Sold dodge yesterday for a little bump. Wanting in on XRP but will wait for that fuzzy feeling to jump in. In the markets would be done trading by now and just set alerts. Crypto is a different animal and don't have to time to watch it closely.
Stock Market
- Thread starter pmclaine
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With China cutting off export of rare earth minerals/magnets to the USA, I did some research on domestic mines/processing/manufacturing. I bought MP which had the best situation with processing and manufacturing capabilities. That paid off recently. The other company that is going to take off is REEMF. It is an over the counter stock right now. They are going to have the processing plant upgraded in august and will be will be producing critical rare earth materials for the aerospace industry. Once this hits the mainstream news, this stock should go up dramatically from its current 1.05$ share
My SPY 550 and 600 calls with December 31st expiration are awesome. Bought them April 8th. Not sure If I want to sell them or exercise them yet.
I jumped out of the market in late august, and then it dipped, so I was feeling like a genius (because I got lucky). I jumped back in on the 11th, and with some short term plays here and there, finished up a 8% week....which is insane to me. I wanted to sell off again, because i'm certain at this point, that next week will drop on monday, and be flat all week. I held firm though, i'm positioned where I want to be until December.
It's really none of my business what you do with your money. One can get luck here and there doing that, but it has the same dips as a black jack table. Markets are for cool heads who can look long term, remove the emotions.
On another note:
Uranium
Rare Earth
Minning
Oil
Many stocks related to energy and it's a positive outlook, long term ins. As long as there are demands in sectors and markets then those are safer bets. But once again, lots of people looking for a quick dollar.
The bulk of my portfolio is long. Index funds, and a few stock picks of companies I will stay long on. I have some play money that i'll do pretend daytrader moves with, but i never do any trades with that that are more than i'd be willing to burn on the floor. I had a penny stock that went up 120% yesterday...and if I told you I had 6200 shares you'd think that I was rich now...but only if you didn't know they are 8 cents a share, lol. So returns wise, I did well, but it's not like I made a lot of money. If you turn $5 into $10, you had a 100% return, but $5 doesn't help ya a whole lot.
I'm not a terribly smart person, but i'm certainly not as dumb as I tell you I am. I'm building a retirement portfolio, something that's going to support me in 25 years. So i'm not betting the farm that i'm super early on the next palentir....although it would be nice. The problem with that, is costco never seems to have any crystal balls on the shelf.
Forget about being "smart", ambition and a desire to make things happen trumps "smart." The world is filled with smart idiots. Don't worry about being smart, worry about doing well.
Ok, well good. My take, and not that you are even asking is this: 1. Land and or porperty, 2. Stuff you can hold, like gold or silver, 3
multiple markets with holdings in energy and food production. 4, individual stocks in things that you use or believe in. I have always liked Tesla and so I bought a bunch of that.
And there will be market crashes, but just remember the markets have always bounced back and more then recovered, so control your emotions.
Speaking of Tesla:
Tesla has been a rocket ship as of late, but it really was back in 2021.
In 2021 my daughters had three older wranglers. 80K to 160K miles on them. Good kids.
How it played out:
Under the guise of "unloading wood across the street in the park to fit in my pickup", we went there where I had parked the three wranglers in random areas of the parking lot. I pulled out three identical small wrapped jewelry boxes and tossed them into the air. My kids can't catch so most hit the ground. Told them to pick them up and open them. Dumbfounded, I told them to press the "panic button" on each. Once all three new jeeps had their horn's blaring, I told them to go get their new jeeps.
It was a good day. Thanks TSLA.
Tesla has been a rocket ship as of late, but it really was back in 2021.
In 2021 my daughters had three older wranglers. 80K to 160K miles on them. Good kids.
How it played out:
Under the guise of "unloading wood across the street in the park to fit in my pickup", we went there where I had parked the three wranglers in random areas of the parking lot. I pulled out three identical small wrapped jewelry boxes and tossed them into the air. My kids can't catch so most hit the ground. Told them to pick them up and open them. Dumbfounded, I told them to press the "panic button" on each. Once all three new jeeps had their horn's blaring, I told them to go get their new jeeps.
It was a good day. Thanks TSLA.
I have been laughing at all of the America hating, fag loving stock market bears.
With the new nuking of the H1B visa program, with its $100k non-refundable application fees, I’m looking so forward to a strong American jobs market. It will be interesting to see how that plays out over the short and long terms.
Yes I agree. H1B visas weren't an organic need, they came about because of the demand by corporate America so they could lower payroll costs of high-tech workers, and of course it decimated the IT profession for Americans, which caused Americans to avoid hi-tech related majors.
It'd be nice to see IT jobs make a comeback for Americans.
Will wait to see, but It’s hard enough for our 120 person engineering firm to hire civil engineering graduates. Appears this will make the supply pool even smaller.
This initiative will force rates up. There are competent workers in every sector, including mine. Generally the companies that struggle to hire good employees do so based on a remuneration package 15-20% under market value for those skilled workers. Often they also refuse to interview in a way that forces applicants to actually show their competence and character. This error is usually because the hiring process is done by HR which has very little knowledge of anything but cost.
When HR does the hiring, you usually end up with some fucked up people filling those jobs.
When did HR go from a support service to gate keepers?
I’ve held through all the dips and continued to buy reputable stuff when I could and am up 37% for the year. If I only had more money to play with. But I’ve made up some serious ground on where I think I need to be for my age. A couple years ago looked pretty bleak but my point here is to pick good stuff and hold firm. Believe me I was pretty down a couple years back but I rode it out and not only did I make all my losses up, I made it all up and gained another 37%. Buy the dips and hold long term. The market is not something that can be played with emotions or it shouldn’t be anyway.
^^This is a true statement. Companies like Cisco Systems and Intel gamed the H1B visa by basically enslaving workers to the program, so Indian engineers would rent an apartment five or six guys deep and work their asses off so they could eventually get that golden ticket called a green card. Many of the big silicon valley companies used this to get a cheeper and more loyal (otherwise get sent back to India) work force, pushing many qualified American graduates out of the system. The H1B visa program has had disasterous effects on the American collage graduate, I am elated to see it near it's end.
Yes 100%
I am not going to name companies, but there were large American corporations that hired H1B workers from India, then instructed their US citizen workers to train the H1B workers how to do the job, then the US worker was laid off. I had more than a few friends lose their jobs this way, and it almost happened to me in 2016.
Disney is one of the most infamous for this traitorous shit- it was all over the news.
Maybe because so many US Engineering schools seem to prefer foreign students ($$) over American students.
$$$$ for sure. Universities are $$$ machines. Rich families overseas are buying there way in, like always happens for those with more resources.
Out of country tuition is 1.5 to 3x higher, so schools make a lot more money on foreign students.
To be clear, there are cases to be made for an H1B program, but it's rare, and most definatly abused.
I applied to a surveying firm back in 2022. Different specialty, but similar enough.
I had 4 years of real world, international survey experience with the US military, but no civillian experience, so I knew there would be a couple week learning spell.
They offered me 1 dollar less per hour than Walmart was paying.
You have to pay people market rates to get workers. If you can't find workers, then by definition you are not paying the necessary market rate to have workers.
That sucks. Hope you found a firm that would pay you market rate?
If you are directing the “you” in your reply to me, we’re paying entry level civils over 70k. Plus signing bonus.
I was not directly insulting you, but I have indeed found a huge disconnect between what employers think is decent pay and what people actually need to be properly compensated for a professional skill set.
You probably think you are making a good offer, but something is keeping people from taking that job. It may not even be the pay, but might be housing availability, or cost, or the difficulties of moving, etc. Find the friction point...
If you offered to pay 1 million dollars a year you would have no shortage of applicants obviously. You have a shortage now at your current salary offering. Therefore, 1 million is over market rate (obviously) and 70K is under market rate.
Like I said, it may not even be the salary, but other factors. As an example...
What if you found a great guy to hire but he has an autistic kid and needs to be more present than most jobs will allow? Maybe tell him that after 6 months of proven good work you will let him work from home provided he meets a certain quota. He will take the 70K and be happy and loyal because you as an employer and decent human are being kind and loyal to him and helping him provide for his family.
Don't forget to factor in housing cost. I see so many employers do this because to have a business normally you have been established there for a long time and already own a house. These people have to find a place in these crazy prices with 7% interest rates. 70k doesn't go that far in many places with the housing prices we are seeing.
Look at it from the employee's perspective and I bet you can find the sticking points.
Add up the money the company pays in bonuses and salary to the top 10% of the company officers, and combine retained earnings as well as discretionary tax write offs.
If this number is approaching more than 80% of the total salary cost of the company's bottom 90% of workers, you are doing it wrong.
Just a general guideline.
If this number is approaching more than 80% of the total salary cost of the company's bottom 90% of workers, you are doing it wrong.
Just a general guideline.
So, what should entry level engineers fresh out of college with no work experience get paid - say rural Alabama?
My kid graduated with honors with an engineering degree from a big name school May 2025
She had two internships, that is the total of her work experience.
She would love to make $375k
When can she start work for your company?
I no longer produce anything. All income comes from investments and tenants.
I am in the beginning stages of planning for a warehouse though.
I had to re-read, I thought you typed 'whorehouse' and I was like "damn...BFC likes to party, I should get to know him".
Lol.
You know, a whore house sounds like a great idea.
Unfortunately, I would end up the 2nd entity in history to lose money on a whore house (government was the first) since I would be the only one going.
My son is following my footsteps and will graduate in 2 years with a EE. I expect that his starting salary will be about $125,000. Bay Area salaries are even higher due to the potential of equity that you receive. However, you have to live in the Bay Area so it isn’t worth it.
A good place to look for salary surveys is EE Times. Not sure about the other branches of engineering.
It is pretty normal for civil engineer (which is not on this list, but all of the other engineering, mechanical, design, project, is in the $70s)
What Is the Average Starting Salary Out of College? - Scholarships360
It's a good idea to educate yourself about earning potential. Learn more about the average starting salary out of college.
scholarships360.org
And please note those numbers are not entry level, but entry level through 5 years out
Notice also the city data, since you doubled down and declared it "shit" pay "anywhere." Median earnings for recent college graduates (not first year, entry level) are in the $40s and $50s. Only NYC is in the $60s. Austin is at $58k, but that city is full of IT graduates, which are going to earn on the higher end.
This forum is dominated by older members who do not remember what it was like to be 22 - 23 years old or how much they earned back then.
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