The Investing Maze

Most of us have investments.  Not everyone treats them 'equal' ..  Some are tuned in to them daily or monthly .. or .. well .. rarely .. if at all.

Most of us have IRAs or 401ks or variants.  For the most part, pensions are a thing of the past so younger folks.. .sorry .. ain't gonna happen for most.  For those of us with the retirement investment vehicles, then we've got to select our risk, based on age, retirement age.. or .. our own ability to handle the ups and downs of the stock market.  Then throw in the crypto currency options that are now avail, and ... it's enough to make one's head explode?

Me personally, I'm on track now and doing well .. but .. wasn't always so.  The road to the present had a lot of bumps and wrong turns. That's code for f***ing up along the way.  I've written about this before in various posts to various degrees.  Politics, Finances and Religion.. the 3 no no's to discuss.. yet.. I write about them all.  On the religion piece, I'm a Christian, but don't attend church often.  Still ...   my beliefs are solid and in concrete.   As for politics, doesn't take a lot of effort to know which way I lean. I can easily sum it up for anyone that doesn't understand my leaning to the right.  We are over 20+ trillion in debt, so there is no money for free education, healthcare or .. all these free rides for lazy lefties.  Simple as that.  We are a capitalistic country... get off your ass and earn an honest living.  Most that do, lean to the right.  Hoping that doesn't take too much explaining for someone to understand.  And .. the finances.  This is a touchy one.  It's nobody's business how much we make or how much we're worth .. but...  I'm a believer we should all 'share' more to help each other get ahead.  Simple as that... so I tend to blog on the subject a lil here and there...   if it helps a few along that way, then it was worth it?

My lil story ....   where to start .. where to start.  Not a whole lot to tell from the early days.  My dad out the gate (my teen years) tried to instill in me the concepts of saving and budgeting and living within my means.. but.. I didn't listen.  His favorite saying back then was too many "have a peanut butter pocketbook with champagne taste" and... I fell into that category. My first two cars in High School (they were POSs) I paid cash for but after I got out of High School I made the mistake of buying a new car and barely able to afford the payments.  I soon found myself in an apartment that was more than I could afford, working sixty hour weeks to pay for it all .. only to watch it all go by the wayside within a year.   I soon unloaded the car with it payments, broke the lease on the apartment and shipped off to the military. Found myself married, in debt .. then divorced... paying off the debt... then married again .. and broke and living paycheck to paycheck .. then divorced and .. finally getting it together.  After a reenlistment bonus that gave me a large chunk of change I paid off my car, invested in a CD (they actually paid pretty good back then.. i believe it was for 9%).. and kept my life on track .. sort of.  I'd soon meet my Bride who's stuck with me to this day ... and made one more big mistake.  No, not what you think .. lol .. but ..  bought a brand new Jeep.  Then as if that wasn't enough, spent money I didn't have making it bigger and badder .. only to have to sell a year later.  Complete money pit (I haven't learned my lesson on Jeeps to date.. but.. that's another story).  After a year together, we found ourselves headed overseas ..  but not before I'd purchased a home, owed on my Jeep and owed on a sweet Z28 ..... but ..we made it work. Rented out the home, sold the two vehicles to include my motorcycle and headed South, outside the country.  We'd spend the next several years paying off debt,then saving up some while living within our means.  Finally ..  a change for the good! What a concept!  Then upon return to CONUS .. well .. did it again sort of.  We were smarter this time around .. but..  damned we were tight on money and made a few mistakes.  After years of deploying overseas via TDYs to Desert Storm and elsewhere, and upon purchasing a beautiful new home..  we were headed South again .. but to Texas this time. Good news is .. sold the home for a profit, jumped in our cars and moved to our new home where we live to this day.  But ...  still.. was a notch painful early on.  We bought a house here in Texas at the top of our budget, had a vehicle payment I couldn't afford .. and we were tight on money. My last few years in the military,  I'd started a part time computer business and for the first time in years... had some 'play money.'.  Then, I found myself retiring from the USAF. A month later I was working for a company headquartered out of California, making double what I'd been all together... and .. things were looking up. Well, almost.  I allowed myself to accumulate some credit card debt that just kept growing and growing.   Have to admit .. I was a lil frustrated; had some bad habits. Well, after a few years, we finally deleted all that debt ... but .. now I was in debt in other ways... home .. cars.. boat .. 'jet skis'.. ..  seemed to be a never ending cycle. What if I lost my job? What then?  I wrote about this recently ...  I found the answers after reading a book by Dave Ramsey.  For the first time, I truly felt in control of things.  Took us about a year to get on the same page and really start hammering away at things .. but ... we quickly made some headway.  To be honest... I don't remember when exactly we hit which 'steps' along the way....  Too bad I wasn't writing this blog back then .. I'm sure I would have highlighted many of the steps along the way.    I do know that about 2005 we were doing well.  We'd just done a company trip to Barcelona, Spain.  Things were looking up at that time frame.  Then we did a company paid trip I 'won' to Mexico (that created our madness of annual trips there since!) for my family of three.  Along the way, I've created success and goals list (literally broke out the pen and paper), of which I've achieved most. Some of these were written back in the late 90s.  Some a few years afterwards.  It's kind of weird/eerie, looking back on them ... realizing I'd set my path mentally so long ago .. but.. it worked.  Along that way I created financial goals that I wrote down, reviewed, focused on.

My modern Goals list is leaner though.. Quick and to the point. 

Goal #1- Get out of Debt: Not Sure exactly when this happened.  This is the main focus of Dave Ramsey's plan (7 baby steps).  But looking back ...  believe it was somewhere around 2009. Seemed surreal; finally 'got there' but ...  I didn't have any 'real' savings except for Retirement funds that were slowly growing.

Goal #2- Net Worth of 'x' amount:  We all have a 'number' don't we, that we want to achieve to feel successful?  I know I did.   Certain amount in savings, investments, etc.  But Net Worth throws some folks off.  Some don't understand the concept early on.   They'll say "My house is worth $200k, my car is $30k and my boat is $50k. I've got 20k in the bank. So immediately they say " my worth is 300k."  But, if one OWES on all these assets, that amount needs to be subtracted.  I remember back in the early 2000's realizing...  my Net Worth was...........  zero. ZERO.  No shit!  I couldn't believe it.  By the time you subtract what you owe on, from the 'face value' of it all... it can sometimes be a sobering experience. It was for me. Hell, that's what kicked all this into gear!  Well,  with this goal in place met this numerical goal a year or two after meeting goal #1. Hell, suddenly my home and car and motorcycle .. their value .. contributed to the bottom line.  Add in IRAs and 401ks, and ...  damned.. things weren't looking too bad. Anyways..  once I hit this goal, I was on fire.  I believe I was around 50 when this happened.

Goal #3  Double the Net Worth of Goal #2:  Well, now I'm on fire.  I've maxed out my annual contributions to IRAs for the wife and I.  I've maxed out my 401k options.  Things move quickly since I'm not paying on any debt. I'm not sure when I hit this goal. I'm guessing it had to be before age 55, basing it on life events that I recall. Again, I never wrote all this crap down!  I have a budget sheet that I use to track all this for the last 10+ years, but never occurred to me to put dates on certain parts so I could see progress, etc.  

Goal #4  Five times Net worth of Goal #2:  Hit this a couple of years ago. This was a life changing moment.  This was the point when I told myself ....  I could retire if I chose to.  When you suddenly work because you want to and not because you need to ...   lets just say ...   it's a different animal.  It helps that I've truly enjoyed my job for many years now.  Hell, except for a few years in the big picture, I've loved what I've been doing the last 41 years! I know people that HATE their jobs.  Hate having to go to work every day.  I can't imagine that. I've never been in that position .. never.  Now, I'm still not a fan of Mondays.. but .. is anyone?

Goal #5  Ten times Net worth of Goal #2:  Hey ... you've got to have a goal .. something to strive more.. so .. I've got mine..  This is my new focus and to be honest, it sort of consumes me....   After COVID hit, my investments took a 25% hit as did many of us (most ..all?).  But I saw an opportunity.  So, we moved funds from our savings to our main brokerage account and I began focusing.  I have to admit, it was something Dave Ramsey said on one of his podcasts that got me in gear. It went something along the lines of "Don't sell your stocks in your 401s and IRAs.  Those companies that just took a hit and now their stocks are trading at 50% ... even 20% of what they were prior to COVID... they are the same companies.   They still have their inventory.  Their planes.  Their trucks.  DON"T SELL!  They will come back. Their stock price doesn't reflect their real VALUE" .. well.. I didn't sell .. but .. I did check out all the airline stocks.  Hell, even beverage company stocks.  They got pummeled!   So, I began buying... something like twelve different ones.  Every day .. I'd check on them.  Once I gained 10+ percent (sometimes much more) and they took a dip .. I'd sell.  I found myself tracking them ... began 'day trading' them ...within two months, I was back in the game with my portfolio.   That was about six months ago and I still do this daily. I still have a few of them yet, but most .. I traded off.  One could probably argue I should have bought those twelve and let it ride for a few years but I was enjoying the 'hunt' ...   If anything , I wish I'd had more funds in savings so I could have done that.. and used a second pile of funds for 'hunting'.. but.. wasn't in that position.  In the meantime, I made some long term decisions.  I opened up accounts at two more institutions and decided to let them, manage the funds. Thought this was a way of hedging my bets and not keeping all my eggs in one basket.  Even in my main institution that I use, I opened an additional account to let them manage it.   So, I've got three managed accounts and the one I personally manage.  To me, it's become a 'game' to see if I can beat their numbers.  Of course I can 'cheat' and see what they (well.. me ) are invested in and leverage those decisions.   However, all three are not equal with funds that were provided so that gives me yet another 'sub goal' .. and that is to get all three funded to equal levels.   By doing that, in contributes to "Goal #5" along the way....

Now .. 'you' might be thinking "WTF are you writing all this for?"   Well.. two fold. Maybe someone I know will read it and it might motivate them.  Maybe push them to discuss things with me and we both can potentially 'learn'? Me from them, them from me.  Secondly, I'm in some investment groups where info is shared and it allows me to post this info, without 'rewriting' it all. It's easily shared as I see fit. And, that usually brings up some interesting conversations.... that one can learn from.

That all being said... how productive would it be if many of us shared more like this?  One would assume we can get to our destinations possibly quicker? Easier?  Yes.. I know this is a taboo subject .. but ...  I'd argue .. it shouldn't be.   Maybe if I'd had these conversations with folks sooner.. I'd have minimized .. maybe skipped.. some of the painful mistakes along the way?

I could have made this longer. I've been dabbling in Gold and Silver.  Slowly (albeit late to the game) in Crypto Currency.  I've been hunting for low hanging fruit; companies that just reported crappy news and getting hammered and appear cheap ...   I've had a few discussion with folks on some of these subjects...  hoping to have more (hence mentioning them)

Soooooo.. what say you?