What You Doing With Your Money?

[ROB]

So the world is going to shit slowly but surely.

Who thinks the financial system will keep booming?

Who's pickling onions to swap for blowjobs (remember that guy?)

Where are your assets sitting and what are you doing to protect them?

[Kurt]

Real estate.
We have a farm that has been in my family for 130 years and we rent out the land to a family who has been friends of my family for about 90 years.
Plus after the Solarwinds hack we bought it really low, just to take a bit of risk.

[Tarkan]

So the world is going to shit slowly but surely.

Who thinks the financial system will keep booming?

Who's pickling onions to swap for blowjobs (remember that guy?)

Where are your assets sitting and what are you doing to protect them?

I put my money back into the stock market because pretty sure Biden is going to make sure the money printer goes brrrrr. Also, it's the start of the year, and the stock market tends to do best over the next 3 months in cyclical terms. Investing in green energy probably isn't a bad idea either, since it will also be an area of Fed investment, but I haven't shifted any money there (yet).

The run on guns and ammo increased my paper net worth by about $50k this year. Not that I'm selling.

That being said, all this is being built on foundations of sand. A large part of the economy in the US is either unemployed or underemployed.

Per Kurt, land might be a good investment, but real estate is not a great investment, commercial or residential (IMHO). Commercial real estate is going to be dead for years. A lot of companies figured out this past year they don't need nearly as much space as they lease. Residential real estate because, if you are renting it out, it's hard to evict people because of COVID if they can't pay - and if you don't own it outright, the bank still expects you to make your payments. Owning productive land as a hedge is never a horrible idea though.

[Kurt]

There is already a dip, that is why we are buying (no dip on farmland though) ...No Dip in NYC either except for "Luxury" real estate which here was chintzy, poorly made with really expensive stuff to maintain (like skylights on roofs with solar power....In NYC Solar Power does not even power your house, it goes to the grid and you get a reduction in your bill....Really stupid IMO)

[Bronco]

I think real estate is a good bet. I think there is going to be a lot more real estate available before the virus is gone. So far, a couple hundred thousand people have died and they lived somewhere. Some of them must have owned their own homes and those homes will be empty. Renters don't have enough money to pay their rents so buying rental property is doomed for awhile. Farmers are being hit hard so you might be able to buy a plot of land to grow your own food if everything else goes south.

But watch out. A guy I know listed his home to sell and the real estate sales woman told a prospective buyer that he was hurting for money since he lost his job, so the buyer could low-ball him and offer about 30% of the asking price and he'd probably take it. He did. I met the new buyer and he told me the story which I relayed to the seller. The real estate woman offered to 'make it up to him' by providing free sex until he moved. In short, he got screwed.

[gnaruki]

Regrossing the stock portfolio to all cash for the moment... decent 2020 (about lock-step with the overall market), unsure what to do now. The story of my stock adventures the last few years have been selling for a gain but always selling too soon. I'm tempted to go just all etf's like qqq for the year and forget about them until August. Got a ton of my net worth in industrial property which has been performing great. Who knows? It might all blow up and i'll be digging ditches this time next year.

[el3so]

Where are your assets sitting and what are you doing to protect them?

I have never felt so embarrassed participating in any other topic here. I realise in my culture we really do not like talking about money. But to help further the cause of capitalism and cultural participation's sake I will. A bit.

I think personal finances depend on one's age (43), dependents (0) and life plans (house, headstone and funeral festivities paid for, content living the low class life on a middle class income).

The story of my stock adventures (...) selling too soon.

and buying too late? Know the feeling but it beats the other way around.

I do not feel comfortable with numbers, dates or tickers but my commercial (bloodbath) and professional (okay-ish) REITs were already struggling long before covid-19 struck. They have not yet jumped back ;-) Healthcare did too good to hold end of 2019, got lucky, bought in again at the dip. Given the context it seems obscene. I have them for the long term 10-15 years and the dividends, hard to go wrong with buildings/ground.

Index funds are steady but only own them as retirement and remuneration schemes (life insurance too but I dunno if that is on topic) so fingers crossed 25+ years along the line, will not be much use if in the meantime the heavens have fallen. ETFs have lower costs but I haven't gotten into them.
Never touched options.

[el3so]

offer about 30% of the asking price and he'd probably take it.

That would set off bells over here.

[snaark]

I'm investing in internet companies, Japanese real estate, tulip bulbs and the South Sea Company.

[el3so]

I'm investing in internet companies, Japanese real estate, tulip bulbs and the South Sea Company.

You misspelled bitcoin.

[Kurt]

I'm investing in internet companies, Japanese real estate, tulip bulbs and the South Sea Company.

You misspelled bitcoin.

I screwed up on Bitcoin.

In 2013 I had a choice, go $60k in debt to build a bitcoin mining rig or spend $40k on my wedding and flying relatives over from Nigeria to Wisconsin.

So I chose the wedding.

Because at the time BTC was like $13.00 and my mining rig could only generate 1.1 to 1.6 BTC per day at that ratio and my investment would be obsolete once the hash rate changed so I would have only been able to generate about 200 days of BTC.

It did not occur to me that it would be the new crime money. It was minor scam money in 2013.

Anyway, if I had spent $60k on a mining cluster rig pretty much everyone would have bought tickets to murder me and I thoguht the whole thing was stupid (I still do, but stupid = $$$$)

[Tarkan]

I'm investing in internet companies, Japanese real estate, tulip bulbs and the South Sea Company.

You misspelled bitcoin.

I screwed up on Bitcoin.

In 2013 I had a choice, go $60k in debt to build a bitcoin mining rig or spend $40k on my wedding and flying relatives over from Nigeria to Wisconsin.

So I chose the wedding.

Because at the time BTC was like $13.00 and my mining rig could only generate 1.1 to 1.6 BTC per day at that ratio and my investment would be obsolete once the hash rate changed so I would have only been able to generate about 200 days of BTC.

It did not occur to me that it would be the new crime money. It was minor scam money in 2013.

Anyway, if I had spent $60k on a mining cluster rig pretty much everyone would have bought tickets to murder me and I thoguht the whole thing was stupid (I still do, but stupid = $$$$)

I have a friend that mined a bunch of bitcoin in 2010 or 2011. Used all the BTC it to buy some beef online as a novelty. I asked him how much money it would have been, he said enough to buy his own island, and this is back when BTC was around $8k.

I remember trying to set up a BTC rig pretty early on (before 2011), spent about 4 hours on it, didn't appear to be working, so forgot about it and never went back. Oh well. Honestly, the dumbest thing I ever did, in hindsight, is not dumping everything into Apple after I got my first iPhone.

[el3so]

I remember laughing about google's ipo, pretty sure it was a JITW post, talk about egg on your face.

Doubt the world is collapsing, people rebuild, growth is inherent, etc. Of course economic downturns are a harsh reality and financial stress is a burden, but there is no workable alternative IMO.

@ROB: now show us yours

[snaark]

Crying over having not invested in Bitcoin is like going to the casino and then crying that you put your money on the wrong colour. You could've made money. You could've lost money. But you probably shouldn't have been in the Casino in the first place. I've never regretted having not done a stupid thing, even if that stupid thing might've accidentally made me rich.

[Kurt]

Crying over having not invested in Bitcoin is like going to the casino and then crying that you put your money on the wrong colour. You could've made money. You could've lost money. But you probably shouldn't have been in the Casino in the first place. I've never regretted having not done a stupid thing, even if that stupid thing might've accidentally made me rich.

I always tell everyone I made a smart choice, but that the dumb choice would have made me rich.

I mean, seriously:
I am going to spend $60k USD on a computer that will basically print money.

I suspect if I had been crazy enough to blow that kind of cash I probably also would have been so crazy I would have lost it right away too.