How much do you know about financial independence?

TSLA will pop at least 5% tomorrow.

Looks like it happened…

Looks like it happened…

And it lasted for all of 4 hours…

some of the comments, advice and anecdotes on here are funny. the depth of understanding of how to effectively invest (as if there is any rule of thumb that applies to all) is astoundingly poor. do this, don't do that, bank mutual funds are bad, this is good, that is not. incredible.

I think the most important thing to do IS to do something

SO if you squirrel away money in a number of different things chances are you are not going to lose it all

TSLA will pop at least 5% tomorrow.

Looks like it happened…

And it lasted for all of 4 hours…

I know, eh?

I have a small handful of call options, I had my trading desktop open this morning when the share price was 213, decided to hold a little longer to see what happened.

Oops, held on a bit too long!

Maybe there will be a more controlled, slow buildup tomorrow and I can still sell off at a profit.

Im rich! Oops, no Im not.

some of the comments, advice and anecdotes on here are funny. the depth of understanding of how to effectively invest (as if there is any rule of thumb that applies to all) is astoundingly poor. do this, don't do that, bank mutual funds are bad, this is good, that is not. incredible.

I don't think anyone is saying those things. I think most people on the thread are advocating for balanced diversified portfolios or hiring a quality advisor? Not sure what's wrong with that if we assume an average income earner with average investment goals and risk tolerance.

Not sure there's any scenario where walking into a retail bank and having an advisor sell you high fee bank managed mutual funds is a good plan.

I just read the blog post but not the forum or the thread that it refers to.

Curious why the thread has sooo many people so deep into that stock? Just happened that everyone that lost their shirt all found the same place to share a tear over the loss? Was there info on the forum pumping up this stock that lured these people in deeper and deeper?

Or is it just some Trump supporter forum???

I just read the blog post but not the forum or the thread that it refers to.

Curious why the thread has sooo many people so deep into that stock? Just happened that everyone that lost their shirt all found the same place to share a tear over the loss? Was there info on the forum pumping up this stock that lured these people in deeper and deeper?

Or is it just some Trump supporter forum???

I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that a lot of those people had been on that forum for some time and would feel like they know each other. They likely shared tips in the past and made out well on some, while those who didn't listen missed out and felt foolish. It's not hard to imagine when someone you admire for their investing prowess goes all in and another 10 people do the same that you start thinking maybe you're going to be like that one dude at work who didn't want to go in on the staff lotto picks when it hits the jackpot. Then 20 more jump in and you will be blind at that point to any negative signs. Only looked like 1 guy pulled the pin at the time of the Apple convention (when hindsight confirms that as the inflection point).

Once people are down from their buy in, it's even harder to pull the pin. Your life savings is 20% down, so now you dig your heals in and tell yourself to be patient, because you weren't wrong, just early (right?) You did your DD, and you're smart and tough so you can hold on.

Keep in mind, as much as this is easy to see now as a spec pick, there was plenty of good reason to feel it was a fair play. They had $800M in cash, a deal with Apple and confirmation that although it missed the iphone 6, it was on the iwatch so you'd think they were in good standing to hit the 6S. How would one expect it to go to zero just days later? There were a lot of good reasons to think it was smarter than buying Van real estate right now. The lure of taking 500K all the way to 5M is strong if you're hanging out in an environment (forum) where people are taking big risks regularly and winning. Retire next month at a risk of maybe losing 30%? Hmmm, sounds kinda ok. Lose 100%? How could that happen; this aint no penny stock.

I had a really great tip from someone once. Lost $30K of borrowed money when I had nothing. I'd like to say I was young and stupid, but I was just stupid. Everything looked ideal until the global economy collapsed. Had it been 3 years earlier or 3 years later, it probably would have gone 10X. Edit: buddy who gave me the tip lost $3M. Ouch.

Of course, reality is if I made good on that one, I would have lost it all on the next one which would be so much more painful. I suspect this is what's happened in this case, where many of those people risking it all had done so successfully in the past.

So I know income and net worth talk is a little taboo in most circles but what about savings rate? What percentage of income are you saving for a rainy day? We are currently at ~30% when two years ago it was less than 8%. It hasn't really seemed like too much of a change in lifestyle.

so, how's your badassity?

64% net savings rate for us this past year. The 10 year plan is turning into an 8 year plan.

so, how's your badassity?

64% net savings rate for us this past year. The 10 year plan is turning into an 8 year plan.

if i went to that level it would really cut into my hookers and blow budget.

We were surprised to learn that we earned more than we spent from our RRSP last year. Hurray!that 10-year plan keeps looking like it'll stretch further than we thought.

I need to drop $8k on dog knees. Can the wizards here give me some guidance on how to measure the the return on that investment? I'm thinking I'm going to want a new walker when I hit 85 so I think I should let it ride.

Please don't roast me on where I went wrong. So many people told me to invest in a product that yielded an $8k return just before we got her. I'm so stupid.

so, how's your badassity?

64% net savings rate for us this past year. The 10 year plan is turning into an 8 year plan.

This is impressive but hard to quantify without knowing your household income. That kind of savings rate would be a lot easier to do if you were bringing in say 200k vs 50k.

Maybe a better comparison would be how much of an improvement was this year over last year? What would you say we're the three biggest contributing factors to your success?

You're obviously a MMM fan, but how far have you taken it? Are you getting groceries on your bike or just cutting down on meals out?

Either way, good work. I like reading this thread whenever it pops up.

30% two years ago and 8% four years ago (plus a big mortgage payment thats been killed Feb 2016). Every penny has been earned and taxes paid (no inheritance or casino).

We've cut back on driving out of town every weekend and really cut back on eating out. Haven't had a haircut in a year, don't have cable and I ride my bike to work not nearly often enough. She rides every day. Still eat and drink well, but I haven't bought new clothes in a year.

Although we could easily afford a BMW or an electric supercar, we stick with our ten year old simple cars and have a 35 year old van as our vacation property. (Yes, three paid off cars - MMM would facepunch kick me in the head)

The one biggest factor of success was making an aggressive plan and sticking to it.