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Starting to Invest

I'm a dividend investor:
Currently have Intel, Eli Lilly, Johnson&Johnson, all pay pretty good dividends. I'll retire when they can pay my salary.
 
4JNA said:
ok. thing is this, my parents are loony and didn't teach me a single thing about money, investments, life, anything... drat. :(

my parents however were stupid. they invested nothing. they wasted all that had been left to them... somthing other than the dip-sheet parents wasting all that the previous two generations had gathered. just my two (now one) cents...
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Ouch, harsh. I hope you never make bad decisions as a parent, cuz karma is a biotch... Throwin' mom and dad under the bus.
 
4JNA said:
new customer, free trades for 30 days. yay new money...



as is VOO. you can try to beat the index and you will loose. really. that was the point of my follow up post.



options are the way to go IF you know what you are doing AND have the capital. based on the OP, i've been writing cash covered puts on TD ameritrade for months. free money/income. also selling cash covered calls on several positions. people pay me money, i keep the money, invest in more of the same. awesome. :) not many providers will grant new money option provisions. it's a risk, you will loose LOTS of money if you don't know what you are doing, and i would not recommend this to ANYONE. i'f you don't have the money to loose, don't play. REALLY.

to start, go with index funds. build up your portfolio/amount. branch out in to income strategies. think 10-20 years into the future FTW. just my 2 cents, and the reason for the previous posts. think/act long term. 5 days/months won't matter much...
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Free trades for 60 days if you have $2000 in your account.
 
So invest in SPY monthly? The stock looks vulnerable (from the '08-'09 crash).

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eric/ said:
Ok and then what?

And what is the account fee?
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No account fee. Just the $10 commission. I asked them yesterday.
 
Squilly said:
So invest in SPY monthly? The stock looks vulnerable (from the '08-'09 crash).

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No account fee. Just the $10 commission. I asked them yesterday.
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The stock looks "vulnerable"?

What are you going to do after 60 days and they charge you to invest in this one stock every month?
 
Squilly said:
No account fee. Just the $10 fee per trade.
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So if you keep investing once per month every year, you're going to be charged $100 (excluding the two free months). And $120 per year after that.

And you expect to make more than that on this stock I assume?

You would have to manage more than 5% per year (on $2000 worth of stock) to make your money back, and that is per year.
 
eric/ said:
So if you keep investing once per month every year, you're going to be charged $100 (excluding the two free months). And $120 per year after that.

And you expect to make more than that on this stock I assume?

You would have to manage more than 5% per year (on $2000 worth of stock) to make your money back, and that is per year.
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5% back is unlikely?
 
Squilly said:
5% back is unlikely?
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It's not that, it's just that you have to make 5% back every year just to cover the fees. That's not even money in your pocket, that's covering fees.

Go to vanguard.com

call the number

transfer whatever you want to invest into either their total stock market fund or their s&p 500 fund

set up automatic investing

accumulate wealth

picking stocks and paying comissions is a "losers game"
 
eric/ said:
It's not that, it's just that you have to make 5% back every year just to cover the fees. That's not even money in your pocket, that's covering fees.

Go to vanguard.com

call the number

transfer whatever you want to invest into either their total stock market fund or their s&p 500 fund

set up automatic investing

accumulate wealth

picking stocks and paying comissions is a "losers game"
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Apple was a "picked" stock and people made a lot of money when it was cheap.
 
Squilly said:
Apple was a "picked" stock and people made a lot of money when it was cheap.
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For every Apple, you got a million rotten peaches... you want to play those odds? Even Jobs never saw Apple stock doing what it did, and he was, my friend, a smarter man than you or I.
 
4JNA said:
fixed that for ya! :)

everyone can be a Buffet if they invest every month in an Index Fund. 'Dollar Cost Averaging' is the phrase to remember. don't look at the cost, look at the overall benefit. (VANGUARD FTW).

REALLY... every month... every paycheck... put a little bit to work... retire comfortable... awesome!
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+1, do it simply, back when I was younger read a book called "The 10% solution", circa mid 1980's.
Very simple, every paycheck have auto deduct 10% pre-tax into 401k funds (or 501c/etc pre-tax funds).
You live on the "other" 90%, your monthly budget/etc.

Now, if you can't do 10%, then do something, like 3 or 4%.
Then, as you get a yearly payraise, put 1% more into the pre-tax fund and give the rest back to you.
I started out at 5%, increased it like that.

I've followed that almost 30 years, that is now a very big 401k balanced account.
Of course it's gone up/down - but until you withdraw only on paper, but the long term trend is up-up with re-invest growth.

I treat my Social Security and Retirement funds as icing on the cake, the 10% solution sounds hard, but once you initially adjust then it just works.

Then, if you have "extra" play money, dabble in individual stocks.
 
spork183 said:
For every Apple, you got a million rotten peaches... you want to play those odds? Even Jobs never saw Apple stock doing what it did, and he was, my friend, a smarter man than you or I.
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On top of that, by far most investment bankers and/or stock brokers don't return more than the market gains over the long term.

They make money on fees and selling you crap

it's a losers game and a zero sum game, don't play it
 
eric/ said:
On top of that, by far most investment bankers and/or stock brokers don't return more than the market gains over the long term.

They make money on fees and selling you crap

it's a losers game and a zero sum game, don't play it
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Yep. do some core holdings in index funds, and play with a bit on funds that combine low risk/high return for their category. And always dollar cost average. Another thing to keep in mind if this is for retirement, is to diversify the TYPES of investment. For example, if you are loading up your 401, you might want to add a Roth. You will pay taxes after the fact on the 401, you pay taxes now on the Roth. Just gives you more options for pulling your money at retirement. My dad actually ended up in a higher tax bracket at retirement and his 403's were his only option. A Roth option would have helped. FWIW... :)
 
Depending on the right stock, possibly. Apple was the beginning of something huge - computing. Look @ DDD, it will be the beginning of something huge, being 3D printing. That's just an example.
 
Squilly said:
Depending on the right stock, possibly. Apple was the beginning of something huge - computing. Look @ DDD, it will be the beginning of something huge, being 3D printing. That's just an example.
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Well, if you think you can beat the market, idk what else anybody here can offer you in terms of financial or investing advice. What's been said here already is the golden standard to grow wealth.

You should try and find stats on the # of people who beat the market return over a long period of time, factoring in fees and comissions.
 
Squilly said:
So far, I bought
Zagg
KKR
KR
SIRI
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Back in 2010
I invested $5k worth of SIRI when it couldn't even hit the $1 mark
and also Netflix $5k worth around $50 price

both are way up though I almost invested $10k in Apple stock instead which would of been awesome at the time of $700 stock price.

But regardless I'm happy :)
 
So you ask for advice, people are giving you good advice, you are arguing with them and making horrible investment choices.

Future looking bright kid!
 
10 yr chart on SIRI...up less than $2...down $5 from all time high 8 yrs. ago...basically a penny stock run by shorts
 
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