WatchI am an investor only out of necessity: the dominant religion of my birth country is capitalism, so unless I want to end up impoverished and beholden to morons I have to play the money game that so many people make the center of their lives. In reality, even though I get a little boost of adrenaline when my APPL rises a bit or I sell AMZN at a higher price than I paid, I think the whole investment game is totally meaningless and stupid. I get much more true pleasure out of fixing my car, playing with my child, sailing a boat, or playing my guitar. Quasi-sociopathic douche bags like Mitt Romney run the world, but they are so limited. My only conclusion is that their penises are at least figuratively so small that the only way they feel good is by winning over others, and then justifying their winnings by creating a pseudo-morality.
There was a time when there was room for actual workers, as well as academic or creative types-- the "priestly advisor class" as some have labelled it. But now we have only trust-fund hippies and moronic suburban white guys and TV stars whose banker-dads got them in the door.
Go ahead, tell me what you really think.
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Ignatius Pugg says
I really think......,
I could've written most of it myself, except instead of a boat, I have a garden. Grow some of my own food.
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Ignatius Pugg says
Although you're a gambler by choice and probably going to loose.
I realize that owning individual stocks is gambling, don't own any in publicly traded companies apart from a little BRK-B which doesn't make up 0.5% of my portfolio and is therefore financially irrelevant, and don't worry about it.
Instead I have a bunch of mutual funds which are split between stocks and bonds, spread around the world, and diversified across company sizes.
Whatever happens I'll probably be relatively OK.
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robertoaribas's website
Work and invest enough to meet your needs, then quit and do what you prefer. I have 6 years or so until I can retire from college teaching, I am investing to give me enough income to retire when I want to, instead of working for decades extra.
After that I plan to travel the world, learn languages, mountain bike and do yoga...
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Is there more to life than investing?
Absolutely!! Beer, wild women, parties, travel!!!
Oh wait, I'm married..... so instead it means owning houses, doing home projects on weekends, spending money on useless home decorations.... repairs, upgrades, maintainance, etc...
Oh wait, I don't own anymore, I rent, so it's back to Beer, wild women, parties, travel..... well, maybe not the wild women part......
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Why do you hate prosperity?
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You should read Morris Berman who writes about the societal collapse of America in "Dark Ages America" and "Why America Failed".
He compares the North and South mentality, the hustling, cold and calculating northerner versus the "take it easy" and enjoy life southerner.
That's why he left for Mexico.
Me too. Life has never been more grand.
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Ignatius Pugg says
Absolutely. The world is run by people who are willing to do ANYTHING to "win." Those people are, by definition, sociopaths.
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Ignatius Pugg says
Of course there is much more to life than investing. What if you could stay home 7 days a week to fix your car, play with your child, sail a boat, play guitar or do whatever you and your love ones want to? Isn't that what life is all about? However, there are sacrifices that you have to make to get there. The earlier you get there, the merrier.
Investing helps you to get there faster. No one has to participate if they don't want to. The reality is how can you do all of the above when you don't have a job or have money? Maybe you don't care, but wouldn't it beneficial to give your child a head start compared to other kids? That requires money and hard assets.
Some people are more fortunate than others. They inherit the wealth or a home or two from their parents including my ex-boss, who inherited a house in Portolan Valley and a house in Burlingame. Wouldn't you be just a bit better off had your parents left you those paid off assets? :)
Everyone enjoys different things. That doesn't mean their way is the wrong way & your way is the right way. It all comes down to, who can get there the quickest. Having a head start helps.
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Well, some people are soooo poor. All they have is money.
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robertoaribas's website
repo4sale says
Let's see: government work force, down by millions, private work force up by millions...
1 worthless war ended, another one ending...
i know this will go over your foxnews brainwashing...
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If Fox News says it, it's The Truth (tm).
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robertoaribas says
Well you must be a savvy investor... But that's just the problem-- we have created a culture in which you need to hit the jackpot just to get to spend time doing anything besides work and more work. I actually like my work, but I'll have to play the casino and hope and wait just to get my way to any breathing space. I am glad that I did some shoestring backpack travel around the world when I was 23 and broke, or I would probably be as misinformed as the Obama haters on this site. Mind you, I have a a few hundred grand in my 401k funds and whatnot by now, but I didn't get started until about 10 years ago, and the rate of return has evened out to about 2% per year. Somebody is making a killing off these market fluctuations, but it sure isn't us TIAA-CREF types.
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If you're not willing to spend 24/7 hunting the jackpot and bayoneting the competition in the back until your arms fall off, can you really be called an American?
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Let's see: government work force, down by millions, private work force up by millions...
Why is this? Well, you funnel the jobs through corporations or employment agencies instead of government, more of the dollars go to corporations and the 1% instead of employees, you'll have to wait and see what this gets you. Privatization of government, your government is owned by corporations and special interests, it's here,
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APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says
He doesn't hate prosperity; he measures prosperity by other means than money. He doesn't need the biggest house/car/TV on the block to feel good about himself or his life.
Why do you only measure life by money?
Assnap Kined
assnapkined@gmail.com
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repo4sale says
My new desktop wallpaper.
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Ignatius Pugg,
I want to see your skills as an artist. Can you draw a dragon?
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Yes, there's more to life than investing. Just figure out asset allocation that you would like and implement it through 401K and live your life. If you want to do IRA and or taxable acct, that's fine, but I would not live like a college student in order to contribute to those. You only live once! Remember that when you wonder if "there's more to life than investing."
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dublin hillz says
Can't say I agree with that at all. Traditional asset allocation does not AT ALL save you from bubbles, which are the fundamental loss mechanism for most people, even those who a have a "sound" asset allocation.
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justme says
The advantage of 401K (assuming that the funds in your companies have low expenses) is that you dollar cost average through bull, bear and sideway cycles. If you consistently contribute, you are much more likely to overcome the bear markets. Also, if you max out the company match, that is a huge form of risk reductions. For example, at this point in the 401K, I completely overcame the debacle of 2008. However, I only started to contribute about 4.5 years prior to the crisis. I agree that those that contributed for 20 years or more suffered steeper losses but given where the market is today if they did not panic, they should still be up.
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Dollar Cost Averaging is another myth that needs to be slayed.
I think Barry Ritholtz blog had a post about bullshit investment advice not too long ago. DCA is one of them. Another one is the "dont-miss-the-5-best-days". Someone did a study and showed that missing the 5 worst days (being out of the market and thereby preserving your gains) was much more significant than missing the 5 best days.
dublin hillz says
So what? You would have been up much more and much sooner if you had missed the 5 worst days.