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I've always been 180 degrees out of sync to the world of investing ...

pork bellies.....

Mako Koiwai wrote:I've always been 180 degrees out of sync to the world of investing ...

Jason Uyeda wrote:pork bellies.....

so he's been investing in which end of the pig?

Team RB Karting.








Oh wait, you're looking for an investment, not a money pit. Never mind.

Paying bills

Working at Henry's this week my pork belly is maxed out! Donna B feeds us tooooo wellll. Home Made Ice Cream this afternoon for a snack. Tomorrow were dieting with in-studio made frozen yogurt ...

Pay off the Vette with it's 8% interest, partially pay off the Vette and "invest," or just "invest" ... in what ?!

Mako Koiwai wrote:Pay off the Vette with it's 8% interest, partially pay off the Vette and "invest," or just "invest" ... in what ?!

I'd go with the Vette payoff. Know anywhere else you guaranteed a 8% return? (even if it's on a depreciating asset)

GM (government motors). my brother has been going on and on about it.

I'd take a guaranteed risk free 8% in this market.
Pay off the vette.

I've got a 1.9% note and a 3.25% note (this one qualifies for a mortgage deduction), those two I keep and invest. But 8%? Now? No brainer. Of course, make sure you have no other higher debt like credit cards and such.

And then say one had another $10K after paying off the car ... and one didn't have any other debts ?

Stocks ? ... through a broker, or ...

Mako Koiwai wrote:And then say one had another $10K after paying off the car ... and one didn't have any other debts ?

Stocks ? ... through a broker, or ...

8 sets of Hoosiers.

Mako Koiwai wrote:And then say one had another $10K after paying off the car ... and one didn't have any other debts ?

Stocks ? ... through a broker, or ...

NEVER allow a broker to suggest stocks for you (hope I didn't offend any brokers on here). And I would not suggest active investing for somebody not well educated in investments and with the time to do it.
I'd consider a Vanguard mutual fund because they have the lowest management fees and a decent track record.
I'd consider an ETF market fund that just mimics the S&P, Nasdaq, or DJIA. That just rests your fortune with the "market". Individual stocks are tough.
If you want to pick stocks get a Scottsdale account or eTrade.
Pick 4 market segments such as financials, tech, retail, oil/commodities, real estate, etc. Try to pick a known market leader in each industry. Then pick one flyer stock with more risk, more growth potential, in other words, your speculative stock. That 5th stock keeps it interesting.

For example a portfolio I set up for a friend last year was
CVX-Chevron Intregrated Oil 12months up 11.95% pays 3.43% dividend
AAPL-Apple Consumer Tech 12 months up 147% no divie (yeah she was happy about this one, but I can never get her to take profits in it)
NLY-Annaly Capital Real Estate 12 months up 14.38% pays a 17% dividend
GS-Goldman Sachs Financial 12 months up 123.77% pays a .85% dividend
FWLT-FosterWheeler Speculative energy infrastructure 12 months up 38.79%

It was an easy year, because the DJIA was up almost 30%.

I tried to make the portfolio easy to follow, diversified, and relatively safe going into 2009. I'd say it was pretty successful. But I'm not a big believer in buy and hold. She is thrilled and doesn't want to touch a thing. I think profit taking in AAPL and GS are in order. I would take some of the profits and buy a little more NLY maybe, it stays pretty stable but pays a great dividend. So, if you're portfolio grows as much as this one, the NLY position gets relatively smaller if you're not reinvesting the dividends. I like CVX and FWLT right now. AAPL is a freight train. But Steve Jobs health and increasing competition worry me. GS was pretty obvious it was going to double or we were going to meltdown. But I don't know where we go from here.

I agree with Steve, although I'm not opposed to buy-and-hold if monitor the stocks, which means more than just price and EPS. Scottrade has cheaper fees than E*Trade for the most part. If you go individual stocks, you could go with the "dogs of the Dow" strategy, which is pretty simple and beats the market average.

More info here:

http://www.dogsofthedow.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Glen Beck says buy gold.

Thom Hartmann says buy gold.



Hey, wait a minute here............one right, one left...... they both shill for gold sales companies..... and spin the daily news toward doom and gloom....... making gold look really good..... and they tell their audiences to buy it almost every day.......

ahhh, forget I mentioned it......

When we were going from our condo to our first house, we had our money safely invested in various Magellan mutual funds. A couple of months before we were going to buy we lost half of our down payment overnight when the market crashed in the late '80's. Parents to the (temporary) rescue. After we bought our 2nd house, 3,500 sq. ft., 3 car garage, 3 fire places, 1/2 acre over looking the Valley, $1K electric/water bills every 2 months in the summer (!), the market dropped. Took something like 6 years before the price came back to our buying price, ie. we made nothing when we sold (divorce). Hoosiers do sound like a good investment with my record. At least I know what will happen to them ...

Mako Koiwai wrote: Hoosiers do sound like a good investment with my record. At least I know what will happen to them ...

Hoosiers and a few lottery tickets for some chance.

My Uncle says buy stuff that pays a dividend. I have a broker and about 75% of the stocks he gets for me do well. He even told me years ago if 7 or 8 stocks out of 10 do decent, expect about that.

ya, fall of 2008 sucked but chanced borrowing/buying extra in March 2009 and cost averaged some of the "dropped" stuff and broke even faster ( summer 2009 )and have had some more gains after that.

Can't retire on 1-3% returns, have to chance a bit more risk, have it spread out in many div funds/stocks and see how it goes.


My broker has said when something has a bit of a run sell it as stocks seem to still have smaller blips up and down. if you can buy something 3 times a year and make 10-20% each run/blip that is decent. I don't mind paying him commision on these small returns. I don't know too much about the market, no time to read about companies either. Even have had some stocks double in 2-4 months last year.

B

Bob Beamesderfer wrote:I agree with Steve, although I'm not opposed to buy-and-hold if monitor the stocks, which means more than just price and EPS. Scottrade has cheaper fees than E*Trade for the most part. If you go individual stocks, you could go with the "dogs of the Dow" strategy, which is pretty simple and beats the market average.

More info here:

http://www.dogsofthedow.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I will often use the dogs of the dow as a screen to find hard hit stocks. Then I analyze those stocks to see if I can understand why they got hit, whether they got hit too much, and whether I think they can come back. I tend to focus on business fundamentals. But remember I'm a business school professor and a former venture capital guy. Analyzing businesses is what I do and what I enjoy. The "value" investor in me has a hard time being comfortable in a stock like AAPL because it has come so far. But, AAPL has probably made me more money than any other stock I have ever owned. And I've sold a ton of it.... And watched it go much higher. Its still my 2nd largest position (I sell and it keeps growing). But those high flyers make me nervous. A stock that has been given a hair cut to levels that it would seem it must increase share value or be taken over, feels like a better value. It makes me more comfortable. But.... It may not be the better investment.

As Mako points out, the trouble with stock market investing is that when things go South, they go South in a hurry. And they shoot the piano player too. If you are depending on the money, then you can invest in stocks, but you need other investment types as well.

I agree on high fliers like Apple and Google. They've done very well for a long time and it can't last forever. As for gold, I think that ship's sailed, but I said the same thing a year ago.

Risk tolerance, investing time frame and need for liquidity are all important factors when picking any investment.

I just can't philosophically own gold... ever.

But I do invest in and trade mining stocks and other commodities.

And I have a morbid fear of the dollar right now. But oil is my gold for now.

Tom Tanquary wrote:Hey, wait a minute here............one right, one left...... they both shill for gold sales companies..... and spin the daily news toward doom and gloom....... making gold look really good..... and they tell their audiences to buy it almost every day.......

ahhh, forget I mentioned it......

Gold is a bubble. Like the housing bubble, it may go up for awhile but it *will* eventually fall to reasonable levels. The media is just part of the hype on this. If you buy into the bubble, be very, very careful and prepare to lick your wounds.