Closed out the first month of 2024 and started the second, February!
How are you feeling going forward? Are there changes to your portfolio that you’re wanting to make this year? Has 2024 given you insight in what’s to come?
Open discussion! Let us know what your thoughts are so far of 2024!
When entering the market, I thought just being able to buy stocks was pretty cool. Then I learned about ETF’s, index funds, and then… REITS! I could get in on the Real Estate action without having to actually own or better yet, manage the property myself.
When looking into REITS, there are so many to choose from, especially ones that capture entire sectors, like hospital and medical centers, or government buildings, and properties. What you need to do is check into REITS that match your investing thesis, and research which REITS would best.
Now a REIT is great when it comes to dividends and appreciation, because they must pay out 90% or more of their taxable profits to shareholders. Of course there are always lulls or dips in the market or economy that can take real estate down, or make it unattractive, but remember, you don’t own the properties yourself and instead can still lower your average cost of the REIT by using DRIP on those dividends they pay out.
I know not everyone is a fan of dividends, but I am, especially when your brokerage allows DRIP (Dividend ReInvestment Program) and can help lower your average cost over time.
Another great way to own real estate is through an App I’ve talked about before, Fundrise. It’s basically a REIT that isn’t on a stock exchange. They take the money you put in, and buy properties that go with a certain thesis or portfolio. They purchase all sorts of properties, from retirement developments, to apartments in new up and coming areas, to strip malls, and warehouse centers.
Fundrise is not immune to market trends and market dips, it’s tied to real estate, so you should always remember it’s for the long haul, not a quick buck. Most of the funds you have in Fundrise can only be taken out on a quarterly basis, so it’s not very liquid, but it does give you another opportunity to own properties without having to physically manage them yourself.
What investment vehicle do you use to get into real estate?
Are you using any fintech (financial technology) apps? If so, are you using multiple? How do you choose just one when they all have so much to offer!
I know it feels like spreading money around, but it is nice to take advantage of the different offers that come with having multiple brokerages. Access to high interest savings accounts, offers on loans, credit cards, and rewards, it’s hard to stay away from all of them.
Now, I can’t throw money at all of them, and I am quite happy with the many brokerages I have, I do wonder, what else is out there? I used to use Acorns, but due to Plaid and other financial services not working with my bank, it seemed a chore. Not to mention their monthly fees eat into those extra coins being thrown into investments.
Once we closed that account, it gave us something to look into when searching other brokerages. Something often not looked at when signing up for brokerages, but the management fees. Some apps, like Acorns charge a monthly fee to manage your money. This fee is very similar to paying ETF management fees, but if you are already paying those, why should you have to pay even more.
For us, we just weren’t seeing the value in Acorns and found that we could be Thrifty with other apps.
What apps keep you thrifty? I’ve talked at great length of the ones my family uses, but I want to know what you use and what you don’t use, if you have experience. Please, tell us below!
When you started your investing journey, did you have someone or someone’s to talk to about it? Or did you start by yourself? Are you in any stock market or investing groups?
I am not, although I do lurk on Reddit and other forums to see what people are discussing these days. From the latest company to go parabolic, or the next big short, it’s good to get out of your own world, and see what else is out there.
There are social components to a few of these investing and fintech apps, but nothing beats an actual social media platform where you can see a wealth of ideas. Of course, you must do your own due diligence, but it can expand your portfolio ideas or even thesis.
I am currently not a part of any specific stock market or investing groups, but I do belong to a ton of subreddits and follow a ton of market professionals on X (formally known as Twitter). I know there are tons of Discord channels as well, but I’m not familiar with any that are worth while, yet.
I guess, my big ask is, are you in any investing groups? Did you start your own? Is it a IRL community group, or an online group? How often do you meet? Let us know what you’ve found that works or doesn’t, below!
Kidding of course! I’m not into conspiracy theories and I’m not going to get political or anything, but my weather where I am, can’t pick a direction either!
One day it’s high 50’s, raining, and the next, it’s in the 20’s, snowing, and freezing all the rain to ice. Rinse and repeat. This is why it reminds me of the market, so far into 2024. Pick a direction, or will we go sideways through 2024?
Either way, up or down, we’re in the market, and here to stay! These conditions offer a value investor or a “thrifty” investor a time to buy or find deals. How do you search for deals or what do you pay attention to? Let us know in the comments at the bottom.
I wanted to add to this post about something special that is coming to one of my most treasured resources, SoFi! What a company! My family and I are so happy to not only utilize SoFi as one of our main investing brokerage accounts, and our main credit card, but we own their stock as well! One of the best and easiest investment decisions we’ve ever made!
If you want to be thrifty, SoFi is the way. They reported earnings this morning, 1/29/24 and they’ve become profitable! What an incredible story, and the reason I am talking about SoFi is because of their new addition to the investment portion of their app.
Alternatives. This is the future of investment apps and only something I’ve seen Public take part in, so far. With these Alternatives from SoFi, you can gain access to investing in Mutual Funds, Private Companies, and other opportunities that aren’t typically available to the Main Street Investors.
I’m sure there will be more information to come. Around 6000 Mutual Funds and other private investing opportunities are to be available, but please do your research before investing in anything. Do your research or “Due Diligence” and make sure it’s an investment worthy of your portfolio.
That’s all I have for Monday. I am proud of SoFi and wish to scream it from the rooftops! Do you use SoFi for anything?
How did your week turn out? Did you get to buy any stocks, ETFs, or bonds that you wanted? Get any good deals?
I feel with the multidirectional market, it’s still a great time to snag some deals, and that’s what I did this morning. I used all of my Fintech apps to snag some deals in all of my portfolios! It felt good! Lowering average cost, rounding out full shares, and further increasing our families goal of financial independence.
Without these apps, I wouldn’t know how to be a Thrifty Investor.
The Fintech apps I still use are: Webull (main portfolio), Coinbase (my only brokerage account that has crypto), SoFi (absolute banger of a company!), Public (So many options of investment types!), M1 Finance (ROBO Mostly hands off), Fundrise (Have to have some real estate in the portfolio!), and Fidelity (absolute banger of low cost index funds!).
I’ll tell ya, without trying to sound like a commercial, each app have their own pros and cons, but SoFi is without a doubt an absolute beast. A true one stop shop. My wife and I use their credit card and use all of the rewards to buy more stock. They have so many services, it’s hard not to take advantage of all of them. We are thinking of switching one account of direct deposit over to SoFi, just to take part in their high interest savings accounts and other great rewards!
Public has recently given us Alts (alternative investment options like, art, show collection, trading cards, even Shrek music royalties!) that would not be accessible in any other app. They just added Options trading and they are giving back 50% of the costs for Options trading, as long as you sign up before March.
M1 seriously has it handled to making sure my pie is equally weighted, buying, selling, and rebalancing when needed. I only go in to modify pies on if any of my general attitude has changed on the companies in the portfolio. M1 also offers a wide range of services, but I haven’t explored those options yet.
Webull is what I would consider a classic brokerage account, especially with their perfect app and software. I love trading on their app, and they finally started the DRIP! What would make them better is if they made other types of rewards than referrals. Some of us only know so many people!!
Coinbase… crypto… do you own any or no? Are you a part of the population that thinks it’s worthless or do you think it’s important and has more importance to come? I feel that sliding over any extra bit of cash and building a portfolio in crypto means we aren’t going to miss if it’s yes or no to that question. It’s not our main portfolio, but we’ve put in extra bits over a few years and will continue to do so. I think there could be huge implications for crypto in the future, and I don’t want us to be left behind!
Fidelity, isn’t it just an adult thing to do to have an adult brokerage account? It feels great having low cost and no cost index funds that we invest into every month. I know there is a huge reliability with Fidelity
Fundrise, I know I said it before, but you have to have real estate in your portfolio, and Fundrise makes it easy. Better than easy, because of the auto deposits. I know 2023 was not a great year for the portfolios, and real estate in general, but if you buy those shares up now, and the rest estate market comes back, you will be in a great spot, just like stocks! That’s what we keep looking forward to, it’s not about right now, but 5-10-15-20 years down the road.
What apps or brokerage services do you use? Let us know in the comments!
Paramount Global ($PARA) has been a whirlwind stock, since the 2023 earning seasons. There has also been a lot of talk about what to do with streaming platform.
Sell to another streamer to consolidate? Increase services and content for the streaming platform? And now, take the streamer private? Very interesting, and something I have not been involved with in the market.
Being in the market is something exciting. Taking a look at the positive side of things helps when really you’re just masking the negatives, like a Reverse Split. I remember in the first year of being in the market, a few of the stocks I had picked went through a reverse split. I know monetarily not too much changes in the value, but it does make that stock price look different, causing you to have to average down, or wait for the impossible to happen.
So, I am taking this news as if I have encountered a Reverse Split, a Stock Split, or an IPO for the first time, and learn from it. Knowledge is our biggest asset in the game of the market, and we need to equip ourselves with an arsenal of knowledge.
Looking into what options someone has when a company they own go private, and it seems the most sensible thing to do is to sell at the price negotiated during the take private deal.
You can choose to hold onto your shares, although once the stock is delisted, you can no longer sell or buy shares. I am not sure the value in holding onto these shares, unless something happens if the company goes public again, but that will take some research.
Do you own PARA? If you do, are you selling at a specific price? Or waiting to see what the deal might be.
I know nothing is fully confirmed and finalized, but that seems to have been the most serious sounding idea for the future of the company.
Where do you see PARA going?
If you’ve been watching the market so far this year, which if you’re reading this, then I’m guessing you have been, the market has been a bit of a seesaw.
One day we’re soaring in the sky, setting new highs, and then the next day, giving up those gains. It’s been a rinse and repeat for January.
So why is the market going up and down and side to side? Well, there are so many factors that are playing into the economy right now. I know, aren’t there always? I would say yes, but this year we have an election, new conflicts and old conflicts that haven’t been resolved, as well as a less than flattering inflation number.
This means the market is looking at every scenario and attempting to see if it plays out positive or negative for the market, or worse, neutral. Will the Fed increase interest rates, or will they pause longer before lowering interest rates? Will these conflicts in other countries cause issues with our economy? Will the presidential election influence the way the market goes?
These are all great questions and some have vague answers through data we’ve mined from the past, but only time will tell. I believe that’s the answer to the whole question of “Timing the Market vs Time in the Market”.
As we’ve said on this site more times than I can count, if the market does stay red, or dips further, do we panic? No, we BUY, BUY, BUY! You can’t keep Mr. Market down forever, and eventually, once the market picks a direction, we can ride the next Bull Market.
Aren’t we already in a Bull Market? Some may say yes, some may say we’re still in a Bear Market. To me, I think the market hasn’t decided what way it wants to go, just yet.
On the positive side, the optimist in me says, that the market will land on its feet, the second half of 2024. We will enjoy a Bull Market, see some gains, and if nothing pops up like a world wide epidemic, we should be in good shape to continue that on into 2025.
What are your predictions for 2024? Bull Market or Bear Market? Any industry crashes?
Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I know this is delayed, being Jan. 23rd, but I didn’t have a plan until now.
I’ve been struggling, maybe it’s the Winter Blues, but I haven’t been posting as much as I would like. I know I’ve said I would post more in the past, and we see what date it is now, but it’s a new year, so a new start?
This year, I am looking forward to shaping up my portfolios across the many brokerage accounts I use. Looking for duplicates, or stocks that I no longer favor. Maybe it’s time to really start learning about Tax Loss Harvesting.
What are your plans or dare I say “resolutions” for the stock market and your financial future in 2024?
I am paying attention to how AI can transform industries. Especially the way it might transform healthcare and research and development. Right now it feels like most are wondering how AI will transform the Tech world, but at this point in my investing career, I’d like to be a “Futurist”.
The ability to look down the road and see what may or may not be possible is an exciting thing, and can also prepare you in the market. Watching these industries change over the next few decades will be interesting, as AI helps to run hospitals more efficiently, give medicine and dosages more efficiently, and maybe even help doctors diagnose issues more efficiently.
There are many good things that AI can help us with, but obviously there is always the other side of it. My hope is that, just like the internet, the good outweighs the bad, and we come up with some sort of regulation for AI.
Currently I am looking at Hospital REITs and Healthcare ETF’s, as well as stocks.
What industry or industries are you currently looking into? What big investments are you making this year? Let us know in the comments below! Lets get the conversation started!
As we near the end of 2023 and get into the holiday spirit, a thought popped into my mind.
Sometimes in life we choose to focus on the negative side of things. This is especially true when we are dealing with the stock market. Any time you’re dealing with money, you’re dealing with stress, and in times of stress, we can get even more negative.
I’ve been reading this book, The Everyday Hero Manifesto, by Robin Sharma. In that book, Robin talks about stress and anxiety, and how useful they really can be. Instead of panicking, thank your stress, thank your anxiety, for letting you know that you care deeply about what is causing this stress or anxiety.
I think we all care a bit about money. I think it causes stress and anxiety for most of us. But that is a good thing. If you’re worried about it, that means you have it in your mind to do something about it. Just make sure you stay on top of it. Invest in yourself, invest in books, and learn more and more. Each day you learn, the more available options to enrich your lives are presented.
So, back onto my original point, instead of focusing on the negative, lets choose to focus on the positive and shout out our biggest wins. Even if you didn’t have wins, did you learn any lessons? Is this your first year in the market, or 30th year? Lets choose to celebrate our wins or lessons of 2023 and look forward to improving ourselves for 2024!
So, in the comments, tell us your biggest win or lesson you learned from the market in 2023. Here is my biggest win: I was able to take advantage of a down market and average down on one of my favorite stock picks, $SIG. Here is my biggest lesson: Not everything works out, and in my case, averaging down on $AHT has been a nightmare.
Thrifty Investing
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