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Investing update.
May. 7th, 2016 05:59 pmSo, a year ago I began DIY investing.
At my class level our stereotype of a stock investor is some wheelie dealie guy, buying and selling stocks in a badly suited greasy frenzy and the only stories we hear about the stock market are when someone gets taken to the cleaners by a con artist. So there is a lot of fear. There is also distrust of bank-mediated stock participation through mutual funds because most of those "financial advisors" make their money by how many times you buy and sell, not by how much you earn.
I have discovered that one doesn't have to buy & sell. One can buy and hold and get dividends. This works even when the stock price dives significantly. At one point, on paper, the money value of my stocks had dropped by a fifth - but I continued to receive dividends. Also, recovery is irregular. My portfolio is technically in the black again - but this is because one of my stock prices has gone nuts - and some of them are still below what I paid for them. But: I am continuing to get dividends.
I have now come to completely accept as true something that I marvelled at earlier: the rock solid belief that the stock market may be daily volatile but it will return from drops to continue to rise. I think I believe this now because the day that the stock market system actually falls over never to return (which will happen: everything ends) will also be the day the whole financial system falls completely apart and it won't matter where your money is.
I wish I could have done this earlier, but I needed the age of internet. I can find out just about anything about any company, so I am not reliant on smooth talkers. I have an online do it yourself account so that nobody mediates between me and my mistakes. I know that if I had been brave enough as a young woman to find a broker to invest through, I would have fallen prey to well-intentioned paternalism where some stock purchases would not have been executed "for your own good" and others would have been made so that I wouldn't have had to bother my pretty head. (Seriously, this sort of thing was seldom done out of malice - or at least not personal malice - but Father Knows Best was genuinely a thing that coud be exercized by any man over any woman in any circumstances at anytime.)
But it has only been a year, with just a tiny stock wobble, so we will see what I think when one of my stocks actually fails completely. Naturally, I think I have picked stocks that won't do that - but I suspect everyone believes that right up to the moment it is no longer true.
No matter what else is true - this beats the pants off bank interest.
http://agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com/162899.html
http://agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com/163448.html
and I'm here to report that this is still the best option available.At my class level our stereotype of a stock investor is some wheelie dealie guy, buying and selling stocks in a badly suited greasy frenzy and the only stories we hear about the stock market are when someone gets taken to the cleaners by a con artist. So there is a lot of fear. There is also distrust of bank-mediated stock participation through mutual funds because most of those "financial advisors" make their money by how many times you buy and sell, not by how much you earn.
I have discovered that one doesn't have to buy & sell. One can buy and hold and get dividends. This works even when the stock price dives significantly. At one point, on paper, the money value of my stocks had dropped by a fifth - but I continued to receive dividends. Also, recovery is irregular. My portfolio is technically in the black again - but this is because one of my stock prices has gone nuts - and some of them are still below what I paid for them. But: I am continuing to get dividends.
I have now come to completely accept as true something that I marvelled at earlier: the rock solid belief that the stock market may be daily volatile but it will return from drops to continue to rise. I think I believe this now because the day that the stock market system actually falls over never to return (which will happen: everything ends) will also be the day the whole financial system falls completely apart and it won't matter where your money is.
I wish I could have done this earlier, but I needed the age of internet. I can find out just about anything about any company, so I am not reliant on smooth talkers. I have an online do it yourself account so that nobody mediates between me and my mistakes. I know that if I had been brave enough as a young woman to find a broker to invest through, I would have fallen prey to well-intentioned paternalism where some stock purchases would not have been executed "for your own good" and others would have been made so that I wouldn't have had to bother my pretty head. (Seriously, this sort of thing was seldom done out of malice - or at least not personal malice - but Father Knows Best was genuinely a thing that coud be exercized by any man over any woman in any circumstances at anytime.)
But it has only been a year, with just a tiny stock wobble, so we will see what I think when one of my stocks actually fails completely. Naturally, I think I have picked stocks that won't do that - but I suspect everyone believes that right up to the moment it is no longer true.
No matter what else is true - this beats the pants off bank interest.
