easilyscan

Holy crikey! I had the night of a lifetime at Jackpot Junction sometime in the late 1990s. Played the four $1.00 deuces wild machines they had. I got 4 deuces ($1000) 5 times and walked out with just under 6K cash in my pockets. Jackpot Junction is out in the middle of nowhere on sovereign land. I was very careful to make sure no one was following me when I left.

Knowing that you're moving into money preservation mode is helpful. You also pointed out you're not interested in asset allocation. With that in mind, here's my $0.02 I'm currently earning 4.01% for my cash @ Fidelity. Since you're in wealth preservation mode, I don't think it would be that bad of an idea to keep 200 K of the 500 total in cash. I can already hear the doubters………… the S&P 500 has an annualized return of 13% over the past 10 years, 4% won't even keep up with inflation, interest rates are going down, etc. I get it, but once you get to the point where you’re near retirement, & know you have enough to live on, & just want to preserve it, you're not willing to take that much risk. I like Cdub100’s recommendation of FDVV. I own a similar ETF Vanguard Dividend Appreciation (VIG) his offers a higher dividend yield. I also own Fidelity Utilities Index (FUTY) This might be a simplified way of thinking, but it seems that if we ever went into a long lasting recession or worse, these companies would hold their own. As much as they'd hate to, people would give up plenty of the other luxuries, if it meant keeping the lights on, keeping them cool in the summer, warm in the winter, etc Since you like Energy, but don't like individual stocks, there's plenty of low expense ratio ETFs available as well. All I know about bonds is what a very knowledgeable ‘old guy’ at work told me back in the 90s. The bond market loves bad news. A Google search backs that up.During the 11 recessions the US has endured since 1950, stocks have historically fallen an average of 15% a year. But bonds have historically thrived when the economy has contracted. In every recession since 1950, bonds have delivered higher returns than stocks & cash. Doesn't sound like you're interested in bitcoin or crypto, so I won't touch on that. Other sectors I like Solar: I've held First Solar (FSLR) since 2017. Shares have been beaten down lately, but not for any fundamental reason. They've dropped on fears that President Trump might push to eliminate subsidies. Believe it or not I agree. Since subsidies began, solar revenues are up over 10 times. I personally feel it's time they leave the governments nest, but I think when push comes to shove, the lobbyists will win out & the subsidies will remain in place. Since you're not a fan of individual stocks, there’s a solar ETF. Invesco Solar (TAN) Special Situations: Late in 2020, oil futures briefly traded negative. I was aware of a refiner called Valero Energy. It dropped to the mid 30s briefly. I wanted to buy, but didn’t. It currently trades at $139 and was as high as $180 this past April. If you pay attention to the markets, it's always nice to have cash on hand to take advantage of those opportunities. Amazing to look at 5 year charts of quality companies & see how many of them made a V-shaped bottom in March 2020 when the whole world was in a panic. Maybe the bird flu will present another opportunity like that ....haha Something else that needs to be pointed out is timing. I recommended FUTY, which is currently trading at $51 I've done well because I purchased the vast majority of my shares at opportune times Jan-24-2024 $38.65 & Oct-02-2023 $36.01 If you were to invest in any of the ETFs/funds mentioned/recommended in this thread, keep in mind that there's always the possibility you could be buying at the top. Might be better to dollar cost average.

https://www.buyupside.com/alphavantagelive/stockmultiyearcalccomputeavform1.php?symbol=AAPL&submit=Calculate+Returns

What a silly nation we've become.

This reminded me of a joke from the Clinton era. Bill was ready to go out for his morning jog when Secret Service agents told him he couldn't. Why, he asked ? Someone left a terrorist threat in the snow outside the White House. What did it say Bill asked ? It appears to have been written in urine, and it says Bill Clinton must die. Three days later, The head of the Secret Service met with Bill. Told him they'd solved the case, & asked Bill if he wanted the good news or the bad news first ? Give me the good news. The good news is, we've identified the urine & it belongs to Bob Dole. That's shocking said Bill, so what's the bad news. It was Hillary's handwriting.

Today's Stock Market Report: Helium was up, feathers were down. Paper was stationary. Flourescent tubing was dimmed in light trading. Knives were up sharply. Cows steered into a bull market. Pencils lost a few points. Hiking equipment was trailing. Elevators rose, while escalators continued their slow decline. Weights were up in heavy trading. Light switches were off. Mining equipment hit rock bottom, Diapers remained unchanged. Shipping lines stayed at an even keel. The market for raisins dried up. Coca Cola fizzled. Caterpillar stock inched up a bit. Sun peaked at midday. Balloon prices were inflated. Scott Tissue rouched a new bottom. And batteries exploded in an attemp to recharge the market.

I've owned it for 17 years and have no plans to sell either. I'm just not overly bullish at this time as they seem to have hit a wall. Still a great company, they just need to invent the next big thing. I went through 3 windows based PCs from 1997 to 2008. All rendered worthless by viruses, in spite of purchasing the best antivirus/security software for all of them every year. In 2008, I bought a new iMac 21" desktop. Never purchased any additional virus/security software and it performed flawlessly until 10.5 years later, when the hard drive died. Bought another in November 2018 and it's still going strong.

Congrats if you own it. Wish I could say I did. Apples problems are fairly clear, they aren't growing. At least not the way they have in the past. Top line (revenues) are pretty much flat since Q1 2022 https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AAPL/apple/revenue Bottom line (TTM-EPS) is the same as Q4 2021 & were down 34% YOY in Q3 2024 https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AAPL/apple/eps-earnings-per-share-diluted Add the fact that if it wasn't for the massive share buybacks, both would be down substantially, IMHO, it shouldn't be selling at 37 x earnings & is still overpriced.

https://www.imagebam.com/view/MEZ56ZE

When I wanna Rock When I'm mellow

A great day/week. Knowing creatures like this might not be so smug going forward, puts a huge smile on my face.

“I am not an animal! I am a human being!”

Here’s the net worth of the founders of the 3 companies involved in this Larry Ellison Oracle: 205 billion Masayoshi Son Softbank: 31 billion Sam Altman OpenAI: 1.1 billion The market cap of the 3 companies: Oracle: 483 billion + 10 billion in cash Softbank: 95 billion + 26 billion in cash OpenAI: A private company at this point, but value estimated at 157 billion + 8 billion in cash Why does the government (AKA taxpayers) have to provide a $100 billion initial investment (which could grow to $500 billion within the next 4 years) to build large-scale AI data centers in the United States ? No doubt it will create a number of good paying jobs, but the return on investment via taxes, might take centuries to actually produce a return for the country…………………………………………..a country that's already 35 trillion in debt, with another 70+ trillion in current & future unfunded liabilities relating to Medicare & Social Security https://www.inc.com/ben-sherry/project-stargate-massive-new-trump-era-investment-in-ai/91109890

The black guy ? Don't recognize him, possibly security/bodyguard ?

One of the most rational comments I've seen on this thread. When I hear that Musk & President Trump are building/buying large industrial size ovens, I'll take this thread seriously.