I can’t believe there isn’t a thread for this in this forum or the old one.
Anyway, just a rule for this thread, no posting anything that would violate any sort of SEC regulations, or other such regulations anywhere on earth.
I really just wanted to say that hey, the market is going down big time. All I want is to have it stay down until payday so my 401k contribution will pick up 20% more shares than usual for the same dollar. If you go for the looong term like me, this kind of thing is no sweat.
I get a pension soooooooo I’m fine. If I had extra liquid I might’ve dumped it into the stock market, but instead I’m taking advantage of the Fed cutting interest rates and refinancing my mortgage from a 30 year fixed at 4.1% (technically 3.25% with a 0.85% finance charge) to a 15-year fixed at 2.5% interest.
Nowhere in the history of mortgages have rates been as lows as 2.5%.
All told it’ll save me $80,000 in interest payments compared to my current situation.
One of the fundamentals of the stock exchange that I can never seem to get a straight answer for is: When you sell stocks can you just sell easily to the stock exchange itself or do you need to go and find a buyer?
You are never selling to the exchange but to privileged parties on the exchange called market makers that are basically always updating their prices. Market Makers get a transaction discount on exchanges by entering agreements to always list a buy and sell for equities and they make their money on the haircut but are exposed to risk in the spread difference between the buy and the sell. That said you may not see a buy or sell price you like so if you put out something outside the market conditions currently it’ll probably never be fulfilled.
There is a buyer. That’s what the exchange is for. People tell the exchange they are willing to buy x shares at y dollars or sell x shares at y dollars. Then the exchange moves the shares accordingly. If 0 people are buying, the price goes down until someone does buy. If nobody is selling, the price goes up until someone does. If the market is busted, you could get stuck holding shares you can’t sell. That would be panic times.
Ever play the game M.U.L.E.? That will teach you how it works very quickly and intuitively.
It doesn’t matter what they are now because you aren’t retiring now. It’s actually good that they are down while you are buying because you’ll get more shares when you contribute. As long as they are up when you retire, it’s all good.
This is why as people get close to retirement they move their allocations from stocks to money market accounts which are much more stable, but have less growth. You basically lock-in a high point that’s high enough to retire on a handful of years before you start making withdrawals.
So I use Stash for my stock management. Their primary thing is ETFs that represent concepts the consumer likes, like green energy or just going along with what the experts do. You can also buy individual company stocks.
I currently have a mix of ETFs and individual stocks. ETFs give diversity but they seem to have low dividend yields due to low percents and their expense ratios. Individual stocks have high dividend returns. Is this a pretty good strategy?
If you invest in individual stocks for the dividends, you just have to make sure the dividends don’t decrease. They can theoretically change whenever. Also, you have to sell at some point, and if it has tanked by the time you sell, you hope the losses are cancelled by the dividends, or it was for naught.
I like index funds for long term. Even with the current market tanking, my index funds are still up overall because I bought them so long ago.
Buying stocks is gambling. Betting on one or a few companies is risky. An index fund is betting on all of human society. If money still means something, then it’s guaranteed to be a winning bet long term. If you lose the bet, it’s Mad Max, and it doesn’t matter that you lost because money is no meaning anymore.
Funds would definitely be my method of investing. I have a cousin who does day trading - like individual high-risk stocks - and it’s his entire life. Dude doesn’t talk about anything except the market.
Which is fine I guess because he’s full MAGA.
He’s been a shining example of how little I actually care about accumulating wealth. I want to make sound financial decisions to secure my present and future, not get the high score at the expense of my quality of life and that of the underprivileged.
I think a lot of people in my age range (millennials who graduated around the 2008-2009 crash and dismal job market) feel the same way. My wife and I just wanna stack up savings money, very safe retirement account investing and work on our house. I have absolutely zero interest in the risk exposure it would take to get “big gains” as the kids who gamble student loan money on options say.
A savings account does not beat inflation. A long-term investment in a healthy mix of stocks is much more likely to pay off. A retirement account also insulates or defers taxes on returns, which is important for long-term gains.
I’m not saying saving as a retirement plan (thats what the passive index retirement fund though work is meant to be) just included it as a way of building financial security with a big cushion. Also my house, even it decreases in value will still be a nice chunk of change when we downsize in our 60s (way too many stairs for olds unless exo-skeltons or something).