Hey Seasoned Investors! Can you help me out?

[fredo4]

I’d like to get my feet wet in the stock market and have no idea how to proceed.
I just opened an account with Robinhood.com, a free trading app and have about 5k to lose. Right now my portfolio is this: I own a rental home in Austin and have about 30k in an annuity (which I later heard was a bad investment).
I’m a school teacher and have managed to scrape together the 5k from my property rent. Im usually able to save about 500 per month. I’d love to be able to receive monthly dividends, but have also heard that drip accounts are a good way to go because they reinvest for you.
I should also, possibly reinvest the 30k from the annuity, which I bought 8 yrs ago.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

[Coronita]

Simple. Ask me what I am doing. And do completely the opposite. Lol.

In all seriousness. My kids 529 college savings plan was one that over time did well, simply because I did not F with it. After the minimum amount to fund the account, I just do an automatic investment every month of a few hhundr d bucks.

My vanguard index funds did OK throughout the years until, again, I F’d with them before the elections. I’ve been trying to slowly reverse that damage.

[Anonymous]

https://investor.vanguard.com/investing/joint-account-individual-account

[spdrun]

I’d be preparing to short certain stocks that ran up since 45’s election (e.g. CCA/CoreCivic). They’re liable to be hammered when the backlash in state governments and during the 2018 midterms happens.

Also, it would feel good to profit off the failures of organized criminals like the private prison industry.

[phaster]

noticed specifically stated you “have about 5k to lose”

actually IMHO that is a healthy attitude because when investing in the market its a game that takes brains and guts because its possible to lose big time (I’ll admit my first individual stock pick tanked and I lost all my initial bet – fortunately it was a small loss but from that I learned my lesson that I should not bet everything on one individual stock)

said another way, its alway a good idea to diversify

another lesson I’ve learned over the years is never get too attached to an individual stock, by this I mean consider selling when the market is dumping the shares of some company AND don’t automatically think its time to load up (basically alway have an objective view of shares you buy because “investing” is a numbers games where you should basically look at the bottom line of the company, in other words is it profitable and do they have a product consumes want)

the converse selling a losing stock is, what happens when you are luck enough to pick a winner and the stock price goes up, and up… well the temptation might be to take a profit!

over the years I’ve learned to resist the temptation to make a quick buck and instead keep my winning socks (as long I see the company is profitable and I see consumers like the product)

there is an expression used by various money manages and traders “the trend is your friend”

one last bit of general advise, always try and lead your shot by looking at stocks you have an some kind of familiarity w/ because the pay off could be big

in other words if you have a general interest in cars don’t buy an individual stock in some fashion or health care company because those are areas where you have no inside edge, instead stick to investments in individual stocks in sectors where you have background knowledge (because the investment climate can change pretty quickly and you don’t want to hold onto some crap stock and ride that sucker into the ground)

best of luck w/ your future stock picks

[Author]

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