Investments

[lavenatti]

I've been investing for 30+ years. Chose to make the stock market one of my hobbies. Learned how to invest to minimize taxes when I retire early and get free health care at the same time. The downturn in the market now is normal and it's a buying opportunity while everything is on sale.
This "hobby" already allowed my wife to retire at 60 and as soon as hit the same age I'll retire as well. I should be able to spend about twice what I'm living on now and still continue to see an increase in net worth.

Needless to say I'm a big fan of the market.

[bangerjim]

Another investment I forgot to mention - - - - - - collectable whiskey and scotch! OMG! What a run I have had. Sorry, you cannot open it !!!!!!!!!!!! Only look at it!

2 bottles of 12 YO rare limited release bourbon - - bought for $75.00 3 years ago now worth over $2,000 a bottle.

8 bottles of single malt scotch -----bought at Costco for $20 each in late 2021, now worth over $50 a bottle

3 bottles of Irish single malt (sequentially serialized) ------ bought at Costco for $60 each 2 years ago now worth over $400 a bottle.

4 bottles of high-end Japanese whisky bought for Total Wine concierge for $60 now worth over $250 a bottle

3 bottles of limited-edition scotch from TW concierge for $70 a bottle now worth over $250 a bottle

4 bottles of rare 12 YO cognac from TW for $70 a bottle 2 years ago, now worth well over $300 a bottle.

All current prices are from the net.

You definitely cannot beat those profit margins with guns and lead in that short time frame! Unless you steal the guns!!

Just do not open the bottles!

banger

[jonp]

Ive sold a few firearms lately and not high va!ue ones for twice what i paid for them a few years ago

[elmacgyver0]

I'm not into money, if I have enough to eat, pay my bills and taxes with a little left over for a few toys, I'm happy.
I don't have a vehicle under 20 years old, not into cars, thank God.

[bedbugbilly]

I talked to our broker today and his report was that on the average, investments are down 14% to 14.5%. While are IRAs are down that much, our stock investments, which were invested in for the long haul and diversified, are only down around 7%.

Nobody knows how all of this crap is going to sift out. Yesterday, gas here for low octane regular was $5.17/gallon (lower Michigan). On our way home from Arizona, we would pull in to gas up and the previous sales on the pumps were often anywhere from $80 to $95. My comment to my wife at the time was that I'm glad I'm not filling up a pick-up. Yesterday, the previous sale on the pump we pulled in to to top off at showed a $10 sale - FOR A GRAND TOTAL OF LESS THAN 2 GALLONS OF GAS. That tells me a lot right there.

You can all argue about which is a better investment - stocks or guns. But remember something . . . even in a Recession . not a Depression . . . many people . . . young, old, working, retired, single parent or two parents . . . are strapped for money. "What do I pay for? Gas to get to work or food for the kids. The doctor bill or my heating bill?" My point is this. If you think guns "appreciate" so much . . they soon become a non liquid asset. To sell them at what you think is an "appreciated" value . you have to have a buyer with the money.

Yea . . how soon we forget . . . and some have really forgotten what it was like during the Obama/Idiot Administration. I haven't. You couldn't sell real estate. I had a house that was my mother's that I needed to get sold. I had it appraised at the time her death and by the time I was able to get the estate settled and put it up for sale . . . it was a buyer's market. Property was bringing about 30 to 40 percent of what it had been appraised at. We had my M in L in Assisted Living and a lot of those folks had to move out and find another place to live because they could no longer afford to pay the room and board,. It took me almost three years to get the house sold and I had one offer . . . and it was a nice house sitting on 7l5 acres. The only reason I had an offer was because a woman who had boohoo bucks was going to buy it for her sister and her brother to have a place to I've,. Until I got it sold at about 40% of appraised value, I had three years of taxes, three years of maintenance, mowing, heating in the winter, etc. At the same time, I decided to liquidate some guns from my collection and I sold them through a good gun shop that I know the owner. They were put up on GB. A lot of them are nice collector pieces. I didn't need the money, but I didn't want them around anymore as we were spending the winters in Arizona and I was afraid of break-ins and theft. They, too, brought prices considerably below what their value had once been. Again . . a shortage of extra cash equals a decrease in buyers and decrease in selling price. A guy can't spend money on a gun if he is having to pay super inflated prices of all the necessities of life.

Stocks, real estate, precious metals, guns, collector cars . . what ever it is all a crap shoot. Don't foo yourself.

[memtb]

The stock market is great…..if you stay in for the long haul! If you wanna get rich quick…..about as good as Vegas or the lottery. A pretty wise friend gave me this market advice……”Bulls make money, Bears make money, and Pigs get slaughtered”! Be conservative on the investments and ride out the bumps! memtb

[Kosh75287]

MAIN holdings in Russell 3000 index fund, maybe 25% that amount in Nasdaq Index, then no more than 4% each in Ruger, ATK, AMD, GLD. Then, outside the stock market, it's time to go long on "beans, bullets & bullion", or "grub, guns & gold", to put it in other terms. Andy Navarro said, before the (STOLEN) Presidential election, "If Biden wins, I'M going long on Guns, Precious metals, and antidepressants..."
I find his inclination difficult to argue with.

[popper]

Market is pretty much run by big banks and Gov. Now they are going to cash so they can buy when the market is down. Retail market is pretty much doing the same. Inflation caused by the big swamp spending. Gov investment in 'green'. Annuities are basic life insurance co run and when they go broke, you loose. Cheap credit (low int rate) is going to hurt a lot of companies, leveraged too much. 40% debt is too much to sustain, as Target is finding out. Nobody wants to buy back the 0.2% money the Fed is holding, mortgage rate is now 5%, so Fed just increases int rate hoping to solve the problem. Home building stops (but not apartments) as home prices are high (for now) but will fall drastically when there are NO buyers. Same with guns.
Avg. gain through retail 'market' investment is about 2% max. Still losing due to inflation the gov wants at 2%. Actual now is more like 18%. And going UP.
Edit: I am not any part of the financial business and offer NO advice.
Fed problem is they bought a lot of cheap INTEREST paper. The QT they talk of so far is just letting go existing MATURING bonds (they bought). With increased yield on Gov. bonds and corporate bonds, NOBODY wants to buy the cheap return stuff! So the 3T$ will only get reduced to 2T%. Only other thing they can do (will do) is increase interest rate. To us retail goods buyers who are reducing our purchases, not too much effect. Corporate won't borrow much so business expansion is LIMITED!. GDP decreases. EU is having the same problem.
Biggest investing mistake I made was dumping the 20 or so '12$ profit sharing' shares of TI about 40 yrs ago.

[Shawlerbrook]

Smart money is spread out in a diversified portfolio.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I was in the stock market for over twenty years and found three stocks that never failed, Johnson & Johnson, Newmont mining and Verizon. Others, not so good.

[lightman]

I've been in the market in one form or another since 1980. I've been through some scary lows and rode them to some scary highs. My strategy is to buy and hold, and mostly in index funds. Most of us can only guess about what they will do but history shows that evertime they have fallen they have come back. Remember, you don't loose anything in down markets unless you panic and sell out. It helps that I have a pension and SS.

[Big Tom]

Guns as an investment make a whole lot of sense to me - that is how I justify every purchase with my wife For a financially sound retirement, I am sure there are better options.

[kerplode]

I've been in the market in one form or another since 1980. I've been through some scary lows and rode them to some scary highs. My strategy is to buy and hold, and mostly in index funds. Most of us can only guess about what they will do but history shows that evertime they have fallen they have come back. Remember, you don't loose anything in down markets unless you panic and sell out. It helps that I have a pension and SS.

That's an excellent strategy and a proven wealth generator. Nice work!

[MT Gianni]

I was in the stock market for over twenty years and found three stocks that never failed, Johnson & Johnson, Newmont mining and Verizon. Others, not so good.

In Montana in the late 90's I had many people tell me that they did well investing in the Anaconda Mining Company, Montana Power Company and Garret Freight lines, all Montana run companies. The Montana Power Company was the last of these to fail [buyer later filed for bankruptcy] though they all did. You need a balanced portfolio that is reviewed regularly. I had no part of Amazon as my advisor thought it was overpriced. I was into the UPS and Fed-Ex when Amazon used mostly that delivery prior to going to Prime trucks. Find out not only what is in constant use but what supports that industry.
I had and still have a lot of interest in buildings that are basically computers, cloud storage centers. With an aging population health care is generally a good investment but needs a watchful eye as does all your money. I can live with a downturn for a while, I averaged 11%-15% returns for the previous 8 years. That is tough to do with guns.

[johnho]

I've been through these so many times it's comical. Same comments all the time. My first "crash" was Oct 87. Panic. Some time later there was another one, too old to remember the year, and sold out at near the bottom. Who knew where the bottom was, nobody. By the time I decided to get back in the market had rallied way beyond where I sold. Big losses. This is not a short term game to play, and I look at it as a game. Market does up, market goes down. Always has, always will. name one time when it went to ZERO and stayed there. Enjoy the rides, builds character.

[bangerjim]

Just invest in fixed indexed annuities from a certified fiduciary advisor and you will be safe during the "up and down" cycles. I have never lost a dime. Even today, with the markets cratering, my large nest egg is still worth what it was 2 weeks ago, or whenever the markets went up the last time.

[Horn Ridge]

Well with the government determined retirement age creeping up all the time, find something you halfway enjoy doing and plan on doing it for a long time. Invest in whatever floats your boat. It’s your money and you’ve had to earn it.

[MarkP]

I was in the stock market for over twenty years and found three stocks that never failed, Johnson & Johnson, Newmont mining and Verizon. Others, not so good.

J&J had a neat calculator in their investor relations section of the J&J website; you could do what if's such as buy certain number of shares or a certain dollar amount on a particular date and look at what the current value would be. You click to reinvest dividends of not.

Never underestimate the power of dividend reinvestment.

[popper]

I get a chuckle out of forward P/E.

[snowwolfe]

Anything can be worth any amount on paper. But just because item X is worth $50 doesn’t mean you can easily sell it for $50.
Remember Beanie babies? Cabbage patch dolls? And now RV’s and campers are in the toilet. Fortunes were made in bitcoin, now it’s worth half its high.