Investing megathread extravaganza

[DaFace]

A place to talk about investing stuff.

[scho63]

Originally Posted by lewdog

**** yes! I’m with TD and been paying $6.95.

When TD Ameritrade took over Scottrade, I quit my account. I HATED TD and their platform.

Scottrade was the best I've ever seen and their Java applet for real time quotes was incredible. I had immediate executions on trades, their bank account tied to my Visa card was second to none and better than most banks, and easy to get my money in and out of their account.

[jerryaldini]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

I'm with both, but my last equity trade was commission free thanks to Schwab's ETFs.

Which makes me wonder..

This is gonna be great for retail ETF usage and further erode mutual funds.

[lewdog]

Let’s ride!!!

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by jerryaldini

This is gonna be great for retail ETF usage and further erode mutual funds.

Which might be bad for overall price efficiency if all the money pours in to indexed ETFs.

[Rain Man]

Etrade is now down to zero. I just need Fidelity to do it now, and I'll be golden.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/02/inves...ons/index.html

[MahiMike]

Can anyone recommend a budgeting app w/drag and drop capability? We were using EveryDollar from Dave Ramsey and loved it. Problem is, my little credit union isn't letting us connect to the app any longer.

The great feature with it was a drag and drop function to move each transaction over to the category in the budget it went with.

Any other apps like that?

[ChiliConCarnage]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Etrade is now down to zero. I just need Fidelity to do it now, and I'll be golden.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/fidelit...ro-11570680060

I thought they might hold out a while and see if it hurt them much. Both Fidelity and Vanguard make a lot through corporate retirement accounts. Maybe they'd collected enough feedback already from ppl willing to transfer

[-King-]

What's worth putting 2500 on right now? This is a my small portfolio right now should I just add on to one of these or buy something else? And should I keep FBIOX? It's been pretty shitty lately after going going up at the beginning of the year. I'm a novice when it comes to all of this so please dumb down your advice for me lol.

[Amnorix]

So you have both the Fidelity and Vanguard total market funds. Not sure why, but whatever. Beyond that, you have a sector specific fund (biotech) and a few random stocks.

I personally like index mutual funds (or ETFs) unless you really plan to work the market -- track your stocks, figure out when it might be a good time to sell any specific stock, etc. Most of us aren't going to do that, which means that getting a wide range of stocks via a mutual fund or ETF makes sense. I would probably invest the money in a 500 index fund, or ETF.

I'm not much of a fan of sector funds unless you've done your homework on it. Your portfolio just doesn't seem large enough to dabble in quite that way.

Rain Man and I quite like investing in dividend yielding stocks. There are several you could consider. We both like MPW, which is a REIT (and therefore required to distribute most profits via dividends) which owns property rented by medical professionals (a field not likely to shrink in the near future, unlike malls). MPW is at the top of the range for its price over the last year, however, so it's not cheap at the moment or anything.

Hope this helps (or at least gives you some options to research and consider).

[-King-]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

So you have both the Fidelity and Vanguard total market funds. Not sure why, but whatever. Beyond that, you have a sector specific fund (biotech) and a few random stocks.

I personally like index mutual funds (or ETFs) unless you really plan to work the market -- track your stocks, figure out when it might be a good time to sell any specific stock, etc. Most of us aren't going to do that, which means that getting a wide range of stocks via a mutual fund or ETF makes sense. I would probably invest the money in a 500 index fund, or ETF.

I'm not much of a fan of sector funds unless you've done your homework on it. Your portfolio just doesn't seem large enough to dabble in quite that way.

Rain Man and I quite like investing in dividend yielding stocks. There are several you could consider. We both like MPW, which is a REIT (and therefore required to distribute most profits via dividends) which owns property rented by medical professionals (a field not likely to shrink in the near future, unlike malls). MPW is at the top of the range for its price over the last year, however, so it's not cheap at the moment or anything.

Hope this helps (or at least gives you some options to research and consider).

I have both Fidelity and the vanguard because my whole strategy is to just follow what I hear other smart people recommending. My sister recommended the fidelity find and I think I read about VTI on here lol. Like I said, I'm a novice so not too much of my own research or knowledge goes into it. I just see a recommendation, do about 10 minutes of reading up on it and that's basically it.

When I get some time today I'll try to do more than my usual 15 minutes of reading up on MPW. And as far as stocks vs funds, yeah I'm not interested at all in buying and selling and trying to time markets. Just want to put money in and see a steady return.

[TwistedChief]

Originally Posted by -King-

What's worth putting 2500 on right now? This is a my small portfolio right now should I just add on to one of these or buy something else? And should I keep FBIOX? It's been pretty shitty lately after going going up at the beginning of the year. I'm a novice when it comes to all of this so please dumb down your advice for me lol.

I personally never invest in anything but the most broad index funds. So if you have a longer-term horizon and don't have a great deal of conviction in any asset class/sector/stock in particular, my vote would be FSKAX or VTI.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by -King-

What's worth putting 2500 on right now? This is a my small portfolio right now should I just add on to one of these or buy something else? And should I keep FBIOX? It's been pretty shitty lately after going going up at the beginning of the year. I'm a novice when it comes to all of this so please dumb down your advice for me lol.

That an "interesting" mix if that's your entire portfolio.

[RunKC]

Someone talk to me about owning vs renting. I’ve always been told my whole life that owning a home is “great bc you keep your equity!”

I’ve owned my house for almost 4 years and the “equity” I’m getting on it is shit compared to the money I’ve had to spend to fix shit in a brand new house when I moved in.

It’s to the point where I’m thinking **** it. I’m close to selling this damn house and renting so I won’t have to spend a lot of money every year paying to fix the goddamn thing.

Oh and then when I sell the goddamn thing the realtor gets 6%.

Owning feels like such a sham.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by -King-

I have both Fidelity and the vanguard because my whole strategy is to just follow what I hear other smart people recommending. My sister recommended the fidelity find and I think I read about VTI on here lol. Like I said, I'm a novice so not too much of my own research or knowledge goes into it. I just see a recommendation, do about 10 minutes of reading up on it and that's basically it.

When I get some time today I'll try to do more than my usual 15 minutes of reading up on MPW. And as far as stocks vs funds, yeah I'm not interested at all in buying and selling and trying to time markets. Just want to put money in and see a steady return.

Focusing on the second paragraph -- I'd stick to low very cost mutual funds, which generally means index funds, or ETFs which are a type of stock which tracks a group of stocks. It's basically an even lower cost way to invest in an index.

The upside to ETFs is no fees. The downside is that dividends are not automatically reinvested.

For now, I'd go 50/50 with your money -- a total market index (which you already have) and a 500 index, which tracks the largest companies. The two are not the same by any stretch.

This is assuming you have a long investing horizon, of course (in other words, that you're pretty young, say under 40) and can stomach the bad year or three that will inevitably happen and just ride it out.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Someone talk to me about owning vs renting. I’ve alwaya been told my whole life that owning a home is “great bc you keep your equity!”

I’ve owned my house for almost 4 years and the “equity” I’m getting on it is shit compared to the money I’ve had to spend to fix shit in a brand new house when I moved in.

It’s to the point where I’m thinking **** it. I’m close to seeking this damn house and renting so I won’t have to spend a lot of money every year paying to fix the goddamn thing.

Oh and then when I sell the goddamn thing the realtor gets 6%.

Owning feels like such a sham.

You need to also own a rental so all your home repairs become tax deductible.

The main thing about owning is that one day your home is paid off and nobody can ever take it from you so you have that security. If you rent , you rent for life.

And as far as repairs you can do what I do and don't fix shit. Unless its a broken water line.