Money would solve literally all of my problems

So here's the stitch:

I've always been good with what little money I've had, but my toxic habit is hanging onto it in my savings accounts because I never had enough to invest and let go of long enough to accrue any interest or growth (i.e. paycheck to paycheck life & on my own since 16). I always needed an emergency fund, which would be depleted ever couple of years during a crisis. Despite this, my credit has taken a massive hit due to some poor decisions, and I am finding it almost impossible to recover from, even if I paid off all of my debt, which would leave me with no safety net.

I've had a corporate job for nearly 3 years now, which comes with a 401K. At first, I was only contributing 5% because that's as much as my employer was matching. They stopped matching for about a year, then started back up again this past July. So my return is currently around +17% with a high risk profile.

It occurred to me recently that this is all pre-tax contributions, and while I'd take home less if I contributed more, my untaxed savings would grow exponentially while I was taxed less on lesser take home pay.

I've accrued nearly $14k in my time with the company and recently changed my contributions to 10%. However, I am seeking a way to cash it out and put it somewhere where it will double, triple, whatever in a shorter period of time, and I am willing to take the 10% tax penalty to do so - if it's worth it.

So my question to you savvy investor members is - have you ever cashed out your 401K, and what did you do with it in order to have your money make you more money? Possibly even navigating the economy in such a way that your money ended up working for you so well that you were able to retire on a passive income.

Is this possible? Do I have enough to do something like that? What are your suggestions? Should I roll it over? Are there opportunities I am unaware of and missing out on? Any and all feedback is welcome.

So I wandering into a GME subreddit today and starting seeing a lot of mentions of DRS (Direct Registration System). Reminded me a lot of the Bitcoin true believers motto of "not your keys, not your coin". From what I could gather, a lot of the GME folks don't trust the brokerages to not screw them over if the stock skyrockets. For those who don't know (Like me earlier today), DRS is a way to take full custody of your stock and not leave it in the custodial hands of the brokerage. So my question now is, is this a smart move for any of your investments? Maybe just some of the riskier ones that might pop off? Or is this just paranoid thinking? Will a brokerage be upset if you DRS all of your stock holding?

Hi, a generous gift was given to my children from their grandmother. I want to put the money in a savings account that yields a good amount of interest without it being a scam. I thought tellus would be a good idea until I read (on reddit) it's a scam. Any thoughts or banks that are backed by the FDIC (I believe) double points if they are in person accessable (midwest) and don't hurt them if money is moved in and out infrequently. I'm a single mom but hopefully I can keep this money and grow it until they are 18. Thank you!

Ps I'm also okay with dividend investments but much more insecure in how to deal with those.

Currently my portfolio is 70% VOO and 30% SGOV. Before last week I was 100% VOO. But like many others I feel the chance of a significant drop (over 20%) in the next year could happen. Not saying it’s guaranteed to happen. Wild guess is about a 30% chance of a 15%+ drop in 2025.

Another factor is I’m a few years away from retirement.

Here is the strategy I plan on implementing. At the current market sentiment I will keep my portfolio at 70/30 stock. Almost all of my portfolio is in IRA/Roth. So buying and selling won’t cause a taxable event.

If stocks continue to go up I will sell some VOO and buy SGOV so my ratio stays at 70/30

If stocks drop 10% - I will sell some SGOV and buy VOO so my allocation is 80/20

If stocks drop more to 20% - I will sell some SGOV and buy VOO so my allocation is 90/10

If stocks drop more to 30% - I will sell some SGOV and buy VOO so my allocation is 100/0

I could adjust this to be more conservative (wait to buy till 20% drop) but I’m not hunting the bottom. I just want to be able to buy VOO at a discount if a 10-30% drop happens. If it drops more to 40-50% then fine. But probability shows it is much more likely it will drop 10-30%.

Does this strategy make sense? I’m not trying to maximize growth (100% stock) or trying to time the bottom (wait till full 30-50% drop to buy VOO)

Or am I trying to time the market too much. I will say if I retire in 5 years and I’m 100% stock, it would suck if the market drops 40% that year. So I’m trying to protect myself but still trying to grow the portfolio

I made a post earlier this year on how BX was one of the easiest buys of the year. They timed the market perfectly with their investments before rate cuts and the Trump win.

My only issue I can’t wrap my head around is who wins out during a recession or ‘depression’

Buffett has a lot of cash 300+ billion. BX has around 180+ million in dry powder.

BX will obviously get crushed due to their exposure to companies ( but it’s been said even in a collapse they can still value private companies at whatever they want) they don’t need to show a loss like public companies do.

Is there any difference in cash vs dry powder? Does one have the advantage over the other? Or are both defensive bets during a downturn.

I have had this question in my head since Friday on what are my return for an investment. Let's say the investor buys a stock with a PE of 15 and the stock shall grown at 26% p.a. for the next 10 years. If the PE remains the same in year 10. The return should be 908% or 26% CAGR. If I use a discount rate of 26% or 15% to evaluate my investment what are my returns? (with 26%, the present value of year 10 today would be same as today. So I will not invest. With 15% I guess the excess return will be 10%. ) So how do investors go about return and discount rate?

I’ve been using the Fidelity retirement planner to get a mix of funds to invest my IRA in for the last 5 years. I chose all Fidelity funds for ease of exchanging while rebalancing. I did a rebalance, met with a Fidelity advisor about retirement planning and decided to lower my risk profile. This shifted the investment mix, which I executed trades and exchanges against. Across 10 funds, I easily blew past the 4 in 12 months roundtrip violation as the 2nd rebalancing happened within 30 days. Long story not short, my account has been blocked from trading Fidelity funds for 85 days.

Has anybody hit this before? Any suggestions how to deal with it? I assume I missed a warning somewhere and am not disputing whether it happened or not.

I'm trying to find academic papers, books, or other publications that Jim Simons himself wrote throughout his career. I know he was a brilliant mathematician before founding Renaissance Technologies, but I'm having trouble tracking down his actual written work.

I'm not a quant or mathematician, but I'm really interested in reading his original research and thoughts. This could include:

• His mathematical papers from his academic career
• Any articles he's written about trading or markets
• Published lectures or speeches
• His doctoral thesis
• Any other written material where he's the primary author

If anyone has links to his publications or knows where to find them, I'd really appreciate it. Even if the math goes over my head, I think it would be fascinating to read his actual work rather than just books about him.

Thanks!

Note: Looking specifically for things written BY Simons himself, not books about him like "The Man Who Solved the Market"

Hello. I have a good amount of money in Index Funds. It occurred to me, I don't really know when to pull it out in case the market starts to tank. I am not asking for predicting when to pull it out, but is there a percentage drop in a single day I should definitely consider taking money out? Thinking back to the covid bottom out. All advice welcome! Thank you!

I'm looking for personal finance and investing book recommendations from people who have actually applied the concepts successfully in their lives. Not interested in get-rich-quick schemes - just solid, practical advice that helped you build wealth or better manage your money. What books made a real difference for you and why?

Thanks in advance! And if you could share a bit about how specifically the book helped you (like "helped me set up my first investment portfolio" or "finally got me to understand compound interest"), that would be super helpful.

I was recently unemployed for 18 months, started my new job about a month ago. I have about 75k in my old employers 401k(split in Roth/ traditional). Since I have not been working this year, is right now the right time to convert this to a Roth IRA since my tax bracket would be near the bottom? Any advantages to keeping this in my old employers 401k account? I’ll most likely keep this in a similar fund which is a s p 500 etf.

So I was automatically enrolled in the 401k at work and I have been trying to learn more about it. It automatically put me int a state street target date fund. Looking at the other options and reading what most people say it seemed like I would be better off with the S&P 500 State Street fund so I switched to 85% of future contributions going to that and 15% to the tdf. It has a lower expense ratio of .02 instead of .09 and better returns over every time period shown. Then I was reading about how that is probably redundant because the tdf also has S&P 500 in there already. So I found a mid cap fidelity fund with a .025 expense ratio and better returns over every period shown than the tdf and switched so the 15% going the the tdf would now go to fid mid cap. After both these changes I read things making me question my decision. One was somebody saying they don't know why anyone would ever invest in mid cap lol. I was thinking about changing it to 80% S&P 500 10% fid mid cap and 10% small cap. I don't know if that is better. My thought was just that the S&P 500 and mid cap have lower expense ratios and better returns over recent years so it seemed like a good idea. Am I just screwing everything up?

Hi investment friends, starting with the point of this analysis: Tesla, is a Wrigley's or a Coca Cola or our era but with a beyond imagining more future potential.

Warren Buffett's although we love him, he's one of the top 7 wisest who ever lived and has the motto "invest in things you understand" (it should be added that there should at least be ample time to get to understand it coz' most are very much understandable or it's just pride to stick to simple to manufacturer but en masse consumables and the like as I call his favorites, assets like gum, candy, airlines and softdrinks which are everywhere and all customers are repeat customers) but there's still that constant, that he's not infallible. What it means to 'understand' has to be truly be analyzed way deeply than ever before.

As most have said in the tech industry, sir Warren's fundamental which includes that it's highly speculative (also it's not on the record but it implies he's not into Elon Musk's kind of personality which for him is unpredictable but that's another miss in the fundamental analysis of the one who leads Tesla) analysis of Tesla appears not to be fundamental at all coz' it's most likely incomplete. As most have said Tesla is not just a car company, it's not just a products company selling cars. What was once speculative and beyond the norm have materialized, an example is EV cars that are practical compared to EVs from generations past, now you have the many Models of Tesla. Elon Musk w/ Tesla has proof that they can execute what seems to be many as speculative (although I don't agree with him 100%, especially when it comes to 100% autonomy, coz' technology is buy a tool for mankind and will always babysit any technology).

Tesla is not just a car company, it's more than that- its an energy company (generating revenues energy services like charging and at the same time it "ate it's own cake too" as they say, it creates the products, the batteries to facilities that energy charging service), it's an A.I. company, solar energy company and a robotics company which is still at a speculation stage wether people will buy that but given Tesla w/ Elon's leadership, there's a high probability that Optimus will be practically used almost everywhere (just like again, EV as practical long range modes of transportation was a pipe dream until they launched en masse the Model S and the Models after that).

Thank you for reading.

God bless us Signal vs. Noise Investor Masterace (that's all of the good folks on r/Investing)

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So right after Tesla recently reached it's ath I made the decision to short it and I made some decent returns on that but already closed the position as Ibfelt like it was done with it's current correction.

But I still think the company is very overvalued. I would think 250 is a fair value or maybe even less.

Let's be honest the overvaluation is due to people having strong feeling for Elon Musk not bcs the company has an economic moat.

So the question we need to ask ourselves is: will the postive sentiment end at any point in the near future and honestly I do not think so. Bunch of recent tweets were pretty controversial and all that but I feel like this won't have any further impact atm. I just read they are recently started production on the newest Y model and it's supposed to be available in early 2025 so this might actually push the price up until then.

But I really feel like it is so risky to invest in the stock. Maybe a smal call option just to not miss out but also keep liquidity?

Hi all,

My company offers ESPP with RSU match instead of a discount that vests immediately upon grant. The company stock price swings are very volatile DoD and even MoM (talking about 5% swings daily, double digit swings in L6M etc. The stock has been at a long term downtrend and recently is seeing a potential reversal due to company finally being profitable for the first time.

I'm allowed to contribute up to 15% of my pay towards ESPP, and there are 2 offering periods per year with purchase dates on the 15th of every month. One month after the end of an offering period, I receive 20% RSU grant that vests immediately. I am only allowed to trade during open window.

Even with the 20% RSU, this seems like a huge gamble due to the volatility of the stock, and I may be better off putting this into a HYSA or even an index fund, but I wanted your take to see if I might be missing anything.

In my case, would a huge chunk of the risk be offloaded if I reconsider ESPP participation once the stock is in a long term uptrend instead?

Hi All,

I am new to options trading. I got involved with LUNR and ACHR (long calls) and have made some decent money. Here are my questions:

- Only involved with long calls, typically 2-4 weeks.

- I typically never exercise my option to purchase shares. Only interested in buying a contract and then selling when I see >200% total ROI
- Is it common to sell these options before the strike price on the contract has been hit?

- If my plan is to just buy a contract (in anticipation that the stock will rise) and then sell the contract a week or two later for profit, is it better to buy:

1. Longer-dated options with high strike prices and low premiums
2. shorter-dated options with high strike prices and low premiums
3. Loner-dated options with lower strike prices and high premiums
4. shorter-dated options with lower strike prices and high premiums

- Additionally, is it true that if I buy a contract and the underlying stock price increases by as little as 1%, my contract is already worth more, regardless of the strike price i chose?

I know time decay is a factor as well, so please work that into your responses as you see fit.

I recently came into some money and am eager to start investing. I’m learning about stocks, ETFs, and other options to build a diverse portfolio. My goal is to grow this wealth responsibly and secure a stable financial future, one smart investment at a time.

Hi!

I currently own VOO and some other stocks in my Roth IRA. I’m able to start investing in a standard brokerage account that doesn’t have any tax-advantaged status, so I was wondering which stocks I should invest in as to not overlap and to best fit in a brokerage account.

I could play around with individual blue chip stocks and maybe a little bit of risky ones, but I’d like to know what a good main stock or set of stocks should be for the brokerage account.

I’m 18 and will definitely fully invest in my Roth IRA before making any contributions to my other account.

Thanks!

As of right now, I’m 100% VOO. I know many would say that the S&P 500 isn’t diversified enough, and others may say it’s too diversified. But it’s what’s been working for me and what I’m comfortable staying consistent with.

But, after seeing the results of the election, and trying to think more about current events affecting markets and certain sectors, one might think that oil stocks/etfs must benefit greatly in 2025 with the new administration. Also, single stocks like Tesla, Coinbase, and others that are closely tied to allies in the administration.

What I’m asking essentially is, should I stick to my strategy of dollar cost averaging into VOO, or should I tinker with allocations a bit and maybe add other investments that may benefit in the next few years?

Hello! I am 19 years old and interested in starting to invest, but I don't have any prior knowledge about it. I would like to know how and where I can invest my money safely. I would appreciate recommendations on the first steps I should take and how I can acquire basic investment knowledge to start off on the right foot, any book recommendation, course or everything it's useful for me, thanks a lot.

Was thinking of starting a mock hedge fund where we short and long under/over valued stocks.

How should I structure this group which would involve me and a few other people teaching others who I’ll assume have 0 knowledge about the stock market, investing, or what a hedge fund is?

Any resources such as book recommendations, YouTube videos, pdf’s are greatly appreciated.

Thought it would be a fun idea to learn and teach others how to run a hedge fund in a learning environment where we could have fun and grow together

Getting tired of multiple day holds on transferred funds with my current platform and looking to make a change. I know a lot of people use the platform, but what's the general consensus on usability? Are there delays when you transfer money to a settlement fund or can you transfer and trade same day? Are there any other limitations over some of the other platforms like Fidelity, Vanguard, etc?

Can anyone educate me a little on the following:

I am not allowed to participate in the company 401(k) for another 6 months. I just got a bonus at work and want to max out my 401(k) contributions for the year. I think I have to open my own 401(k), if possible.

Anyone know if this is possible and how I might go about it?

Thank you!

Long story short, I am about to max out my Roth IRA. Currently 19 years old in my first semester of college, have a lot of extra cash that I don't really use (just sits there in a HYSA). I started investing in my Roth IRA as soon as I turned 18 last year, and I currently have $916 there. My portfolio is currently 100% FXAIX. Would it be okay to continue with this? Just wanted to ask you guys with more experience before I max it out. Thank you!

I have about 100k in Vanguards VFMXX and I was reading information that says you can lose money in a money market fund. 1.How much money could I lose? 2.Are there any protections in a money market fund. 3.What makes one money market fund better than another beside the yield and fees?

I was looking at my bank account, clicking around and saw a link for Schwab. I clicked on the link and saw an offer from Schwab for $101. They give me $101 for opening an account and funding the account with at least $50. Part of the offer says they will invest the $101 in the top five stocks in the S&P 500 by purchasing fractional shares. You can opt out of the stock purchase and keep the cash in the brokerage account. Anyway it’s free money. I have accounts at Fidelity.

Believe it or not I'm asking for a friend. He would like to buy some Bitcoin and while there was a time Google was good for information, nowadays it is just a spam machine that just boards you with the content somebody paid them to put up first.

Could somebody pretty please suggest a platform that is reliable and with low fees? My buddy would like a trusty place with low fees and not a lot of complexity.

Asking as a legitimate question as I my knowledge on trading in general is quite limited. This year of very strong performance notwithstanding, I'm looking at the charts and struggling to find any point at which gold would not have yielded a solid and reasonably low risk return over the last 25 years over a 3-4 year investment period.

With the exception of the drop off in mid 2012 (recovered by 2014) there havnt been any significant price falls in that period. The returns over the last 2-3 would have been in the same region as the S&P500 and with commodities taxed at a lower rate than ETFs where I live the difference in net profits would be minimal, this with a added benefit of security it gives in balancing other assets during market uncertainty.

What am I missing? Because the temptation to drop a few grand into gold rather than it sitting in the bank account withering away is nawing at me.

Edit: Because yes I know ETFs typical perform better and I can't keep typing back the same thing in responses: Unfortunately ETF gains are taxed here are 41% Vs individual stocks/commodities which are at 33%.

I'm using Fidelity, but find the performance information they have rather limiting. Yes, I can see my full portfolio, but not how my individual stocks have performed relative to others in my portfolio. Are there any good portfolio analysis tools that help not only seeing the full portfolio, but also compare stocks in your portfolio against one another to see which ones have been performing and which ones have been lagging for example? TY!