Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife works at a financial profit and I work at the SEC with a 470K in combined income. Our 3M home in Langley is already paid off. We have about 10M in savings because I purchased Apple stock in 2001. We’re very lucky. I am 56 and DW is 38. I am going to retire soon.

Love this story! A close friend’s colleague bought Apple stock in the late 90s because her kid liked the Apple symbol! Instead of buying a new iPhone in 2015ish I invested that amount in stock and it’s up over 500%. Other than that I have a pension coming plus $350k in a 401k and $50k in multiple brokerage accounts. I 50 now, no kids, and want enough to be comfortable at retirement but know too many people who, sadly, passed at or before retirement to deprive myself today.

This is an interesting lesson for newbies and older folks like my self. 63. I was cautious in my early 30s as I was constructing my investment portfolio, picked some dividend payers and a few growth stocks but mostly diversified mutual funds. So I really never hit a home run on my stock investments. And while my stock mutual funds have kept up with the market, no clear out performance. But most of us don't have the time or inclination like Charlie Munger to do the research to pick quality firms. But individual stocks clearly have the ability to out perform, or in some cases, one stock can make you financially independent. Like Apple, NVDA, AVGO, XOM if bought years ago, etc.... Amazing stories of wealth building with stocks.

Y'all really need to read "A Random Walk Down Wall Street." Low cost index funds as boring as they are have the greatest likelihood to make you rich over time, not much else will. Sure a few stock picks here and there might make you rich--but they have a greater chance of not panning out. Charlie and Warren are one of the few analysts who have a track record that beats the market long term--and they are buffered by the fact that they also own companies--and access/information we don't.

I pick individual stocks for about 5-10% of my portfolio--I have had some great gains (I bought NVDA and TSLA years ago) but over a 20 year period my picks haven't beat the S&P500--I usually end up just hovering about .5 percent below when all is said and done--though I have had times where I was 60% above. Beats my DH who is well below though--and that's all that matters really since we do it as a friendly competition. We consider it a hobby.

+100

Everyone posting about how they got rich off AMZN, AAPL, or GOOG needs to realize they got lucky and are outliers. Most people - even knowledgeable people - should NOT pick individual stocks. Even among highly-paid money managers, only 7% beat the S&P in any given year. And the 7% that do it this year are not the same 7% that do it ten years from now. Over a 30-year period, fewer than 1% of money managers beat the S&P -- and they are paid millions to attempt it full-time, not half-ass it after they get off their GS-14 job.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife works at a financial profit and I work at the SEC with a 470K in combined income. Our 3M home in Langley is already paid off. We have about 10M in savings because I purchased Apple stock in 2001. We’re very lucky. I am 56 and DW is 38. I am going to retire soon.

Love this story! A close friend’s colleague bought Apple stock in the late 90s because her kid liked the Apple symbol! Instead of buying a new iPhone in 2015ish I invested that amount in stock and it’s up over 500%. Other than that I have a pension coming plus $350k in a 401k and $50k in multiple brokerage accounts. I 50 now, no kids, and want enough to be comfortable at retirement but know too many people who, sadly, passed at or before retirement to deprive myself today.

This is an interesting lesson for newbies and older folks like my self. 63. I was cautious in my early 30s as I was constructing my investment portfolio, picked some dividend payers and a few growth stocks but mostly diversified mutual funds. So I really never hit a home run on my stock investments. And while my stock mutual funds have kept up with the market, no clear out performance. But most of us don't have the time or inclination like Charlie Munger to do the research to pick quality firms. But individual stocks clearly have the ability to out perform, or in some cases, one stock can make you financially independent. Like Apple, NVDA, AVGO, XOM if bought years ago, etc.... Amazing stories of wealth building with stocks.

Y'all really need to read "A Random Walk Down Wall Street." Low cost index funds as boring as they are have the greatest likelihood to make you rich over time, not much else will. Sure a few stock picks here and there might make you rich--but they have a greater chance of not panning out. Charlie and Warren are one of the few analysts who have a track record that beats the market long term--and they are buffered by the fact that they also own companies--and access/information we don't.

I pick individual stocks for about 5-10% of my portfolio--I have had some great gains (I bought NVDA and TSLA years ago) but over a 20 year period my picks haven't beat the S&P500--I usually end up just hovering about .5 percent below when all is said and done--though I have had times where I was 60% above. Beats my DH who is well below though--and that's all that matters really since we do it as a friendly competition. We consider it a hobby.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife works at a financial profit and I work at the SEC with a 470K in combined income. Our 3M home in Langley is already paid off. We have about 10M in savings because I purchased Apple stock in 2001. We’re very lucky. I am 56 and DW is 38. I am going to retire soon.

Love this story! A close friend’s colleague bought Apple stock in the late 90s because her kid liked the Apple symbol! Instead of buying a new iPhone in 2015ish I invested that amount in stock and it’s up over 500%. Other than that I have a pension coming plus $350k in a 401k and $50k in multiple brokerage accounts. I 50 now, no kids, and want enough to be comfortable at retirement but know too many people who, sadly, passed at or before retirement to deprive myself today.

This is an interesting lesson for newbies and older folks like my self. 63. I was cautious in my early 30s as I was constructing my investment portfolio, picked some dividend payers and a few growth stocks but mostly diversified mutual funds. So I really never hit a home run on my stock investments. And while my stock mutual funds have kept up with the market, no clear out performance. But most of us don't have the time or inclination like Charlie Munger to do the research to pick quality firms. But individual stocks clearly have the ability to out perform, or in some cases, one stock can make you financially independent. Like Apple, NVDA, AVGO, XOM if bought years ago, etc.... Amazing stories of wealth building with stocks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At least HALF of 60 yr olds have about $400K or less.

https://www.synchronybank.com/blog/median-retirement-savings-by-age/

Reality check.

Let's hope they don't develop dementia or other end-of-life diseases that require round-the-clock care or a nursing home. Reality Check. It's in my family. I'm saving like a demon so my kids aren't saddled with my care, emotionally or financially.

Long term care insurance takes care of that concern.

DP: The long term care insurance industry is in serious peril.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife works at a financial profit and I work at the SEC with a 470K in combined income. Our 3M home in Langley is already paid off. We have about 10M in savings because I purchased Apple stock in 2001. We’re very lucky. I am 56 and DW is 38. I am going to retire soon.

Love this story! A close friend’s colleague bought Apple stock in the late 90s because her kid liked the Apple symbol! Instead of buying a new iPhone in 2015ish I invested that amount in stock and it’s up over 500%. Other than that I have a pension coming plus $350k in a 401k and $50k in multiple brokerage accounts. I 50 now, no kids, and want enough to be comfortable at retirement but know too many people who, sadly, passed at or before retirement to deprive myself today.

Anonymous wrote:Always odd that people put so much stock in their pensions instead of using relatively conservative stock purchases to fund retirement.

The S&P 500 was at 1,800 10 years ago; it’s around 4,500 now. Bonds have of course done much worse than that over the same time period.

By comparison, Apple is up 10x what it was in 2013, Amazon is up more than 7x, and Microsoft is up 10x. It’s almost irresponsible at this point to invest for retirement with index funds, let alone bonds, when Magnificent Seven companies are performing so well over such a long period and aren’t going anywhere soon.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:50 & 48 with 600k in retirement savings and 200k equity in a house.

Finally someone like us. 50 and 49 .. 600k in retirement savings and just paid of mortgage and student loans. Next is car loan repayment

Assuming you had a low interest mortgage, it would have made more sense investing the money you used to pay off the mortgage especially considering the tax benefits of having a mortgage.

DP. If they have 200K in equity in a paid off house at their ages, they probably didn't have that much to pay off when they did.

Beyond which, with that amount of equity, the mortgage never was that high. I would also guess they are probably not in a position to itemize, their property taxes not that high, so there really is no tax incentive to keep mortgage interest. I'm sure they just take the standard deduction.

Could they have done something with, say, 50K? Sure. But not everyone is comfortable in equities, and most people know even less about bonds.