>)

Think this is now 9 years of running Apple stuff... and while they might not do everything perfectly - they put the FUN back into using a computer for me. Since I don't work - I don't have to open anything I don't effin' feel like! HA!!

[GregWeld]

Another year end (actually you can do this ANYTIME) for you SCHWAB account holders --- if you're in your "positions" page --- Click on "VIEW UNREALIZED GAIN/LOSS" --- just above where it lists your positions there's a "header" there with labels --- if you go to "GAIN" -- right under that there is a $ symbol (default) and % symbol...

Click on the % symbol and it will show you your percentage GAIN (or loss) per name.


That's actually just a quick handy way to see how you're doing.

[toy71camaro]

Lots of great discussion in here from the past couple days (just caught back up).

Like the discussion on checking returns and what not.


Since I'm a geek, and like to look at numbers, I actually setup a Google Docs Excel sheet. I put it my initial purchase of my stocks, and then continue to update each time i get a dividend (with how much the dividend bought, the current stock price, and the total div amount). It then tracks everything else for me...

• Current price
• The current dividend based off todays price
• My Dividend on Cost
• My current total return based on the current price
• I have it also simulate my 401k returns (since their buried in a fund, all i get is the NAV price, and my total investment amount). So i have it auto-calculate my values based on current NAV, then every few weeks i go and update my total investment amount so its closer to the actual mark (i cant see if/when they pay out anything).

It's quite nice to just open it, let it "load" up all the current values and i can easily see that my Total Return on Altria is 50.8% and its making me a 6.5% dividend on my cost with a current dividend of 5.3%, its up $0.20 today, and it makes up 2.2% of my entire portfolio and is currently worth $X amount.

[GregWeld]

Nicely done Albert!!



I keep most of my stuff on "Numbers" - which is a real simple version of Excel spreadsheet. It's just basic but I'm not all that interested in figuring out my exact percentage of growth and ROI --- what I use it for is to track my dividend income per quarter - and the apartments etc that I own (that's a check every 6 months) and then to break that down so I can see what I earn on a monthly basis. I use Schwab for the majority of my stock activity - and I can go into each account so quickly - and then look at "unrealized/gain - loss" tab and see generally how I'm doing.

I understand fully - that you guys are having fun -- and frankly that you NEED to see your progress and I'm glad to see you all taking an interest. Funny how we want to discuss our last horsepower figure --- but people don't take much interest in what it takes to BUY that horsepower -- which is your money and how it's doing! My feeling has always been that if you have the horsepower in your money column -- then horsepower in your car is the easy part. LOL


Here's another thing I do during "dead periods" -- like this week - when frankly - there's not much going on. It's like the lull before the storm... I sit back and take stock of my overall financial health. The biggest sickness that most of us catch is the SPENDING FLU.... and I'm every bit as guilty of that as the rest of you are. While there maybe a difference in zeros - it's still exactly the same! I have managed to spend a fortune this year - some self inflicted - and some is just "life". It's the "life" part that seems to throw the wrench in your "budgets". I didn't budget for a $20,000 repair on the Lotus - I didn't really budget for the 3 different "breakages" on the Mustang - I really never thought about the monthly tabs coming from building the new house here in Sun Valley - and they are quite large actually! Surprisingly so - since we haven't even stuck a shovel in the ground yet. So where does this come from? CAPITAL. Now - I have ample capital - so it affects me absolutely zero from a living standpoint -- but what I'm using as an example here - is what we really don't want to see... and that is an ON GOING DRAIN on capital. Capital is the hardest part to attain. We need the capital to make us money going forward! If you spend 10K - then that's money that won't be making me money going forward and it's money that's losing the compounding affect. That compounding affect cuts two ways! Less free cash flow is less I have to spend - which means that more comes from capital if I need it -- and then that's a toilet bowl you don't want to be in.

Now for me - I control my spending - in the sense that almost 90% of my income is "FREE" - free in that my bills are basically nothing - so most all my income is just there to piss away. So if I'm "spending too much" - I can just cut back. Next year I won't be building a Brizio car... and next year I hope to sell my Bellevue house and pocket that money (which will just go out the door for the SV house build) and so on. We'll be done with the architects monthly bills - but then again - we'll start with far higher bills being paid to the contractor... I've planned all that part out.

I guess what I'm making a long winded post about --- is that in order to make your money really work for you --- you've got to keep that spending habit in check. Just because you had a good year this year - doesn't mean that's going to go on forever and ever. What happens is that you'll have a "life" expense creep in there -- and that will also be the year that the market sucks... and if you're forced to take out of the market -- then you loose that compounding you were well on your way to grinding out. DON'T YOU DO IT!! Don't you succumb to seeing that savings as an easy way to fix the TEMPORARY issue. The "I'll put it back as soon as I can" doesn't happen! STAY THE COURSE... keep that compounding and those dividends working for you - so later you don't have to work!

RANT OVER --- LOL

[GregWeld]

Well if you can suffer thru that last post --- then we can get on to the fun stuff... which is why I came into the thread in the first place!


Altria (MO) goes "EX" today.... and you'll see that nice .48 a share dividend in your January "stocking".

[GregWeld]

I sure hope some of you own Apple!! I don't -- it's too much money tied up per share to earn too little "income" for me -- but that TOTAL RETURN for the rest of you is pretty darn good over the last 5 years!


Funny -- if you pull up a chart of AAPL you're year to date percentage is ONLY 3% -- but that's the stock market - it goes up and down and sadly you have to have a little suffering with your cake. Today it's eat cake day!

[GregWeld]

Not pitching this stock AT ALL.... just thought it was funny and worth sharing is all. Remember my favorite saying is "better lucky than smart".


I'd bought Twitter (TWTR) and posted it back in November --- I'd bought 500 @ $40.82 and said that my position would be 1000 shares max. Well -- it ran another $4.00 real fast so I jumped on another 500 @ $44.38 giving me my 1000 at roughly $42.50 a share. Then Sieg and I exchanged a couple emails about this ---- with me saying NO WAY I'm sticking to my 1000 shares. Well then the damn thing was running so I bought another 1000 @ $56.91 making my 2000 average cost of $49.75


Some times you just have to get a gut feel and roll with it. Now - obviously this is not a core holding... but I know a stock running when I see one.. and I have the cash and resources to gamble just a bit - so I thought what the hell.

Today it's trading at $66.55 for a nice 33.8% unrealized gain in a month and 5 days...

In the old days I'd have flipped this out already and scooped up 33 GRAND for one month of "trading". Then I'd pay 40% income tax - and then I'd watch the damn thing run to $100 and I'd be buying back in.

I've learned a few things in the last 25 years or so -- and one of them is that sometimes you just have to take a ride. I STRONGLY do not advise this kind of gambling unless you have plenty of extra dough just waiting to be put to work! The minute you take a flier like this and actually PLAN on it going straight up -- it won't -- it'll turn south on you -- and then have your guts churning. So this is just a post because it's worked out THIS TIME.


So to any of you that followed me into this name -- Merry Xmas!


But please don't follow me just because I did something -- you know that's against the rules of logical thinking -- it's gambling at it's very worst... which is great fun when it's going your way -- and it sucks HUGE when it doesn't.

My plan is to sell half if I get to a "double" --- then I will be playing with house money - just like at the casino. If it just holds here for a year - I'd be happy as a clam -- then I'd sell some and only pay 20% long term capital gains tax. In the meantime -- one hint of bad news and I loose my ass... So we'll see.

Originally Posted by GregWeld

I bought 500 shares of Twitter (TWTR) today....



So here's why I post this info. Just because someone else does doesn't mean you should. I can afford to take a very small position in a name like this. Think about the relative size of what 500 shares of a name is for me - when a typical position is 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 shares. If you're just building up your retirement account build a nice big base FIRST, then once you have $100K plus earning some dividends... Now you could "afford" to take on a risk like this. And you keep that risk really small in relation to your overall financial health!

Tiptoe first! I expect this name to be cut in half at some point and if it gets hit like that I'll buy another 500 and then that's it. Not another single share. If it doubles I'll take out my investment and let the house money ride. Period. It's gambling. But for me it's like gambling one dollar and then walking away. Don't get caught up in trying to make the big score.

[toy71camaro]

I had a much better feeling about Twitter's market than Facebook. But I didnt have the capital to gamble with. lol. I think twitter has a lot more "business" wise than most people realize. I've just started getting a presence on there as part of my Life Coach recommendations and the future of "social currency".

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by toy71camaro

I had a much better feeling about Twitter's market than Facebook. But I didnt have the capital to gamble with. lol. I think twitter has a lot more "business" wise than most people realize. I've just started getting a presence on there as part of my Life Coach recommendations and the future of "social currency".

Yeah -- I'm so not a FaceyBook fan... but Twitter I'm following and there's lots of businesses "tweeting" that I pay attention to, and I like Instagram for what it is.

I bought the Twitter stock because Twitter is something I use (I don't tweet - but I follow others) and I like the way it works. But mostly I'm just gambling!