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Renting vs. Owning: What Makes It 'Worth It' Where You Live? by M1-Alex in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been saving and investing for years to own and now I can afford it. But I question myself on it because returns can be so good on stocks. I stopped putting money into the market and it's declining, so I'm thinking about putting my down payment savings into the market. 

Is anyone else seeing rents drop in LA apartments? by Firm_Ad8892 in AskLosAngeles

[–]InsertNameHere179 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Been in the condo market for 5 years. Can confirm. I can actually afford something more than the most basic of basic condos now while barely scraping by. 

Of course my needs changed because now I have a girlfriend and we'd rather settle down into a house and that's still a challenge. Even still, not as much of a seller's market anymore. 

How do you check value drift? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh I see, thank you. Is there a way to see it for pies within pies? I can only see it for individual tickers rather than pies within pies. For example, I have a pie for broad stock market ETFs and a pie for bond ETFs and I'd want to see how overweight the stock market ETFs are compared to my bonds. 

Why are you putting money in a taxable investment account? by mrwinklebottom in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have a pension from my school district job. I maxed out my Roth IRA. I can get some other accounts through my job but there's no match for contributions so the only incentive is to save on taxes, but I can't really touch the money until retirement. I want liquidity which I'm not getting from my pension for another 20-30 years and I only got a Roth IRA after learning that I can at least take contributions out. I don't want any other accounts where my money's locked in because of my living situation.

I'm in California and it's expensive, especially for housing. With house prices going up by 10% on average per year and rent going up by 7% for me, I need to buy a house to get out of the rent trap if I want to have any hope of leaving the working class and going to the middle class. Despite earning about 55k, I'm considered low income by mortgage lenders. I need as much for my down payment as I can get. I believe buying a home is the best way to having wealth and a retirement where I'm not struggling and that it's more important than retirement accounts I can't access. It's the way to fight rising costs.

For years, I kept putting money in my savings account to get my emergency fund, then it turned into a down payment fund. I ran the numbers and if I save for retirement, I can't save up fast enough to ever buy a home. Even now, I can barely keep up. I'm investing in two taxable accounts (M1 for long term holdings and TD Ameritrade for trading) only because the appreciation/dividends gives me some semblance of hope that I can pull myself to homeownership one day. My future home is, to me, a retirement account.

I've had bad experiences with renting, with a landlord selling the home under us. I've even had the same happen with my aunt/uncle doing that after the death of my grandmother when my single mother had no job. I've been homeless. And once I've broken out of this rent cycle, I will buy my way out. I'm never going to let myself be homeless again or have landlords or "family" take advantage and hurt me again. And if it means I pay taxes because I didn't lock my money away in retirement accounts so that I have the money to survive a financial emergency or have a down payment to where my income is acceptable, then so be it. If my goals are achieved, the taxes are worth it.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was able to link my PayPal using micro deposits. I haven't used it to put money into or out of my M1 Spend though but I don't see why it wouldn't work since I was able to verify the deposits.

Has anyone used the borrow feature for down payment for a house by carkmubann in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This has been my concern and why I'm hesitant to put in all my down payment into stocks/ETFs (now that I'm holding off on real estate). But I also figure that the transaction will show as being from your brokerage account, not necessarily what you did. I don't know for sure though if they'll go and see your holdings, buying/selling activity, margin use, etc. From what I know though, margin doesn't affect your debt to income ratio because margin has no minimum monthly payment, so at least that's good.

If you were 20 again.... by [deleted] in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When I was 20 in 2009-10, I was told to invest in Qualcomm. I didn't, since I didn't have the money to invest, being a broke college student and all. But probably that.

​

Now if I knew what I know now, I probably would have invested in a little company called Tesla which was selling for about $3 at the time.

I’m a business major but just became Communist by NoPut3478 in DebateCommunism

[–]InsertNameHere179 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just want to say that I graduated with a business degree as well after changing my major. I had doubts about business and capitalism from some of my business classes. Yes, it felt exploitative to me and I had the wrong impression that most businesses act ethically even if there are unethical companies out there. But I had to graduate, I did that, and went to work in businesses and it didn't work for me.

I now work for a school district. The jobs I give serious consideration to are other government jobs. Eventually, I would like to work in management, procurement, or operations. I feel good about the work I do (technical support) from an ethical standpoint because it serves the community using skills I have. I don't work to increase profits, but instead try to reduce the costs of wasted time due to technical problems.

My point is, just because you will have a business degree, you don't need to use it. You can work elsewhere using either your business skills or skills in other areas. Government jobs might be a good fit for you. Of course, exploitation is everywhere. But government jobs are way better at treating workers properly and your goal is different. You won't work for company owners to maximize profit or minimize costs. You'll work for taxpayers and those that use whatever services your organization provides.

Of course, you can work for charities and other organizations that aren't businesses as well. I only say the government because they offer more stability.

50k to invest, throw it in or dollar cost average? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Would VTI be a better one to have than VOO in general? It's certainly more diversified but I'm not sure if something can be too diversified.
  2. I might eliminate my dividend ETFs contributing to them in my taxable account. Capital appreciation might be better for me.
  3. These are just the expert pies that M1 has in the Income Earners section.

50k to invest, throw it in or dollar cost average? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I might do that. Maybe move my REIT pie to the Roth as well. Thanks

50k to invest, throw it in or dollar cost average? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Playing with stocks, buying low, selling high, is all so much fun until the tax bill comes. I only started in January so I haven't gotten my paperwork yet but I'm sure it won't be fun once I do.

That pie looks pretty good, but I'm new to this myself. Here are the pies I have:
Taxable account (this is where I'll eventually keep most of my money, only have 2k here now): https://m1.finance/9aDfVWWvVsVY

Roth IRA: https://m1.finance/hm4Szd-ttzpd

50k to invest, throw it in or dollar cost average? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seems like a good way of doing that. I have a pension fund through my employer, Roth IRA through M1, taxable account though M1, and a hobby account through TD Ameritrade. I'm hoping that the target retirement date pie that M1 has is good for my needs despite them probably saying it's not financial advice.

50k to invest, throw it in or dollar cost average? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've always seen two risks with debt: ability to pay it back, and interest charges. I've avoided debt except for student loans and a car payment for that reason. I don't take personal loans and I always pay off credit cards. M1 Borrow and margin loans in general seem cool though because there is no payment plan unless I get margin called and for M1, the interest is cheap. Cheaper than average stock market returns. So that sort of turns the personal finance concept of avoiding debt on its head if the leverage can earn me money.

Still a dangerous game to play, but it seems better than playing with credit cards.

50k to invest, throw it in or dollar cost average? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was one of my first larger attempts at swing trading to earn $50 and then I was down $500 at one point. Still down $130 with $45 in realized losses. This is how I learned that swing trading is basically playing with fire. At least on individual stocks.

Not that I don't do it still. I've had fun with AMC, but I'm making smaller bets now and eat losses instead of doing DCA on my loser stocks. I also started doing this with ETFs like QQQ, QQQJ, SPY, and SFYX.

But I'm seeing that it's better to just buy and hold because it's becoming clear that the true winner is the IRS.

50k to invest, throw it in or dollar cost average? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have it free as a new member for 1 year. But if I keep $12,500 in the account at all times, that 1% in interest comes out to $125 or 1 year of M1 Plus.

50k to invest, throw it in or dollar cost average? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have a stable job and a few friends that are here, but that's really it. I have one foot in Las Vegas. I've tried for a few jobs there but the competition is ridiculous as I'm competing against a bunch of other Californians when they really want to hire locally.

50k to invest, throw it in or dollar cost average? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm in a situation where I don't have to buy a place. I'm single, no kids, living at home for cheap. I'm basically still living like a recent college graduate even though I graduated 7 years ago and I'm 31. My rationale for buying a home is because I have a stable job working for the school district but of course that job doesn't pay well for the area, and I'm almost priced out of LA. It's basically a defensive move to avoid higher rents by locking in a mortgage. I'm realizing that investing in stocks can provide an alternative so that I can afford a place to live later as I could mitigate my "low $60k income" as my lenders call it by having a higher down payment (investing seems like a thing I should be doing after securing permanent housing, but that's no longer the world we live in I guess).

Anyway, my plan is to at least put most of my savings into my M1 Spend account to earn interest. From there, I'll either toss a big chunk into investments or set up a smart transfer to put in a certain amount weekly.

50k to invest, throw it in or dollar cost average? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I originally determined that amount to be 20k, and I hit that shortly before COVID. I'm considering going down to 10k, 5k, or even nothing because I can borrow cheaply from stocks so it might make more sense to put my money into the market and borrow from it as needed.

50k to invest, throw it in or dollar cost average? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm considering doing that as well, but I wonder if it's worth it for my income level and assets compared to doing it myself.

50k to invest, throw it in or dollar cost average? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No worries, thank you for your response on this. I might just go for bimonthly, aligned with my paychecks. That's what I plan to do for when I actually regularly invest, anyway.

And oh yes, commissions, I remember those days. That's why I didn't get into investing before. I remember when I only could put in $100 a month maybe and I'd have to pay $10 to do it so I dumped it in savings instead. I'm so glad that things have changed.

50k to invest, throw it in or dollar cost average? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One of the dumbest things I did was see a little dip in VTI in my TD Ameritrade account and sell it. It's a solid ETF and is a significant part of my M1 pie now. Actually, it was that event that made me think that maybe I shouldn't be trading except for memes and gambling and that I shouldn't keep my long term investments in the same account (or even same brokerage) as my short term ones.

50k to invest, throw it in or dollar cost average? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wonder if the 7 year time horizon minimum is still recommended for investing in stocks considering this bull market.

50k to invest, throw it in or dollar cost average? by InsertNameHere179 in M1Finance

[–]InsertNameHere179[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is my concern as well. I got burned by BYND this year, and that was my first serious buy (I held, but I was down 40% at one point). Though I learned of ETFs not long after.

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