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Thread: Driver's License for the Internet

  1. #31
    That's happened to me more than once. Put your money in your 401k. Spread it around. Sit on it. Don't ever sell. Then the big guys can come by and make a withdrawal every decade. Sure feels like I'm getting swindled.
    The Rules
    Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
    Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
    Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)

  2. #32
    Quote Originally Posted by EyeKhan View Post
    You can. You can also totally fuck yourself even if you DO the research (and who has time for that anyway?). That won't happen with index funds unless everyone gets fucked (like when the DOW goes from 14k to 6k in a year and a half ). And then its likely they'll come back. And if they don't, well, you have bigger problems anyway. But hell, if you like managing the investing up close and you can tolerate the risk, you're certainly right. You can beat the market.
    Maybe it's just my own experience in this and I've been lucky, but beating the index funds doesn't even seem that hard. I think it would be hard to "totally fuck yourself". You shouldn't be putting all your eggs in one basket. It's not difficult to diversify enough to protect yourself.

  3. #33
    Quote Originally Posted by Wraith View Post
    Maybe it's just my own experience in this and I've been lucky, but beating the index funds doesn't even seem that hard. I think it would be hard to "totally fuck yourself". You shouldn't be putting all your eggs in one basket. It's not difficult to diversify enough to protect yourself.
    My financial planner was telling me about another client of his who panicked and sold everything when the dow was down around 6500. Now he's absolutely scuh-roooed. Obviously that's not what we're talking about... but it happens. When I was doing my own investing I had money invested in a number of .coms circa 2000. I owned shares of Worldcom... <sigh>. But I picked some winners too and I wasn't playing with more money than I could afford to lose. Its stressful though, too much like gambling. Too emotional.
    The Rules
    Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
    Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
    Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)

  4. #34
    Quote Originally Posted by EyeKhan View Post
    My financial planner was telling me about another client of his who panicked and sold everything when the dow was down around 6500. Now he's absolutely scuh-roooed. Obviously that's not what we're talking about... but it happens.
    Buying high and selling low? Well yeah, that's just stupid. When my stocks go down, I usually just take the opportunity to buy more. It's worked well for me so far. I have no problem with short-term falls though, since I'm still a bit more than a decade from retirement.

    When I was doing my own investing I had money invested in a number of .coms circa 2000. I owned shares of Worldcom... <sigh>. But I picked some winners too and I wasn't playing with more money than I could afford to lose. Its stressful though, too much like gambling. Too emotional.
    I can buy that.

  5. #35
    Decade from retirement? Is that because you're becoming filthy rich or because you're that old? I assumed you were younger. What's the rule of thumb for % of your funds that should be in bonds or even cash vs. stocks? 110 - your age, I think. So if you were 40, then 70% higher risk vs. 30% safety. Now, if I were 10 years from retirement, that would put me at 57, so 53% in stock...
    The Rules
    Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
    Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
    Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)

  6. #36
    Quote Originally Posted by EyeKhan View Post
    Decade from retirement? Is that because you're becoming filthy rich or because you're that old? I assumed you were younger.
    It's because I've been trying to still live like a college student (mostly) and I'm currently overly optimistic about continued returns on my investments.

    What's the rule of thumb for % of your funds that should be in bonds or even cash vs. stocks? 110 - your age, I think. So if you were 40, then 70% higher risk vs. 30% safety. Now, if I were 10 years from retirement, that would put me at 57, so 53% in stock...
    That's the equation I heard too, it assumes an age 65 retirement, I think. I'm willing to tolerate more risk than that, though.

  7. #37
    Quote Originally Posted by Wraith View Post
    It's because I've been trying to still live like a college student (mostly) and I'm currently overly optimistic about continued returns on my investments.

    That's the equation I heard too, it assumes an age 65 retirement, I think. I'm willing to tolerate more risk than that, though.
    I've very tolerant of risk. Most of my high risk investments are various flavors of index fund. It's only in individual stocks that your investment might go to nothing and never come back. If you're in an index, that would only happen in something akin to the fall of civlization. Which could happen, sure, but you'll be more interested in killing zombies than what happened to your retirement nest egg. I do invest in some individual stocks though, but more just for fun than anything else. I've also got into commodities a little bit - but again via broad based mutual fund.
    The Rules
    Copper- behave toward others to elicit treatment you would like (the manipulative rule)
    Gold- treat others how you would like them to treat you (the self regard rule)
    Platinum - treat others the way they would like to be treated (the PC rule)

  8. #38
    Dial B for Beta X900BTA's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by EyeKhan View Post
    It's only in individual stocks that your investment might go to nothing and never come back.
    The problem is that index funds are inherently at the whim of the market, and while you may make modest gains over time you may just as well make no gains or lose money; even with a 10-20 year time-frame. Avoiding individual stocks, and doing your own research to minimize your risk, simply because a stock can go to zero isn't really risk management. It's more like avoidance, with a little bit of comfort in knowing you are probably limited to losing 10-35% of your money over a 10-20 year time-frame I'm a big advocate of doing your own research and creating your own fund via diversification, and I think this will typically provide you greater return and less risk than index funds or mutual funds over the long haul. It is work though. Who wants a side of 10-Q's for breakfast?

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