Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The single most powerful factor behind successful investing?

That was my underlying point. Assets build wealth, not the stock market. You may hit a few years worth of up an up market if you're lucky.

I know loads of folks with huge $$$$. None of them made it playing the market.

I bought this book in April 2015 and converted my 401(K) and both IRAs to it. I have been very pleased with the results, especially how they handled the Aug 2015 correction. Things are really beginning to pick up steam now. Thurman has an office here in OKC, and I am going to stop by and talk to him about becoming our advisor. My wife is a little antsy about everything if I were to kick the bucket.






The All-Weather Retirement Portfolio: Your post-retirement investment guide to a worry-free income for life Paperback – March 23, 2015
by Randy L. Thurman

You can have it all--not just more income to spend in your retirement years, but also the peace of mind that comes from knowing that, no matter what happens in the outside world, you've done all you can do to have a worry-free income for life.

In this book you'll find:
- 9 steps to build a portfolio that will survive the Perfect Financial Storm, so you can stop worrying about the economy, the latest financial catastrophe, or what the market did today

- 2 questions you must answer before you invest another dime

- Why investing after you retire is radically different from investing while you're still working

- The life expectancy of 6 key types of investments--and what you can do to make them last as long as you do

- The 10 essential questions you must ask a financial advisor--before you hire one

- The exact amount of money you can withdraw without worry or guilt, knowing you've applied the best available research to ensure you'll never run out of money.

http://www.amazon.com/All-Weather-R...rds=The+All-Weather+Retirement+Portfolio

The way to certainly get what the market produces is to be in index funds.

Since we are talking about what Warren thinks.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/warren-buffett-to-heirs-put-my-estate-in-index-funds-2014-03-13

The exercise is not about being mega wealthy

Though first we need to define wealthy

I used to think havin a million meant you were set for life and a million in 76 when I entered the work force for real would have pretty well had you there

A million today?

Hardly a lot of security in that number from my perspective.

2 million? Better, probably comfortable, but not wealthy

Rocky & Ed have given us examples of real world investing not touting to be the smartest guys in the room but disciplined and how systematic investing has allowed them to be very comfortable if indeed not above average comfortable in their results and subsequent lifestyles for when they no longer wanted to be part of the workforce


It's salt in the wound to most of us this age because if we haven't done the same its too late for us to match their results

I've not made much money in the market. I've avoided some big losses but I've avoided even bigger gains

I'm a control freak, and not very trusting of huge institutions be it wall st. Big banks or religious institutions

I've invested in our own businesses and re and we've been fortunate with the returns on both


But I believe even if it's too late for many of us to follow Ed & Rocky's plan, there's a valuable lesson to be gained from observing their real world results

We've got a dab of money & plan on setting up Roth IRAs in no to low load mutual funds for our kids

If the world goes to hades it won't matter if that money is lost, but if the world continues to roll on I expect commerce to play a role in the world

Owning shares of good companies will probably still play a vital role in most people's ability to retire in comfort if not wealth

I am limited in what i can say on these kind of posts for various reasons but i agree with buffett. The worst action usually is no action.
However, i remember a meeting i had to sit in on some years ago when a reprentative of a very well known mutual fund company was doint their spiel.
they had pretty charts, everything, and showed what 10k invested in say 1932 would have done up to the present day if put into three of their funds. I am sure it was all quite true.
I didn't win any favors with my remark, when did the funds even gain back to their original investment amount? Answer was sometime in the 40's. And my remark, okay well what if i was 70 in 1932 and did that i wouldn't be whole until well after i was worm foot. They were kind of quiet.
There is a lot of simplicity in many ways in approaching investing, and more than one right way. Luck has something to do with it. But the absolute best way to not gain anything is to do nothing.

Ron, your point is absolutely valid. The stock market typically makes it's gains in very short, intense spurts, and there are long, long stretches in between where it does nothing. If you have a 10 year horizon, the stock market is very risky. 15 years? Much less risky. 20 years? I'm all in.

On the other hand, even 20 years is no guarantee. The Japanese stock market was at 35,000 in the late 80's. Now it's at 17,000 something. If you have all your money in the Japanese stock market even if you were 50 in 1990, you are SCREWED.

So, diversification is needed. We can still do that with index funds, like international funds, we can do that with real estate. Not a big fan of commodities, metals and such. Some people like collectables, but I would limit my exposure there. Pretty fickle in most cases.

Ron, what you witnessed is what I call DECEIT BY SELECTIVE REPORTING.

I would have asked that rep how many funds they started that were no longer in existence because they had been selectively flushed, so only rosy ones could be advertised.

Late in life I learned THE WAY from a generous, kind and brilliant man.

PAY YOURSELF FIRST.

Set aside--never to be spent--1 dime from every dollar you receive from any source . At first the $ can go into a coffee can; then perhaps a savings account; then a stock account; then real estate, a business, etc, for example. This 10% never gets spent--only invested--an investment against which you can collateralize a loan, if you wish.

By paying yourself first, less than you might give to a disinterested waitress, you unfailingly become wealthy. It cannot fail. Even if some of your investments do poorly, others will take up the heavy lifting. You will never miss the dime you first removed from each dollar--it will still be there, working for you. You will quickly learn how to live on the 90 cents/dollar of income. And you will accumulate wealth and enjoy freedom you can now only imagine.

Thank me later.

No one's a bigger advocate than me on buying and holding firearms.

But you are correct that the numbers are not even close.
Your $185 invested in the S&P index in 1975 would provide more than enough to purchase 3 of those Pythons today (if you could find them, and before Uncle Sam taxed the crap out of your capital gain).

Oh, to be young again.

I'll thank you now on behalf of any young guys reading this.

it's indeed the first principle of financial freedom.


Richest Man in Babylon


got the book when I was 21-23 years old or so. Made a huge difference.

Sorry Bob, terrible advice. ;-{>8

Hey don't be telling Bob about luck


Bob knows luck



why if it were raining whores, Bob would get hit with a ????

A dick?

2l2q--thanks and you're welcome.

You'd think this would be easy to teach our young. But too many would rather get free chit from .gov.

I'm in the invest in ch!t you know something about camp. If you bought $1000 of nasdaq in 2000, you would $1000 today, with inflation about $600. I average 7%-10% annual returns buying, fixing, renting real estate depending on the market. Buy low sell high and manage your own rentals in between. It's a PITA and a lot of work, but I make my own decisions that control my outcome. wallstreet is a rigged game, and not in our favor.

Stormin, I don't disagree about investing in what you know.

Wallstreet is, however not a rigged game. If you buy an index fund, you will get what the market produces. Over time, it grows.


I must add, what is rigged is managed funds, picking stocks, and timing the market.

Sure are a lot of good posts here. I never did good in the market. I did good for a while 30 yrs ago , put it in Tech stocks in 2000 and lost what I gained. At 9.5% interest on my house , I thought , heck, pay the house . It's a9.5% guarantee. Now that my house wis payed for 7 yrs now. I am investing in the market. My biggest mistake was a bank talked me into loaded funds. ( FKUSX) in 9/2011. Bad move . Next , my wife that worked at a bank is where we went. More loaded Franklin funds. He at least steered us straight with half decent fund, but still loaded. Next, a referal from some friends. An investor in town, and more loaded funds, non traded reits and more loaded mutual funds loaded with oil in June 2014. ( guess how well that fund is doing) . I decided to go on my own with Fidelity . I was down 25K when I left the investment firm in Oct. 2015 . AS of last week I am dead even. Today 2-3 K ahead. I have y own portfolio I did mostly on my own. I am slowly going into index , ETF or stocks cause I learned very fast how expensive high load / expense ratios kill returns. Here is my portfolio. Is it normal or is it all wacked out?
My son is smarter than I . He has about 3K in a roth and barely 19 yrs , 1/2 BP, 1/2 FKDNX.

Here is my portfolio.

AGNC - Mortgage reit. 11% up about 10% or so . Bought 6 months ago. 13% div.

BP OIL 13% up 10% since bought 6 months ago 7.7% div.

ETGLX MID CAP growth 3% down 2% or so

fbiox BIOTECH 4.4% down 20% in since bought 1 yr ago

fbsox IT 3% up 3% in 6 months

FKINX OIL? BONDS 15.4% down 5% ( bought 2 yrs ago. OIL 5.4% div.

FMEIX madcap blend 1.2% even

focpx TECH growth 6.3% up 10%

FREL realestate (ETF) 1.4% up

fresh realestate 1.4% up

fsphx 1.4% down 10%

JAWWX world stocks 2.9% - 3% ?

PRBLX large cap blend. 19% May go into index fund + 10% in 4 months

NON traded reit American Capital realty 4%

GNL equity reit. 10% dead even , bought 2 yrs ago. 7.1% div.

I bought 10 shares of Berkshire Hathaway in 1966 after buying 5 of their (then new) permanent press shirts!. I paid about $22/share and in 6 months they went to $29 (a 30+% gain in 6 months!), so I sold them. Today, Berkshire Hathaway sells for $224,00/share!

Today, I only invest in index funds.

My wife and I started saving for retirement when we were 53 years old and worked until we were 71 and 70. We managed to invest 1/3 of our income and amassed a retirement nest egg of low-mid 7 figures when we retired. We do not touch this, instead we live on social security and my employer annuity. The "retirement" nest egg just keeps growing.

The secret was to live within our means, not buy new cars every few years (our are now 16 years old) and save. We were fortunate to have 2 decent incomes so we could save, but with sacrifice, anyone can do it.