I may be a smart man but not a brave one. Stories of missed financial opportunities

tyeeslayer

tyeeslayer

Super Member
It that what it takes to make it? Brains and courage?
Dateline 2012.....Air Canada (Canada's largest airline) stock $0.88 now over $23.
I knew I should buy I had the cash but not the balls.
Dateline early 2017.....local real estate.
For the previous 9 years the market on townhouses was stagnant. Again I could see this market was going to explode. Again too timid. I could have made $175,000 in 6-9 months in one purchase.

I am sure there are many stories like this out there. Do you have one?
How do you convince yourself to actually follow thru on what you know is the right move?
 
Had a chance to convert my retirement fund to company stock at $2.50 per share. Within a decade it was trading at $40.

In graduate school circa 1997, joked with guys in my study group that we should start a company on this internet thing and try to find a buyer for it. Distinctly remember saying "we just need traffic, not a product or profits". We killed it because we "knew" that real money required a real company. By the time the tech bubble took off we'd missed our first mover opportunity.

Woulda coulda shoulda, right?
 
Thinking you have to hit a home run to succeed in investing in stock is what causes this... a successful investment strategy does not require you to hit home runs, nor does it require bravery. It takes a commitment to actually go to the plate NOW and swing the bat and put things in play, and keep doing that. And, doing that consistently - even if all you ever hit is singles - will win the game.

Here's some of Warren Buffet's words of wisdom: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/th...-talked-about-index-fund-investing-2017-04-28

One that hit home for me recently was #2 - the perfect way to get in the game and start hitting singles w/o having to work up your nerve.

John
 
During the last meltdown, Apple was $99. It went up to $600 and then split 10 to 1. There are lots of others I looked at. I don't really think about it because I am happy where I am at and with what I have.
 
Back in the bubble heydays I found that Intel had dropped from $80 to $40. I bought some thinking it would return quickly to the high prices of the past. Shortly after buying it, it dropped to $20. 15 + years later it had never gotten past $25. A great learning experience for me. I sold it at a 50% loss and have never bought another single stock. It did help with my taxes as a loss in capital gains, but overall I still lost a bundle.
 
Two different items come to mind. Ebay. Under Armour. Investment was discussed but we never followed through..... oh well.
 
Well mine is an ongoing one. But back in 2009, I graduated college with my liberal arts degree, with no debt because I worked full time the whole time, and took semesters off in between to work 2 jobs. I had some savings, and through my work (property mgmt), found out about four 3 bedroom co-ops in a hot spot of town (Flushing, NYC), selling for $50k each. The catch, you had to buy all four, they were rent stabilized/controlled units with long time tenants in them and only all cash deals accepted. Being rent controlled/stabilized, with tenants that have been living there 30+ years, the rent was only half the maintenance fees.

So I convince my dad, and sister to buy the other three with me. Dad sold his 2 units back in 2011 for $130k each. My sis sold hers in 2012 for $150k, and the tenant passed away a year afterwards, allowing the new owner to sell for current market value, $450k. I tried to sell 2 years ago, but the deal fell through, buyer didn't show up on closing date, and has been suing me for deposit ever since. My tenant there has been suing me for too many things to list, and basically I go back to NYC once a year to get those cases thrown out of court at the cost of legal fees. My tenant also like breaking stuff in the apt, then going to HPD and filing rent reductions for the damages she causes. I've spent around $30k since repairing the apt, and about $12k on legal fees. I've been told the previous owner spent $90k in 10 years, so I guess I'm "lucky"?
 
I was a leased employee for Apple here in NJ in the dark days before and during the iMac, G3, and return of Mr Jobs. I was chatting with someone from the inside at the California campus and it was let slip that Mr Gates & Microsoft were investing cash and guaranteeing a few years of Office dev on the MacOS platform. I looked at stock prices and it was single digits per share... I thought to myself I should liquidate some assets and invest as heavy as I could. Never actually did o_O:crazy::thumbsdown::(
 
I know some stuff, but when it comes to investment and money I know less than nothing. My motto has always been buy high, sell low. Or, buy high, don't sell at all. Both DW and I are seriously risk adverse. That leaves me on the work-until-you-die retirement program.
 
I remember from an old thread here on AK about one of us who was offered a percentage of Microsoft for financial backing during the company's infancy. Not sure the specifics, but it was a lot of money for him at the time but not a lot of money. Hope he chimes in as it was an interesting story.
My history goes something like "neither a borrower or lender be", meaning I'm doomed to poverty 'till I die.
 
I bought 1000 shares of Apple in 1999 or so at $20-21 in my rollover IRA account.

Stock didn't seem to move much for the next couple of years and I sold it for a loss in 2001 or so for around $19.

This was pre-split and tax-free since it was in an IRA account. I've various times over the years calculated what that stock would be worth now. It was well over a million last time I checked. I try not to think about it, but that one hurts quite a bit.
 
captouch said:
I bought 1000 shares of Apple in 1999 or so at $20-21 in my rollover IRA account.

Stock didn't seem to move much for the next couple of years and I sold it for a loss in 2001 or so for around $19.

This was pre-split and tax-free since it was in an IRA account. I've various times over the years calculated what that stock would be worth now. It was well over a million last time I checked. I try not to think about it, but that one hurts quite a bit.
Click to expand...
Ouch, that is a painful story
 
bigx5murf said:
Well mine is an ongoing one. But back in 2009, I graduated college with my liberal arts degree, with no debt because I worked full time the whole time, and took semesters off in between to work 2 jobs. I had some savings, and through my work (property mgmt), found out about four 3 bedroom co-ops in a hot spot of town (Flushing, NYC), selling for $50k each. The catch, you had to buy all four, they were rent stabilized/controlled units with long time tenants in them and only all cash deals accepted. Being rent controlled/stabilized, with tenants that have been living there 30+ years, the rent was only half the maintenance fees.

So I convince my dad, and sister to buy the other three with me. Dad sold his 2 units back in 2011 for $130k each. My sis sold hers in 2012 for $150k, and the tenant passed away a year afterwards, allowing the new owner to sell for current market value, $450k. I tried to sell 2 years ago, but the deal fell through, buyer didn't show up on closing date, and has been suing me for deposit ever since. My tenant there has been suing me for too many things to list, and basically I go back to NYC once a year to get those cases thrown out of court at the cost of legal fees. My tenant also like breaking stuff in the apt, then going to HPD and filing rent reductions for the damages she causes. I've spent around $30k since repairing the apt, and about $12k on legal fees. I've been told the previous owner spent $90k in 10 years, so I guess I'm "lucky"?
Click to expand...
I was down in Vegas in 2008 people were begging me to buy, l never did.
 
In the summer of 1985 I bought a bunch of Apple stock for $15 per share. Sold most of it when I had a gain of 15x. Should have kept it all..... Each 100 shares eventually turned into a lot of money.
 
tyeeslayer said:
I was down in Vegas in 2008 people were begging me to buy, l never did.
Click to expand...

The story actually took place in NYC. I moved to Vegas 2012, promptly bought my first house at less than half its last sold price. The first year I was here, homes were closing ridiculously quickly. It wasn't unheard of for good agents to close 10 sales in a week. At the time 65% of closings were homes sold to people either from out of town, or those from abroad.

You should've bought, I keep getting offers in the mail to refinance my house at twice my purchase price.
 
the biggest problem with all these one-tricks is exactly the issue of second guessing the past.

The high techs are wonderful for the most part
Microsoft bought in the early 90s split 16 for 1 then flatlined for 10 years til recently
oracle bought in the mid 80s (post IPO) worth millions
amazon could have been bought for 20 and is now 50X

there are zillions of high techs that have disappeared so picking and keeping is a very fine art

nowadays there are multiple ways to make money but requires (compounding) time
1. target date mutual funds
2. index funds
3. certain kinds of ETFs
4. house ownership in blue states (California, New York, etc)
(example - new house in Bay Area in late 90s = 350K - same house now sells for 1.4million)
(crummy civil war era NYC tenement purchaseable for 20K in 60's worth 4million in last 10 years)

The great Recession started in Sep 2007 with the Lehman bros crash, ended 6 months later
and everyone had a 6 month window to go to cash. this avoided the 50% drop. then the market
rebound back up 4x. But many got out at the bottom and never got back in. even if you did
nothing - your equities recovered.

the rules should be have a great understanding of the stock market (equivalent to the depth of
knowledge on tubes here at AK), reasonable timing getting in and getting out, having a good
amount to invest, a scheme to allocate for safe, growth, speculative bets.

there are ways to invest in the market for growth and to be safe.

One sure fire way to lose money is to listen to "tips". you may hear the tail end of some
dedicated options trader who spends full-time every day building all sorts of complex
options sets, and all you hear is the underlying stock and you didn't hear the whole
story and you don't research it but you buy the stock. the stock drops but the options
trader makes $$$ with his bear straddles, etc.

without getting into politics even if it's fact-based realities of the stock market -
there are way too many articles on possible crashes, Hindenburg movements,
transports lagging, fibinacci math, etc

I do believe there's a correction coming.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom