Finance Thread - What stocks are you in, etc.

I think the stock markets will go down in the next year or two. A 15 month CD puts me in an area that I think I can buy lower. Investors are just so fickle these days and stocks fluctuate so much more than the true value.

If the Fed sticks this soft landing, color me very surprised (and happy), but I wouldn't bet on it.
 
Sold WBA today for a quick 16% profit in 16 days!

The FED held rates steady today (I anticipated this move) and the market reacted positively.

On a side note, TSLA dropped this amazing Optimus Video tonight. Great things continuing to come out of TSLA!

 
Trunk Monkey said:
The FED held rates steady today (I anticipated this move) and the market reacted positively.
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Yeah it did. Looking at rate cuts next year, but not expecting anything too drastic.

This year has been good to me. Steadily increasing salary and consistent work, zero debt, paid off the SS and increased my savings substantially. 😉
 
dDUBb said:
Yeah it did. Looking at rate cuts next year, but not expecting anything too drastic.

This year has been good to me. Steadily increasing salary and consistent work, zero debt, paid off the SS and increased my savings substantially. 😉
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Likewise. My 401K is up SUBSTANTIALLY this year! However my salary is stagnant. I got the same pathetic raise this year that they gave me last year (Hint, it's not enough to keep up with the inflation rate.) Fortunately our debt is also low and I have no car payments either, just the day to day stuff and the mortgage. Planning on replenishing our savings account next year after biting the bullet on some really big expenses at the house this year.

Cheers to a prosperous 2024! :zbeer:
 
I'm genuinely shocked they held it. But I'm also glad to be wrong in this instance.
 
I'm tired of being in debt. Over the last few days I have been taking a long hard look at all of my smorgasbord of holdings and decided to sell.

I began selling all of my negative performers first. Then all my break even holdings before moving on to my better performing stocks, IRM, MPC, and SUN. I didn't want to sell these three particulars, but for purposes of getting rid of debt, they had to go.

Making the sales of stock holdings will allow me to pay off two high balance CCs and make a sizeable dent in a third. I will then apply the "snowball" method to this third CC. When that third one is paid off, I will move on to my private student loans and work on getting those paid off.

I'm still holding on to PFE, VTRS, WF, F, T, and RYLD as they are some of my other better performers. But if push comes to shove, I will need to get rid of those as well.

I just hope that no significant emergency happens where I need to draw on my CCs again where at that point I'd be worse off than where I'm at now.

In 2024, I want to be smarter with my money. I know how to be smart with money, but I've never truly applied these smarts to myself. My investment strategy has been about the dividend income, and giving me a net dividend income of 16%, 18%, and later 22% respectively by paying off these CCs really seems like the right way to go. After some time, I will be able to get back into the game and start putting money aside for stock investment again. I may just go all in on only doing ETFs at that point in time as it's what I've been thinking of doing.

This will be the right way to get 2024 started.
 
CDsDontBurn said:
I'm tired of being in debt. Over the last few days I have been taking a long hard look at all of my smorgasbord of holdings and decided to sell.

I began selling all of my negative performers first. Then all my break even holdings before moving on to my better performing stocks, IRM, MPC, and SUN. I didn't want to sell these three particulars, but for purposes of getting rid of debt, they had to go.

Making the sales of stock holdings will allow me to pay off two high balance CCs and make a sizeable dent in a third. I will then apply the "snowball" method to this third CC. When that third one is paid off, I will move on to my private student loans and work on getting those paid off.

I'm still holding on to PFE, VTRS, WF, F, T, and RYLD as they are some of my other better performers. But if push comes to shove, I will need to get rid of those as well.

I just hope that no significant emergency happens where I need to draw on my CCs again where at that point I'd be worse off than where I'm at now.

In 2024, I want to be smarter with my money. I know how to be smart with money, but I've never truly applied these smarts to myself. My investment strategy has been about the dividend income, and giving me a net dividend income of 16%, 18%, and later 22% respectively by paying off these CCs really seems like the right way to go. After some time, I will be able to get back into the game and start putting money aside for stock investment again. I may just go all in on only doing ETFs at that point in time as it's what I've been thinking of doing.

This will be the right way to get 2024 started.
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Any time you can pay off high interest debt is a win. Just be careful not to get yourself back into that same situation. Credit cards are a great tool - if used smartly. They're also very dangerous if used incorrectly.

It's great to see you've got a new years resolution to be smarter with your money. If I can help in anyway just LMK by PM.
 
I was (still am?) considering a HELOC, but all that's doing is shifting debt around and not actually taking care of debt. Sure, the interest rates will be lower and the loan term will be longer, but at the same time I don't want to go from unsecured debt to a secured debt where my house can be taken from me.

Speaking of CCs being a good tool when used correctly, I'm also getting quite a few offers for 0% CCs. If I'm still getting these 0% CC offers after tax season, I'll jump on one of those as well. My concern with those CCs though is that I'll apply for the CC, but I won't get the full amount I need to transfer all my CC debt onto. I'd rather go all in than get enough for just one of my CCs because I see no point in that.
 
CDsDontBurn said:
I was (still am?) considering a HELOC, but all that's doing is shifting debt around and not actually taking care of debt. Sure, the interest rates will be lower and the loan term will be longer, but at the same time I don't want to go from unsecured debt to a secured debt where my house can be taken from me.

Speaking of CCs being a good tool when used correctly, I'm also getting quite a few offers for 0% CCs. If I'm still getting these 0% CC offers after tax season, I'll jump on one of those as well. My concern with those CCs though is that I'll apply for the CC, but I won't get the full amount I need to transfer all my CC debt onto. I'd rather go all in than get enough for just one of my CCs because I see no point in that.
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Those 0% CC rates have a limited time and strict terms and conditions. Make sure you understand their limits.

For example on the Citi Diamond card: "There is a balance transfer fee of $5 or 5% of the amount of the transfer, whichever is greater.*
If you transfer a balance with this offer, interest will be charged on new purchases and unpaid introductory balances after your 0% introductory APR on purchases expired unless you pay the entire balance (including any transferred balance) in full each month by the due date."


After a quick search here are the best 0% cards with 15, 18 and 21 month terms for JAN of next year.

www.cnbc.com

14 best 0% APR credit cards of June 2024

CNBC Select compares the best 0% APR credit cards with no interest for up to 21 months, so you can maximize savings.
www.cnbc.com www.cnbc.com
 
The only way you're going to pay off debt / save money is by having more income than expenses .. 🤔

Selling off your investments at a loss will offset your taxable income when you file your returns on the plus side. On the other hand, the dividend stocks are going to count as income and you'll be accountable for taxes on that money. This might not make a big difference on your returns but this is money that could be applied elsewhere.

Shifting debt to 0% ( plus fees ) or a lower % (HELOC) could help focus the payments .. there is a numbers game here, the amount of expected interest vs. The fee vs. Time to pay off before % or accrued interest tacks on ( this is where people get in BIG trouble).. but if you are paying 3 cards with 3 minimum payments, and a majority of that goes to interest, it would be best to consolidate the 3 into 1 to make a difference in the principle debt. .. this doesn't work without ..

A payoff plan:
If you want to pay anything off you need an end date / goal to payoff within a certain time. If you paid only the minimum on any interest debt, it's going to take 5-15 years to pay off ( as indicated on your statements ) .. if you want this paid off in 2 years for example, you're going to divide the debt by 24 months and then add the amount of monthly interest you're currently paying - this is how much you need to pay off that amount by a certain time.

Just my .02 .. I have strategies for using cash back cards / utilizing 0% on purchases - when you are beyond the point of debt and want to buy things without spending more than you need to.
 
Just to be clear. Dividend stocks are treated as any other stocks when sold. The dividends themselves are taxable income that must be declared when you file your taxes each year. Although, it's my understanding that dividends are taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income (because the uber-wealthy had the law written that way to favor them.)

Check with your tax/accounting professional for exact details.
 
dDUBb said:
The only way you're going to pay off debt / save money is by having more income than expenses .. 🤔

Selling off your investments at a loss will offset your taxable income when you file your returns on the plus side. On the other hand, the dividend stocks are going to count as income and you'll be accountable for taxes on that money. This might not make a big difference on your returns but this is money that could be applied elsewhere.

Shifting debt to 0% ( plus fees ) or a lower % (HELOC) could help focus the payments .. there is a numbers game here, the amount of expected interest vs. The fee vs. Time to pay off before % or accrued interest tacks on ( this is where people get in BIG trouble).. but if you are paying 3 cards with 3 minimum payments, and a majority of that goes to interest, it would be best to consolidate the 3 into 1 to make a difference in the principle debt. .. this doesn't work without ..

A payoff plan:
If you want to pay anything off you need an end date / goal to payoff within a certain time. If you paid only the minimum on any interest debt, it's going to take 5-15 years to pay off ( as indicated on your statements ) .. if you want this paid off in 2 years for example, you're going to divide the debt by 24 months and then add the amount of monthly interest you're currently paying - this is how much you need to pay off that amount by a certain time.

Just my .02 .. I have strategies for using cash back cards / utilizing 0% on purchases - when you are beyond the point of debt and want to buy things without spending more than you need to.
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The dividend investments I sold were each making me less than $10/yr in dividend income. The losses I took on selling them were more than what each of them made in dividend income. I am not worried about any tax implications those will have on me. Now my money makers, IRM, MPC, and SUN, those each made me well over $20/yr in dividends alone and each of those were over 100% my DCA on their purchases. MPC was actually nearly 400% on its DCA 😅😁, so it was definitely a cash cow for me, lol. Anyways, between the stocks sold at losses and those sold at profits, they should more or less wash out.

Like, I know I've come out net positive having sold these stocks, but I don't think it's anything that will have significant impact on me tax wise. Additionally, I had held on to all of these for well over 1yr, so my taxes on them will not be counted as capital gains taxes and instead will be my nominal tax rate which also helps me there as well.

As for a plan on paying off my shit, I hadn't really set a "goal date". My plan now is to literally just throw as much money as I can towards each CC / loan individually (snowball) in order to get this debt paid off. I've always paid slightly more than the minimum on all my CCs, but that's just spreading my money around as thinly as possible. While I know it works, I'm not capable of paying a significant amount more than what I do now to really tackle this CC debt I have. Having sold the aforementioned stocks is providing me the capital I need to pay off two CCs and apply a small amount more towards the 3rd CC. I'll then apply the snowball method to aggressively pay off that 3rd CC. When that one is paid off, I'll continue to use the snowball method to pay off my private student loan.

Speaking of my private student loan (this is separate from my federal student loan), the debt I honestly want paid off most is my private student loan. It has a variable interest rate sitting right now at 15%. Before all the interest rate increases, the minimum payment was $183/mo and I was chucking $230/mo at it. I was ahead of schedule and it looked like I was going to be done paying it off in 2026. Now, with it sitting at 15%, I have to pay $250/mo just to stave off the interest charges alone and the final payment is estimated to be in 2029 at the current rate 🙃.

Student loans are the bane of many people's existence and the repayment methodologies do not seem to be equal to those of a personal, car, or even mortgage loans. I'd REALLY love to pay off my private student loan as that would free up $250 that I could throw at something else instead of that dumb loan.

As for the 0% CCs, I guess I'd have to read the terms, but as you and @Trunk Monkey are explaining it to me, these 0% CCs have an introductory period where after that period is over, the entire balance transfer accrues interest from the transfer date? Is that correct?
 
The stocks you just sold are basically your "savings" .. if you apply all of that to your CC like you said; and then you need to make an emergency purchase .. you could be right back where you started. I think the tradeoff is to find a balance where you still have emergency funds ( keeping the good stocks ), or savings; and you can pay down the debts.

By paying off two credit cards - all you are doing is freeing up whatever you were paying monthly, maybe that's another $150-200, but its money in your "pocket" every month you would have been paying.

That private loan isn't too bad at 15% now; if the feds cut rates in 3 months it might drop to 14.75% .. 🫢 a lot of store credit cards these days are upwards of 27 to 32% or more.

Something doesn't add up though - if that loan was going to end in 2026 (let's say July) at $230 you've spent almost $7k total and the loan is done. If you're paying $250 through 2029, you'll end up spending an extra $10k over the next 5 years.
 
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Actually, you do need to set payoff "goal dates" as defined in the T&C of these offers.

Yes, there's a transfer fee and yes, you're correct. The entire balance accrues interest from the transfer date. Like a student loan, that interest is deferred for the grace period. Don't pay the balance off by the end of the grace period and they'll hit you with all that back interest. Be very careful with claimed zero interest CCs. They're not giving you that loan for free. They've got to make some money off of it somehow. Read the terms and conditions closely.
 
Looking to buy some NIO @ 7.20

Anyone else shopping stocks today?
 
I need to see how my 457b is being managed. I don't think I've ever really looked at it. 😅
 
Took a loss now that SUNW declared bankruptcy and went over the counter. "Invest in solar" my boss hinted. I should probably stay away from solar :bangwall:
 
Vicinity said:
Took a loss now that SUNW declared bankruptcy and went over the counter. "Invest in solar" my boss hinted. I should probably stay away from solar :bangwall:
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Yeah, it happens. Sorry for you loss. I know it can be hard. I've had my share of losers too. Currently I'm sitting on some big losses on NIO and Alibaba (BABA). Should have stayed away from Chinese stocks.
 
I only have a couple of data points to contribute to this concept, but I've gone with the market leader in an emerging sector and had much better results. My solar play is ENPH and my AI is NVDA.

I don't trade though. I've tried that crap with Chinese stocks and biotech penny stocks during the pandemic and took small but stupid losses on them. If I had applied my current thinking back then, I would have bought MRNA instead of a couple of no-names trying to make a name for themselves.

ENPH and NVDA are both long-term holds. I've held NVDA twice and had my current position in them since 2020 with unrealized gains of 1018%.
 
Irv said:
I only have a couple of data points to contribute to this concept, but I've gone with the market leader in an emerging sector and had much better results. My solar play is ENPH and my AI is NVDA.

I don't trade though. I've tried that crap with Chinese stocks and biotech penny stocks during the pandemic and took small but stupid losses on them. If I had applied my current thinking back then, I would have bought MRNA instead of a couple of no-names trying to make a name for themselves.

ENPH and NVDA are both long-term holds. I've held NVDA twice and had my current position in them since 2020 with unrealized gains of 1018%.
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Likewise. Knowing what I know now, I'd have never dabbled in the Chinese market.

From the first computer I bought with an Nvidia graphics card to today. It was obvious to me that NVDA was a (no pun intended) game changing player, from gaming then to cryptocurrency miners using their cards and now to the AI revolution. I only wish that I had more shares!

I've held NVDA since 2017 and now have unrealized gains of 2255%. I also plan to continue to hold.
 
Just a shady company doing shady things in the name of saving themselves money
gadgettendency.com

Tesla has been polluting water in Germany for a long time, which is why its plant may be closed.

The possible suspension of production at the plant of the American automaker Tesla due to a clear excess of permissible environmental pollution standards is reported by TASS, citing the German television channel N-tv. This information comes from a letter from the Strausberg-Erkner Water Supply...
gadgettendency.com gadgettendency.com

Well, I will admit that this made me chuckle and is probably the first good use/value i've seen with a Cybetruck
There are still thousands of $ of damage ($1900/front, $260 side) but at least the fuckers didn't get in.
electrek.co

Tesla Cybertruck's 'armor glass' stops break-in attempt caught on sentry mode

Tesla Cybertruck’s “armor glass” has managed to stop a break-in attempt caught on camera by the vehicle’s Sentry Mode. We...
electrek.co electrek.co

PS. This could very well be a marketing stunt. Even if it is, and it deters dirtbags from targeting these cars, well, that's a win for these donkey truck owners. Personally, I'd prefer if it became "widely known" out that there was $10K of platinum used as a bus bar in the battery box. if this was true (it's not), maybe these people would leave the Priuses alone and just electrocute themselves trying to steal from these uglier (than Prius) vehicles.
 
I joined a Lithium Ion Battery Class action sometime before 2020; just got my payment today of... $1.30

That's like 0.18% of the freight charges for my LION batteries for my EV project that I should receive on Monday.
But I paid for those batteries a while ago and the freight charges yesterday, so it's like I have a "green candle" for my net worth today? :)
 
Reddit just emailed me offering to let me buy shares up to 1,000 shares, without lockup, at $31-34/share at the IPO price. Of course, most everyone won't be allowed to buy all they want.

They are aiming at up to offer 22m shares -- 15.3M class A common shares and 6.7M from insiders


I'm tempted, but I'm not confident there will be a pop with this one.
It almost feels like the existing VC investors, who also aren't subject to lockup, will use the users as "exit liquidity". Would you buy into it?
 
Reddit is a joke. The only social media stock that's been worth a damn is FB, and that's only on the strength of their advertising platform. Social media in and of itself is not a profitable business, and that's before you have the likes of pro-consumer rights assholes like me installing ad blockers, blocking tracking cookies, and running third-party apps on all my devices and some of my family's.
 
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Irv said:
Reddit is a joke. The only social media stock that's been worth a damn is FB, and that's only on the strength of their advertising platform. Social media in and of itself is not a profitable business, and that's before you have the likes of pro-consumer rights assholes like me installing ad blockers, blocking tracking cookies, and running third-party apps on all my devices and some of my family's.
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I was going to say, how in the fuck does reddit even make money? I've never seen an ad ever, I mean I have adblocker on every device I have but I'm sure I've browsed a reddit thread or two hundred without them lol

Side rant Reddit's moderators are colossal fucking hypersensitive pissants too, I got banned twice from different subreddits simply for being subscribed to one of the notorious ones. I didn't even post, I just lurked for the jokes!
 
  • Agree
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