Truck Load Rates Halt 8 Week Slide 2.0

When the dot.com bubble burst is when I made my last big investments that have for the most part remained with the same stocks until today. I bought Amazon and eBay just after their IPO's and when both dropped to around $10 per share. I had a strong feeling back then that both would do very well, and they've far exceeded my expectations. I always watch tech and biomedical startups in times like this when a correction is imminent and prices are about to tank. That's where the real money is made. As I mentioned before, selling is usually a mistake. I bought Priceline when I bought Amazon and eBay, and dumped it right after 9/11 because the travel industry died. Had I sat on it, I would have been way ahead today. Live and learn.

 

BRK-A $428,415.00

Choose wisely. It will pay off in the end.

 

That’s immediately what came to mind when you said the info you did. Amazing.

Thank you and Accidental Trucker for the invaluable insight.

 

It is easy not to sell before 50 or even 60 years of age...but then I can imagine it is more demanding on the nerves not to panic. I overthink too much as to which individual stocks pick or when to sell. Therefore, I just do indexed mutual funds, with Vanguard, steady IRA contributions every year. Had I started in my 20s, I would have retired on them already.

"If you had invested $10,000 in the S&P 500 index in 1991 and held on with dividends reinvested, you'd have more than $210,000 at the end of 2020"

As long as the United States won't turn into 3rld World status then there is no other direction for the whole market but keep expanding, as it has been doing since the beginning. I am 50 now, that's just ####ing amazing how all this time blew by. Which tells me that I have to set up an account for my 13 year old son and start educating him on it too. Maybe when he is in his 50s he will be thanking me.

 

I remember reading about a kid that made a bunch of money on the stock market that ended up killing himself when he lost it all. If you get your kid into stocks, just make sure it doesn't consume them. At that age, I think it's more important to enjoy being young. Especially considering how easily the market can be manipulated by people in power as well as Reddit trolls.

 

No, I did not mean like that. I am not into any excitement of stock trading. I have never been. I just want to start an account such as mine and put some regular contributions without any interference. Like wine production, the more it sits the better. In 30-40 years it'll account for something.
I never really could grasp all the logic behind stock trading and I always thought that unless you are in a closer proximity to the inside information you are on a loser position.
Anyone who has already retired or is about to retire now, had they been consistent with even the most modest contributions for the last 30-40 years into the whole general US market reflected by indexed mutual funds, they would have also acquired quite a wealth by now. I just do it once a year, at the time of tax filing, I use up my IRA and my wife's (spousal contributions) and then every now and then log in and check what I got there. Once it is there, I never do anything to it. VTSAX Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund is what put blindly money in and till I retire I will.

 

I know a person like that, my mother's in law friend.
Long time ago she lived in a huge house and had a very lavish lifestyle with her husband, who was doing really good in stocks trading.
One day repo men showed up at their house, husband went upstairs and shot himself while she was talking to them.
She had no idea that they lost everything.

 

My ex-wife (35 years ago) found out after we got married that her grandparents always had such a nice house because they had millions in Standard Oil stock and were living off of it for decades. We divorced a year later and when the grandparents died, they left it all to my ex's dad. Then he died a couple years later and he left it all to his second wife, cutting all of my ex's family out of it. Glad I didn't wait around for a payday.

 

The whole “but I’m 65 so I have to be safe” mantra is one of my pet peeves.

Other than stocks, in whatever form, and SOME real estate, nothing consistently beats inflation. So if you get out of stocks “for safety”, you are going backwards for however long you, or your wife if applicable, live.

If you’re 65 and healthy, is highly probable that one of you will live into you ‘90’s. That’s having to live as much as 30 years post you last contribution, without the money itself earning any real return.

You wouldn’t tell a 35 year old to stay out of stocks because he only has 30 years to retirement!

If your investment horizon is more than 5 years, history tells us that you’re better with your money in the market than under the mattress. So any retirement you don’t intend to use within 5 years should be aggressively invested. I’m 56, and I’m still heavy in NASDAQ, emerging markets and international growth. Like @TallJoe most of my retirement money is at Vanguard in mutual funds.

The “mad money” is invested in trucks and the farm.
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History shows all governments collapse eventually and so does their BS currencies. Gold or precious metals are a safer bet than rolling the dice in a failing system. Not everyone is into gambling. Essentially the stock market is nothing but a digital roulette wheel.