Thinking its time to dabble in the markets

Hey all.

So with the recent COVID-19 and OPEC situations, I'm thinking it might be time to test the market waters. I've got a 401k through my company, in which I make pre-tax and Roth contributions, meaning this is the extent of my exposure to any of this. I suspect that we will see a decline through April (just speculation) which I hope gives me to time to learn, and still hop on board.

I picked up a couple books on the subject, one being The Coffehouse Investor, which was a lot of pages that could have been condensed down to simply saying "invest in index funds, not individual stocks,bonds etc. And leave it alone". I think I should have just read the thing in the store and not bought it. I also have A Random Walk Down Wall Street, and hoping it will shed more light on the whole thing.

Anyone got any advice for a complete layman on where to start? If these books are just heavily laden with metaphors about ski trips, mountains, and the authors knowing every kind of person in every kind of situation, I'd rather skip out on it.

ETA: About the only things I do know are: Figure out what you're comfortable with in regard to losses, and Warren Buffet's "Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful" quote.

a reply to: Wardaddy454

Best advice possible...
Don't invest money you can't afford to lose.

And don't forget the taxes on any gains you make.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Oh yeah, I've been reading up on the taxes. So fun.

I opened up an Ally savings account last year to take advantage of their "savings buckets". And after distributing my money around, I created a "money to invest" bucket, so I guess that money is written off win or lose lol.

a reply to: Wardaddy454

tried asking this the other day and everyone just said buy gold stupid (which i have already)...not a very helpful bunch here.

so i did my own research here, Fidelity has a good platform for casual trading, which is what i wanted to do. you do need to avoid buying and selling stocks in the same day. that's called "Day trading" and has different rules/taxes and the SEC will come after your butt if they get wind of it.

don't use the robinhood app, its down again today.

originally posted by: smkymcnugget420
a reply to: Wardaddy454

tried asking this the other day and everyone just said buy gold stupid (which i have already)...not a very helpful bunch here.

so i did my own research here, Fidelity has a good platform for casual trading, which is what i wanted to do. you do need to avoid buying and selling stocks in the same day. that's called "Day trading" and has different rules/taxes and the SEC will come after your butt if they get wind of it.

don't use the robinhood app, its down again today.

I've been looking into Acorns, as I'm mostly thinking of buying and holding for a good while.

Although, there are a couple individual stocks I'm a little keen on in the tech sector that may go up pretty nicely in a couple years. It'd be nice to do something with those separately from any other portfolio.

Day trading, while very interesting, doesn't fit well with my job schedule.

a reply to: smkymcnugget420

not sure I'd trust Fidelity either

Fide lity customers freaked out Wednesday when a tech glitch caused their 401(k) balances to drop to $0

a reply to: Wardaddy454

yeah i basically just wanted to buy a couple novelty stocks to hold for a while and i wanted to get them while their cheap. i bought a bunch of silver at $40 spot and i've been kicking myself about it for a while... so this time, i'll buy the friggin dip, instead of the peak lol.

good luck with it!

a reply to: Wardaddy454

Try reading the Mr.Money Mustache blog. All of his financial principals might not be for you, but he has great investing posts.

a reply to: scojak

didn't see that one, thanks! it's been a toss up between etrade and fidelity, i think fidelity is a little cheaper and you can trade more options but i'm a total noob so i'm just looking for something basic and simple,

a reply to: Wardaddy454

Don't speculate. Buy solid companies that pay dividends and stay with them long term.

One guest on Varney & Company this morning recommended Amazon because of this Covid situation.

invest in companies that are obvious CIA fronts like Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon, Tesla.

Or prepare to lose your money cause the market is crashing and not everything will make it.

originally posted by: CharlesT
a reply to: Wardaddy454

Don't speculate. Buy solid companies that pay dividends and stay with them long term.

One guest on Varney & Company this morning recommended Amazon because of this Covid situation.

I'm mainly looking at Intel which is down to around $50 a share and AMD which is around $45 a share. Intel is having troubles right now, with the security exploits and their manufacturing processes for new architectures, but I expect them to bounce back by 2022 despite AMD catching them with their pants down. This is allowing AMD to quickly gain market share on the CPU side of things, so that with Apple potentially dropping Intel in favor of AMD, I do think AMD will be a good long term investment.

I know that sounds like speculation, but I've been keeping tabs on these things, since I was in the process of building a new computer.




ETA: I'm also looking into indexes. The Acorns ETFs seem to have a lot of the big companies like Apple and Amazon already. So maybe the double whammy could be lucrative.

a reply to: smkymcnugget420

Yeah, I'd like to have an acorns portfolio, the 401k, and then a couple novelty stocks off to the side, isolated from everything else. This panic seems like a good opportunity.

Good luck to you as well!

originally posted by: Atsbhct
a reply to: Wardaddy454

Try reading the Mr.Money Mustache blog. All of his financial principals might not be for you, but he has great investing posts.

Thanks, I'll look into him!

Ok, here's a question I've just been trying to google. What are the potential ramifications, if any, of having my job's 401k with Company A, and me setting up a portfolio with Company B?

a reply to: Wardaddy454

I was thinking the same thing driving home. If the market continues to go down i need some advice on what stocks to pick up. This could be a damn good panic and i have disposable income to throw at some good picks. Hoping the thread has some good stock picks i can look into.

V

a reply to: Wardaddy454

To answer your question...There are no ramifications to using seperate companies.

Also, I highly recommend Fidelity. I was where you are two years ago, and I found Fidelity the easiest to use for rookies. Still using it now. Look into their Zero fee funds. (No I am not a Fidelity employee)

Index stocks are the way to go, you spread your risk and it allows you to get a little piece of all the big boys for a fraction of the cost.

Final thought - Don't waste your money on those "MAKE 232% PROFITS OVERNIGHT!!" schemes. They don't pay off, trust me.

originally posted by: TodoMedio
a reply to: Wardaddy454

To answer your question...There are no ramifications to using seperate companies.

Also, I highly recommend Fidelity. I was where you are two years ago, and I found Fidelity the easiest to use for rookies. Still using it now. Look into their Zero fee funds. (No I am not a Fidelity employee)

Index stocks are the way to go, you spread your risk and it allows you to get a little piece of all the big boys for a fraction of the cost.

Final thought - Don't waste your money on those "MAKE 232% PROFITS OVERNIGHT!!" schemes. They don't pay off, trust me.

Wasn't thinking about those schemes lol. I just have a decent feeling on AMD and Intel stocks, based on what I've been reading coming out of those companies. Heck, I was even thinking about Ford, which pays a decent dividend and is only $6. It might jump up some once they finish their restructuring in the NA market, and when the Bronco and Bronco II come out.

I'll give Fidelity a look, though its hard to pass up Vanguard currently.

a reply to: Wardaddy454

Vanguard is hard to pass up, i will admit that. However, they required a 3k minimum deposit on most indexes, and I wasn't willing to risk it at that time due to my lack of knowledge.

One thing to consider (which I don't think you covered in this post) is what your timeframe is for these investments. I'm on a 15 to 20 year track, so I can afford to take risk. In fact, even though I am -13% YTD, I just pumped some of my emergency fund into the market. I will thank my future self for the returns

I went the dividend route for awhile, but you really need about a 20k minimum investment for it to have an impact. However....there are some stocks that pay monthly dividends, and it's kinda fun to get that "paycheck" every month.

Best of luck with whatever you decide!