Personal Finance 2

[Texsox]

Anyone compare their net worth year to year? This was the biggest percentage increase I've had in my lifetime. Between home prices in my area and stock prices in my managed funds, it was a very good year. If I hadn't decided to begin some trading on my own it would have been a little better.

So thank you previous administration for pumping so much money into the economy and thank you current administration for lowering my blood pressure. 

[Heads22]

After both my parents passed in 17 and 19, my brother and I essentially got their retirement savings. Needless to say it's been fascinating to watch.

[Texsox]

On 12/20/2021 at 8:19 PM, Heads22 said:

After both my parents passed in 17 and 19, my brother and I essentially got their retirement savings. Needless to say it's been fascinating to watch.

I wonder if any of my students will understand some of the financial education we do. I wasted a couple decades. 

[caulfield12]

The most obvious point is to have your 10-15% that you play around with in individual stocks, but the majority of investors under $10 million should be in just a few diversified index funds or ETFs, even though they're far less exciting.

The last year or two, all the media coverage was Cathie Wood and ARK, but she might have the worst returns of anyone in that space.

I really took a temporary hit on my Chinese stocks...which demonstrates no matter how much you know about a country, you can never underestimate Black Swan events like a government attempting a once every 30-40 years takeover of an entire economy that was previously humming along like none in modern history.  I've had to learn about delisting and try to forecast that Alibaba, Ten Cent, and JD will be worth ten years from now.

I committed a slightly different mistake 20 years ago, going after all the hot tech names after being disappointed with a relatively conservative fund that was getting trounced.  While the individual stocks back then tanked (bought JDSU at $110, didn't get out at $140) and rode it all the way to the bottom as a write off.  Recently, sold TSM way too early...at $90, still tripled money, and got out of Berkshire Hathaway (still a very solid return over 15 years) and plugged it into China.  So not trusting my intuition to do anything but leave it in Vanguard, Fidelity, Oakmark, Legg Mason and Bill Miller Funds.

And the one thing I did right was never selling low on any of those funds that got killed in 1998-2002 or even in 2007-08 or March 2020.  And not being that interested in bonds or precious metals...missed out on Bitcoin but that's the case for most I imagine.

If anything, should have added last year (John Deere from my hometown or Boeing) but at least we sold our family house for a tidy profit.  Downside is no house or car if I can ever get back to the US to visit...sigh.

Edited December 26, 2021 by caulfield12