Lurker > Zachnorn

And it looks like my RIOT trailing stop triggered 41 seconds after opening. I made a few bucks for like 2 cents of margin interest. Not bad.

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I'm looking back and thinking that I should have believed in Bitcoin, especially back when I had some in 2011. But even more recently now.

Now, I'm not sure if it's gonna crash like it did a few years ago and I'm afraid of risking much money in it. I still don't have any money in Bitcoin, but I'm considering dropping $20 and seeing what happens. I still see it like a roulette wheel.

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I gave up on buying doge a few months ago when it spiked to 4 cents

what the heck is going on now

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Hoping for the best for you, red sox.

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Only ever make financial decisions when you're able to think clearly.

This is my philosophy when it came to gambling and that's one of my gambling lessons I've brought into stocks. Regardless of your feeling on stocks compared to casino games, risk (at different levels, over different lengths of time) is part of both. So I agree - if your anxiety is bad, it's best to avoid looking at your stocks and acting on them.

From one person with anxiety issues to another, I hope you feel better soon.

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It's because of me and my beginner's luck with margin trading

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I thought "master/slave" was replaced by "primary/secondary" years ago in computers anyway. It's hardly new.

The master bedroom thing is something I've heard more recently though and I often see "primary bedroom" when seeing real estate listings.

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Makes sense. Right now, since I am feeling bearish in the long term, I'm not planning to use margin too much for too long. I'd think that using up to 10-20% for a short term (no more than a week) holding isn't too bad as long as you have the funds to cover a margin call if the stock market were to crash unexpectedly. Even that amount is too big for me, I'd want to keep it under 5%.

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I have $118. I'm happy with earning $5 on that. I'm considering setting up a trailing stop loss on it just in case because it looks so volatile.

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I'm new to margin trading (well, holding a balance after closing) but from what I see, it can be good if you're doing it for a few days at most. Maybe for something like Interactive Brokers where margin rates are like 1-2% it makes sense to actually hold.

For me though, I'm expecting RIOT to go up tomorrow and then drop, so I'm making a small bet on it. If I lose a few bucks, meh, I'm playing with winnings so far.

My serious investments are mostly in ETFs anyway. Might buy some more retail though. ACI has been my best non-meme stock and FIVE is also pretty good to me for returns.

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I've tried my first margin play. On RIOT. Bought in 2 shares at $59.24 and made 50 cents more than my interest for the day of a whole 2 cents.

I'm only about $107 into margin and have 50k in savings. I just want to learn about margin for when I do invest more. I see margin being fine for short term plays but I'm not going to play with it that much at TD Ameritrade's ridiculous 9.5% margin rate.

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Metal_DK posted...

otcs aren't on robinhood

Depends. I think Nintendo is an OTC and I bought some of that on Robinhood. I don't have it anymore because I liquidated it when I joined the Robinhood boycott.

I think TD Ameritrade has OTC stocks though, but you have to pay a commission for them. I believe Fidelity has them commission-free.

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I feel like giving up on BYND. Every time there's good news, the stock either doesn't go up for long or it falls because of the hype around Impossible Foods doing an IPO. It just stings though because I invested at the wrong time and I'm down $289 on this stock since about 2 months ago. I own about $1049 of it, and I'm not sure if I should just sell it and put it into SPY or something.

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Thanks everyone.

So I'm thinking I will just invest in stocks. Might put in several grand per month until I'm down to just my emergency fund. I feel safer spreading it out even if it means missing out on some potential returns. I feel bearish on the market.

Long term, I could just sell my stocks or get a margin loan if I need to get a down payment. But for now, I guess the cheap rent can allow me to save and invest quickly so that I'm in a better financial shape going forward.

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ChainLTTP posted...

Between my tax return and some lovely gains with JBLU and LUV, I'm thinking about going long on a few dividend-paying stocks.

Anyone have any particular favorites of those?

I like DIVO which is a dividend focused ETF that pays monthly. For companies, a coworker told me about AT&T (T) which has been one of my more steady stocks. It's kinda boring, but even when lots of stocks fell, T either grew, stayed the same, or didn't go down as much. If you want to diversify with dividends though, I like DIVO.

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Did someone say Paramore Twitter boobs?

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It's not an investment, it's a gamble. I see some gains and losses as casino chips. My problem is that I don't know when to give up and that's why I'm still sitting on BYND because I lost $300 and I figure "welp, I own the stock, I didn't get rid of it, I actually see potential in meat substitutes, I guess it's an investment now"

Anyway, look at it as dropping money in a casino if you want to play with meme stocks or doing gambling. Don't put much money in it, don't treat it like one of your serious investments.

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foolm0r0n posted...

You really never want to do this though since you have an absolute hard cap on how much money you can out in a Roth IRA. Around 6k * 40 years. If you take out the 10k, then you're effectively throwing away 2 years from your limited 40 years available. With compound interest, it's a huge hit to your final retirement amount.

A regret (kind of) of mine is that I missed a lot of time with an IRA. I had reasons to not do it (including being told by a financial advisor not to), but still. I'd certainly want to avoid touching it if possible, but it's nice to know that I can.

red13n posted...

It was a time when we were building homes and selling them to people for what they were worth so that they could live in them.

Now what few homes we build we sell to people so that they can charge people more than what they are worth over time to live in them.

Gosh the stories I've heard about landlords as well. I hope I never have to rent. I'd rather get scammed by a mobile home park than deal with the landlords that own the building after some stories I've heard.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Independence has its ups and downs, even aside from financial terms.

For me the biggest issue was loneliness. During college years I lived alone just fine, but when I went to live alone to work for a few years, my social life basically ceased to exist.

Modern society makes it difficulty for people to build social connections, so living with parents helps counter that a bit

That is a nice thing for sure. What helps with me is that I have some online friends I do things with and do voice chats. We watch movies, YouTube, play games, etc. It's nice.

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Something I never understood is the push to get kids out on their own at 18. That wasn't the case for me at all. I guess it's obvious when I'm 31 and living at home. Though, I admit that I do have some craving for independence, I'm just not sure if it's worth the cost in terms of finances and also upsetting my mom that I would move out.

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Santa Maria is pretty nice. Been there a few times when on California road trips. I actually drove around once and the neighborhoods looked good to me.

LA feels like it's becoming the kind of place where you earn money for a while, build your career, and then leave for another place you can live in long term. Kinda like San Francisco.

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SwiftyDC posted...

Ive bought and sold a house due to being in the military and moving around a lot. Ive made more money selling a house than I would have saving up money in the time I spent at that location. Right now the market is pretty crazy and if you were selling people would be paying 50k over your asking price.

You can also rent out rooms to ease the monthly payments.

SwiftyDC posted...

Ive bought and sold a house due to being in the military and moving around a lot. Ive made more money selling a house than I would have saving up money in the time I spent at that location. Right now the market is pretty crazy and if you were selling people would be paying 50k over your asking price.

You can also rent out rooms to ease the monthly payments.

Good point. I've heard that condos generally appreciate more slowly and fall in price faster than houses. I'm not seeing too much movement in LA condos, though they're getting past what I can get loaned to me.

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Seanchan posted...

Others might not agree, but my ethos is that any money I put into retirement accounts, Roth or otherwise, is not to be touched until retirement. The only exception being if I would literally die without using that money, meaning that a down payment doesn't count as life or death.

Fair enough. For me, I'm vested in a pension and that's one thing I won't touch unless I'm completely desperate.

Seanchan posted...

I could afford a condo but the fees are ridiculous; like $300 to as much as $1000 a month. Why would I want to spend $2000/month on a mortgage, then add condo fees and property taxes on top of that, when I could just spend $1800/month, continue to rent and have no stress whatsoever if something breaks. I'd think about a house but they're simply too expensive without going into the outer 'burbs, which I don't view as a viable option at the moment.

It's insane too because of how cheap they are in other states. You still have an HOA fee, but they're closer to $150-250 and the unit itself costs 100-200k. That sounds about right for most people, not some of the nonsense in LA. I just saw one listed for 220k (1 bed, 1 bath, about 600 sqft), but the HOA is over $600.

But absolutely, houses are a better long term investment if you're comfortable with having a lot of money in it. I was confident that I wanted only a house, but the cost of it deterred me and just having a place I own is something appealing to me at this point, just to escape from the predatory landlords around the LA area.

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Any particular reason to get a house over a condo?

I mean, my preference was a house too but I've spent time learning about the pros and cons of houses and condos so I always like to hear reasons for it. My biggest reason to get a condo right now is purely cost, because yeah, I'm not a fan of sharing walls with neighbors. Less maintenance is nice though.

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CoolCly posted...

But I guess I've been thinking that since 2011 and every year I didn't think it would go anywhere was a mistake.

I still hate myself for selling my 0.11 BTC I mined in 2011 for a buck that Mt. Gox never even gave me. If I kept it, I'd have 6k now.

That will, hopefully, always be my biggest regret when it comes to investments.

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I see Bitcoin as digital gold except that you can't do anything with it; that is, at least gold is used in things like jewelry, electronics, and food if you're a weirdo that eats gold. Stocks are digital too, but ownership of them is still tied to ownership in actual companies. For Bitcoin, I think it's too volatile to be used as an actual currency unless you're talking about its equivalent value to a traditional currency.

Simply put? I see it as more of a speculative asset. It has merits, but when it comes to it as an investment, I've always seen it as speculative.

Doesn't mean that I won't consider investing in it. Doesn't mean that I don't think it has potential to be a more serious form of exchange. But not right now.

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Oh yeah, I understand that part. I'm cool with not getting any gains, it's locking away thousands that I can't access if I want/need to that bothers me. I barely get any interest with my money in savings anyway, might as well have some in an IRA if I can take it out if I need to and still have something saved.

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Sounds really good. I dismissed IRAs a few years ago because I didn't want my money locked up until retirement and my credit union only offers 0.15-1% on IRAs. I honestly had no idea that IRAs could be used in investing stocks (I thought that was a 401k/403b thing) and that it's not necessarily locked until retirement. I thought it was more of a savings account.

Probably going to drop 6k into one and buy short term gainers. Turn it into a secondary housing fund if I need that cash and keep the returns for retirement.

I wish I knew all this and had the money sooner.

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Damn it, every time I think GME won't shoot up, they do.

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I'm strongly considering that, thanks. Which kinds of stocks are best in a Roth IRA? I'm considering going in with dividend ETFs (my favorite right now is DIVO) but I'm not sure that's the best move.

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I have to look into a way of investing in ETFs automatically. I believe Robinhood has a feature and I know TD Ameritrade must as well. Probably better than my strategy of dumping some cash into my account and buying stocks that look good to me and adding to positions that I see potential in.

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foolm0r0n posted...

Throw in all your cash into an index stock. Then you can DCA that amount gradually into individual stocks that you're interested in (if you want to play that game, which is not great tbh).

Yeah, I feel like I'm going to deemphasize my individual stocks. I like playing with them, but it's more of a hobby than a serious investing strategy.

The main reason I'm thinking about doing DCA even with index funds is because I've lost money on index funds. My current losers (QQQ, QQQJ, SFYX, SPY) are down $95 from what I put into them. I feel the sting from those losses (and I'm holding) but it would be worse if it were a grand or more. Think it's a bad strategy to go for DCA on index funds for someone feeling bearish on the market over the next few months?

foolm0r0n posted...

It's not sustainable but it will keep growing, or at worst plateau for a bit. That's the definition of our keynesian economy. Even when there's a mega crash like in 2020 or 2008 or 2000, it bounces back in a year and continues growing.

That's why you need to get into an index stock, so you can ride the wave. It's an absurd market but you can't fight it.

True. I want more of a slowdown in growth, I guess. It hurts to get priced out of the metro area you see as home. Where you try cheaper neighborhoods you never considered and have barely been to, and you did the things they say to do (go to college, keep a job for a few years, save lots of cash, get a high credit score) and still can't buy a home without making your finances tight.

I'm just hoping the California exodus drives prices down or slows growth while my finances improve. I'm keeping other states in mind in the meantime. I've even considered buying a cheap condo in Vegas while rates are low and the California exodus hasn't created a Portland, OR or Denver there, in case I were to move there this year and rent it out if I don't.

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CoolCly posted...

But then... it sounds like red sox is calling another GME rally, and that always raises AMC somehow too.... maybe I'll just hold for a couple more weeks.

I only have two shares but I'm going to hold too. I doubt I'll make much, but I already have them and made my profits on shares I sold, so why not at this point?

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masterplum posted...

Throw it all in SCHD

Now those are some good-looking returns based on this!

https://www.schwabassetmanagement.com/products/schd

red sox 777 posted...

Theoretically if you have no sense of the direction of the market other than that it goes up in the long run it's better to throw it in all at once. That said, I've come around to dollar cost averaging as being psychologically much easier to handle.

That's my thing right now. I've been so broke that I couldn't afford a $5 college textbook and I was homeless at one point (with significant money, but not enough to rent/own according to lenders/landlords so my mom and I stayed with family/friends for a few months when I was a kid until we got this place). I'm looking at my TD Ameritrade account right now and it bugs me that I'm down $71 today and down $335 since I started. Like, I studied business (information and operations management, not finance) and I know stocks go up and down, but uncertainty scares me. That's how I ended up with so much cash, I guess.

masterplum posted...

IRA isnt what you want to do if you are planning on using the money before retirement. I would just throw it in an index fund for now

Considering doing that. Is it a good idea to have a bunch of different index funds as a means of diversification or just focus on a few? I hear of people putting money in SPY and nothing else.

Bartzyx posted...

If you do not intend to use the money before retirement age, then always use a tax-advantaged account. You can only put in $6000 into an IRA, but you could dump 19.5k into your employer-provided account.

There are penalties associated with early withdrawal from a traditional IRA, and your 403b might not allow early withdrawals at all. You will want to check the plan document to make sure. A Roth IRA is after-tax so has the most flexibilityyou can take out your contributions at any time if you need to.

As far as lump investing vs cost averaging, it all depends on your risk tolerance. Cost averaging is much safer, but on average your returns will be lower than if you just invest all your money immediately.

How worth it is it to lock away funds for retirement? In a way, I like the flexibility and knowing that I could just take money out if I wanted to, but I don't know how much I'm really hurting myself in taxes that way.

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Okay, so let's say I don't get a condo - I either wait and see about getting a place or I decide to just stay here paying cheap rent. What's the best way to invest about $50,000 that remains uninvested?

Do I do it in chunks (like 1k per week for 1-2 years until I'm down to 10-20k for my emergency fund) to do cost averaging, or throw it all in at once? Do I throw it all or mostly into ETFs like SPY and VOO? Is it really better to open a 403b or 457 when there is no employer match and I have a pension (I'm vested and guaranteed to get at least a small one now) anyway?

Years ago, I was also thinking of opening an IRA just to get taxes lowered. Good idea if I already have a pension account?

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foolm0r0n posted...

I just bought a house that's technically a condo. I think it's a good investment but it really has to be in the right market. All the markets are insanely inflated and hard to buy in right now, but LA is going to be one of the worst buyers' markets in the entire country, plus so many people are fleeing the city that the future returns are not as attractive. For example I heard San Diego is really good due to all the LA exiles going there.

I really hope that the housing market just stops growing. There's no way it's sustainable at this point.

foolm0r0n posted...

But in general, yes invest in stocks by default. It's 8-11% per year, despite massive economic depression, and shows no indication of changing. Not sure why you have 50k in savings. You should have 3 months worth in liquid emergency cash at most. (Stocks are highly liquid anyway so it can even be 1-2 months)

Story time: My goal was originally to have 20k in emergency savings (my expenses are low, but my mom's job wasn't stable so I needed to have savings for both of us), and right as I hit that in October 2019, someone hit me. The accident messed up my back and I was recovering and doing physical therapy, not knowing whether I'd make a full recovery, until around March 2020. Then the pandemic happened and my mom lost her job. She is starting a new one and now also has Social Security. Meanwhile, I got my student loans forebearanced, I stopped eating out, I got a lot of overtime, got summer work, went on no vacation, my car got paid off, just lots of stuff. I decided to go look for a home and I didn't have the W2 income showing yet so I had a hard time with getting, but I do now and could try again.

If I honestly didn't believe that I could buy a home and had I known how easy and free that investing in stocks is (I wanted to before but I didn't want to pay $7.95/trade when I could only put $50 or $100 at a time), I wouldn't have kept the money idle. Now it's a matter of what to do with the money that makes the most sense financially.

foolm0r0n posted...

Oh and of course one of the main benefits of buying a house is that you can live in it, and it's an upgrade from your previous housing. Doesn't seem like a podunk 1 bedroom condo in LA would be an upgrade.

It kinda seems more like a sidegrade. I'd have my own space completely and that's important because I barely have any room for my stuff here.

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banananor posted...

If you don't have any friction with your mom, I'd probably stay. Aromance is a financial blessing.

While we are still close, there's been some friction lately because I've also been spending time hanging out with my online friends and because we don't see eye-to-eye on things like housing. We've had a few arguments about leaving this house. I've also gotten annoyed about certain statements regarding my life such as "apparently the car insurance would have been cheaper if you got a degree in information technology instead of business." But overall, we have a good relationship.

banananor posted...

Make sure to factor in condo maintenance fees, property repair costs, and other bullshit when doing the math. i have friends with condos and those things add up to another set of rent.

Good to know. Some of these HOA fees are ridiculous. $600/month for JUST the HOA, not even mortgage or taxes? I might as well rent.

banananor posted...

$1300 per year is a reasonable property tax rate. The 7% annual increase is bullshit though, so you will have to move eventually.

$1,300 per month, unfortunately. If it were per year, I'd have no problem with it.

swirIdude posted...

Does your job offer a 401k or similar investment plan?

I have a pension that does investments. I have an option for a 403b and 457b with no match so I'm not sure why I'd do it except for minor tax benefits, especially since I have both a pension and Social Security. I have a few brokerage accounts. I'm considering opening an IRA.

swirIdude posted...

$450 for rent is amazing, especially in Los Angeles. Stay there as long as you can, unless it becomes too unbearable to live there. You can take advantage of all the money you're saving to pump up your retirement and investments.

One thing I'm thinking of is putting my money into this TD Ameritrade account (or maybe another account if I ever decide to play with margin) and have it earn money. Then cash out as needed for big purchases, like when I do decide to buy a home.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Man, I'll never get used to hearing about Americans charging rent from their children. It's just too alien for me. Where I live people stay with their families because they like their families, not because it makes them money.

We used to be financially codependent. If I weren't paying rent, she wouldn't have been able to make the rent payment. But this changed recently because she got Social Security income coming in, which is way more than the $450 I pay.

red sox 777 posted...

I would not invest in property in California at this time. If it becomes less affordable in a year or two because the interest rates go up, that is going to affect everyone else too - and that tends to put downward pressure on the price. So you'd have a low interest rate locked in, but if you want to leave the area, you might not turn a profit on the sale.

I didn't really consider that part, thanks for bringing that to my attention.

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CaptainOfCrush posted...

Based on the numbers you've provided, I'm guessing these condos are going for roughly 300k? If so, are you sure you can afford that on 60k income? Seems like that mortgage might stretch you a little thin.

Yeah, 250-300k. If I can get something cheaper, I will. It would definitely stretch me thin though. My logic is that I'd have to pay something like that for the rent once I inherit this house anyway and that just goes to the landlord. A mortgage would hurt, but at least I'd keep some of the money I put in.

CaptainOfCrush posted...

Move out of LA. My brother has been trying to buy a house there for years (he can't move because his job keeps him there) and is always priced out. I advised him to save his money over the last 12 months, anticipating a Covid real estate dip, and of course, prices spike. Small homes in Highland Park that were 800k a couple years ago are now running 1m+. The damn city - or at least the hotspots near downtown - is seemingly impervious to market dips because of the unending torrent of foreign buyers, young DINKs using mommy and daddy money, and people sitting on piles of money making cash offers (if you look at this housing market long enough, you start to live in a warped reality where you assume *everyone* has a million dollars in free cash they can just offload into a home).

In all honesty, my plan last year was to spend my summer looking for jobs and visiting other cities. COVID put a stop to that, and then I suddenly had a doubling (and now tripling) of savings which gave me hope for LA. But damn, it's a struggle to actually find anything despite my finances and job history being good enough to buy a house in most parts of the country. LA is so disheartening and I'm shocked it hasn't crashed yet. I guess because of the investors buying it all and renting for ridiculous prices.

CaptainOfCrush posted...

It may seem like guaranteed equity since, as you said, prices have just continued to climb, but the cost per sq ft is so ridiculous compared to almost anywhere else in the country. Also, if a realtor actually told you that you'd be able to afford anything on 60k, I suspect they might be selling you a bill of goods.

The price of a whole house in some areas of the Midwest cost as much as a down payment for a condo in LA, it's insane.

CaptainOfCrush posted...

Also regarding your mom's trailer: yes, sell that as soon as it's yours. I've seen the industry from the inside (my first boss was a co-owner of several mobile home parks) and it's one of the most ridiculous rackets I've ever seen. It's amazing for the land owners and woeful for the people who actually own/rent the homes. It's so advantageous for the land owner that I used to think about saving up and trying to partner with said boss on a park, but I've given that up because I know it would make me feel like a gross slumlord.

I'm glad you didn't get into that industry. I've dealt with the owners/reps/managers here and they're all scum. I absolutely despise Frank Rolfe. I don't think he has anything to do with my park, but he's a scumbag that turned mobile homes from a good alternative to traditional housing to a money trap.

Bartzyx posted...

Because Phoenix is literal hell

Certainly felt like it when I went in the summer one time! So does Vegas though.

masterplum posted...

Long distance landlording is not what you want to do. Source: My spouse and I have a combined 3 houses. Even though they are all within 30 minutes of us driving over to fix a lock or evict someone is a total pain in the ass. Cant imagine trying to do it from hours away

Oh I'd definitely hire a property manager and hope I'd make a profit still.

azuarc posted...

In your situation, though, I don't know if I'd have been able to justify. I don't live in the cheapest part of the country, but it's peanuts compared to where you are. I also had no real change to my commute. All that changed was that I didn't have Mom making dinner and doing my laundry. Well, and I had to pay a bunch of rent, whereas living at home was free.

Honestly, the best part of staying at home is that my mom wants to cook for me and such. For a time, she wasn't home much because he job had her all over the country and I gained weight from eating out and eating frozen food so much. She was happy her cooking made me lose weight. I've lived on my own before (temporary job 400 miles away), but still, she doesn't seem to think I'm capable of it. I don't feel like I'm 31, but I do get homemade food and cheap rent, so I guess that's okay.

When I moved before, she was very sad and I think she missed doing some of the mom stuff. We're also pretty close because she's a single mom and I'm her only child.

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masterplum posted...

100% do not buy

One idea I have is that I could rent out my condo if I move to a cheaper area. Then at least I'm not paying for it, my tenant is if it's occupied.

MZero posted...

Don't move to Phoenix

staying at home sounds terrible, but if you can bear it, it's probably the better move until you have some clarity on your job/whether you're moving

Why not move to Phoenix?

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I wonder if it's a good time to buy ViacomCBS...

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neonreaper posted...

I guess my initial reaction is that if this is truly the case, and you're able to catch a dip on the market and your equity will be a really nice story, I'd go for it.

There's a lot more to it, for sure. Are the condos nice? neighbors? location?

If you moved out of state, what does that look like?

I guess I would look to get the condo and if it isn't what you wanted, it sounds like you can sell in a year and not really be in bad shape.

The condos are okay. I've been in some that look nice and some that are dumps. None of them are luxury condos, but there's some that are nice. Not sure on the neighbors. With my job, location doesn't matter that much as long as I'm in or near school district boundaries and since the district is very large, I'm okay.

If I move out of state, I'd probably be in Las Vegas or Phoenix. I'd have to quit my job unless I'm offered remote work permanently. I'd have to give up my secure union job with a pension. That's a whole other thing too because this job doesn't require a degree, which I have, so I might have potential to get a better job if I risk it (I've had housing instability as a kid and job instability as an adult so I'm uneasy about risking it).

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KingButz posted...

What about the condo fee? Or is it a really tiny condo that the payment comes out to that little?

Edit: sorry for the edit but whenever you inherit that mobile home you should just sell it asap. What a racket

That includes the condo fee. These are one or two bedroom, one bath. About 550-900 square feet depending on the area.

I definitely want to get rid of this place someday. It's such a scam.

masterplum posted...

My biggest concern is location. With remote work, more and more people are leaving high cost of living areas.

I would make sure you really want to live in LA for the next 15 years.

I work remotely but it's a temporary position for now. If it becomes permanent, I'm probably moving to a cheaper area. But I do work for the Los Angeles Unified School District and my permanent job (which I'll roll back to if I don't become permanent here) involves visiting school sites and doing work that's impossible to do remotely.

I like LA, though I'm annoyed with the cost of living and the traffic.

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red13n posted...

Believe me, I'm 100% aware that their hair policy violates this law. I'm just not part of the group this law is designed to protect so its not a great cause for me to champion. Also don't want to raise a fuss during COVID when everyone just wants to get through things as best as we can.

True. Knowing California employers, they'd find some way to get rid of you if you were to raise a fuss about it, legally or not.

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I'm 31. I have about 60k, a bit less than 10k already in stocks and cash to buy stocks (I could liquidate it if needed) and 50k in a savings account earning 0.35%. LA is becoming more expensive, but according to lenders, I can afford a condo now and may not next year. I have an 800 credit score, worked for this employer for almost 6 years, so I'm good for that. If I buy a one bedroom condo, my payment is looking like $1,500-1,800+ (rent would be $1,600-$2,300+)

But where I am now, my mom wants me to stay and is having me pay $450 for rent. While I will eventually inherit the house, the land it's on (it's a house on leased land) costs $1,300 + 7% increase annually. The home needs repair, I don't have much personal space (just a bedroom), and even before the pandemic I couldn't have visitors. My mom is not willing to move unless it's for a house, and she won't get on the mortgage for one, so I can only do a condo unless I get a 2-3 hour commute or quit and move out of state. According to mortgage lenders, I can get the cheaper one bedroom condos, two bedrooms if I'm lucky. I'm asexual/aromantic so the typical financial advice of "get married" doesn't really work for me, and I don't want a roommate; might as well stay here if I have to get one.

Or instead, I can just keep throwing money into stocks and stay here. I'd stagger how much I put in to do cost averaging, probably 1k per week until I only have my emergency fund remaining (this would take 18-24 months). Thing is, the rate of return for stocks is usually 8% and housing values here go up by 10-12%. So it's a now or never thing for being a homeowner, and it's possible I may not be able to do it already.

What do you think? Stocks, a condo, or should I just give up on LA and move out of state?

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Your hair reminds me of my hair. I haven't had a haircut since March 2019. I'm lucky that I no longer work for an employer that cares about hair. It's even a joke at work that people in my department have long hair.

My last employer, meanwhile, said I should look like Justin Timberlake.

What do you do that makes them care about your hair? Also, I think California passed a law about hair discrimination.

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red13n posted...

You cannot lose in the stock market over a long period of time.

If you are in for quick profits you are gambling not investing.

You need to figure out how much money you'd need for 6 to 12 months if you lost your job right now to survive(don't forget to factor in safety nets like unemployment and such).

Everything else needs to go somewhere because sitting in cash is a losing bet.

Trying for quick profits with some % of the funds is fine. But also not investing it is basically losing the value of that money over time.

Oh, I definitely do the emergency fund. Saved me from 2014-2015. My goal was to save 20k, which I reached in 2019. I didn't invest at that point because I got into a car accident that resulted in a potentially life-changing injury and the pandemic hit. Then I got lots of overtime and student loans forebearanced so my savings shot up to almost 60k. Now, I don't know if I can or should try to own in LA or just rent at home and either buy somethng cash or move out of state because I'll be priced out.

Anyway, it started as quick profits, but I am thinking of going long term with ETFs. But not if I'm thinking I'm buying overvalued stocks.

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red13n posted...

You are still better of holding than paying taxes on your gains.

There is no one really crying "Recession" right now and that is what you should fear rather than a slowing down. People should expect smaller returns but trying to predict the market and holding in cash is generally a losing bet.

I only started two months ago as a hobby. I've lost $250 so I'm not worried about taxes because I only have short term losses and no long term stocks. I recently started doing it more seriously, but I'm not sure if I should be putting money in stocks or using the money as a down payment for a home in LA or Vegas. I have almost 50k in savings in about $9,750 in stocks+cash in my brokerage account.

I originally saved all this money because I wanted to get a house but that's not going to happen. I can maybe get a condo but this quadruples the housing expense living with my mom (we own the house but pay for the land). Not sure if I should be risking my life savings in stocks when it was originally for another purpose.

red13n posted...

At the very least, sell any gains you fear droping big and move the money into SPY or an SPY-tracking ETF. Don't hold in cash.

I'm considering investing big in SPY but I'm not sure if it would be better to diversify beyond that. I know what Warren Buffet says about it. Not sure if I should keep the cash available until after I buy a home.

ChainLTTP posted...

There's three ways to look at the market right now.

1). The world economy is going to fully reopen in the coming months and we're therefore poised for the biggest economic boom since WWII ended.

2). The economy took an artificial hit last year which allowed some to capitalize on the V-shaped recovery. Now we're set for a period of normalization where we can expect pretty steady gains, but nothing like the 100%+ returns we all had this past year.

3). We're actually in a bubble right now from said returns and everyone should get out as soon as possible.

I am inclined to think we're in scenario #2.

I feel like a lot of retail traders came in and drove stocks higher. There's the idea that you can't lose in the stock market. I feel like a crash is coming and a lot of people are going to exit. Then we'll have more normalcy.

Right now, a lot of people are coming in for quick profits, myself included. When they dry up and people lose significant money, some of the more conservative new investors will leave. Especially if bonds are looking a bit better.

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Also here's my biggest investment mistake ever.

In 2011, I was a Bitcoin miner and I mined 0.11 BTC before I gave up on it. I sold it for a buck and Mt. Gox didn't even let me cash out. I wrote it off. It took my computer a month to mine it and I figured I would never make money on Bitcoin.

If I held until now, it would be worth about 6k today.

And I would have eventually earned a few whole Bitcoin if I kept mining.

I just didn't believe in Bitcoin being a real currency, but I didn't consider that speculators might in the future.

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Sunroof posted...

Might be too late if you didnt buy it Friday

I only invested $321 and kinda wish I dropped more into it.

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oh man that last NASDAQ surge did wonders for my NASDAQ heavy portfolio

Nice gain for me today, even if I'm still down overall since I started playing with stocks 2 month ago. Today might have been my highest single day dollar increase.

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Bought 15 shares of FUBO as well.

Also been averaging down on QQQJ but it keeps on dipping. Staying with it of course, but I'm hoping the 50 shares I now own will be profitable and stop dipping.

Not sure if I should gamble with AMC while it's down today or just wait for it to drop some more.

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