[Coronita]

[quote=The-Shoveler]STEM degrees are not being deflated, but we are seeing Jobs like “sales clerk” requiring a 4 year degree in some places.[/quote]

Or a physical therapist requiring advanced degree

Actually as I said before, if educational cost is an issue, we should do something about the College Board and how expensive it is just to take an SAT or AP test. The CEO of that nonprofit milks over $1million/year and then comes up with some stupid idea of adversity hardship score to try to give brownie points to people who are at an economic disadvantage….Typical progressive hypocrisy.

[Coronita]

There is already a free college program. We have in CA The Promise Program..

https://www.sdccd.edu/about/departments-and-offices/student-services-department/promise/

Honestly, I’m on the fence of this topic. I am not against some financial assistance to otherwise people who cannot afford to go to a JC , trade school, vocational school, or even a state school if it makes their prospects of employment and being a productive and tax paying citizen better.

I just don’t think free tuition should be a free for all for any degree. Like a free tuition to a bullshit Shakesperian History major that is unemploymable should not be state paid. Those majors are reserved for families that can support a kid via a trust fund. Also, US Citizens only or at least first. But the nice thing about the Promise Program is that it is partly funded by donations. I do understand we shouldn’t make this a compulsory tax every has to pay

[Coronita]

[quote=temeculaguy]Flu that is awesome! You keep living your best life and ignore the haters.

I’ve got all the grand kids college funds tied mostly to the S&P which makes me nervous because they are time certain withdrawals. I worry the winning streak cannot continue. I find it ironic that the enemy to their college fund is a socialist who promises free college. I try to convince myself that it is a win/win or at least a can’t lose scenario. Then I’m reminded of the adage “you think it’s expensive now, wait till it’s free.”[/quote]

I don’t think you need to worry as much if you have 20 years before your grandkids needs it….unless they will be using it for k-12 private school… Personally, for a 529k, I’m not trying for that maximum return year after year. I am just trying to beat that 4.25% cost of college increase each year in a tax advantage account. If I can do that, I win…With the oldest 529k account, I started out just doing the vanguard total stock market index and vanguard total international stock market inbex at roughly a 70/30 split….It’s getting closer taking distributions from it and it will be the first of 3 accounts that will be used…I’m slowly moving elsewhere into other funds..[img_assist|nid=26900|title=|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=500|height=500]

The problem with Vanguard’s 529k… you can only have a maximum of 5 funds, and you can only reallocate twice per year. In the past, it wasn’t a big issue because the allocation was only in two funds and not being able to make changes frequently was a good thing since I couldn’t mess things up like I normally do… but now I’m trying to reduce the stock market allocation, it’s a little bit more difficult to figure out where. Some of it went/is going into vanguard inflation protected securities…..I hate this bond fund or bonds in general. Part is going into Vanguard Star fund….not a big fan this fund too because it’s basically a fund of funds…. And part of it is going into Vanguard income portfolio, which is basically more bonds…. The tiny allocation into the Vanguard High Yield (junk) bond was a mistake from not confirming my reallocation correctly and will be fixed next year. Whoops. Did I mention that I hated bonds? Lol…

Oh well. I barely noticed the slow monthly contributions throughout the years. Probably a few less eating lunch and dinner at a restaurants, a few less track days… so my kid has a option to go to a decent school somewhere and not be swamped with student debt … well worth the hassle imho.

I’m not terribly worried about politics. Obama, Trump, Warren… it’s just a shitshow that doesnt really put food on the table at the end of the day.

[Coronita]

[quote=gzz]Flu, I thought you were a conservative index funder? That didn’t make you 30% YTD did it?[/quote]

I am.. Like I said before that portion of my portfolio is over at Vanguard and I dont touch and it beats my self directed accounts over the long period of time consistently.

However, this year I got lucky. It had a lot to do with selling Jan 2020 expiring AMD call options with a $15/share strike price I bought when AMD was still in the single digits, lol.

Skill had nothing to do with it. just dumb luck.

But proceeds from dumb luck, after taxes, goes to the passive accounts where I can’t do something that stupid… or paying off mortgages (previously)…so less risky assets have no debt.

S&P500 actually is doing very well this year. It’s 22.5% so it’s not that much worse…less of a headache probably … people who index probably would do better than trying to time the markets. investing $5000 is completely different than say investing $500k. you wouldn’t be nearly as reckless with the later as the former.

[Coronita]

When you are dumb or think you are dumb, life is much simpler. You don’t constantly feel pressured to “out-do” all the other dumb people in the world that does better than you financially. that’s the trap that many very intelligent people, PHD’s and engineers, make. They think because of their superior intellect, they should have no problems mastering the day to day “easier” things other people are able to be successful with. And when they fall short or miss opportunity, it doesn’t compute. “How could that be? I’m smarter….” Nope, not really. So just be dumb. Life is much .ore simple and happulier. and you’ll probably do better too!

All the people that made a shitload of money on real estate. Do you think many of them even know about Case Shiller ?

And work wise the moment I stopped doing the really hard work of hands on detail oriented engineering only smart people do, I’m now doing much dumber tasks like most senior directors. I attend meetings, I coordinate, inremoce roadblocks other managers directors or situations create, I maken high level architectural decisions.
..my hours are better and I get paid a lot more for doing this, more than when I was doing a lot smarter work….

Dumb is good. Dumb for the win.

[Coronita]

I know Shoveler… but in my case I think both definitions of dumb equally apply. And that’s ok. In America, it took me many years to learn this is a country where really dumb people can still make decent money, often more so that smart people that do analysis to paralysis. I’ll take dumb for the win.

Hey if Cardi B can make millions with a song like I like it like that, anyone can!

[Coronita]

lol…redux…

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-04/risky-mortgage-bonds-are-back-and-delinquencies-are-piling-up

[Coronita]

[quote=The-Shoveler]IMO the main difference is Dumb money is sitting this one out.

And interest rates are at historic lows and falling.
Plus no one seems interested in taking the punch bowl away.[/quote]

I am not complaining, I’m laughing my ass off …because I am probably dumb money…lol….
[img_assist|nid=26899|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=200|height=200]

[Coronita]

As stocks kept rising, I kept selling some stocks to pay down loans and mortgages as part of diversification and building a safety net when times are bad. And then as stocks kept rising, I sold more to pay more off. Well,I’m out of loans to pay, lol. Damnit.

Not quite yet there, but almost getting close to having enough F.U. money…The only problem is, I really don’t hate my work either….And they now have a nice 401k match lol

[Coronita]

I don’t know but I think the strategy for investing in the markets are sort of different from buying real estate.

With real estate, you are limited by one large purchase every so often.

With stocks, metals, bonds, etc, your strategy doesn’t have to be move the entire bucket into the market at once. If you are risk adverse z maybe the thing to do is setup an auto investment plan that auto-invests a small amount each month or twice a month. That way, if you moved in at a wrong time, it’s only a tiny portion of your total worth that you will eventually move in over a long period of time. it removes any emotions from that decision. The problem with counting on “gut feeling” is most people aren’t smarter than the markets.

Too many people are way too emotional and make things more complicated than basic investing should be. That auto invest plan would be on auto pilot irrespective of how one feels about politics, economy, etc, some of which one’s feeling might not even be correct….God forbid to actually make financial decisions based on a gut feeling or mood. all those people talking about that one time “kill” in speculation in the markets probably aren’t talking a out the dozen or so other times they were wrong and got their ass kicked. that or they waited a long time for that one time “crash” to get in at a really low price…and waited for a long long long time…

[Coronita]

Vegan and noodles… I won’t eat noodles that aren’t made here in the U.S. I won’t touch any noodles imported…

You guys should watch this documentary. It’s not only truthful…but what’s in that documentary is an understatement.

Documentary from Al Jazeera. It’s worth watching the entire 1/2 hour. Especially starting at 5:55 and 24:50

Fake noodles, fake meat, fake flavor….

I stopped eating at most Chinese Restaurants because who knows who their supplier is.

[Coronita]

Some of the folks I met here I got to know in person and turned out are pretty good friends. People that I normally would not have met in my small little techie world. I learned a lot of things from different people that do different things that all had different experiences. Those relationships have been more important than the real estate lessons for me.

[Coronita]

Brian, you’re doin’ great buddy ! Keep it up ! [img_assist|nid=26894|title=|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=56]

[Coronita]

Why don’t you just tell your kids to make sure to marry someone that is more successful then you and your kids… Then, problem solved! if you’re going to set the bar high, you might as make the bar very high.

I’ve been already very clear, someone who can’t manage their money is not worth my kid’s time for any serious long term commitment. Simply because their viewpoint would clash with ours and it would drive my kid crazy.

[Coronita]

Sure… if you say so, I’ll take your word for it..Personally, I’ve never made any significant money shorting stock beyond a few thousand here and there and there were also times the shorts went the other way. So if it works out for you, great.

[Author]

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