Do you invest in the stock market??

Because I don’t. But I’ve always wanted to make some money. At first I wanna know the issues of the stock market before I invest.

Yeah, through my 401k and through my money market fund with a place called baird.

Currently the market is taking an absolute tumble, which means now is an even better time to buy and hold. The biggest thing to know is that time in the market always beats timing the market. The longer you are in it, and your money is responsibly diversified, the longer it has to grow. So, the younger you are, the sooner you can get stay, the more your money will be able to grow.

Please ask any questions you have. I'll tell you if I know and I'll tell you if I don't.

@Serraph105: just stick with the market for 5-10 years, right??

I don’t have any impulses to invest atm. I should’ve started in my 20s.

@outworld222: I mean, yeah, basically. You really should start investing now though. The phrase people tend to say, and I agree, is that the best time to start investing was yesterday, but the next the next best time is today.

I implore you to talk to a financial advisor at a fiduciary such as Principal or Fidelity on how to invest responsibly and start asap.

Yup.

For retirement. Don't do a whole lot of general trading. I've got my 401k through my work that I put 15% in, and then I send a few hundred bucks each month into my Schwab account where I buy a share or two of an S&P 500 index ETF.

I did make the mistake of buying a few shares of Nvidia 10 days ago...ooooooooh boy :( But, as I said, I don't do any day trading so I can wait on those shares to go back up. I try not to look at my choices in a "if only I did _" mentality because, well....if only I bought Amazon 20 years ago. If only I bought Bitcoin 10 years ago. If only I bought blah blah blah it's just unhealthy.

If you have to pick one thing to buy, I'd say a low-fee ETF Index would be the way to go. Save, reliable, good investment.

A favorite quote of mine is (paraphrasing) "the best time to plant an apple tree is 5 years ago. The second best time is now.".

The lesson being that just because you missed your ideal time, it doesn't mean you should give up.

I don't think I started investing until I was 30 or so because I just didn't have the money to spare. But now I guess I'm in like the 105% percentile for my age group? That's what my saving's website says at least.

Yes, retirement and personal trading. Sadly missed a short when Newegg hit the market and my $3000 investment spiked at close to $25,000, but literally didn't watch for a day and it was gone.

yup. maxed 401k w/ company match mostly in stocks atm. that money is in broad index fund types of investments though not individual stocks. i don't muck around with that much.

have a brokerage acct also that is a little more risky. mostly tech-heavy so past few years have been a rollercoaster. gotten a little numb to some pretty massive swings. most notably the past week.

also messed around with options for a while years ago and quickly learned the first rule of options trading:

1) don't trade options

@mrbojangles25 first stock i ever bought was nvda ~20 years ago.. sold after a bit and maybe made a few hundred $$. would be worth a LOT more these days... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

regarding the OP's question of issue with it. the first issue would simply be, don't expect it to make any fucking sense day to day. yeah, companies that are strong financially and doing well tend to have their stocks do well in the long term, but the day to day action of prices can be completely fucking bonkers.

Nope. Too volatile. Not my speciality.

Sticking to my real estate, thanks.

If I had the initial capital, I'd probably have a property (or maybe two!) at this point as well.

It's just those down payments in California are so huge!

Yes...

Wish I started earlier with it. Invest with long term hold in mind, however I did sell some recently. As the dividends from the company was lousy, but the stock had increased from 21$ to 97$, so why not sell and invest in something that will probably be safer in long term.

I have but not currently. Made 20 bucks off Crocs, I'm tell you that stock is about to blow next Summer. Maybe it won't. I don't know really.

@playmynutz: Probably not once people discover all that grey slime that ends up around their feet and on their floors after using crocs from all the sweat and dead skin cells that congeal on them 🤢

I had people over who wear crocs before and I kept wondering like wtf did someone spill some weird lotion but eventually I noticed the correlation between people wearing them and turns out it was from their feet and then man did I scrub all the floors

@girlusocrazy: gross that's why I don't wear them. It was 2018, I remember before the pandemic. Crocs stock value went up out of nowhere. I haven't checked on it since. I don't have any more of their stock.

@playmynutz: I dunno but they found a way to sell extruded polyvinyl foam to suckers for $30-$80, that's pretty genius

Try to avoid math whenever humanly possible.

@girlusocrazy: lol crocs may give toe jam but at least they selling.

No, and I know nothing about it.

Yep.

I even use leveraged ETFs, such as SPXL and TECL, but most of my money is still in non-leveraged etfs-such as the sp500 and voo,.

Yes

A recommendation given to private investors, especially to ones that are just starting out, is to not invest in stocks directly. They are way to volatility, and with a day job, it will be difficult for you to continue to check the prices of your portfolio, and check for situations where you could have bought or should have sold.

It's not even that you will be likely to have a lot of loses if you are responsible, but rather you will also likely not have a lot of gains.

The best thing to start out is to looks into ETFs.

S&P 500 is up like 100% over the past 5 years, how have you not made money?

Yes. Here are some considerations:

1. Never pretend that you know better than professional advisors. You do not have the time, the education/understanding, or the ready access to info....no matter how good you are at Google search.

2. Understand your investment profile. You. You the person. How much, over what timeframe, with what risk profile. Never proceed only on the basis of expected/predicted/historical return. Always consider first your risk profile and whether you could sustain losses

2. All advisors are not made equal. A junior advisor at a bank branch is not the same as a specialty bank advisor working with higher income/higher investment clientele. An advisor at an investment firm is not the same as an advisor at a bank. An independent advisor is not the same as an investment firm advisor. The point being you need to understand where you fit and where they fit. This becomes more relevant the more money you invest. The key is to have an advisor suitable for your personal situation and if you are just starting out, that very well might be a junior person at a bank (just as an example).

3. Never consider investment strategy without considering tax strategy. Your real return is net of tax. For instance, what's the point of dividend income if that pushes you into higher tax at year end unless you actually need the income? The reverse is also true: what's the point of longer term capital appreciation if you need more income now? This depends where you are in life, your short and long term goals.

4. Never consider investment strategy without considering total assets. For instance, at some point one of your largest assets might be a house. When investing in other assets consider your house. When considering buying a house consider your other assets. Lots of people overbuy their house and it drains their ability to free enough cash flow for other investments. Other people think they are getting rich by constantly flipping stock, when in the long term they should have bought a house. And insane people think fancy cars are assets when they are actually just money pits...which is fine if you are very wealthy, but not so fine if you are pretend wealthy.

5. Never consider investment strategy without being completely honest with yourself about today, tomorrow, and the ling term. Where are you in life's journey? What do you really want out of life? What is actually realistic? When do you think you might retire? What does post retirement look like? What is your realistic earning potential 3-5yrs out? 10 yrs out? Spouse, kids?

The world is full of people that want a quick fix, invest & get rich, day trade and make a mint, I got a great stock tip, etc. Blah, blah, blah. 99.5% of those people will fail. Be honest, make informed choices, manage risk/reward realistically, don't put all your eggs in one basket, get advice, start small, don't be afraid...but don't be naive.

@SUD123456: If my investments beats Donald Trumps investment... Am I not better than a professional? :P

Well I think we may have had this same discussion before :)

Not at the moment, but I will start investing soon.