Posted on 04/10/2015 3:31:42 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA
Annuities are not great for earning high returns. What most of them offer is safety in that they are sold by insurance companies, most of whom have long records of profitability and stability. Some offer guaranteed small returns (like 1 percent). Mine has a kicker if the stock market goes up—a small increase in the return.
TC
The lottery is rigged. Usually half the proceeds go out in prizes. If you bought every ticket you’d lose about 50% of your money. The rest goes into the coffers of the state sponsoring it.
On the brink or just refusing to admit that we are already over the edge?
Oh, I’m heavily overweighted in equities, and have been for years. Only real estate is my house, almost nothing in bonds, and some cash for liquidity. So I don’t avoid the market, although I tend toward broader mutual funds instead of individual stocks.
And because I am aware that the market is rigged, I don’t sell when things take a large dip -that’s just to scare the unsophisticated into buying high and selling low.
You always have to pay the house. The state takes a bigger skim than Vegas, but if the odds look good to you (and 1 in 18 million isn’t particularly attractive to me) you know what the risk and the maximum payout will be.
But you’ve ignored the fact that you also pay the house to play the stock market. Although the discount brokers don’t skim as much as the old full service brokers used to, they are going to take their cut except in very narrow circumstances.
I used a 2008 value since he said they ot out in 2008.
Yeah. Very astute. Buy at the local min sell at the local max. Do you work for CNBC?
Yeah. Very astute. Buy at the local min sell at the local max. Do you work for CNBC?
The NASDAQ peaked at 5132 15 years ago. Math and English second languages Warren?
I was once a buy and hold kind of guy. Then I took a beating in a big market dip and learned my lesson. The lesson was buy lowm, take profits. Rinse and repeat. During years of extreme volatility and irrationality I park my money in fixed instruments. Currently those fixed instruments are yielding 3.5 to 4 points. I can live with that.
You've never heard of averaging down?
How much of a bath did you take in '08? Haven't heard much, lately, about plowing your SS deduction into a stock portfolio...
Yes, but the percentages in the funds we use are trivial compared to the 50% the state takes of the lottery. The basic difference to me is that, if you invested in the stock market (broadly, diversified) long term, you win. The more you play the lottery, the better the odds you'll have lost 50%. The only way to win there is to win big and then quit. You're right about the odds of that being astronomical.
Personally, I dislike our government pushing gambling as a revenue source and selling it as "for the children".
No. I have heard of dollar cost averaging which I’ve done many times for years on end but that was not the point I was making. The point was simple. Bubbles are created by other than market forces in equities, commoditie, real estate etc. Buying or holding at or near the top of bubbles is probably not a very good idea. But it is a free country.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.