I got the new one Stay Mad For Life and I like it a lot. As for the mutual fund, the thing is with me I can't learn unless I'm actually doing something. So I bought into that Fidelity fund that they just opened back up and is being managed by Harry Lange I think his name is. And this will give me something to learn from.

I had an account at Ameritrade a few years ago but I didn't know what I was doing. I don't play with a lot of money.

And actually if I went with my instinct on some things I would have made a lot of money. I actually was in a Schwab office by chance and wanted to open an account and buy XM when it was like $1.00 a share. But I felt stupid cause I didn't know what I was talking about and the guy was looking at me like I was an idiot so I left. Within a year it went up to over $40.

It's like when I bought the rental I had in Central Florida. Everyone told me not to do it and even though I did do it eventually I could have gotten it much cheaper when I initially wanted to buy it.

The IRA's are now up to $4000 a year I think and even more this year. The SEP ones are up to like $45,000.

I have a hard time parting with my money though I'm glad the wife works in this industry cause at least we can do this together and she understands a lot of this stuff better than me.

Rosty, are you and independant contractor? And do you do more residential or commercial?

Kurbski, I don't know if you tried to send me a PM but my mailbox was apparently full but I empited it now :wink:

Hey Sonny where you been? Do you do nursery stuff too? I always avoided that because I don't understand it. I mean it's like produce frozen food, it's on pallets, set the reefer at the desired temp and you are off. I have no idea what's involved in nursery stock.

When I worked for a company I did haul some seedlings so I guess that was nursery stock. I took some seedlings from Florida (the company I was with had a contract) to California.

I thought I had another leak in a tire. I had like 3 last month. But I just checked and the air held last night. These cross fire tire things are well worth the money.

 

Wrong company kurbski...Northstar Transportation...flowers.

 

Yes, I'm an independent contractor, I do the interior walls (metal stud) for Pulte Homes, I have another general contractor that uses me exclusively for his commercial construction, and he also does some residential work, and I sub-contract some work from a fairly large commercial drywall company. The large commercial company kinda compares to a freight broker.
Then every now and then I'll do some home improvement work (finished basements, additions, remodels etc.) I'm not crazy about home improvement work because most home owners expect it done too cheap. I won't do that. Over the last few years I've seen the results of cheap work, and it can be very bad. I had to tell one guy that the only way to fix his basement was to rip it all out and start over. He had paid out about 18k at that point and got ripped off by two different unlicensed contractors. It was so bad that I couldn't wait to get out of there because I didn't want his neighbors to associate my truck, which has my company name on the side, with his basement. But he got it cheap!

The last two years most of my work has been commercial, especially the last year with housing slowing down. Now commercial is slowing down real fast.

 

I've heard of Pulte. I don't think they are in Florida but I've seen them. I hope you socked away during the good times; without a doubt you must have done well the last few years.

Probably though same as in trucking, you have the illegals undercutting your work (well in trucking not illegals but people hauling cheap). My friend is a framer in Mass and he's been ranting about the illegals (not against them per se but just the fact that they will work for much less)

Big problems with contractors doing shoddy work down in South Florida since hurrican Wilma. I have no idea why someone would pay up front all the money to get their roof done. These people have no incentive to finish the job. There was an article in the local paper the other day about it.

 

Oh, Ok NW. Big difference. I do see alot of reefers at the north star foods terminal in port orange lining up to unload real early. most look like owner operators with a few shaffer's in the mix now and then.

 

Yeah, all those food service companies; Sysco, American, etc., are popular destinations for reefers.

 

Rosty, I share your preference of ETF's over mutual funds, especially lately since the SEC is allowing this black-pool trading among institutions.

My only concern for you, and you probably already know to do this is that because of the volatility, be sure and buy in 3's or 4's. Divide the allotted money by 3 or 4, and buy in increments over a few months. This is a dicey equity market, and an election year, so lot more uncertainty than normal.

Best regards.

 

What is black pool trading? I googled it but got nothing pertaining to the market.

You know, my worst habit is waiting till tax time to invest, but it all goes back to being to far from my account. I have to go to the bank, sit down with the investment guy, tell him what I want to deposit etc. That's the main reason why I opened an account with an online broker, to make it easier to invest smaller amounts through the year or dollar cost averaging. :wink:

 

Rosty, I cannot accurately give you the mechanics of how it works, but it greatly increases open market volatility, shakes confidence in investors, and large institutional wholesale traders benefit from it. I understand the turbulence it causes, but not exactly how they do it.

Roughly, institutions want to make their transactions before they show on the tape, for the world to see. This is why the term "black-pool" was coined, because it is done in secrecy, in the dark, and in a pool that only they know about, a pool seperate from the public or open market pool.

If you really want to know just how it works, the only guy I've ever heard mention it is Bob Brinker, on Money Talk. It isn't something market analysts want to announce for obvious reasons. :?

But I suggest anyone who is considering investing in today's market, especially in ETF's, understand how this can effect them and their hard-earned money.

Call his talk show on the weekend. He's on Saturday & Sunday mid-day out west. Or here is a link to his site, and the radio schedule is on there.

http://www.bobbrinker.com/index.asp

 

This implies that this "black pool trading" affects mutual funds much more than ETFs.
This seems to imply that this activity significantly affects ETFs...which is it?


If you're putting money into your retirement account, I wouldn't be terribly concerned about month-to-month or quarter-to-quarter volatility. You're dealing with such a long time-horizon that the effects will be relatively insignificant.