@Raiders: how are you? Wanted to circle back and say hello and give an update. The firm that I have helping to manage my accounts ( exception is NVDA; it’s in a separate acct) has done some trading on my behalf. They bought XLE, VIS, VTWV, VWO, VEA, VFH, VBIL. They were very much wanting to sell off all of my SOXL and some of the NVDA ( that didn’t have a low cost basis). I compromised and let them sell some SOXL, No shares of nvda, since I took some profits a few months ago. They did sell a portion (25 shares) of my RKLB also (LB Dirtbags gave me the idea to own that one).
It is definitely an adjustment “ handing over the reigns” to someone else. I am going to give it some time and see if they can add some value to my portfolio. They are charging me 0.7% to manage the accounts , including my 401K ( but not taking a fee on my NVDA position).
@soccergal
Doing well. I hope you are also.
That is a good mix with not too many duplicate things. 
I would be a bit concerned that you are getting into XLE at such a high point. But if you are holding it for the long term it is fine, because I think energy is one of the key things everyone should own.
Without knowing if this is the total mix that you own in and outside of their managing part and your part I would be a bit concerned about missing out on a couple of sectors/areas.
For example, it does not have much exposure to key sectors like healthcare, consumer sectors, large tech/growth, or a broad US market index type fund. I am also a bit surprised they do not have a long-term bond as well.
But this setup is somewhat ideal in an inflationary period when the rates are high and the economy is doing well.
The tradeoff is that you are more positioned for value stocks as opposed to growth stocks.
For example, you do not have any funds like VTI and VOO.
I do like that they have some in the merging markets and internationals as well.
I know you got concerned that NVDA and tech was too top heavy for you. They certainly seem to have fixed that for you.
I thought about you a few days ago when NVDA kept hitting all time highs. Hopefully, you do not regret missing out on the run-up with the part you sold.
But I think you will be happy with their choices overall. I also think .7% is a good price. I know you did not want to give the 401K portion to them. But I think this is diversified enough, aggressive enough, and reduced some of the risk you were worried about.
It will be interesting to see how it performs for the next year or two and see if you are happy with it and the price they are charging.
Good for you and I know it will feel a bit better knowing you have someone taking care of it for you.
Thanks for the reply Raiders! It has been a little hard having the advisory service , especially as the tech sector has been doing so well.
I do own some VTI and VOO ( purchased prior to using the advisor). I added some to my VOO position about a month ago also. I did keep a good portion of my money ( some nvda proceeds) in a separate non managed account. Do you have any recommendations on what I could put that money into? I wanted to invest that money long term ( set it and forget it , maybe?) Buy more Apple? VOO? RKLB? Any other ETFs? Would be interested in your opinion.
As an aside, what a run Micron has been on!
hope you made some good purchases in March and are watching them soar now!
@soccergal
Yes, it will take some time to figure out your total comfort level with the advisor situation. But you have to keep in mind that it is their job and most of them do pretty well for folks. Nowadays a lot of algorithms and things make it easier for them to set each individual up for their particular goals in order to take a lot of the ‘guess-work’ out of it.
I think a lot of the angst would have been lessened if you had been able to use an advisor that someone you knew had been using for years and was very happy with them.
But just give it some time and see how you like them. There is no rule that says you have to keep this guy or even any other one.
Yes ma’am, I always have recommendations.
But, remember that I am just some random guy on the internet.
I always tell folks there is so much that matters about what you do with your money long-term. For example, age, current debt, savings so far, goals in retirement, and tolerance for volatility, etc.
But from what I can tell, you are well set up for retirement and already know good stocks to invest in.
I like VOO and QQQM for longterm “set it and forget it” investors. They have the best expense ratios and are very efficient and best for long-term investing.
But with the markets at all-time highs, there is something to be said for holding it in a high-yield savings account and waiting for the inevitable drawbacks to get in on the dips.
You are not in a situation where you need to rush into something. I generally do not like to have folks sitting on too much cash. Because a person is losing way too much money in the long run because of inflation and lack of compound returns. But that is not a concern for you. You can be much more selective than the average person.
I am not a big advocate of most people putting too much into individual stocks. I prefer them to be put into diversified funds and indices for long-term growth.
But you are not ‘most people’.
So, if you like AAPL I think it is fine to get some.
I have a target of 325 set for them and picked up a lot of options for that area. So, I like them myself. But I do not own the individual stock. This is obviously included already in a lot of your funds. So, you have to decide if this is something you want to add outside of that exposure.
There are a few stocks that are being driven by the SPACEX IPO anticipation. RKLB is one of them. People want to have some exposure to this, in a way, ahead of the IPO release. ASTS is another interesting stock that is tangential to it and even could be considered a direct competitor, in a sense.
The issue is these are stocks that have made good runs lately.
So, you have to consider if you would be getting into something at highs that are not completely warranted. So, obviously if you decide to get into RKLB you might not want nearly as much as you would put into AAPL.
Yes, MU and AMD have been on ridiculous runs. A buddy backed the truck up on those two a couple of months ago and built a huge amount of calls on them. He has started to unwind them a bit. But he made a fortune off of them running up. We were in the oil sector at the same time a few years ago and were hugely leveraged when it ran up. The NRGU was a 3X leveraged ETF in that sector that had an outrageous run. We had futures and other things as well that blew up.
That is the case with AMD and MU. When you see a sector that you like, it is hard not to pick out a stock or two that should beat that overall sector.
For example, you can get SMH and some SOXL.
But you also can get AMD and MU and ride the whole sector up.
That is the case with the Natural Gas that I did part of the last year. Then during this latest situation with the Oil and Natural Gas I have been playing them for very nice profit up and down. Of course, there is huge potential for long-term profit on the downside now.
I have been building a fairly large position in Copper lately. I have also started to put more into the rare earth stocks that I have. The upside for these seems to be huge. I also have been building up the quantum things that I have.
As far as just individual stocks, I do not have too many really.
I have NVDA, PLTR, SOFI, SYM, and BBAI. Nearly all of my mainstream stocks are just in SPY and QQQ funds.
The other stocks I have are just some of the smaller and speculative things like the rare earth and quantum things.
This is still my main stance: “But a lot of what I am doing right now are some longterm commodity things with a lot of energy things, some of the base metals, soft commodities, and rare earth things.”
The reasoning is still this: “I feel there are four key areas that folks should have a portion of their portfolio in going forward: AI, rare earth minerals, energy and pharmaceuticals.”
So, most of my things outside of the SPY and QQQ are built around that thesis.
I would suggest if you are set so well for retirement to pick out something that you have an interest in or know a bit about and key in on it and be selective and see what you can do with a small amount of your extra cash.
I think you would enjoy it and have some fun and learn a lot at the same time.
I once knew an old guy many years ago that traded nothing but Gold because he said it was the only thing he understood and had a great interest in. He did very well because of those two reasons.
My thoughts are that if you take ideas from a random guy on the internet and then see a video on Youtube and then see an article online that all tout different things, then you are jumping in and out of random things.
But if you key in on things you like and are familiar with it is more fun and satisfying. Because this is ‘fun’ money outside of your main retirement ‘set it and forget it’ retirement funds.
One other thing to consider is maybe do something completely outside of stocks. Maybe you can diversify a bit more and start something in real estate or a side business venture. It does not have to be just stocks, unless that is your sole keen interest.
Sorry for the overly long post. But I like when folks that do not work in the financial or investment fields take an interest in stocks and investing I really like it and try to encourage them.
@Raiders22
I wish i would have spent 46 years learning and investing in stocks, instead of 46 years spinning my wheels on gambling(even with some really great info i had thru the years,bettors still lose. That vig is just too hard to over come. Just the power of compound interest thru the years will add up to more money then we can win gambling
)
wish i was never exposed to this stuff.
@cd329
Yessir. All good points.
But I would not beat yourself up about it.
The grind of investing can be frustrating as much as the grind of gambling.
Most folks do not want to study stocks and most do not need to.
All they need to do is get a job they love that has a decent 401K with good matching.
That compounding works its magic hands-free.
I think I saw where you are a retired fireman? If so, thank you for that type of service.
But I am sure you have a great retirement and it happened without you having to study stocks and markets.
The gambling is something most people start for fun and to have action. But if someone puts the time and the study into it they can overcome the juice in various ways and be profitable. The issue is the same as with stocks about building up a bankroll over time with hard lessons.
I always tell folks that want to make money in sports betting to take it serious. If it is just a hobby for fun and to be entertained while watching the game then you cannot get upset. Because you are, more or less, just flipping a coin and the vig is just part of the cost of the 'entertainment'.
Just as you would not take your money and just throw a dart at a stock to buy, you should not do the same with a sports bet.
I tell folks to study the sport they want to concentrate on first. Realize that today all of the information you have -- the books already had it first.
A serious bettor should know how to sort of set up models to find their own implied probability to determine if they have an advantage, or 'edge', over the oddsmaker line.
You have to be selective and do not always get to bet your 'favorite' team or a team that is playing the primetime game just to have action.
There are people I know that bet a lot of money on things like trends. There is not really an edge with them over the line because the bookmaker knows the trends as well. But these guys are playing the 'probability' or 'likelihood' of an outcome over time. It will likely win but will not beat the vig over a long period.
I wrote a fairly lengthy piece on this just a couple of days ago in the NHL forum.
So, in a sense it is like stocks or any other markets. You want to put yourself in the best position possible to pick a winner with some advantage.
I have been very fortunate over the years to have been pretty decent at it. I cannot remember the last time or sport that I actually had a losing season with.
But things change over time and you have to adapt. Like with the rules changes and pitching usage in MLB, etc.
But it is never too late to study up on stocks and start getting involved. There are so many resources online today to help novice investors.
I have found that most people that like to bet on sports also tend to like investing, day-trading, speculating in the markets, etc.
Surprisingly, the skills for both tend to be somewhat related.
Get started investing a little bit.
@Raiders: thank you! I will definitely look into those suggestions. I always read your response and then go back and refer/ reread. Love the set it and forget it types, for sure. I find the ‘financials’ much more interesting than what I studied in school! (We need more investment type clubs, so people can bounce ideas off of each other or teach each other some of their methods/approaches). I choose financial books 99.9% of the time, as my beach reading. I have a lot to learn. I comb the boggleheads forum for some good titles, also.
My background is in pharmacy, but I think it’s hard to pick a good healthcare stock…maybe it’s just me? Years ago, I owned Merck, Pfizer, Lilly. Sold them a long time ago for the likes of Google, Amazon, and Apple. As an aside, I do appreciate your “ guy on the internet” warning. I DO understand. It took me THIS many years of investing to finally learn / realize that some of these names, like VOO, do so so well in terms of gains over time. That’s why I like to ask the questions and see what else I could be missing.
How many times, in the past few months, have you looked at some of these stocks on huge runs and just thought that you could be getting in at a high point ( ARM, MICRON, AMD) …only for them to go even higher! So tough! Eventually, I just had to pull the trigger on more VOO and at the very worst I was DCA ing it , I guess.
I never bought any metal stocks, yet, besides GLD. I’m probably naive to the upside potential in certain sectors.
I did get some good news from the advisor today. He said that my employer doesn’t allow outside advisors to charge advisory fees for our retirement accounts. He said they wouldn’t be adjusting any other of the fees, at this point bc it wouldn’t be the best practice. So that was a welcome bit of news ( and I had no idea that was the case).
@Raiders22
Thanks
Yes good pension from state. I did a small 401k, no matching. I know learning stocks is a tough gig. During the dot com time, i bought 1 stock that went from 10 bucks a share to 300 had a 100 shares. 30k you think i sold it or any of it, nope. I watched it go down everyday, thinking it would go back up. Never went back up, went to zero.
What i mean by getting more involved in the markets was just putting 50k into some funds and adding a 1000-1500 monthly and just let the funds do its thing. even at a 5-6 percent interest i would have made a pretty penny and lots of these funds have been getting over 10 percent interest. I should have paid more attention to that compound interest stuff. Everyday when i wake up, i kick myself. Like i said if i could go back in time and change things, not ever starting gambling would be one of the things at the top of my list. But i grew up around gambling, around the type of people you watch in the movies but real life.
I cant change that, but it does make me sick thinking about it. Kids today have zero chance of coming out ahead gambling and now with all the legal books and using your credit cards, playing 15 team parleys thinking they will become rich, not gonna happen.
That 401k that i was putting 25 dollars in every 2 weeks (lmfaoooooooooo didnt want to take anyway from my gambling money) had 19k in when i retired, i left it in there, but couldnt add to it anymore, has now grown to 98k, doing nothing at all. Oh what could have been lollll. EARNING INTEREST VS PAYING THE VIG
@cd329
Yes, you are so correct.
Most people just are not taught these things. We have to learn it the hard way.
I wish investing and financial planning was taught in schools.
Amazing that the fund you could not even add to has grown that much!
But it is never too late for you to start a little something outside of that fund on your own.
I always tell young people the old example they tell everyone:
Someone starts investing a $1000 a year at age 18 and invests for 10 years and then stops and never invests again.
Then another person waits until age 30 to start investing $1000 a year.
The second person will never catch up to the first person -- even though they stopped at age 27.
The earlier a person starts investing the more the compound interest works.
But it is never too late.
The sports gambling is certainly something that can detract from other parts of life if folks let it.
It should be just used for casual fun. But some folks cannot just do that and it becomes an addiction.
But if people become 'obsessed' with sports betting and really studied it and treated it like a part time job -- it can be fairly rewarding and entertaining at the same time.
But it is the same as investing -- no one has shown the beginning 'sports bettor' how to study it and make money at it.
@soccergal
Very interesting that the outside advisors cannot charge fees on the retirement funds. I assume because there would be a double fee charge then. I had not even thought of that.
Yes, it is frustrating when you feel you 'miss' out on something. For example, the guy I was telling you about with the AMD and MU. We talked about it and he told me all about his reasoning for it. But I was focused on other areas at the time.
But I also think that the you reach a certain point in the markets there is nothing wrong with having a small amount to get into these 'runners' on the dips. I think you are, obviously, at that point. Most people are not and should be as close to 'fully invested' as possible at all times.
So, look at the charts and find some support levels you like or 150/200-day MAs and wait until then to grab some of them, maybe.
But I always say that is best. Do not worry about missed opportunities; learn from them and move on.
Because you do not want to stretch yourself too thin or jump from one 'good' idea to another and then another.
I think those are good healthcare stocks. I understand jumping to the tech stuff at the time. But there is no rule that you cannot still keep some of them as well. Or at least a good fund in the area.
But you also may have some 'insight' in that field about some up-and-coming ideas or stocks to take a flyer on. You would be more aware of new drug trials and things. Because some of those stocks really can jump on that sort of news, etc.
So, for sure, if metals is not your thing it is best to concentrate on the things that are and what you like.
Sometimes, I think it is 'interesting or fun' to dabble in new markets. I think it keeps you more engaged and focused. But like the old man I knew that traded just gold, there is nothing wrong with being an expert at only one or two areas.
@soccergal
I am interested if you have any opinion on AMGN and JNJ.
I will probably be picking some of them up along with WMT and CVX this week and some long calls on JNJ, WMT, and CVX.
I will start to build some positions on these going into the 2nd half of the year.
But I was curious if you have any thoughts on the AMGN and JNJ stocks.
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