Lurker > Zachnorn

Today has been a green day for me thanks to AMC and Beyond Meat.

Memes helped my portfolio today.

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For years, I didn't invest in stocks because the "wisdom" of those around me is that I'm going to lose money on them. These were people that dealt with the crashes of 1987, 2000, and 2008 and as someone that has been poor and is afraid of losing money, I decided to just keep it all in savings.

I live at home and my mom often asks about my finances. She's discouraging me from investing even still because she thinks I could lose a lot of money. I could, sure, but as long as I don't make a lot of bets, I'm more likely to make some money if I'm invested long enough in good stocks.

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That's why I want to get more into real estate. It's the best method for using leverage.

Sadly, too many people know about it so the market is pretty broken right now.

When the stock market crashes, I'm probably going to leverage up. I've read stories of people using 20k of margin on Boeing when the March 2020 crash happened with the logic that Boeing is too big to fail and too much a symbol of American engineering, that the US government wouldn't let Airbus, a European company, dominate the business. Those people made a lot of money.

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Trying to avoid debt is something that people without assets (besides their home and car) should do.

Leveraging assets is something that people with assets should do, especially in an inflationary environment since the value of the dollar is decreasing. This is why the rich often buy real estate on a mortgage when the rates are low. And, of course, utilize margin. From what I've read, it's basically a way to short the dollar.

For an extreme example, in the case of hyperinflation, you could theoretically get a mortgage on a home and a few years of extreme inflation later, pay it off with the amount of money that would buy you lunch.

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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

Whats the point? At this point he has more money than he could ever spend, why bother with loans?

I used to think the same way and the answer is that it makes sense if you expect your investment to provide a higher rate of return than the loan interest because then you don't pay taxes on your gains.

This is exactly what I'm planning to do with ETFs, anyway. Let them appreciate and pay dividends, and use that as my emergency fund while I have income from my job or some other significant cash flow. After that ends, I'll sell some of my investments to fund my retirement. But some people would still get loans if they're wanting to will those investments to others. I don't plan to have kids or get married (I'm asexual and aromantic, likely will die alone) so I don't have anyone in mind for when I die besides perhaps charity so I might as well sell them at some point, otherwise I'd consider holding as well.

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Wishing I bought bitcoin when it was around 31k.

Oh well.

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It's a risk. Because at the same time, you could have lost out on potential gains by holding.

Don't play with money that you'll miss if you lose it. That's the rule with gambling but it also applies to investing. Especially on gambles like RCON

I was going to put $500 as that has been my gain for the year. But I'm glad I only threw $100 on it, so I lost about $20.

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Sunroof posted...

Looks like RCON just announced a direct offering and thats why its going down today. And insider trading probably happened on Friday for everyone else to have known ahead of time. Wow.

Someone's gonna get investigated!

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I'm considering buying some more. But it's a gamble for sure and I probably shouldn't gamble too much more.

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ChainLTTP posted...

wtf seriously? that state needs to be nuked

Yeah, so the only thing that helps me by holding for a year is that my federal tax will be lower by about 7%. So I still have an incentive to hold, just not at the state level.

Sunroof posted...

Welp, this one sucks. I dont have enough knowledge on what is going on with it, seems like a shorting situation. Ill probably hold a bit longer because why sell for such a big loss, but those could be famous last words.

Not sure. But I only put $100 as my bet. Not sure if I'm going to hold or take my losses.

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Whoops RCON is down 15% today

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The only thing keeping me in California is my job. I work for a school district and have seniority, a pension, and full benefits. The district is underfunded, they have screwed me out of potential and actual money (barely making me ineligible for summer assistance, forcing use of vacation days), but damn the job is stable. I don't worry about losing the job. I have about 50k in cash in savings and I'm considering throwing it into stocks and bonds because I don't feel I need to have much if any savings because I learned that I can borrow against investments if I do get into a financial emergency at just 2% interest.

But at the same time, California has had problems for decades. In addition to the problems with water and real estate, we have some serious infrastructure problems. In the late 90s and early 2000s, we had a strained power grid. There are rolling blackouts when it gets too hot and people need air conditioning. Notice the present tense. 20 years later, they still haven't fixed it. The solution is to run ads to tell people to not use electricity during peak times. Not to mention the mess with traffic in every major California city.

The reason why I hadn't put all my money into investments sooner is because I was looking to leave (so I'd need money to cushion me) until the pandemic hit and I realized just how lucky I am to have a stable job. Then I kept my money in cash to try to invest in a home here. And I can't even do that. Now I have 17k invested and another 50k sitting around and in some ways, I'm still unsure what I should do.

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This reminds me that living in California sucks if you're into stocks, seeing as I'm taxed about 8-9.3% *on top of federal taxes* and the state makes no distinction between long and short term capital gains taxes so there's less benefit to holding to cash out later. This isn't great. I earn most of my money from a job though, so at least there's that. I'm considering just going long term with some good ETFs that focus on capital appreciation (to reduce taxes on dividends) and eventually just moving to Nevada and cashing out then. Meanwhile, I'd just use a broker that lets me borrow at 2% on assets that appreciate 10% per year and claim losses on that interest.

I'm also just considering moving out of California because the rent is too damn high (and buying a home is insane) but that's another topic.

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Chaos is good

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Walmart.

Amazon's shitty treatment of employees is partially because Walmart's practices set the precedent for it. Amazon at least pays well. Walmart does not.

Facebook and Google are horrible for privacy. Google more than Facebook, because Google is deeper in people's lives. It's much harder to escape Google than Facebook.

I hate Apple, but that's more because they're anticonsumer and anticompetitive. To their credit, they improved their labor standards and most of those problems were outside companies they contract with. The other 4 companies do plenty of anticonsumer and anticompetitive practices as well and they do it more than Apple does.

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It was in the 20s for most of 2014

Meh. I'm hoping for an uptick later on and then I'll sell.

I really should go be boring and buy boring stable companies and ETFs though

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Bought 15 shares. Hoping for a few bucks!

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how many y/o are they?

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I don't want to be a residential landlord. I just want real estate so that I can own my shelter, which is a bit too much to ask for in some parts of the country, I guess, unless it's a tent.

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CaptainOfCrush posted...

Maybe trying to set up a rental property now in this insane real estate market isn't worth the hassle, but landlording is usually an excellent long-term investment with returns that rival the stock market, different but arguably superior tangible benefits (if times get tough, you can always live in your rental home/apartment/room yourself), and more favorable legal/tax protections (bankruptcy, tax-free gains on sales of a principal residence even if you've used it as a rental property).

There's a reason that land and real property are like the most valuable assets throughout all of human history, and that even in the worst of times, fulltime landlords will do everything in their power to continue earning rental income versus entering the job market and earning a wage - because it beats the shit out of actually working.

It's a shame that these days, it's hard to get property yourself. Most tenants I see believe they have to work until they die and I believe I will do the same if I'm forced to rent long term.

This is really the only reason why I'm investing now. Once I can own my home, I really don't think I'm going to play with stocks (as I'd likely sell them off) and, at most, I'll just throw money into my pension and Roth IRA and call it a day.

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red sox 777 posted...

I put in a limit order to buy more shares at $200. Didn't hit. I'm gonna regret not just buying at $210-$220 when it goes back to $300 tomorrow.

Story of my life, but with other stocks. Like SOFI today.

Could have bought at $21.80 and it closed at around $23. All because I was hoping to save a few cents on a dip.

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Sunroof posted...

Soon all money will be free. And by that, I mean the government will give out money to people who claim to need it, to the point where everyone will be receiving money without doing anything to earn it. My point being that if people cant afford houses, there someday will exist financial benefits that will go toward giving them money rather than actually addressing the root of the issue.

To be fair, Im incredibly jaded and biased. At work, Im investigating a $1,000,000+ unemployment insurance fraud scheme as a result of Covid benefits. This is money that these people had zero right receiving much less applying for.

I know for one thing, Joe Biden has discussed the possibility of having a $15,000 first-time buyer's credit on buying a home. Guess what real estate people expect that will do to housing.

Prices will go up about $15,000

The problem is that there's short supply. A lot of it is artificial. We probably still have more homes than homeless people, I know a few years ago it was about 6 times as many. Investors tend to aggressively price homes and some investors are willing to have empty units instead of dropping lower. This is common in LA because a lot of new housing is luxury housing that people can't afford, but if they reduce it, their returns aren't as good because the wealthier people would expect discounts as well. The costs of building units doesn't make anything other than luxury units profitable.

In all, this is a total mess.

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greengravy294 posted...

The housing market is in all likelihood a bubble.

I've been looking to buy real estate but Jesus it's just insanity.

Wages aren't keeping up with the costs of housing. The prices have to either stop rising or slow down significantly. It's possible that we could just see more of what is happening in LA with homelessness, but that's not a situation that can continue for too long.

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red sox 777 posted...

You'd buy another one, of course.

Not necessarily! I've heard of people selling homes and renting for a while because they believe the market is going to crash. The idea being, of course, that they'd buy the house again when it's cheap.

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My real estate agent offered to send a bunch of those to homeowners for me in the same complex. I felt it would be a waste of time so I said no.

I'm getting those letters too but for my car. I looked it up and my car APPRECIATED by $2,000 or over 20% since 2019 when it was almost totaled. Insane. But again, I wouldn't have a car if I sold it. It's not too bad while I'm working from home, but I still need a car in LA.

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It's all speculation for me, of course. I am trying to buy a home and I'm using Zillow less because I'm giving up and probably just going to live at home for a while longer. But that's my speculation.

To illustrate on how crazy the market is in some areas...
I had an 800 credit score, 40k cash, and 55k job. Couldn't get a condo.

My assets have grown, I have 50k cash now and 100k in total assets. I can barely get a condo now. Theoretically. In reality, I made an offer of 10k above asking on a $315k condo and got beat by an all-cash offer that was 10k above mine. It's frustrating.

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Sunroof posted...

Zillow is getting crushed today. No idea why. Such a tasty price

I'm still trying to do real estate and there are concerns about a few things with real estate.

Prices are too high and people are getting priced out of the market. There is talk of a crash, because average Americans can't afford to buy houses unless they already own a house.

The above-average Americans that are landlords, aspiring landlords, as well as corporations, real estate funds, pension funds, etc., are able to buy homes even at these prices. They buy them to rent them out.

Zillow is for regular people. It's not really meant for investors, except maybe some small investors that own a few rental properties. But more and more, they're getting priced out too by institutions buying homes and are giving up. I imagine this is part of why people are feeling bearish on Zillow.

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Bitcoin is up 13%

I was going to buy the dip yesterday but decided not to. Wish I did. Oh well.

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WallStreetBets.

Looks like the latest meme. I think as far as meme stocks go, it has potential since Wish is already a meme because of how heavily it advertises crappy products. I can see this being pumped.

Something something fundamentals might be alright something something but this is ultimately about memes.

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Half hour after my investment in WISH, I already made 8% in afterhours trading.

Sweet. I WISH I bought more than $127 worth of it, but hey, not bad.

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whoops I bought another meme

WISHing for money here

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Monopoly is much better if you use the Speed Die rules.

Faster games and more interesting strategies.

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I wish I didn't sell FUBO because now I'm feeling the FOMO

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I want every day to be a green day

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This topic is overrated.

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red sox 777 posted...

Bought back into RKT today. Looking for a squeeze, but I also don't understand how the stock is as low as it is from a pure value point of view.

I feel like a bunch of stocks, RKT included, went down really low for some reason. It looks like a good stock to me. I bought some shares a few weeks ago as well.

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Hindsight is 20/20

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Oh yes, let's go, Five Below

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Sunroof posted...

I dont mean this in a crude manner, but I sincerely dont get why people put forth this much effort and endure the stress that comes along with it to make anything less than $1,000 a month. Thats why I asked those who had AMC whether they put in at least 25% of their portfolio into it.

I do stocks as a hobby. I have fun playing around with them. Of course, I try not to lose money and I try to maximize my gains, but ultimately, it's a hobby.

I've earned an average of $100 per month since I started, counting all my gains and losses. The majority of the time, I'm playing around with stocks while I'm working and waiting for phone calls. So the low net income doesn't bother me at all.

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Sunroof posted...

I received a $1,000 incentive award at my job a few weeks ago. I was humbled that my effort and contributions were being recognized, but I couldnt care less about the $1,000. I literally scoffed to myself and said, I make more than that in a week selling calls. Thats when I realized that the stock market is just stupid.

It's a stupid thing to me personally when I sometimes make more trading stocks using $11k in play money in a single day compared to working. The fact I have money makes me money. It doesn't feel right, in a way.

(I still have to work because I need regular, stable income, and I have loser days that make me lose a lot in a day, just saying though)

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I know, don't get mad at profits, but I sold one share of AMC at $45 and I could have sold at $61 later.

Oh well. Still have 3 shares and made 5x profit from that one share.

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I'm not interested in having kids for economic reasons. I can barely afford my financial goals on the income I do have. I worry that I'll struggle financially even while single with no kids and I don't want to bring in kids in the world if I can't comfortably pay for them.

Kinda sad I suppose, but that's economics, the dismal science.

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ExThaNemesis posted...

I just can't seem to get my head around the stock market so should probably stick to 100% crypto and holding Disney like Chris said.

Buy ETFs. Aside from AMC, I've been more profitable holding them for months than I have with any of my individual stocks.

I like VOO, VTI, SCHD, and DIVO.

Note that they don't go up quickly like individual stocks sometimes can. The only time I had that happen with an ETF was with QQQ and QQQJ during a recovery from when NASDAQ fell a few months ago but that's uncommon.

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I'm gonna count this as a dividend, thanks AMC!
https://tinyurl.com/4bttztp7

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I think I'm seeing it top around $69. At this point, this is part of psychology. Dogecoin went up to around the same price because "haha that's the sex number"

Wouldn't be surprised if GME tops out at around $420

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StartTheMachine posted...

Wow, I would be insanely rich if I held my 5000 AMC shares I bought in the 4s now.

I wanted to buy $500 worth of them a week or two ago. I regret not doing it, wow.

Of course if I did, I'd probably lose half my investment because that's what often happens with me.

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damn it should have sold at 60

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I was going to sell at 40 and I got busy with work. Glad I didn't.

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Woah AMC

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But can your computer run Crysis Remastered?

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