Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Stock Market and Investing Too early

Ok, I'll start by saying I did good. Started with $10K and bought 51 shares of NVDA at $180. Sold at $423. I was thinking how great I did until it just kept climbing. I kept the $21500 in a money market for a couple months and got 5%. I bought 75 shares of META on the last earnings pull back at $180, sold a couple weeks ago at $370. Fast forward to today up huge. Dang, I missed that move, still have 25 shares but dang...am I alone in selling too early?

Shawn

I don't play that game and haven't for 39 years. I am pretty pleased with where I am.

Edm that's great, Im glad to hear you are pleased with where you are. I too am pleased with where I am. By game if you are referring to trading then yes, I play that game.

Shawn

Same answer, only 49 years.

So you just buy and hold and never sell or only buy mutual funds?

Shawn

I would guess one should be pretty conservative after 49 years of investing. I still have about 2-5 years until retirement. I have most of my retirement in boring mutual funds and bonds but I do like to dabble in individual stocks in a small portion of my Roth.
Thanks for the reply’s
Shawn

Not sure who you were asking, but here’s what I did.
I started with mutual funds only. I bought several different ones and spread my money around in different types.
After 2-3 years I bought some individual stocks, and added to some of the mutual funds. And I just kept doing this, when ever I received a bonus at work or had extra dollars that I could invest. I ended up with 15 or so individual stocks, about 10 funds and six tax free munis.
All of this was done with an investment firm, I didn’t sit at a computer and buy/sell, an investment advisor did it for me. That investment person made recommendations on what to buy or avoid. I met with him once a year and talked on the phone several times a year.
I did not buy and hold everything. If a fund or individual stock was not making a reasonable return “over time” and there was little reason to expect that would change, we sold it. But we were not churning, selling and buying on a monthly/ weekly basis because of a hunch or bad quarter. You have to be patient and be willing to go through come valleys.
In my view finding the right investment advisor/firm is critical. I worked with some executives that were highly successful. I asked them for recommendations on a financial advisor. That turned out well for me.
I made a typo above, 49 years should be 39 years.

Prior to my retirement in 2015 I managed my funds via Fidelity, my company's offering and who manages and distributes my pension since. Upon retirement I decided I no longer wanted to manage my Fidelity accounts and opted into pretty low cost managed accounts with Fidelity. I meet quarterly with my advisor, we tweak as I think and move on without worry.

All my funds are with Fidelity except a Charles Schwab account that is not for retirement. I am 52 and have my main 401K that I call the "nut". I it has two bond funds , a target date fund (2030), a growth fund and a Vanguard income fund. I don't mess with the nut and Ive had 10% going in there for 23 years. I also have a brokerage link account that allows me to invest in any product at Fidelity that is not stated in my 401K. I have 6% that goes into the brokerage link as my Roth 401K. This is where I buy individual stocks. I understand holding long term and I have some Ive had for years but with a growth stock I don't mind selling it it if its run too far too fast. Why would I hold it if it doubled only to watch it come back to a more reasonable value. If I were 59 1/2 I could retire today on my main 401K, the Roth is sort of icing on the cake and has been a lot of fun to buy and sell. We've never had an advisor but Ive met with three at different times, two at Fidelity and one at a private firm. Basically they told be I need more bonds and less growth I am not paying 1% for that. The saving part has been easy for me, I will probably seek some sort of professional help after I retire to help with tax advantages and the best way to disturb funds. I also have a defined pension that will be $1k a month from a previous career but I have to wait to 65 for that.

Shawn

If you have a pension that pays $41K a month, you have little too worry about unless you have an outrageous life style and a bunch of ex-wives.

Woops! Haha I wish, it will be $1k a month. I must have been still asleep. I corrected it thanks, I must have sounded like a blow hard

Shawn

Hopefully we all do what we do well informed.

cant go broke taking profits! chips have had a crazy run. I'd be nervous doing anything but day trading them at this point. Would it surprise me to see NVDA go over 1k. not a bit, but it wouldnt surprise me to see it go to 300 either. Meta another monster run. Its tough to watch them continue without you but as they say bulls make money, bears make money and pigs get slaughtered. The end of February is historically the weakest time of the year , so not a bad time to be in cash unless you trade both ways.

I'm managing my own accounts and trade daily, mostly options. been waiting for bredth to expand. been a long wait but I feel like the small crappers have to make a move sooner or later. RUT seems to be coming out of consolidation but trying not to force a trade there,as it looks like one stock is moving it, SMCI. The market keeps grinding higher, but in an unhealthy and speculative way.

JP Morgan said he made his fortune selling too soon so there’s that

Shawn

Baron Rothschild said the same thing.. wonder how they knew

I retired at 53 in 2015 and all is more than good with my planning. As noted, a very individual thing.