Would you invest in Marijuana if you'd quadruple your money in three months?
Smileycreek are self-employed as you know which means we pay 100% for every single thing in our lives including health care and retirement. Until I got sick two years ago, we paid the maximum we could by law into our retirement fund. Being self-employed we have an SEP-IRA which allows us to put a maximum of 15% of what our business makes into that account. It was the best option available for us at the time and was long before Roth IRA's came into being. Had they been around then, we would have gotten one. You can't roll over an SEP-IRA into a Roth IRA.
The bulk of our retirement is being run by a financial adviser who does a fairly good job. He will change what we are invested in as conditions change. Another part of what we have is invested in a Motley Fool fund. I have always been very impressed with Motley Fool. That fund is doing quite nicely. We also have a small fund that we dabble with buying our own stocks. That seems risky, doesn't it? Well we actually know what we are doing in terms of knowing how to read charts and analyse companies' bottom line. I have a confession to make in this regard.
~~~~~~~~~~
Years ago I was in an investment club which was part of a huge group of clubs all over northern California. I eventually got involved with the handful of folks that oversaw all of them from Sacramento to the Oregon border and from the ocean to the Nevada border. We did "fundamental analysis" of companies, which is what you are supposed to do in order to decide if they are sound investments.
Over the years I learned a hard lesson. The system was rigged. Wall Street, the investment banks and even the big mutual fund companies were not on the up and up. The game was rigged. They even put out false information at times just to manipulate investors. All the fundamental analysis in the world was no good vs. the market manipulation by the big boys.
~~~~~~~~~~
I'll tell you just one little personal story. Way back in the 1990's part of our retirement fund was invested in a couple of mutual funds sold by Invesco. Those who own shares in a mutual fund at the end of the year have to pay taxes, of course, on any capital gains that fund made during that year. This is what you want to happen because the fund keeps doing better and better meaning your investment is growing. Whatever tax you pay is minimal compared to the gain made in your investment. Fund managers are supposed to be savvy in knowing when to sell stocks in companies and reinvesting in stocks of other companies. They make the big bucks for this.
But something sinister happened. These funds went up for a few years then took a sudden dump right at the end of the year between Christmas and the New Year. Suddenly a shitload of fund shares were sold off causing the price of the remaining shares to drop drastically. It appeared a lot of very smart folks were "profit taking" and timing it just right to avoid having to pay the taxes the fund owned for capital gains made for that year. Something stunk.
Later what Invesco was doing got found out. They were screwing around with all the thousands of little guys like me for the benefit of just 7 uber rich guys. Invesco fund managers were in collusion with these 7 guys. Here's how it worked. Invesco would start a new fund with these guys' money guaranteeing the fund would fly and guaranteeing the fund manager would look like a genius. Later investors like me would be drawn in and things would hum along nicely for a couple years or so. Then these 7 rich guys would liquidate their shares and tank the fund.
What they were doing is taking money from thousands of us little guys who'd invested in the fund. Thousands of us ended up losing money in the fund because the shares were suddenly worth less than we paid for them and we also got stuck paying the taxes owed by the fund. These rich guys didn't pay any tax the fund owed for capital gains during that last year before they ransacked it. They took their profits and put it in other investment vehicles. Of course they never actually pay any taxes (15%) until they "realize gains" meaning they cash out of something and keep the cash.
And then they'd do this same thing again with these Invesco fund managers. The game is rigged for the wealthy ladies and gentlemen. Never forget that.
Invesco paid a fine. They are still in business. The fund managers kept all their huge incomes. The rich guys kept all their ill gotten gains. Thousands of little guys, like me, lost money and paid taxes.
~~~~~~~~~~
We have a small account that we play with buying our own stocks. It's small and we do it for fun. It's doing great BTW. We invest in tech stocks mostly now days. One stock I invested in a couple years ago is in a company that makes a specific chip found in smart phones that allows them to read those square squiggly things found on just about everything these days. I can honestly say that stock has far more than doubled in the past two years.
But here is another new opportunity out there. The Marijuana Index. I'm not kidding. Since Colorado and Washington made pot legal, investment opportunities popped up. You can check it out here: http://marijuanaindex.org/ Check out this chart! From December 2013 until February 28, 2014, the price had jumped from around $15 per share to $57 per share. That's a 380% profit in just three months!!!
Look at all these companies in the Marijuana Index:
Are you invested in the latest up and comers?
|
|
|
|
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
|
|