My grandfather bought AT&T at 10 cents/share. He, uh, did OK on that. I think investing in Nanotechnology will be exceptional...when we have the opportunity (most are privately held). Nanotechnology (and Quantum Computers) will absolutely rule this century. Unfortunately, it will probably be like any other new industry, 100 failures for each success. That won't stop me from buying. Do ya'll see any other oportunities on the horizon?
Nanotech is without a doubt the way to go. Although most are privately held now, you CAN invest in some of the public companies that have themselves invested in the private nanotech companies. Cohen, my wife is pushing super hard for us to invest in this area. Are there specific companies you've looked at? I'll ask her and see which she is targeting... Although normally I'm a Bershire Hathaway (sp?) kind of guy. Real estate. As long as you are not too highly leveraged on it, you can almost always come out on top. And the great thing about it? It never disappears (well, unless its beachfront or on a flood plain ). Stocks I currently think are undervalued? Oracle, Broadvision, Cisco...
Having been burned in the tech craze, Hayes, I'd say you're lucky if you've got Berkshire Hathaway, especially if your wife likes nanotech type stuff. My wife went 100% tech early enough to still come out ahead even after the crash.. It's when she finally convinced me that we lost. At this point I can't get myself to invest in much besides the 500 index fund. I Don't trust the pundits and I don't trust the accountants much either. I don't trust my own stock picking. I sort of trust some of the mutual fund managers. Fidelity select electronics performed like a champ limiting losses compared to other tech funds in the downturn. They earned their money. Hopefully it is just typical market bubble behavior and it will sort itself out pretty quickly. 14 years of zero returns like in 1973 would make an old guy like me keep working longer than I might want. Maybe I'll go nanotech also, but I'll be much more likely to sell after making some profit. However, I would think it would have great potential to be overhyped like optical stocks were. Most people think biotech in general will beat the market in the next 10 years. The demographics and tech break throughs make that almost a sure thing. However, people have been burned for years on biotech being overhyped. Bill Gates thinks it will be bigger than the computer and is supposedly a big biotech investor. BTW I'm sure you disagree, but I'm glad my social security benefits are secure, but let's debate that in another thread. Two strong wage earners living together can almost have a middle class retirement on it if you have a paid off residence. E.g. 1600/mo x's two or $3200 indexed for inflation.
Not that I can afford Bershire itself, uh, per se. But I am big on the long term. You know big companies that are going to be around awhile like GE or Enro...uh, or GE ... I took a few flyers with some dot-bombs, most impressively a startup that was spun out of the firm I worked for in New York. It was called eClaro. I got a ground floor buy in at $1 a piece, and figured I may as well take the chance while I had it. The $20,000 was not really worth the insolvency letter (on company letterhead no less) that I now have framed as a permanent testament to my stupidity. But I knew it was high risk, so the way I look at it is this: the one consistent thing you hear from successful stock advisors is to get in as soon as you can, with what you can, and continue to put in what you can afford. In the long term it'll be nothing but butter.
I've always thought there were two ways to go after riches. I haven't an idea if they work or not, but I play by each of their rules, so we'll see. 1) Buy something relatively stable and stay in it for the long term. The "buy it and forget it" strategy. For example, MSFT, VFINX, GE, etc. Quit trying to find the hot stocks/funds because more often than not, you lose. 2) Hey, how about gold funds? What? You gave up on gold years ago? But many gold funds have been returning 30-70% over the past 1 year. How about REITs? They've been strong in this tech downturn. I think most people lose sight of the fact that when one sector crashes, there's something else that's hopping. So quit being depressed and jump on the bandwagon. Yeah, I know... 2 seemingly opposing views. Damn, it sucks to be me. As for what will be hot. I have no idea. If I did, I'd be in it now. Hell, maybe I am in it. Nanotech sounds great. As does quantum computing. But then you find out that they just factored "15" into its primes and consider that a great accomplishment. Yeah, yeah, I know... big breakthrough. Woo. They were saying the same about biotech about 2 years ago. I'll just wait and see where things go from here... and hopefully be able to tweak and adjust accordingly.
I'll keep it short and sweet. Family, religion, friendship, these are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business. When opportunity knocks, you don't want to be driving to a maternity hospital or sitting in some phony-baloney church or synagogue.
It certainly is important to keep perspective; i.e. what do you need the money for? Personally, we attained a certain comfort level (financially) before we had our first child. This allows me to work from home and spend some quality time with my wife and daughter. It also allows us to travel with family at will...well, at least when the little one permits us to.
betting one dollar on the Texans to win the superbowl. I figure the odds will be around 5,000,000 to 1.
Probably a good idea. I have 2 finance degrees. We studied the 'efficiency' of the stock market, ad nauseum. From my experience in corporate finance, it was all a load of crap. The academics are so far off. One of our competitors would have a little bad news, and the market would severely discount EVERYONE's stock. The market overreacted due to uncertainty dervied from a deplorable lack of knowledge of the industry. I met some of the leading analysts for our industry when I helped one company go public. The analysts didn't understand the industry. It was sad. Insiders make the $$$, without having to test insider trading laws. They simply know what's going on. Mutual funds allow you to ride a trend with a diversified position. Even if the fund managers aren't that great, their results are improved by diversification. Very sweet concept. Unfortunately, my biotech position is not diversified at all. I am gambling on one firm with some promising test results and it appears that they hold some good patents. We'll see.
Damn dean, I've been wracking my brain to remember where this is from . . . Don't keep me waiting man.
We played the stock market game in high school. My partner and I made $400,000 on Cisco. Too bad it wasn't real life! I'll get rich by investing in a guy from U of H who has the technology and ability to take the world off the oil supply for energy. Not a big calling for it right now, since many countries, including but not limited to Russia, Afghanistan, and Vietnam, are about to make a lot of money off of oil and the supply will last at least another century. But I'm glad we now have options.
DBC's posts only revolve around 3 things... Walt Williams, Lisa Malosky, and The Simpsons. The boy's lived a sheltered life...
DOH! My bad... yes... the Go Go's, too. Although I must admit I had a big ol' crush on that girl as a kid... mmm mmm... go go indeed. *droooooool*
Of course, the burning question for all of us non investing type guys is "<b>What the HELL is nanotech?</b>"
