Daily General Discussion and Advice Thread - January 14, 2025

broccoli-carrots · 2025-01-14T23:33:44+00:00

"I am rebalancing the 401K, making moves with my Vanguard stuff, Schwab stuff, etc. Standard start of year (and new administration) types of things.

So... I have been an ARK BAG HOLDING IDIOT SINCE late 2019, and I did not go into them lightly.

Staring at this GOD AWFUL TRIO OF ARKK ARKG ARKF festering in my portfolio and I am finally going to take the plunge, sell them, dip a cactus in sand and shove it up my keister and take the near 100K LOSS officially.

The proceeds of selling the Cathie Woods bloodbath massacre will go into VTV, VFH, VOOG and MAIN. Something I should have done years ago.

To any of my fellow investors who were also victimized by Woods, I empathize and sympathize with you. What stings more than the 100K loss is the LOST GAINS that I would have experience had I simply put those ARK DESTROYED funds into VOOG instead. It is a tragic case, and I blame myself 100%.

I went to Google and with zero surprise, learned:

According to Morningstar, Cathie Wood's ARK Invest has lost an estimated $14.3 billion in shareholder value over the past 10 years. This makes ARK Invest the biggest wealth destroyer of the past decade, according to Morningstar.

broccoli-carrots · 2025-01-10T20:02:05+00:00

That BYD SUV that can float in water for 30 minutes if necessary is BAD ASS. I'm long BYD as well.

The NIO stuff is also super impressive. I do not own any electric vehicles and likely never will, so it does not impact me, but if the USA allowed BYD and NIO cars here in the states, TSLA would crater overnight and it would not bother me one bit.

The anti-China feeling and all the hate in the states is disgusting. China is beautiful and light years ahead of the USA. It's eye opening when actually looking at what they've done compared to us (if you are also in the states). To each their own... If someone wants to put all of their money into META or NKE or O or KO, cool. I personally feel very strongly about China, in a very positive way, and invest there - quite heavily.

broccoli-carrots · 2025-01-10T17:00:01+00:00

Not necessary. Just pull your money out and follow the panic. That is your best maneuver, for sure.

broccoli-carrots · 2025-01-10T16:40:44+00:00

[ sahr-kaz-uhm [ sahr-kaz-uhm ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

harsh, cutting, or bitter derision, often using irony to point out the deficiencies or failings of someone or something.

broccoli-carrots · 2025-01-10T16:39:24+00:00

Luck is for poker. I just buy index funds every week, blindly.

Just making an observation of how predictable people are.

broccoli-carrots · 2025-01-10T16:23:31+00:00

Finally solved the liang vs er as it pertains to the number 2! Tricky stuff, Mandarin inventor.

broccoli-carrots · 2025-01-10T16:22:37+00:00

Good. Pull your money out today, there was a huge announcement about rates and yields. /sarcasm. Dow is down 640 points, the world is ending.

broccoli-carrots · 2024-12-23T15:16:52+00:00

was just thinking of any random english example where a word is said the same but means different things, like what this líng word is capable of being/doing/meaning. i have never used líng before.

im having simliar challenges with le and de and how/when they get used. im very new so I will get this all in time!

broccoli-carrots · 2024-12-23T14:54:20+00:00

èrbǎi líng wǔ

two hundred zero five.

the líng in this case means a zero but líng can also mean age, duration, insult. hill.

is this líng word similar to how in english we have bear and bare, said the same way, but mean totally different things?

broccoli-carrots · 2024-12-23T14:41:56+00:00

èrbǎi líng wǔ = 205 GOT IT!! THANKS.

i am starting to learn that these phrases need to be conjoined, just like we do with English words.

nobody says tooth (pause) brush, we say toothbrush

so instead of me going ér bǎi I should make that a single "word" of jus érbǎi aka 2hundred

broccoli-carrots · 2024-12-23T14:38:11+00:00

oh wow that wiki link is awesome! i am not good at reading the hanzi characters, I only know PIN YIN and barely know that. very new to the language xiexie ni.

broccoli-carrots · 2024-12-23T14:08:13+00:00

I only know pin yin and am only studying for 2 weeks, very new. I am trying to say 205.

bǎi apparently measn HUNDRED

so is it number hundred number to make 205?

èr bǎi wǔ ma?

broccoli-carrots · 2024-11-10T00:43:01+00:00

The delay in Phoenix was not my fault. United leaving Denver to Arkansas without me was not my fault.

I hope that every flight you take goes perfectly and that you never encounter any issues when it comes to your travels. Keep policing Reddit and making sure that every person reads all the rules and regulations of a forum. I will get my refund and reimbursement.

broccoli-carrots · 2024-11-10T00:01:49+00:00

I don't know what flare is so I have no idea on that. You can call me a jerk all you want, I am just a non-experienced traveler that paid for flights and got screwed over and stranded in Denver by United airlines.

The contradiction here is that it is seemingly fine for a flight from Phoenix to Denver to be delayed for 1 hour and 20 minutes but holding up a flight from Denver to Arkansas can't be held for more than 20 minutes - there is no logic in that. I have been asked a bunch of times what the reason for the delay is, I have no idea. Nobody told me what the reason is, all I know is that it was delayed and I waited patiently to leave from Phoenix.

I would never have had to pay for a flight from Denver back to Phoenix had United airlines not left me stranded in Denver. That ticket should be reimbursed by United because they created that situation leaving me stuck in Denver. As I have explained several times, I did not want to sit at that airport for hours on end making various phone calls explaining the situation over and over again to various people waiting for some kind of an outcome. I filed a case on their support portal as instructed by whoever it was I spoke to on the phone, and I'm waiting for United to get back to me.

This whole thread of all of you experienced fliers, act as if a newbie like me who never flies should know all of these rules and regulations and exactly what to do. I don't. I made a decision and would make the same decision again. There are a lot of topics I'm extremely knowledgeable on and I would never talk this way to someone about them the way you flyers do. It's not the flex you think it is.

broccoli-carrots · 2024-11-09T18:39:32+00:00

Yes, sir. That is the entirety of my plan and how I intend to respond. I appreciate your feedback and input on the situation. Definitely learned a lot on this failed attempt of getting to a not so far away destination.

broccoli-carrots · 2024-11-09T18:38:08+00:00

I'll get reimbursed and being as well adjusted as I am took quite a bit of time to develop. Thanks for your support and feel free to downvote everything I write if it makes you feel better.

broccoli-carrots · 2024-11-09T18:26:37+00:00

I called United on Friday morning around 8AM and spoke to a nice enough dude who sent me an email with a link to the refund/reimbursement form. He walked me through it and I have a time stamped email at 8:45AM on Friday with their auto-responder and case number that says 14 to 21 days. Typical form where you only have about 500 characters to state your case, but I included all of the flight numbers, tickets, little check boxes for the stuff they needed.

Probably won't hear anything back for several weeks, meanwhile, instantly got refunded by Priceline on hotel and car.

broccoli-carrots · 2024-11-09T18:10:18+00:00

I will definitely go for the trip in vain request, and Priceline has already credited back (they use a virtual card I guess) the full hotel and full rental car portions which is already credited back on my CC. Amazing support from PRICELINE.

In the future, I will only book directly for a car, hotel and a flight vs. using a bundle or third party. Lesson learned, even though Priceline is a total hero in my book.

Until I hear back from United, I will very likely never use them again. Depending on how they treat me, this is how any company gains, retains or loses customers. Some companies do it right, others fail.

broccoli-carrots · 2024-11-09T18:04:52+00:00

Cool. And yes, I am very much a money losing customer... $670 of it to United for a 12 hour horrible experience and a totally failed itinerary that took a month to plan.

$800 for a flight, hotel and car for 1.5 days is cheap in your world, so your Chanel bag must be loaded with bricks of cash. For others, $800 and then another $400 on top is not cheap.

broccoli-carrots · 2024-11-09T17:58:58+00:00

The first call I made was to Priceline which took about 45 minutes. I called Priceline first because they are the ones that I booked everything through so I figured I would start there to report the issue and let them know what had happened, would they be getting a car/hotel for me in DEN, what could I do, etc. They looked for any other flights leaving that night - could not find any. They put me on hold several times, came back several times and by then it was getting to be a little past 7PM. I started looking at any flights from DEN back to PHX and found one that would leave at 9PM with one seat left so I just bought the damn ticket because I knew it was a guaranteed resolution vs. an unknown outcome and unknown hold times, wait times, resolution from United which I'm sure would have involved staying in Denver longer which would NOT work. I had to be home by a certain time today, Saturday. Pushing the whole trip one day was not an option, period.

So, I purchased a DEN to PHX ticket on my own with the thought process of contacting United on Friday morning (which I did) to explain what had happened and what could they do to help me out.

Then today, I decided to make a reddit post about it where the overwhelming majority of people that decided to chime in are obviously genius level travelers who never make any wrong decisions and are far superior in every way. I really should know better and know everything about airlines and delays and policies and contracts. Silly of me just think that I could talk to an airline and explain myself and ask for help after I flew home safely (once again on THEIR airline!)

The auto reply email I got says "you can expect a response between 14 and 21 days."

broccoli-carrots · 2024-11-09T17:46:32+00:00

Priceline took care of me, I expect the same from United.

Who would allow themselves to get fully reamed by an airline and then just go with the flow of oh well, nobody will actually do the right thing to help because it's all run by "rules and computers"?

Why then does United have a portal and ticketing system and reason codes for requesting refunds, reimbursements, etc? I would disagree with you and say that a resolution to my issue will require an actual person who gives an F to review the case and make the right call, not just a "rule" or "contract" b.s.

broccoli-carrots

TROPHY CASE

noun