Too Hot Investment Thread

Residents hereabouts are greatly perturbed about the crypto mine near me. I can hear it from my house 1 mile away and there are several homes immediately adjacent. 5 shipping container looking structures each with hundreds of processing units and the fans to cool them - such a clatter. There have been several public meetings about it but this county is extremely red and has no zoning codes. Uses so much electricity that the local power board says they can't supply any more electricity for crypto mines - we have 3 in the county.

 

Not bad. I still have a small amount that I bought when there was still a 2% fixed rate. So I guess they would temporarily be paying 9% this term (2% + inflation rate).

Ibonds with a 0% fixed rate are less interesting. I was glad to have the ones at 2% as those were at least better then any CD or savings rates as they at least maintain 2% even in the low inflation environment and savings accounts paying near zero. The fixed rate still appears to be zero, so the high inflation could be temporary and people have to remember they are like a 5 year CD. There’s a penalty if you pull them out early.

 

I believe you have to keep them for only 1 year with a 3 month inteeest hit on early withdrawal

 

Ok so 1st time in here because I'm trying to have something more than my 401k (which I really haven't put a ton into because I've only been there 5 yrs and as a single mom...well you know how it is).

I've seen mention of crypto & I'd like to try to see how it goes but don't know if I'm supposed to buy directly or through a broker. I've heard of sites online but no clue what's reputable or not.

I dont have a ton but this isn't get rich quick - I'd like something steady.

Any guidance would be awesome from the brain trust!! TIA

Edit- don't know if it makes a difference but I'm in my mid 40s, so about 20 yrs prior to retiring.

 

Coinbase is a pretty easy exchange to use. I would still put majority of discretionary funds into 401k. Only 5-10% toward crypto. It is very volatile. Definitely don’t put money in that you need right away.

I personally would allocate your portfolio like this:
33% Bitcoin
33% Etherum
33% Solana

That’s about as safe as you can get in crypto world.

*Disclaimer* This is not investment advice. Just one person’s opinion.

 

Thanks. Yeah my plan was to take part of my tax refund to dip my toes in but my 401k is definitely the main priority. My employer has crap matching but I'm maxed out to what they match.

Now I have to look up what Solana means I feel old.

 

Coinbase is easy to use. Id go with coinbase pro to avoid getting nickeled and dimes.with fees.

However crypto currency is not investing. It's basically speculating and gambling. I'd only put in what you are willing to lose.

 

While zero percent fixed isn't great, ibonds are the only risk free investment that keeps up inflation. Bank accounts are losing about 6% real per year at the current inflation rate. CDs close to the same rate. 10 year bonds lose about 4%. Even TIPS lose about 2 % real.

Ibonds are the best game in town for stable low risk investments. I've put money in for years.and I am loading up this year and next. $10k for me. $10k for spouse. $10k for living trust. $5k through tax refund. And I may do another $10k for my self employed business this year. Rinse and repeat all that early next year.

Of course it is tied up for one year which is fine. Beyond that you have a minimal 3 months sacrifice of interest if you sell in 5 years. If inflation stays high ibonds are as good as you are going to get. If inflation falls to a really low number, which seems highly unlikely, then 3 months of nothing isn't worth worrying about.

 

What an enormous waste of resources.

 

$NVAX taking off for me.

Nice to make money from something about to do so much good.

Hope us application and approvals come quick

 

Yeah I actually grabbed some Thursday.

So update - I joined Robinhood. Like I said I don't have a ton of money & this is for me to try crypto/other. So the system gives you a free stock. Mine was NVDA. As of now my list includes some tech, the aforementioned Novavax, Pfizer, & a few others. I'm only using small amounts because I want to make sure that I don't put more than I can afford to lose especially while I learn. For crypto I went bitcoin & erytheum. Couldn't find much on solana & while doge is one of their other offerings it didn't seem like a good plan.

I see what you guys mean by volatility-holy heck I don't think I could take it if I had a lot of money tied into it.

I dont have options turned on or the instant stuff because I *literally* have no clue what I'm doing, so baby steps.

I'd say ending yesterday 3/4 of my stocks were green (positive) so yay!

 

They're adding a crypto wallet feature it seems. I'll double check that, though. Thanks

 

Do you have cheap electricity there? So new businesses couldn't grow because miners are using all available power?

 

Yes, we are told cheap electricity (TVA)is one of the big reasons why they came here. I have read that each of the mines (we have 3) uses enough electricity to power 10,000 homes.

 

Bitcoin baffles me and I have not much interest in learning the ins and outs of owning it and trading it. However, I do realize it is a growing financial force in our economy. And as such I think the following article about Bitcoin may be of interest to investors in cryptocurrencies and readers of this thread.

The rich get richer, the poor get Bitcoin | Bradley Rettler

Bitcoin is a buzzword and some argue it’s a scam. But with Elon Musk’s Tesla recently investing $1.5 billion into the cryptocurrency and with the Mayor of Miami considering giving city employees the opportunity to get their salaries paid in bitcoin, the cryptocurrency could be about to radically alter our monetary system. One of the unexpected, underappreciated consequences of this move to Bitcoin could be a closing of the wealth gap, writes Bradley Rettler.


Bradley Rettler
| Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wyoming whose Bitcoin research can be found at Resistance Money - A Bitcoin Research Collective.

 

Ok so doing relatively OK on Robinhood but seeing folks on reddit talking about how bad it is, how folks change to e-trade, Schwabb, TD ameritrade, etc.

I like the format because it's easy to follow. I feel like I'm learning a lot even if it is with fractions of shares. Am I messing up by not going with another more established company? Also don't want to get killed at tax time but I don't know that a Roth would let me "play" around like this. I've put in around $350 and am at around $680 since starting a few weeks ago, but an original $270 of that was a free share, so I think that's decent *shrug* no idea.

Thanks for the advice folks

 

I dont use Robinhood but I did hear a lot of negative talk about that platform from Reddit early last year with the whole ridiculousness of Gamestop and other 'meme' companies. Robinhood basically started putting limits on what you can do to avoid the buying/selling/gambling in the stock market. I assume its perfectly fine for what you want to do. I dont see anything wrong with playing around in an IRA. As far as I know, its not against the rules. I use Schwab and Fidelity. Had those way before Robinhood came about so just keep using that.

 

RDGL is my high risk penny stock pick for 2022
I bought a bunch last week in the .07's and will continue to buy any dips. They have an experimental cancer treatment and are going through the FDA approval process for human testing. RadioGel™ (OTCMKTS: RDGL)
It all depends on the approval. I will either lose most of my investment if they are denied, or I will make 5-10x my money if approved....

 

Looked up RDGL and this stuck out........Full Time Employees: 1