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In the early days I was in an investing club.
20 or so years ago I organized a marketing club for a bunch of farmers. Everyone put $500 in and we traded commodities, options, etc., as a group.
Trying to figure how an investing club along the same lines would work. You could take "pool money" and use it for passive index investing and let each member do his or her own thing and compare notes. Problem is a) you'd need a lot more than $500 to work with, unless you just did it as a hypothetical - there used to be stock market games around and b) stocks investing is much longer-term than grain. Yes, there are some longer term cycles and supply-demand patterns but 90% of it is really working within a growing season (said growing season being from March 1 - December 1).
There was a nearby Investing Meetup Club I thought about joining but they had a set system I wasn't sold on.
One of the more rewarding things I ever did was bully a dozen of my military subordinates into spending a few hours with me one on one learning the very basics of what they could do with their 401K plan.
I have done this as well with younger colleagues. Fidelity manages our retirement funds and will automatically put you into one of the Vanguard retirement funds - mine was a 2025 when they opened this up (until a dozen or so years ago we were stuck with TIAA-CREF). But we have the option of self-directing our investments; MFs only, no individual stocks. So I'd talk about what I do and how much better they can do if they realize they're in it for the long haul and go with funds that rate as higher risk rather than stick with the default. It's pretty easy to look at 3- and 5-year return charts and Morningstar risk ratings in a few minutes.
Fenders, I'm glad you're feeling better.
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I can't believe how cavalierly we (as a society) are content to just churn out wave after wave of financially illiterate people.
A speaker at a conference I was at a couple of years ago said that it looked like Gen Z would be better with money than previous generations. She was a researcher who was working on generational cycles and found that general characteristics repeat over time. Trying to remember, believe she said there were 5 cycles and Z would be like the Silent Generation. Guess we won't know if the money characteristic holds true until a couple of decades from now.
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The investing club I was in did use a set format from a national investing club. Most of us were new so that was OK. It was a good assessment of company financials. Better for value and dividend stocks. Biggest problem was it was too conservative. You just about needed a market crash to get a buy signal. In retrospect the market was not overly valued at the time. It was well before the tech bubble years.
As far as mentoring, I found most of them had all their money in short-term GOV securities because they were safe, or they had no idea why they allocated the way they did. Most of them were saving, but there was no plan. Told them they should call me even after I retired if the market scared them enough to contemplate cashing out.
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(12-25-2021, 09:16 AM)ken-do-nim Wrote: You never know who is living paycheck to paycheck. Whether you have a $50,000 portfolio, a $250,000 portfolio, or higher, we are way, way ahead of most people.
That's a discussion I had with my Significant Other a few years ago. I kept hearing "How does So-And-So afford that?" (Typically a new luxury car.)
My response evolved to: All we can see is their spending. We have no idea how much money they're making, or where the money is coming from to buy that car. They have inherited it, or more likely, they borrowed it. We don't know if they're making ends meet or not.
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(12-28-2021, 07:36 PM)Christinebitg Wrote: (12-25-2021, 09:16 AM)ken-do-nim Wrote: You never know who is living paycheck to paycheck. Whether you have a $50,000 portfolio, a $250,000 portfolio, or higher, we are way, way ahead of most people.
That's a discussion I had with my Significant Other a few years ago. I kept hearing "How does So-And-So afford that?" (Typically a new luxury car.)
My response evolved to: All we can see is their spending. We have no idea how much money they're making, or where the money is coming from to buy that car. They have inherited it, or more likely, they borrowed it. We don't know if they're making ends meet or not.
I was once at a dinner party at a fairly upscale condominium in Brookline. There was no way I could have afforded it on my software engineer salary, and the hostess had some job that paid less. So I just outright asked her how she managed to buy it. It turns out that she'd been in a car accident, sent right through the windshield of her car and landed on the street, and the settlement in her favor was massive.
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12-28-2021, 10:45 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-29-2021, 08:18 AM by fenders53.)
Autos can be deceiving as when. Some of my young employees would spend $60k on a pickup which exceeded a year of their gross pay. Trade it in every few years and take a bath on depreciation. Raise the payment another $100 month. Live in a modest home or rent. Put my cars to shame but I was investing and a paid off mortgage.
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You never know who is living paycheck to paycheck. Whether you have a $50,000 portfolio, a $250,000 portfolio, or higher, we are way, way ahead of most people.
In my case, for a period in my 30's I was living paycheck-to-paycheck with a very high (for someone that age) net worth. Was almost funny in retrospect. I had put my money into property, all using the bank's money to help me buy. But it all paid rent which helped with payments and where I had a good handle on things.
It was when I bought a house where I wasn't receiving revenues, just incurring more expenses, where I got, not in trouble exactly, but where I really had to scale my lifestyle back. I was a classic "asset rich, cash poor" case. If I had the chance to live two lives it would have provided me with a very good lesson. 
Worked out in the end though and I learned that the savings from bringing my lunch to work instead of going to a restaurant, even fast-food, really did add up. And made me healthier, I'm sure.
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(12-29-2021, 05:22 AM)cemanuel Wrote: I was a classic "asset rich, cash poor" case.
Say, I think that expression describes me pretty well right now. Currently, my salary + my dividends covers my basic expenses, but I have to liquidate assets to buy things, go on vacation, give gifts, replenish my emergency fund after something happens, etc. That will ease up in a few years, as my salary will increase, dividends will increase, my daughter has only two years of camp left, and child support is supposed to go down by a 1/3 after she reaches 18.
> Worked out in the end though and I learned that the savings from bringing my lunch to work instead of going to a restaurant, even fast-food, really did add up. And made me healthier, I'm sure.
When I commuted into Boston I was spending about $15/day on food.
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(12-28-2021, 10:45 PM)fenders53 Wrote: Autos can be deceiving as when. Some of my young employees would spend $60k on a pickup which exceeded a year of their gross pay. Trade it in every few years and take a bath on depreciation. Raise the payment another $100 month. Live in a modest home or rent. Put my cars to shame but I was investing and a paid off mortgage.
The simple way to financial success, do not buy depreciating assets and do buy appreciating assets. While I love cars and have had my share of classics, I bought building instead. Fixed them and rented them out. Never as sexy as the cars but oh so much better financially. People worry about being under water ina property or what if the stock price goes down, yet never blink when their car depreciates before they even got to drive it home. FOOLS!
That alone is the difference between financial success and failure.
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01-01-2022, 10:16 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-01-2022, 10:23 AM by Scooterd.)
Just a short feel good -
When I was a young man and duty took me overseas, my old girlfriend married my best friend at the time. We have all stayed in touch for over 50 years. Through weddings, funerals, marriages, births etc.. I married late in life and introduced her to my wife and they have became good friends. I fell out of touch with JB after they divorced (amicably) late in life and he moved to the Carolina's. (sometimes empty nesting takes a toll) They are both still good people. Anyway, Now on her own late in life she had very little savings or investments to speak of, as he had poured all his monies into his business during their marital years together.
So about 16 years ago she approached me and asked if I would help her start investing. I did, and this morning received the following text. - "Happy New year to you both. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.. Holy Moly, That's a big end of year gain. Thank you". - PJ
We chatted a bit this am, and together decided she should now meet with a professional financial advisor end of January to determine if she now has enough monies, investments, etc to finally retire or semi-retire on a solid footing, so she can spend more time with her grand-kids. Dependent on the advisors answer, we will all help restructure her investments to smooth her ride moving forward.
- Just made me feel good, I could help a friend and it was a great way to kick off 2022.
- Scoot
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends". - John 15:13
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(01-01-2022, 09:34 AM)NilesMike Wrote: (12-28-2021, 10:45 PM)fenders53 Wrote: Autos can be deceiving as when. Some of my young employees would spend $60k on a pickup which exceeded a year of their gross pay. Trade it in every few years and take a bath on depreciation. Raise the payment another $100 month. Live in a modest home or rent. Put my cars to shame but I was investing and a paid off mortgage.
The simple way to financial success, do not buy depreciating assets and do buy appreciating assets. While I love cars and have had my share of classics, I bought building instead. Fixed them and rented them out. Never as sexy as the cars but oh so much better financially. People worry about being under water ina property or what if the stock price goes down, yet never blink when their car depreciates before they even got to drive it home. FOOLS!
That alone is the difference between financial success and failure.
Taken to an extreme it sure would. These guys could have bought a flashy truck, and kept it 12 years. I mean they were automotive techs by trade.  I got these guys to invest eventually, but they wasted the most important ten years spending every dime they made. I like a little nice stuff but even in retirement I don't intend to waste large sums collecting "stuff".
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02-15-2022, 11:00 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-17-2022, 04:40 AM by RichardWilliams.)
Why talk to everyone about it? Of course not everyone is familiar with these processes, and many people just don't understand it. Find your audience and share your knowledge. Since I see you have some kind of need for a knowledge sharing. I, e.g, enjoy finding people who are in the same field as I, so I can learn from other mistakes or inspire by some ideas. This`s how I found this list of aristocrats and now actively studying it. And btw, I don't really understand the logic about certain stocks that are for old retired people. To me it's complete bullshit. Doesn't matter what type of stock it`s, it's the profit that counts.
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