Based on my decades of experience living in many different states and cities, with any luck at all at least 10% of the actual "very large influx of free money" will be used for necessary things like infrastructure improvements, important public services, and other necessary and useful expenditures. Hopefully no more than 50% will be skimmed off by the PUBLIC SERVANTS, and their preferred (cough, cough, kickback, cough) contractors and the relatives of the Public Servants and contractors.... The other 40% may be wasted or unaccounted for (except on budget paper).
Homestead exemptions should raise with inflation!!! At one time the exemption covered the full price of houses in my area yet has never changed $1 since the exemption was implemented. Wishful thinking!
There was a hint of sarcasm! My city is better than most as far as infrastructure and public amenities. I am almost certain it's because they are receiving so much money, not that they are really good at allocation of funds or budgeting. I'm sure all our hard working public servants will get raises and everyone will get new city cars.
PLTR on its way to an ATH… it’s not a matter of IF, but WHEN. I predict this will happen in the coming weeks or even sooner! Great company to own!
Hello Everyone, If you’re not long- term bullish, you’re not paying attention The fundamentals of the US economy appear to be solid. The soft landing scenario remains intact, and a no-landing scenario could potentially result in 15% annual EPS growth from 2024 to 2027, the fourth-best rolling EPS growth seen since 1990. The consensus from FactSet and Morningstar is that large growth stocks will be able to drive 16% to 17% EPS growth, which would power very robust S&P earnings. Combined with one of the lowest PEG ratios ever recorded for US stocks, index investors who can look beyond the election's short-term uncertainty are likely to be very happy that they stay long American companies. With the economy doing well, earnings growth blowing out expectations (21% better than expected this quarter), and stocks potentially 12% undervalued (based on cash-adjusted PEG), today's fundamentals justify up to 13% increase in the S&P over the next 12 months. That's 30% better than the market's historical returns, and of course, individual ETFs (like deep value and growth stocks) are capable of even better (13% to 18%) returns. Individual companies, like this stock I own and frequently recommend, can deliver Buffett-like returns from blue-chip bargains hiding in plain sight, Amazon (AMZN). It's always and forever a market of stocks, not a stock market. But whether you're a value, high-yield, growth, or index fund investor, the current data leads me to one conclusion. If you're not long-term bullish on stocks, you're not paying attention
That pretty much goes without saying. The question each one of us has to ask ourselves is: How long is long term for ME? I am retired. I don't have a 10-year window for my nest egg to grow, anymore. Decade-long downturns are few and far between! So it's obvious to me that, of course, everyone should be long-term bullish -- if their personal long-term is long enough. It is difficult, maybe impossible, to "time the market". I personally would never try! That said, it is SOMETIMES possible to see storms brewing, and take temporary safe harbors, without putting long-term goals at significant risk. The only time I've been able to do that very successfully in my lifetime was the dot-com bubble. I went to almost 90% cash (equivalents) and it worked out great for me when I bought back in at lower costs. I don't know whether we're going to get a soft landing, or a medium- or hard-landing. I always maintain a certain percentage of cash equivalents - that percentage is up somewhat at the moment from my average, but not a majority of my investments. I am not predicting a hard landing, soft landing or takeoff. But I see enough storm clouds to have my raincoat and umbrella handy. I see enough blue sky to keep the sunscreen, beach towels and kayak ready, too. These are strange and difficult times, when things may go absolutely great - or may go straight down the tubes. There are so many OTHER variables outside the stock market! Wars, geopolitical issues, global propaganda on a never-before-seen scale. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm more concerned about the global external issues right now than the strictly financial ones - but I've never kept a closer eye on the financial ones, either.
Agreed. The important point in making an investing plan is making it personal....just for you. I think you brought up a good point in another thread/post about personal finance. That is where it really begins and then structuring your financial goals and roadmap from there.
This year seems to have flown by....we are half-way through August already. I remember when I was young early in my career I used to always be in a rush for a particular goal to come up, a particular date or event to occur in my life. My grandparents (who are long gone now) used to remind me that "life" goes by so fast and that one day I'd look up and realize how quickly it sneaks up. They were right. Anyway, In the world of short term....not a bad week compared to all the other noise from the week before. As usual, most of it simply does not matter over the long haul. The financial media lives day to day and week to week. They drive the narrative in the short term....whatever that may be. As some of the good posters have already pointed out, make a plan early on, make it about you, develop some good personal finance habits....and stick to it for the long haul. Adjustments will be made as you go along your journey, but those will/should be based on what you have structured to match your own life. not what some pundit says it should be or some news ticker tape on the screen.
At least the boss told us he was going to be out for a couple days... Where is Emmet! Good day today to add to last weeks gains. I'd like to think the little correction is in and we are on the next leg up. 9 more days for NVDA ER and we are already clicking back up towards a new ATH. AMD had a good acquisition as well which is helping drive up the stock price.
Yup that he did and he even asked us to make him some money which we did. Emmett is greatly missed, I enjoyed having him around manning the DJ stand and making those phone calls lol
Good job with the markets last week and this week......y'all. I had very productive days in my account even though I could not look at it. Today.....I had a single stock in the red....AAPL and a BIG gain. I also beat the SP500 by 1.23% today. Onward to tomorrow where I have an AC repair guy coming at about 9:00.
WARREN BUFFETT.......who cares anymore. Warren Buffett's Panic Sale Of Apple Stock Cost $6.2 Billion https://finance.yahoo.com/m/a06790a0-ed30-3706-ab26-f4b6327b543f/warren-buffett-s-panic-sale.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Even Warren Buffett struggles to time the S&P 500 it seems. His surprising sale of roughly half his Apple stock has cost him a pretty penny in a short period of time. Shares of Apple (AAPL) jumped 7.5% from June 30, the end of Berkshire Hathaway's (BRKB) most recent trade disclosure window. That translates into missing out on a staggering gain of $6.2 billion since that time, says an Investor's Business Daily analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and MarketSurge. And that doesn't include the capital gains tax the sale likely triggered. Buffett's sale of 389.4 million shares of Apple during the second quarter initially spooked investors. After all, many big-cap tech stocks peaked mid-July and were already selling off. Did Buffett know something the rest of us didn't? But since then, Apple and other tech stocks rallied back — and fast. "Despite all the macro noise, growth scare last week, Fed 'too late' camp, Buffett cutting Apple stake by 50%, Yen currency trade unwind, market volatility and bear chatter the last few weeks overall tech earnings season was generally robust," says Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities. "And we believe (tech earnings season) further solidifies the AI tidal wave of spending is coming to the shores of the rest of the tech world," said Ives. Buffett Lightens Up On Apple The timing and ferocity of Berkshire Hathaway's sale of Apple stock caught many investors off guard. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway started accumulating shares of Apple going back to the first quarter of 2016 with 39.2 million shares. And from then on, the famous investor's holding company has mostly aggressively added to its position. By the third quarter of 2018, Berkshire Hathaway owned more than a billion shares of Apple. But since then, some pruning has happened. Berkshire Hathaway now owns 400 million shares of Apple valued at around $88.7 billion. And despite selling roughly half the shares in the second quarter of this year, Apple remains Berkshire Hathaway's largest single publicly traded position. American Express (AXP) is a distant second valued at roughly $37 billion. But Berkshire Hathaway's role as an Apple investor is diminishing. Berkshire Hathaway still owns 2.6% of Apple. That only makes it the fourth largest owner of the stock, though. The top owner is index fund giant Vanguard Group. Adding Pain To Selling Apple Selling half the Apple stake was clearly the most costly move made by Berkshire Hathaway in the second quarter. But it's not the only one. Berkshire Hathaway also sold shares of T-Mobile US (TMUS), Louisiana-Pacific (LPX) and Floor & Decor (FND). All these stocks gained since the end of June, too. The value of all those sold shares cost Berkshire Hathaway an additional $23 million in foregone gains — not much for a portfolio of Buffett's size — but a quick loss all the same. Additionally, the S&P 500 stock Buffett added to during the quarter while selling Apple, Occidental Petroleum (OXY), has gone the wrong way. Buffett's additional 7.3 million shares of the energy company fell 8.3% from the end of the June reporting period. That's a quick paper loss of $38.2 million. Again, that's not the end of the world. But a bigger gain would have make the loss on Apple easier to stomach. Buffett's Tough Breaks Foregone losses from sold positions and paper losses on added positions Company Symbol % ch. From June 30 Loss from transaction Apple (sold 49%) AAPL 7.5% -$6,178,615,375.14 Occidental Petroleum (bought 3%) OXY -8.3% -$38,169,145.98 T-Mobile US (sold 11%) TMUS 11.2% -$11,234,700.00 Louisiana-Pacific (sold 10%) LPX 15.3% -$7,990,403.48 Floor & Decor Holdings (sold 17%) FND 5.8% -$4,652,354.00 MY COMMENT That is quite a comprehensive list of short term trades in the WRONG DIRECTION.....on top of his prior DISASTROUS Paramount loss. Even the king is not immune to short term disasters. Now....lets see how these all do long term. Buffett may not have the magic that he once did. But he is still a.....LONG TERM.... investor for the ages.
The hits just keep on coming for poor BOEING. Another disaster to add to the list. Boeing pauses tests of 777X aircraft after finding damage to one of the jets structures https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/20/boe...ing-damage-to-one-of-the-jets-structures.html This company just basically....SUCKS. Mostly self-inflicted wounds. What a huge falling knife.
From a quick glance of the article it sounds like a flaw in the thrust link between the GE engine and the pylon, a forging that fixes the engine to the wing structure. Not good. It seems like yesterday they were the darling of wall street. I loved the stock it was my 2nd big win on stock picks, first being altria. I learned alot from owning the stock from risk tolerance to trust your gut over the 'data' some scrambling CEO is vomiting out. I rode that one down further than I should but still made some pretty good money. Altria I sold pretty much at the top due to my expert market timer honey abilities... To anyone new on here take a look at what WXYZ is doing, My portfolio kind of ended up like this but I plan to rebalance sometime in the future to something like 33% VOO, 33% VGT 34% NVDA but for now I'm going to ride the AI wave. Also this account, while larger than my retirement account isn't being relied on for current or future needs. My paycheck pays my bills and my retirement is fully funded in the S&P500. My taxable portfolio year to date performance: 104%, going forward it will mirror NVDA as that is the majority holding by far right now. NVIDIA Corp YTD $130.00 +$81.83 169.88% Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. YTD $155.28 +$16.70 12.05% Vanguard Information Technology Index Fund ETF YTD $580.69 +$109.40 23.21%
I guess some companies need to find out for themselves and not learn from Bud light, and target and the other large corps that bring politics into the workplace. Harley just has to show up to Sturgis to get the ultimate customer feedback... and from my friends that went this year it wasn't good for HD. I see they are back pedaling their DEI move that they never should have made to begin with. It's amazing how much these 'leaders' get paid to make idiot decisions that directly negatively affect a company's profitability. I would never invest in such a company as strong comptitant leadership is one of my investment criterias. https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/h...-policies-sparking-biker-social-media-outrage
AMEN....TireSmoke. As a musician......I learned decades ago.....to NEVER mention religion, politics, or anything negative about women. It is absolutely STUPID for business to get into politics, woke stuff, DEI, etc, etc, etc. Unless you want to throw haff or more of your potential customers out the door. Keep your personal opinions and politics to yourself.
My AC guy will be here in about ten minutes.....so I will post this and come back later after the markets mature into the day a bit. Millennials Are Becoming Boomers https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2024/08/millennials-are-becoming-boomers/ (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "After the Great Financial Crisis, everyone was trying to figure out how it would impact the coming wave of millennials entering adulthood. Millennials were getting blamed for killing everything — napkins, diamond rings, chain restaurants, motorcycles, bar soap and more. Sure, whatever. The one that never made sense to me was all the pundits predicting millennials would never buy a home or move out of big cities. I saw what happened to my friends from college. Get a job. Move to a big city. Get married. Eventually move to the suburbs and buy a home. It’s the circle of life. Lo and behold, millennials did buy homes. Redfin data shows millennials are more or less on track with previous generations: It makes sense it took my generation a little longer since more of us went to college and got married later in life than our parents did. There was also this idea that millennials would never figure out their finances. Guess what? The biggest generation figured it out. And look at the wealth gains we have to show from it: Baby boomers still control a little more than half the wealth in this country ($78.6 trillion) but millennials have seen their share of wealth go from less than 1% of the total in the U.S. in 2010 to nearly 10% now. The Wall Street Journal shows millennials have experienced the biggest relative jump in household net worth of any generation since the start of the pandemic: Most of that wealth increase came from real estate: We’re unlikely to repeat that feat. Real estate makes up a much larger portion of financial assets for millennials than the other generations: I know this seems unsustainable but this is the natural course of an investor’s lifecycle. The asset mix will change over time as millennials use more of their income (and inheritance) to buy financial assets. In 2003, Gen X had nearly 50% of their wealth tied up in real estate. Millennials currently have 40% of household wealth in housing. These things evolve as people age. And although millennials got off to a slow start, the catch-up has been so drastic we are now ahead of baby boomers at the same age. The Journal notes: In early 2024, millennials and older members of Gen Z had, on average and adjusting for inflation, about 25% more wealth than Gen Xers and baby boomers did at a similar age, according to a St. Louis Fed analysis. Although housing prices are unlikely to provide the same boost we’ve seen in the 2020s, millennials have other advantages that will one day make them by far the wealthiest generation we’ve ever seen. Close to 40% of millennials have a college degree (versus 25% for baby boomers and 29% for Gen X). That should lead to higher lifetime incomes. Plus, a decent portion of that $78 trillion in baby boomer wealth will eventually be passed down to millennials. Obviously, not every millennial is in the same financial position. There is inequality within generations too. Those who missed out on the biggest housing bull market in history probably feel left behind. Young people often blame all of life’s problems on the baby boomers or lament the fact that boomers had it so much easier. This will be millennials someday. Millennials will be crushed in the future for buying cheap housing the 2010s and getting 3% mortgages in the early-2020s. Future generations will hate us too. It’s the generational circle of life. Like it or not, we’re all becoming our parents." MY COMMENT Yeah....every young generation has it way worse than anyone ever did.....whine, whine, whine. It is all media BS. In the end every generation....so far....ends up doing just fine and doing better than their parents. Although with the current IDIOCY of Socialism making a come-back....there is potential for younger people to vote themselves into oblivion. But.....that is not my problem.
HERE IS MY INVESTING PORTFOLIO MODEL......this is the basis for everything that I talk about in the thread.
