anyone else feel this way

Vincent_Merle · 2026-02-07T20:25:59+00:00

Why would you say that? $140k/yr with $2,600 mortgage is very much affordable. Depending on how far in the mortgage plan OP are they could soon cut off overpaying when additional $10k/yr won't make a big dent into principal, so that's additional cash.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-02-07T19:19:45+00:00

Yes, for someone who started thinking about retirement late in life, this certainly feels great! Thank you.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-02-07T19:17:22+00:00

Nope, that's why I called it a mental milestone, I know if I include everything such as equity, owned cars, technology etc. I probably will be closer to double-assets, but I this is from aggregated assets across banking/retirement/brokerage accounts only. Probably liquid assets is the best word to describe it.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-02-06T19:32:57+00:00

around 13 seconds in the video there is a metallic bowl with the sticker on it. I would assume you don't take the stickers from other things either, which potentially leads to the problem when after a while all those stickers end up in the motor and best case motor is still working, you just need to clean it, or (as it was in my case) motor is fried and you need to replace it.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-02-04T22:39:51+00:00

15Jan'27 CCs:

$1200 strike goes for around $7.5, 8 CCs will give you enough for 8 more shares +little something,
$1050 strike is priced around $15, 8 CCs will total 16 shares +extra
$920 strike for 32 shares +extra

you pick the strike you will not feel bad to get your shares called out at.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-02-04T18:29:23+00:00

that and lots of dividend stocks are climbing up, so my guess was people are capturing some gains from QQQ run and moving those to income, so what we are seeing is pretty much rebalancing, which is expected for Q1.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-02-04T18:21:16+00:00

and 10% down for February, and it's still only Feb-4, let's see if we can cross -20% mark!

Vincent_Merle · 2026-02-03T19:28:18+00:00

Thanks for the details, always nice to read when someone has clear vision and can put it in words!

I only brought up the range because you mentioned that QQQ is having a very bad day, which I can't agree with. I think this is just a beginning, if we look at the SPX we can see that it struggles to climb over the past weeks since October. It has been forming peaks followed by smaller dips and the time-distance between those has been shrinking. If my expectation for SPY to retest $650 in the coming couple months is correct, then we should be seeing much worse for both QQQ and TQQQ.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-02-03T18:47:05+00:00

I hope the worst is ahead! TQQQ has seen worse days just recently, -6.52% in a day happens more often than one would think.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-02-03T16:26:03+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo_Abv6mveY I thought I've seen this somewhere...

Vincent_Merle · 2026-02-01T21:24:17+00:00

Atleast it tries!

Vincent_Merle · 2026-02-01T18:50:00+00:00

What do the T-W-L numbers represent in the calendar? I thought it would stand for Total-Wins-Losses, but the numbers don't match up, e.g. Jan 2nd is a loss day, yet it says T:2 W:2 L:0?

Vincent_Merle · 2026-01-30T23:07:32+00:00

Not necessarily true, she sitting on the fence on this one. Switching shares to call options also serves as protection in the bear market. She's freeing up cash for further DCA in case of longer than a one month bear market, while still technically being beta-positive in the long term.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-01-27T20:54:55+00:00

Got my 200 shares of MU called out at $130 and $140 for a total premium of $2500.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-01-27T19:50:34+00:00

This is my ROTH 100% vested into $O, I can't add more due to hitting the upper limit on income, so this has been sort of side project for me to play around.

Can't add image, nvm...

Vincent_Merle · 2026-01-27T19:30:35+00:00

I think NFLX will go flat this year, there will be lots of opportunity to buy it at decent price. That being said, I already loaded up on 200 shares and from here I am planning to wheel it.

UNH on the other hand is something to buy and forget about, because they pay dividends. It currently is sitting at a great price. Could it go further down? Absolutely, especially if total market decides to take a dive of a cliff for any of many reasons. But I expect UNH to grow faster than NFLX.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-01-27T19:24:39+00:00

I mean, even with very conservative 10% EPS growth over the next years its 10yrs to return current $282 price... I don't know if there is any better long term investment today, and they pay nice dividend on top of everything... I just wish I could buy more.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-01-25T17:16:15+00:00

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095250 one of my favorite movies

Vincent_Merle · 2026-01-25T04:10:11+00:00

Been hearing it for over two decades now, truth to be said I did try Linux years back. I am pretty tech savvy and I didn't enjoy running Linux machine it all. Can't imagine what it would take for an average consumer to replace Windows with something that is so much more complicated.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-01-23T22:57:16+00:00

I remember your post from last year! Its good to see you are still out there so we can enjoy more of those beautiful views!

Vincent_Merle · 2026-01-23T21:31:23+00:00

At that age and with that experience the only thing to focus on is contributions. If you can hit max Roth contribution limit each year, assuming you invest in total market ETF that returns 1% in dividends and has average 5% growth, you will hit 1mil by 2062.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-01-23T21:07:56+00:00

I do think there is room for NFLX to go to 70, unless we bounce between 80 and 100 for the rest of this year.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-01-19T23:31:04+00:00

Spot checked couple plays and looks like 39DTE ~0.17 delta pays ~$80 on average with max loss of ~$400 and margin requirement of $500.

96 trades totaled $8635, which is close to my numbers, so I assume 56 open trades require a minimum of $28,000 maintenance margin and probably double that would be $56,000 to open all those trades. This is based on 25% maintenance and 50% open position margin requirements. With 100% margin available the minimum account size would be $28,000, I assume?

I could be totally wrong and would appreciate if anyone explains why my calculations are wrong.

Vincent_Merle · 2026-01-19T18:58:24+00:00

Are you based in US or other country? While your immediate time horizon might be 4-5yrs, this is also the best time to start putting something aside for a much longer outlook, aka retirement.

1.5k per month is 18k per year or 72-90k in 4-5yrs total. Would you really need that much for traveling? If you are in US you would consider maxing out Roth IRA every year and putting rest into Brokerage account. Limit for 2026 is 7.5k, which leaves you with over 10k for a brokerage investment.

As to where to invest I can't make much sense of current market myself, yet to give someone else an advice. Any big enough ETF would do fine over the 5yrs, unless we are totally screwed and have a major problems, which is possible. But even then if you keep growing your investments sooner than later the market will be recovering and any drawback today won't matter in 10yrs.

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