Let me tell you a sad story...
A long long time ago I was a much younger Bozz than I am now and I thought hey, it might be a good idea to get some investments going. I found a local broker in town and I met with them to set up a 403B (It's like a 401K for state employees), and a Roth IRA. It's been so long now that I can't remember which one I started first.
What I do remember is the first things I bought for my Roth IRA. I can't remember the quantities, but I remember the stocks and mutual funds quite well. There was one mutual fund and it was the Washington Mutual Fund from American Funds which is now Capital Group. The rest of my IRA was composed of stocks.
A couple shares of Apple, maybe 11 shares of AMD (Advanced Micro Devices), and some shares of NVIDIA. I can't for the life of me remember how many shares of NVIDIA I bought. I want to say it was somewhere between 2 and 6 because even back then the price was pretty high for it.
Fast forward to another point in time and I wasn't happy with how my NVIDIA shares were doing, so I decided to sell them and move into some other things.
Given the fact that NVIDIA is now sitting at $785.38 per share, this is where the sad part comes in...
Let's assume I only had 2 shares at the time. Let's also assume I purchased those two shares after the split in 2001.
Given there was a two for 1 split in 2006, that would give me 4 shares total. Then a three for two split in 2007 giving me six more shares (correct me if my math is wrong).
Finally, there was a four to one split in 2021 which would give me a total of 24 shares.
In case you have been doing the math, that's just shy of $20,000 USD right there. Trust me, being in crypto this long has taught me that I can't hold onto "could have beens" or "should have beens", but that doesn't make it sting any less.
The good news is, I still have those Apple shares and that has split several times since then as well. I sold the Washington Mutual Fund, but eventually bought back into it with my 403B. I also picked up some Ford stock which has been paying a decent dividend for many years now.
It is time again for another Finance Friday/Friday Finance. This is a series I started where I talk about random bits of financial stuff that I have seen, gathered, or experienced during the week. I hope as a reader you find it informational, entertaining, or both. I also hope it can generate some good discussion and edify the community.
I'm sure we all have sad stories similar to the one above. If we had all paid more attention to BTC back in the day, we likely would be living much different lives now. You can't dwell on it though. The fact is, I probably have more exposure to NVIDIA than I realize via the other mutual funds that I am invested in.
By the way, in case you wondered that's my dad's computer in the photos above. He wanted to get ready for the newest Microsoft Flight Simulator that is being released sometime this year, so he decided to splurge on a new Falcon NorthWest gaming rig. Personally, I think he way overpaid, but he is happy, so that is all that matters. He's more than ready to go with his new i9 processor and NVIDIA RTX 4090 graphics card.
FIO
Have any of you been on the chain long enough to remember a guy named @lukestokes? He isn't as active as he used to be, but it looks like he still does post from time to time. A long long time ago in crypto years he took a step back from Hive, moved his family to Puerto Rico (I think), and started working on a project called FIO.
I've been following the project ever since.
The basic premise is simple wallet names to get around all the hassle of long private and public keys. Once you have it set up, you could send a bunch of different cryptos simply by knowing the persons FIO handle. Kind of similar to what we have here on Hive. If you wanted to send me 4 HIVE, you just send it to Bozz, you don't need to know my public key or anything like that.
There are two things I really like about FIO:
First, it solves a real world problem that could help with mass adoption of crypto outside the ETFs. Second, the team hasn't let the long bear keep them from doing everything they can to make FIO better and visible. I'm always seeing messages in their Discord about how they are promoting FIO at this conference or that one. They are constantly hustling to get FIO on the map.
I think we can all agree that's hard to do sometimes. I've seen some complaints lately that HIve isn't marketed well. I don't think that is the case for FIO.
With a current price of right around $.03, an all time low of $.01 in 2023 and an all time high of $.56 back in 2021, FIO might be a token you might want to take a look at. More than that, at least get yourself a FIO handle. I picked one up quite some time ago.
Do your own research of course.
TRON
Finally, I saw a news story the other day that Circle, the issuer of the USDC token has decide to severe their support for USDC on the TRON blockchain. If you don't know, TRON is the blockchain we love to hate, started by that douche canoe Justin Sun who tried to make a hostile takeover of STEEM forcing the fork to HIVE.
I haven't seen a specific reason yet but it sounds like Circle has alluded to the fact that this if for safety and security reasons. They want USDC to remain "trusted, transparent, and safe", apparently TRON doesn't fit that vision.
Shocker!
I was hoping to sneak a little bit of silver/gold content in here this week, but I guess it just isn't meant to be. Maybe next week!
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
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Ah the reflections of past mistakes lol it’s good you were able to get some of them anyway.
I remember Luke I’ll have to keep an eye on FIO. I wonder which exchange lists the token for me to get a few thousand for. With mainstream adoption that will be a crucial piece of tech
I totally agree. At these prices I have been considering filling my bags.
Damn I looked up the exchanges it's listed on and I don't see it on any of the ones I'm associated with lol I wonder how I can get some
Edit I found they are actually an account on Hive which makes sense.. now I gotta do some digging to figure out how to get some!
Good luck! I swapped into some via edge wallet.
I would say all the AI chip makers stocks are going to moon this year, didn’t meta order like a billion dollars worth of them.
I think you are probably right!
Great post! Hindsight is always twenty/ twenty... Like you said best not to focus on the could have been and move on. At least you kept those Apple shares!
I've also had 401K's and a Roth IRA as well, and from the Army days the Thrift Savings Plant. Of the bunch the TSP had done the best because I just haven't touched it. I hadn't looked at a statement in years and it really has ballooned over the last few years. Still can't touch the money for years and I may be dead by then... Oh well!
Have a great weekend my friend, enjoy some good bourbon and some good eats!
!DHEDGE
Thanks, I hope you have a good weekend too! My biggest fear with my investments is that I won't be alive to enjoy them. So when you said that, it really hits home with me. I checked my account this morning and I am well on my way to one of my milestones.
The old Grim Reaper won't stay away forever, and after the COVID vaccine my health went down the tubes. So I won't get to enjoy it, my son will get to enjoy spending it!
I'm sorry to hear that.
As soon as you mentioned Nvidia I knew it would be a sad sad story.
I started looking into the US market at the backend of last year as the UK market is so boring. Nvidia was around $480 and I thought it was a bit too expensive. By the new year it was over $600, it was just a bit too crazy for my liking. Luckily I managed to condition myself to not regret things.
On the upside, I did pick up some ARM instead so I'm a happy bunny 🐰 😀
That sounds about the same as I felt when I was looking at BNB. It was at $12, then it jumped to $25 and I was like dang, that's way too much. Next thing you know it's touching $600 or whatever it topped at.
Someone told me in 2012 and I did not believe. Fast forward, even not far ago someone told me to buy ETH when it was below 100$ :)
I remember hearing about BTC back in the day, but I thought it was a joke. I could have been mining with my desktop and be rich today!
Anyone who invests will have regrets, but may have some decent wins too. A guy I used to work with had about 20BTC and it has probably gone up 10x since then. I hope he still has it. I just never got on that bus, but never mind.
When it comes to building computers I have no idea these days. I built mine years ago and it still works fine, but then I don't play games. It could probably do with more memory, but has plenty of processing power for what I do.
My computer in my office is one I built. I'd like up upgrade it one day, but I just don't have the time right now. It still runs fine for most things I do, so I can't really justify it.
Lol I knew when i read that title it was getting out of Nvidia it sucks so bad but if I take profit I promise myself to never look back. Profit is profit !
I'm not sure I actually took any profit. It's been so long ago that I really don't remember!
Then just tell yourself you did to ease the pain
If only we had a crystal ball. I've made my fair share of mistakes too. When it comes to stocks I don't have the stomach to trade individual ones at my age anymore, my tolerance for risk just isn't what it used to be. There's an account on X called, "Quiver Quantitative" that tracks Congressional stock trades and if I were still trading individual stocks I'd base my portfolio on that. These politicians are buying and selling based in inside information they get from their jobs. It should be illegal but it's not. A lot of them outperform the top Wall Street hedge fund managers. Personally, I like ETFs that give full exposure to the S&P 500, like VTI. For the most part you can invest and forget it if you have a decade or more of runway.
Yeah, I have never had the head to trade many individual stocks. I do hold some, but it is mostly just I'm going to buy this and hold it for the long term. I try to get stuff that pays dividends. My Robinhood account is more for playing around, but I don't ever use it that much. That account sounds interesting for sure!
I’ve sold plenty of stocks too early in my life. That’s why I don’t really play with them much anymore.
I’ll check out FIO
The only traditional investments I got involved in was a S&P 500 index fund around 20 years ago. That has been quite nice to me. As far as individual stocks are concerned I still own a bit of Texas Instruments, Carmax, and Nintendo. I haven't looked at their value in years because I don't plan on cashing them out until I can do so tax-free.
While I don't remember the name of the company, there was a Chinese manufacturer of networking equipment back in the early days of internet that I got involved in. I think they were a competitor to CISCO but honestly, I don't remember. Anyway, I don't know what happened but this stock ended up crashing to 0 and the company was dissolved. I lost everything on that and this was one of those purchases that was recommended by some opEd writer for Wall Street Journal. It was at that specific time that I started to feel like the media is in on it and is there specifically to dupe small-time investors so that the big boys can cash out at their expense.
It's definitely a game for sure, and can be a bit of a racket at times. The only stocks I invest in are ones I have researched and know a bit about anyway. Outside of that I rely mostly on mutual funds.
mutual funds and especially the index 500 fund is a sure thing. Let's say that Pepsi just crashes and burns one day and loses all value... that would suck if you owned only Pepsi stock but in their absence Coke stock would skyrocket and since they are both in the index 500 fund, it would find balance. I remember reading that there has never been a series of 5 years, even during the great depression, where the index 500 (likely the notion of it since it might not have existed back then) has NEVER lost value. It's a sure thing but you wont see huge gains since it is basically going to likely outpace inflation by a few percent. Still, it's safe for someone that doesn't want to do the research.
Yes, that is a really good point. At least so far they have been a fairly safe bet for me earning me about 7% to 12% each year. Of course before inflation got so high those gains meant a lot more. Even during the crash of 2008, it wasn't long before my funds recovered. Meanwhile the last couple of months, I have never seen such big numbers in my portfolio!
!GIF !MEME !WEED
Via Tenor
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Thinking of Apple, AMD, and Nvidia makes me sad, because I was literally telling people to buy them at their low points. That was the IPO for AMD. But I never took my own advice. le sigh... (Not that I ever had much to invest, but hell, just buying a few shares of Apple when the company was almost bankrupt would have given a very nice return)
Yes, that was always my big problem when I was younger as well. I just didn't have the funds to take some of these chances that I would have liked.