Investing megathread extravaganza

[DaFace]

A place to talk about investing stuff.

[ReynardMuldrake]

This entire year has been regoddamneddiculous.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by ReynardMuldrake

This entire year has been regoddamneddiculous.

Yeah, I'm just a slow-and-steady index fund investor, and my net worth has grown this year by roughly double my actual salary. Makes me feel like I should have slow played my post-layoff job hunt and relaxed a little more.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Yeah, I'm just a slow-and-steady index fund investor, and my net worth has grown this year by roughly double my actual salary. Makes me feel like I should have slow played my post-layoff job hunt and relaxed a little more.

I remember the first year where my investment returns were higher than my salary. I had a sudden stark realization that I had created a new wage earner in my family who didn't cost me anything. That was a powerful moment.

[ChiliConCarnage]

Damn Reynard. You're going nuts in your IRA 91%! I keep my retirement protected accounts boring index funds.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by ChiliConCarnage

Damn Reynard. You're going nuts in your IRA 91%! I keep my retirement protected accounts boring index funds.

99% 1 year returns. Jesus man. Well done.

[DaFace]

Pretty sure he's heavy into NVDA, right? That'd certainly do it this year.

[ChiliConCarnage]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Pretty sure he's heavy into NVDA, right? That'd certainly do it this year.

Oh sure, lots of stocks are up a ton. There are quite a few speculative type things that are up 100+ since the election basically.

It's just his entire IRA must be allocated that way. It'd be one thing if he started it last year and it was his first 12k. The inception date on the IRA is 2008. I'm amazed. I don't have the risk tolerance for that. I just do almost all index funds and don't look at my retirement accts. I don't even have the apps on my phone lol. Just my taxable brokerage accts that I play in. Even half of those are just funds

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by ChiliConCarnage

Oh sure, lots of stocks are up a ton. There are quite a few speculative type things that are up 100+ since the election basically.

It's just his entire IRA must be allocated that way. It'd be one thing if he started it last year and it was his first 12k. The inception date on the IRA is 2008. I'm amazed. I don't have the risk tolerance for that. I just do almost all index funds and don't look at my retirement accts. I don't even have the apps on my phone lol. Just my taxable brokerage accts that I play in. Even half of those are just funds

Yeah, I was wondering if he's still contributing to the Roth, which I think would push the returns up a lot. I think (not sure) that some brokerages control for contributions and other brokerages just divide the total by the Jan 01 balance. But since he has a 2008 start date, it seems like he's having a good year regardless.

I have a Roth account that's up 267 percent this year, but that's only because it's two years old and I put about half of my salary this year into it.

But it's possible to double your money in a year. I have a friend who picked exactly the right stocks about five years ago and concentrated his holdings in them. He was up over 100 percent in 2018 or 2019, and he had significant investments. (He lost his a** the next year when they all went down, by the way, but still ended up winning big over the two-year period.)

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by ChiliConCarnage

Oh sure, lots of stocks are up a ton. There are quite a few speculative type things that are up 100+ since the election basically.

It's just his entire IRA must be allocated that way. It'd be one thing if he started it last year and it was his first 12k. The inception date on the IRA is 2008. I'm amazed. I don't have the risk tolerance for that. I just do almost all index funds and don't look at my retirement accts. I don't even have the apps on my phone lol. Just my taxable brokerage accts that I play in. Even half of those are just funds

Yeah, I'm the same. I long ago decided I don't have the time, interest, or patience to invest in individual stocks. Couple that with basically every study saying you can't beat the market in the long-term, and I'm good with the "set it and forget it" approach.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Yeah, I'm the same. I long ago decided I don't have the time, interest, or patience to invest in individual stocks. Couple that with basically every study saying you can't beat the market in the long-term, and I'm good with the "set it and forget it" approach.

Same here. I do a little tweaking here and there at a macro level but I don't have the time or energy to go much deeper than that.

[ReynardMuldrake]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Yeah, I'm just a slow-and-steady index fund investor, and my net worth has grown this year by roughly double my actual salary. Makes me feel like I should have slow played my post-layoff job hunt and relaxed a little more.

This is the first year where my returns have exceeded my salary. It's a really weird feeling having your job not your primary source of wealth.

Looking back, it's taken a really strange trajectory. Between 2010-2019 I had ZERO dollars of aggregate growth. The bad years cancelled out the good ones. Yet I kept contributing. Then in 2019 it exploded, now's it's at 10x the 2019 valuation. Complete hockey stick.

[ReynardMuldrake]

Originally Posted by ChiliConCarnage

Oh sure, lots of stocks are up a ton. There are quite a few speculative type things that are up 100+ since the election basically.

It's just his entire IRA must be allocated that way. It'd be one thing if he started it last year and it was his first 12k. The inception date on the IRA is 2008. I'm amazed. I don't have the risk tolerance for that. I just do almost all index funds and don't look at my retirement accts. I don't even have the apps on my phone lol. Just my taxable brokerage accts that I play in. Even half of those are just funds

Well, it didn't start out that way. When I bought NVDA in 2017 it was a small percentage of my IRA account, now it's around 60%. ****er just wouldn't stop growing. I've already sold half so the gains are locked in. I'm hanging on to around 1k shares.

The volatility doesn't really bother me. It could drop by half and I'd still be way ahead. I did split some into a more conservative portfolio as a hedge.

[kepp]

I searched the forum and this thread and didn't find specific threads or answers to this...what online tax service do you guys recommend?

I've used TurboTax for quite a few years, but there was an article I read in the last couple of months that detailed how Intuit lobbies congress to basically keep the tax code needlessly complex, thus increasing the perceived need for their software. In light of that, I'd like to switch to someone else if there are other good options.

The top alternatives I'm finding are H&R Block, and Jackson Hewitt. Has anyone used those or any other alternative you would recommend?

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by kepp

I searched the forum and this thread and didn't find specific threads or answers to this...what online tax service do you guys recommend?

I've used TurboTax for quite a few years, but there was an article I read in the last couple of months that detailed how Intuit lobbies congress to basically keep the tax code needlessly complex, thus increasing the perceived need for their software. In light of that, I'd like to switch to someone else if there are other good options.

The top alternatives I'm finding are H&R Block, and Jackson Hewitt. Has anyone used those or any other alternative you would recommend?

Pretty sure all the major players engage in the same behavior. I know H&R does.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by kepp

I searched the forum and this thread and didn't find specific threads or answers to this...what online tax service do you guys recommend?

I've used TurboTax for quite a few years, but there was an article I read in the last couple of months that detailed how Intuit lobbies congress to basically keep the tax code needlessly complex, thus increasing the perceived need for their software. In light of that, I'd like to switch to someone else if there are other good options.

The top alternatives I'm finding are H&R Block, and Jackson Hewitt. Has anyone used those or any other alternative you would recommend?

If you're just a W-2 filer, I'd use IRS free file. I don't know what state you're in but Kansas is pretty easy if you are a W-2 filer.