I just opened a Roth IRA, and am ready to invest in the stock market

[jeeper]

Well, I've sold all my current holdings on Robinhood (SRAC, SNDL & MRNA) and I'm moving my play money to a Roth with TD Ameritrade, for tax reasons. I reached a point where I'm playing with some pretty decent figures and would like growth to be tax-free from here on!

I don't want to pry into your personal finances on the WWW. But are you willing to share your overall % growth for the year? Wondering if my paid advisor is tracking with your success.

 

[N-Smooth]

I don't want to pry into your personal finances on the WWW. But are you willing to share your overall % growth for the year? Wondering if my paid advisor is tracking with your success.

 

[Greg]

Talking about money is fairly taboo to begin with and I don't want to come across as bragging. I will say that I'm still learning and don't claim to be any kind of investing or stock market guru. I'm playing and having fun, figuring it out as I go. My approach with the Robinhood account has changed from when it started... initially it was long term, but it's pretty much shifted to risky daytrading. I understand that I could easily loose what I've made with one bad buy.

This year has been pretty crazy and with the Fed dumping money into the system to keep a recession at bay, the stock market has done VERY well.

I have lost money along the way, matter of fact I lost $800 a few days ago, buying in at the wrong time. But I've made more than I've lost, so I'll take the win.

To answer your question, I'm up 65% at the moment. So.... what's your paid advisor at?

When my Robinhood account hit over $10k , I decided it was time to move to a Roth.

 

[jeeper]

To answer your question, I'm up 65% at the moment. So.... what's your paid advisor at?

HOLY SHIIIIZZZZZZ !! Way to go man! that is incredible.

I looked it up, and I am 17.65% YTD.

 

[Greg]

HOLY SHIIIIZZZZZZ !! Way to go man! that is incredible.

I looked it up, and I am 17.65% YTD.

The secret is not really knowing what you're doing...

17.6% is still pretty damn good!

 

[jeeper]

Talking about money is fairly taboo

This has always bothered me. We all learn from talking about things. Car problems? Ask a friend. Home repair issues? Ask a friend. Legal advise? Ask a friend. What pet to buy? Ask a friend. How do deal with and manage money? Keep that silent!

In my family, finances are an open book. We talk exact numbers and ideas all the time. I think it is the only way to help each other move ahead. Keeping it secret is why no one knows what they heck they are doing. /rant off.

 

[jeeper]

The secret is not really knowing what you're doing...

17.6% is still pretty damn good!

Ha. I was going to send my money to you to manage from now on.

 

[Greg]

This has always bothered me. We all learn from talking about things. Car problems? Ask a friend. Home repair issues? Ask a friend. Legal advise? Ask a friend. What pet to buy? Ask a friend. How do deal with and manage money? Keep that silent!

In my family, finances are an open book. We talk exact numbers and ideas all the time. I think it is the only way to help each other move ahead. Keeping it secret is why no one knows what they heck they are doing. /rant off.

Totally agree and IMO talking about money as part of a kids education should be a priority. Understanding how things work like interest, credit scores, savings, investing etc, etc are often hard lessons to learn.

 

[Greg]

Ha. I was going to send my money to you to manage from now on.

Don't do that, I'd probably just loose it.

 

[mbryson]

Totally agree and IMO talking about money as part of a kids education should be a priority. Understanding how things work like interest, credit scores, savings, investing etc, etc are often hard lessons to learn.

My wife and I have taken this to our adult and soon to be adult kids. I do tell them the following:

• We have screwed up plenty of financial things and will share what's worked and what hasn't
• We understand that you (and your partner assuming married or ???) will listen to our stories and make your own choices
• We do have some strong success over the past 12-15 years and seem to be moving in a great direction acting as a team and discussing goals for each of us and cumulative goals for us as a couple
• We will be honest and frank about finances. What you do with that information is not our responsibility and we wish you the best
• Seek education from accredited sources. Your responsibility is finding accredited sources
• My wife offers her accounting services to the kids to help teach them how to track, spend and save their cash for their purposes. We hope they are 10-20 years ahead of us as they go through their financial lives.

As I've mentioned before, not much was said in our homes growing up about finance. I did watch my dad make and lose quite a few $ through the years.

 

[anderson750]

Talking about money is fairly taboo to begin with and I don't want to come across as bragging. I will say that I'm still learning and don't claim to be any kind of investing or stock market guru. I'm playing and having fun, figuring it out as I go. My approach with the Robinhood account has changed from when it started... initially it was long term, but it's pretty much shifted to risky daytrading. I understand that I could easily loose what I've made with one bad buy.

This year has been pretty crazy and with the Fed dumping money into the system to keep a recession at bay, the stock market has done VERY well.

I have lost money along the way, matter of fact I lost $800 a few days ago, buying in at the wrong time. But I've made more than I've lost, so I'll take the win.

To answer your question, I'm up 65% at the moment. So.... what's your paid advisor at?

When my Robinhood account hit over $10k , I decided it was time to move to a Roth.

You out did my professional who called me about being up 50%. Taxes are going to really hurt next year if that all ends up in capital gains on top of some mineral income that was paid out his year.

This has always bothered me. We all learn from talking about things. Car problems? Ask a friend. Home repair issues? Ask a friend. Legal advise? Ask a friend. What pet to buy? Ask a friend. How do deal with and manage money? Keep that silent!

In my family, finances are an open book. We talk exact numbers and ideas all the time. I think it is the only way to help each other move ahead. Keeping it secret is why no one knows what they heck they are doing. /rant off.

I have always been very open with my employee's about the financial condition of my company in general terms. I have given them an overview of what our normal monthly operating costs are. I am more blunt with my sales staff when it comes to collections. I have told them more than once that I do not like to operate off of savings. Maybe they can get by with a few hundred dollars less commission in their checks, but being 10k short to cover expenses will not work well for very long even if there is money in the bank to cover it all.

 

[Herzog]

I will say I'm running small potatoes compared to Greg but I'm happy I'm finally learning. I hope to make the same move to a Roth sometime next year.

 

[TurboMinivan]

it's pretty much shifted to risky daytrading. I understand that I could easily loose what I've made with one bad buy.

The few times I've had someone talk to me about investing, they end up asking me about day trading--that seems to be what most people nowadays envision when they hear the word investing. Personally, I avoid it like the plague and suggest that others do the same. I've found a few studies on the topic, and depending which one you read 95%-99% of those who actively day trade for any significant length of time end up losing money. In February 2019, Charlie Munger famously said, “If you take the modern world where people are trying to teach you to come in and [day trade], well I regard that as roughly equivalent to trying to induce a bunch of young people to start off on heroin.” At my stage of the game, I just can't take that risk.

I'm glad that (a) you know the substantial risks to day trading and (b) are willing to accept any losses incurred from doing so, Greg. I am delighted to hear of your successes, and I sincerely hope they continue.

To answer your question, I'm up 65% at the moment. So.... what's your paid advisor at?

I looked it up, and I am 17.65% YTD.

Well I don't have any paid advisors, but this post made me curious enough to check the YTD performance of my accounts.

401(k): +20.54% (this money is currently spread among 4 mutual funds, 3 index funds, and 1 real estate fund)

HSA: +27.5% (this money is spread among 5 Vanguard index funds)

Roth: E-Trade doesn't give me an option to see this like the above accounts--it only shows realized gains/losses after I've sold shares. Perhaps that's just as well, as my only goal with this account is to create passive income. On that front, my YTD dividends received plus my projected payments for the rest of December will put me at $508.13 for the year. I think that's a good start considering I only opened this account 13 months ago.

 

[TurboMinivan]

I hope to make the same move to a Roth sometime next year.

Open your account this year! Even if you only make an initial deposit of $10, open the account in 2020. You'll be allowed to make contributions for the 2020 year up to April 15th, 2021 and that's very important since you are so limited in the amount you can contribute to a Roth IRA. If you wait and open your account in 2021, you'll miss another entire year's worth of deposits plus all the gains those funds would see in the future.

 

[Herzog]

Open your account this year! Even if you only make an initial deposit of $10, open the account in 2020. You'll be allowed to make contributions for the 2020 year up to April 15th, 2021 and that's very important since you are so limited in the amount you can contribute to a Roth IRA. If you wait and open your account in 2021, you'll miss another entire year's worth of deposits plus all the gains those funds would see in the future.

Thanks for that advice! I'll look into it!

 

[mesha]

I have never understood the don't talk about money thing. Probably because my pay is public record and can be looked up by anyone .

I have noticed the middle class doesn't talk about money. Poor people talk about it (not having it) and rich people talk about it all the time. The upper class understands that talking about it is how they get more ahead. I sat at a dinner one time with a very affluent family and they all pulled out their portfolios and discussed where to move their money and what was going well. Had a full on financial literacy discussion at the dinner table. Of course, my 20 year old self had nothing to add since I had no idea what they were talking about because my parents didn't teach me about money. Even the 8 year old kids had a portfolio. I remember the high school kid discussing with the parents what they thought about him buying a used BMW with the money he had earned. Can you imagine buying 30-40k car in high school with cash from interest you earned! Of course his dad helped him know what moves, but the money was the sons.

I just opened a Prosper account to give that a try. I am trying my best to learn and not have my kids grow up as money dumb as I did.

 

[N-Smooth]

I discuss it with my kids. My 7 y/o asked how much money we have and I told him and he was like 😳. For the next little while he was saying in his prayers "thanks for all the money we have" and he also kept saying we should buy random stuff since we have the money. That led to two more important conversations with him

My parents raised me to be financially responsible but there's always room for improvement with my kids.

 

[mesha]

I discuss it with my kids. My 7 y/o asked how much money we have and I told him and he was like 😳. For the next little while he was saying in his prayers "thanks for all the money we have" and he also kept saying we should buy random stuff since we have the money. That led to two more important conversations with him

My parents raised me to be financially responsible but there's always room for improvement with my kids.

My parents tried to teach me to be financially responsible, they just never taught me to invest my money. You are lucky.

 

[RockChucker]

My parents tried to teach me to be financially responsible, they just never taught me to invest my money. You are lucky.

Me too. And that's because they haven't done investing themselves because they didn't learn from their parents, etc...

 

[TurboMinivan]

In my year of studying about investing, I've come across many older folks who told stories about starting their kids off right by beginning to invest with/for them at a young age. On the opposite side of the coin, I've also seen numerous younger people who had received stocks/investments when they were very young and they tell how this got them off to a great financial start for their lives. On more than one occasion while hearing about these experiences, I've thought how it would be neat for me to start my own child(ren) on this positive path... but, let's be honest: at this point, the odds of me raising a child are pretty slim.

Meanwhile, my younger sister in Ohio is in the process of buying a car for her soon-to-turn-16 only child. This sister and her husband are able to make ends meet, but they are far from being "well off" financially. A week or so ago, the idea hit me: I'm going to buy a few shares of stock for her daughter. This required my sister to open a joint custodial brokerage account, and then link it to a bank account and verify it. Once that was all done, yesterday I called her up and guided her through the process of buying my niece five shares of AT&T. (I'm not saying AT&T is the single best investment you can make; this stock simply met a variety of criteria that made it my choice for this transaction.) Once the purchase was complete, I immediately wired my sister the funds required to cover the buy.

(BTW: this was all new to my sister, who knows nothing about investing. Needless to say, I answered many questions and explained a variety of things to her throughout this process. When I drive out there to deliver the car at the end of January, I'm sure we'll sit down and discuss the topic in much more depth.)

My niece still does not know about this. Her birthday is January 12th. That is the day she'll learn about it.