Stock Market

[Bigfatcock]

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.

Yeah, and those median earnings are shit pay. $40,000 gross gives you enough money to just not die for the next 40 years in a bad area.

$60k in NYC? Lol.
$58k in Austin? Lol.

I wouldn’t engineer shit for $70k gross unless there was a clearly defined path to higher income in a 5 year period.

 

[timesublime]

It's about 90k for a 0-2 year ME here in CO.

 

[XTREM HTR16]

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.

Guess this means I’m not old.
I graduated in 1987 and first civil engineering position was salary of $24,000/yr. Paid $2,000 on the 24th of every month.

 

[Lightning8]

Guess this means I’m not old.
I graduated in 1987 and first civil engineering position was salary of $24,000/yr. Paid $2,000 on the 24th of every month.

1983 - $22000ish was norm unless going in oil as there was a boom and paying more

 

[W54/XM-388]

Guess this means I’m not old.
I graduated in 1987 and first civil engineering position was salary of $24,000/yr. Paid $2,000 on the 24th of every month.

Yes but remember what $2k was worth back in 1987
Gold was in the $300 ranges per ounce back then (so almost 10x increase)
Gasoline prices? Grocery prices? Rent prices? Education costs?
And the big one, price of buying a home?

To actually have your old salary numbers be meaningful today, you pretty much have to look at real inflation numbers
For 1987 you'd need to do at least x4 to the number to equal the same purchasing power today.

That's what a lot of folks comparing "the good old days" when "they worked hard for a living" often forget.

 

[W54/XM-388]

1983 - $22000ish was norm unless going in oil as there was a boom and paying more

And today you'd need $100,000k to have the same buying power that $22,000k gave you back then...

 

[Malum Prohibitum]

Guess this means I’m not old.
I graduated in 1987 and first civil engineering position was salary of $24,000/yr. Paid $2,000 on the 24th of every month.

And today you'd need $100,000k to have the same buying power that $22,000k gave you back then...

Well, it was 1987, not 1983

Equivalent to $62,741 today, not a six figure income.

 

[Bigfatcock]

$62,741 gross today is like making zero dollars.

 

[Malum Prohibitum]

$62,741 gross today is like making zero dollars.

Agreed, and $22k in 1987 was not much, either.

First year out of college with a four year degree does not make a lot of money. If you are in any good in a job that can make money, then that income goes up as you gain experience and demonstrate your skills.

This is the way it has always been for just about every field.

 

[MK20]

You do know that the CPI numbers don't include food, gas, or housing, right @Malum Prohibitum ? So your comparison is not truly representative.

 

[Malum Prohibitum]

The average salary in my state is $52k

That is not the average starting salary, but the average salary.

 

[Malum Prohibitum]

You do know that the CPI numbers don't include food, gas, or housing, right @Malum Prohibitum ? So your comparison is not truly representative.

Ok, fine, he was ballin' back in the 80s. Got it.

And we are oppressing all of the civil engineers straight out of college with no experience. Got it. Come see the repression!

 

[W54/XM-388]

Well, it was 1987, not 1983

Equivalent to $62,741 today, not a six figure income.

You are using "official" inflation numbers.

REAL inflation numbers are WAY higher.

Go back and see what a loaf of bread cost, a gallon of milk, a gallon of gasoline, a KWh of Electricity, a standard average new car, a standard average 3 bedroom house in the suburbs, tuition to the local state university, the price of an ounce of gold, the price of an ounce of silver, the average cost of clothes.

You'll find the numbers the government gives you are purposeful lies.

 

[Malum Prohibitum]

Median household income is $83,730

Real Median Household Income in the United States

View the inflation-adjusted value of the 50th percentile of the U.S. income distribution, as estimated by the Census Bureau.

fred.stlouisfed.org

Median is the household right at the middle, and it includes HCOL locations like New York and California and LCOL locations like Iowa and Mississippi. It also includes a lot of two income households. And it is also not starting salary.

 

[W54/XM-388]

What can be really crazy is to go back and look at new car advertisements from the late 70s and compare them to today's prices...

 

[MK20]

The average salary in my state is $52k

That is not the average starting salary, but the average salary.

Ok, and I just looked up what the salary needed to afford the average home in Georgia is.

It ranges right at around 100K, give or take a bit.

Things are not right economically.

 

[MK20]

Oh, and by the way, that study is from 2022, so that hasn't improved.

 

[Malum Prohibitum]

You are using "official" inflation numbers.

REAL inflation numbers are WAY higher.

Go back and see what a loaf of bread cost, a gallon of milk, a gallon of gasoline, a KWh of Electricity, a standard average new car, a standard average 3 bedroom house in the suburbs, tuition to the local state university, the price of an ounce of gold, the price of an ounce of silver, the average cost of clothes.

You'll find the numbers the government gives you are purposeful lies.

Yeah, got it. I already said he must have been ballin' back in the 80s on his $22k, driving a Mercedes and living on 100 acres with a mansion and a pool, chicks lining up, sunglasses at night, the whole bit, got it.

 

[Bigfatcock]

If a dual income household is only pulling in $70k gross per year then they’re fucked unless they live rather austere for the next decade.

 

[W54/XM-388]

Median household income is $83,730

Real Median Household Income in the United States

View the inflation-adjusted value of the 50th percentile of the U.S. income distribution, as estimated by the Census Bureau.

fred.stlouisfed.org

Median is the household right at the middle, and it includes HCOL locations like New York and California and LCOL locations like Iowa and Mississippi. It also includes a lot of two income households. And it is also not starting salary.

Median and Average are kind of well not all that useful.

Really you need to look per area at the Mode (or most encountered number) and the top 10% and the bottom 20%
Or if you have to have a single number, discount the top 10% and the bottom 20% and then use the remaining in your averaging

That will give you a better idea of the actual economic status of people in an area.
The extreme rich and the extreme poor generally don't represent the average income status for an area & including them just mucks up the numbers.

 

[Bigfatcock]

$70k gross won’t even qualify you to meet the 3x income requirement for a $1,500 per month apartment, lol.

 

[Malum Prohibitum]

Ok, and I just looked up what the salary needed to afford the average home in Georgia is.

It ranges right at around 100K, give or take a bit.

Things are not right economically.

View attachment 8773407

Correct, things are "not right," but probably for different reasons than you suppose.

First, we are short by millions on housing units. Supply and demand. The demand keeps going up, but supply has not kept up since 2008.

Second, homes are larger today. When I graduated high school, the average home was 1650 square feet (up significantly from the 1100 square feet in 1950, when families were bigger). A year or so ago it was up to around 2300 sf. It looks like they are starting to shrink a little given the high interest rates and high cost, but . . . not around me. I swear the average home size where I live has to be approaching 3000 sq ft, and the the average cost is north of half a million at this point. It would not even be legal to build my house today, as it would be too small for the new zoning requirements. In other words, this is not some free market "economy" problem. There is active government interference. How active? If I did not already live in my house built decades ago, they would put a stop work order on me and make me tear it down.

Figure out how to build more, smaller houses without everybody protesting "They're going to ruin my town!" and you solve the high housing cost issue. We need millions more housing units, and smaller ones, and we need them now, but there is a lot of resistance to that.

The problem is you and your neighbors, not George Soros and the Illuminati. (not literally you, unless you are one of the ones calling your town counsel to protest the new apartments and subdivisions being proposed)

 

[Malum Prohibitum]

Median and Average are kind of well not all that useful.

Really you need to look per area at the Mode (or most encountered number) and the top 10% and the bottom 20%
Or if you have to have a single number, discount the top 10% and the bottom 20% and then use the remaining in your averaging

That will give you a better idea of the actual economic status of people in an area.
The extreme rich and the extreme poor generally don't represent the average income status for an area & including them just mucks up the numbers.

And yet there it is. $84k is the median household income. Half of households make more. Half of households make less. Joe Middle is right there, him and his wife working, pulling in $84k.

If you make more, great. If you make less, sorry.

But Joe Middle and his wife exist.

 

[Short-bus]

Correct, things are "not right," but probably for different reasons than you suppose.

First, we are short by millions on housing units. Supply and demand. The demand keeps going up, but supply has not kept up since 2008.

Second, homes are larger today. When I graduated high school, the average home was 1650 square feet (up significantly from the 1100 square feet in 1950, when families were bigger). A year or so ago it was up to around 2300 sf. It looks like they are starting to shrink a little given the high interest rates and high cost, but . . . not around me. I swear the average home size where I live has to be approaching 3000 sq ft, and the the average cost is north of half a million at this point. It would not even be legal to build my house today, as it would be too small for the new zoning requirements. In other words, this is not some free market "economy" problem. There is active government interference. How active? If I did not already live in my house built decades ago, they would put a stop work order on me and make me tear it down.

Figure out how to build more, smaller houses without everybody protesting "They're going to ruin my town!" and you solve the high housing cost issue. We need millions more housing units, and smaller ones, and we need them now, but there is a lot of resistance to that.

The problem is you and your neighbors, not George Soros and the Illuminati. (not literally you, unless you are one of the ones calling your town counsel to protest the new apartments and subdivisions being proposed)

Starter homes just aren't built anymore. Could they build starter homes, absolutely, there's just not adequate profit. It's not just the building materials that increase the costs of building, the financing costs are higher too.

Is that kinda fucked? yeah, yeah it is. We've kinda started to get a taste of the idea that there can be too much capitalism. Venture capital firms have trillions of dollars under management, and millions of customers that expect to see a statement at the end of each quarter that shows they're making lots of money. They like to extrapolate that number and imagine what it will be in 20 years, and decide whether it'll be enough to retire.

I don't know what the alternative is, but I can't imagine that people that have operated, and prospered under the current system, are going to be ok with it all going away, just to make a system that may possibly work better.

 

[Pharmseller]

Bought some VOO today, better late than never.

 

[stefan73]

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.


View attachment 8770975

It was a good day. Thanks TSLA.

You need a son? I could really use a GT3RS, just saying

 

[Pharmseller]

Just bought a few ALAB.

 

[LRRPF52]

70k gross is like getting paid zero dollars.

Depends on the region you live in. Where I’m at currently, it’s closer to half the median household, so not a good income here, nor would it cut the mustard in any metro area in the US that I can see.

So if you made 70k and your wife made 60k, you’d be doing well in most places in the US. I’m not a fan of dual income/salaried households because of what it does to families though.

You’ll notice that all the areas that are $70k median household are rural. I’ve lived and traveled all over this map with residences from CA(x4) to ME, GA to DC, WA to NC, and CO to UT(x4), so I see images in my head of what most of these counties look like from ground-perspective. Big metro areas pay more but everything costs more of course. A good gig is where you can have a rural area within close commuting distance of a regional city with descent pay if you’re looking at W-2 work.

If you’re tech and can remote work, then the sky is the limit for you, but tech companies have been cracking down on the COVID diaspora workers and bringing them back to the offices. Amazon just did their big leash-in, for example.

 

[LRRPF52]

^^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.

When one of my buddies worked at Google, he found an Asian H1B chick living in one of the bathrooms off-hours. She was very disciplined with her money, and using the company workplace as a residence.

Americans don’t understand how good we have it in this fairytale, when looking at standard of living. It’s also hard to find a way to motivate people who are so comfortable in a lap of luxury that historic royalty have never even enjoyed.

It’s one of the reasons why my younger kids don’t play video games, and wake themselves up early, do their own tailored home school curriculum, before they go to piano, dance, martial arts, and other activities like that. Their lives look nothing like how I was “raised” with being abandoned at stupid schools.

Instead of teaching them broke minimum wage mentality brackets that were taught to us in the Jr and High School years, I’m showing them that you can set your expectations much higher, even in the high school job years by skipping to different levels above wage-earning. The marshmallow test had scaled up quite a bit.

 

[LRRPF52]

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.

When I compared my wife’s and my Social Security contributions from our 20s and early 30s after we got married, it was an embarrassment. US Army doesn’t pay well at all compared to what she was doing at eBay, so at least for me, I never forgot.

When I was a new Private, I think we made around $700/mo after being robbed by SSA, Fed Income, etc.. PFC was $900/mo. After 8 years in and at E-6/SSG pay, it was just under $3000/mo, plus $150 for Airborne Pay, BAH, and separate rations.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I remember how little I was paid. The long-term consequences of choosing military service in those early working years can be either really debilitating, delaying, or enabling, depending on what career path you chose. Biggest ones were enlisted vs officer, and what kinds of skills were attained, namely more to do with time management and motivation.

The other thing that keeps me keenly-aware of the younger generations is my kids, watching them grow up in an inflationary environment that is like being on another planet. I have adult kids and a daughter-in-law that are young millennials, Gen Z kids, and Gen Alpha kids/grandkids.

It’s why I am steering the younger ones into entrepreneurship, investing, and smarter financial management vs “get a good education so you can go to college and then get a good job”. Sad thing is, all of them would do really well in an academically-rigorous environment, but colleges have run away from academic rigor, instead catering to Pell grants and retards who shouldn’t be let near colleges, not even in janitorial capacities. Look at the crap that has been oozing out of Harvard and the Ivy League, for example.

 

[LRRPF52]

Down to nuts and bolts:

I’m noticing a lot of hype being generated by some new start-ups in the aerospace industry, particularly with regard to more affordable smart weapons.

Coming from that world with decades of exposure on how we did preliminary test parameter scheduling, carriage, separation, and shot validity in various instrumented target ranges all over the US, I naturally ask certain questions about these companies within image search.

What I’m seeing with one in particular that is generating the most hype is.....

AI-generated images. One of the AI images shows a foreign trainer aircraft painted like a Blue Angel F/A-18 carrying one of the particular flagship weapons.

Other images show AI-generated, perfectly-fit multi-racial and female ordnance crews in non-standard uniforms, all worn perfectly loading these weapons onto AI-generated F-15-ish fighters in the background, with sorta US Navy paint schemes on them with the fonts all out of proportion, jet intake warning stencils on the sides of the F-15-ish intakes.

So it seems like companies are investing in AI-based search image relevancy hits to create the impression of validity where they are probably highly-lacking.

Another one of their main stealth-looking platforms (that is supposed to deliver weapons) doesn’t even have internal weapons bays.

I was looking at buying shares in this company in these early days pre-contract awards, but all these things make me really gun-shy.

It goes to show that you really should invest in industries you understand, instead of blindly listening to all the hype that the marketing types are getting paid to pimp out early. If a product line or service is truly valuable with lots of potential, it will show.

 

[Bigfatcock]

I’ve been investing in the energy sector. Nuclear, utilities, water.

 

[MarshallDodge]

Down to nuts and bolts:

I’m noticing a lot of hype being generated by some new start-ups in the aerospace industry, particularly with regard to more affordable smart weapons.

Coming from that world with decades of exposure on how we did preliminary test parameter scheduling, carriage, separation, and shot validity in various instrumented target ranges all over the US, I naturally ask certain questions about these companies within image search.

What I’m seeing with one in particular that is generating the most hype is.....

AI-generated images. One of the AI images shows a foreign trainer aircraft painted like a Blue Angel F/A-18 carrying one of the particular flagship weapons.

Other images show AI-generated, perfectly-fit multi-racial and female ordnance crews in non-standard uniforms, all worn perfectly loading these weapons onto AI-generated F-15-ish fighters in the background, with sorta US Navy paint schemes on them with the fonts all out of proportion, jet intake warning stencils on the sides of the F-15-ish intakes.

So it seems like companies are investing in AI-based search image relevancy hits to create the impression of validity where they are probably highly-lacking.

Another one of their main stealth-looking platforms (that is supposed to deliver weapons) doesn’t even have internal weapons bays.

I was looking at buying shares in this company in these early days pre-contract awards, but all these things make me really gun-shy.

It goes to show that you really should invest in industries you understand, instead of blindly listening to all the hype that the marketing types are getting paid to pimp out early. If a product line or service is truly valuable with lots of potential, it will show.

Howmet has done very well for me in the last year. They are a supplier to the Aerospace industry.

 

[LRRPF52]

An interesting thing about Aerospace subcontractors is that they can have higher stock values than prime contractors, because they’re the only game in town with generations of experience and cutting-edge RDT&E that keeps them as subs.

Raytheon, Honeywell, Westinghouse and major subs like that are very high-value companies because of the experience, infrastructure, capacity, and human capital they bring to the defense sector.

Then you have subs beneath them that supply basic components to their subsystems. That market is where more volatility ebbs and flows.

 

[Malum Prohibitum]

When I compared my wife’s and my Social Security contributions from our 20s and early 30s after we got married, it was an embarrassment. US Army doesn’t pay well at all compared to what she was doing at eBay, so at least for me, I never forgot.

When I was a new Private, I think we made around $700/mo after being robbed by SSA, Fed Income, etc.. PFC was $900/mo. After 8 years in and at E-6/SSG pay, it was just under $3000/mo, plus $150 for Airborne Pay, BAH, and separate rations.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I remember how little I was paid. The long-term consequences of choosing military service in those early working years can be either really debilitating, delaying, or enabling, depending on what career path you chose. Biggest ones were enlisted vs officer, and what kinds of skills were attained, namely more to do with time management and motivation.

The other thing that keeps me keenly-aware of the younger generations is my kids, watching them grow up in an inflationary environment that is like being on another planet. I have adult kids and a daughter-in-law that are young millennials, Gen Z kids, and Gen Alpha kids/grandkids.

It’s why I am steering the younger ones into entrepreneurship, investing, and smarter financial management vs “get a good education so you can go to college and then get a good job”. Sad thing is, all of them would do really well in an academically-rigorous environment, but colleges have run away from academic rigor, instead catering to Pell grants and retards who shouldn’t be let near colleges, not even in janitorial capacities. Look at the crap that has been oozing out of Harvard and the Ivy League, for example.

I must be older than you. I remember my E-1 pay being $590 monthly

My grown son (had to look it up - Gen Z) makes more than I do and has no college degree (I have an advanced degree). He has all kinds of money and is investing early plus having some fun. I do not worry about him.

 

[Malum Prohibitum]

Bought some VOO today, better late than never.

Smart man.

I told my son for the last couple of years, after explaining expense ratios, to just put it in VOO.

When I was his age, it was 1991. From then, until now, VOO has returned an average of 11.08%, and we all know that there have been some bad downturns during that time (2001, 2008-10, 2020 covid, and those are just the major ones, lots of bear market years, too), but, still, 11.08% average even accounting for all of that.

300 bucks a month from then until now, with no increases ever, would be $1,361,697 today.

Just 300 bucks a month.

The beauty of this, though, is that you never invested anywhere near that amount. Your contributions from 1991 until now were only $122,400. The rest, $1,238,997, was all growth.

My son listened to me. He has been maxing out his 401(k) and was shocked to discover he had $70k when he looked at his account. He is also maxing out his Roth IRA. He called me the other day to ask me what he should do with another $70k he has set aside - so I am talking to him about a normal after tax brokerage account, with a talk about taxes. I really think he will be ok.

We did have a big talk about risk tolerance and down markets and how his grandparents sold out at the bottom and are missing about $400k from their retirement accounts today as a result (they did not tell me for a couple of years, and I had not guessed that they would panic and sell at the bottom as it was enough of a chore just to convince them to invest in the first place - they had nothing). I am pretty sure my son's risk tolerance is more like me, though. He understands that down markets are opportunities, not a misfortune.

Anyway, hell, yeah. VOO !!!

300 bucks a month for 34 years - every single American kid should be told about this. We would have a lot less pathetic left wing whiners criticizing capitalism if this was pushed as a public service announcement and a part of their education.

300 bucks = $1,361,697

 

[MarshallDodge]

Smart man.

I told my son for the last couple of years, after explaining expense ratios, to just put it in VOO.

When I was his age, it was 1991. From then, until now, VOO has returned an average of 11.08%, and we all know that there have been some bad downturns during that time (2001, 2008-10, 2020 covid, and those are just the major ones, lots of bear market years, too), but, still, 11.08% average even accounting for all of that.

300 bucks a month from then until now, with no increases ever, would be $1,361,697 today.

Just 300 bucks a month.

The beauty of this, though, is that you never invested anywhere near that amount. Your contributions from 1991 until now were only $122,400. The rest, $1,238,997, was all growth.

My son listened to me. He has been maxing out his 401(k) and was shocked to discover he had $70k when he looked at his account. He is also maxing out his Roth IRA. He called me the other day to ask me what he should do with another $70k he has set aside - so I am talking to him about a normal after tax brokerage account, with a talk about taxes. I really think he will be ok.

We did have a big talk about risk tolerance and down markets and how his grandparents sold out at the bottom and are missing about $400k from their retirement accounts today as a result (they did not tell me for a couple of years, and I had not guessed that they would panic and sell at the bottom as it was enough of a chore just to convince them to invest in the first place - they had nothing). I am pretty sure my son's risk tolerance is more like me, though. He understands that down markets are opportunities, not a misfortune.

Anyway, hell, yeah. VOO !!!

300 bucks a month for 34 years - every single American kid should be told about this. We would have a lot less pathetic left wing whiners criticizing capitalism if this was pushed as a public service announcement and a part of their education.

300 bucks = $1,361,697

34 years ago, $300 a month was a lot!

Today, most young people should be able to do $300/mo. Unfortunately, $1M at retirement for them won't be near as much as it is today.

My advice to young people today is buy a house, try to pay cash for everything you can, and contribute to your 401K as much as you can.

 

[doubloon]

I’ve been investing in the energy sector. Nuclear, utilities, water.

I have a tech background I've been interested in the energy sector because of all the datacenter hype but making a couple bets with monopoly money I found I don't know much about it.

 

[Pharmseller]

Smart man.

I told my son for the last couple of years, after explaining expense ratios, to just put it in VOO.

When I was his age, it was 1991. From then, until now, VOO has returned an average of 11.08%, and we all know that there have been some bad downturns during that time (2001, 2008-10, 2020 covid, and those are just the major ones, lots of bear market years, too), but, still, 11.08% average even accounting for all of that.

300 bucks a month from then until now, with no increases ever, would be $1,361,697 today.

Just 300 bucks a month.

The beauty of this, though, is that you never invested anywhere near that amount. Your contributions from 1991 until now were only $122,400. The rest, $1,238,997, was all growth.

My son listened to me. He has been maxing out his 401(k) and was shocked to discover he had $70k when he looked at his account. He is also maxing out his Roth IRA. He called me the other day to ask me what he should do with another $70k he has set aside - so I am talking to him about a normal after tax brokerage account, with a talk about taxes. I really think he will be ok.

We did have a big talk about risk tolerance and down markets and how his grandparents sold out at the bottom and are missing about $400k from their retirement accounts today as a result (they did not tell me for a couple of years, and I had not guessed that they would panic and sell at the bottom as it was enough of a chore just to convince them to invest in the first place - they had nothing). I am pretty sure my son's risk tolerance is more like me, though. He understands that down markets are opportunities, not a misfortune.

Anyway, hell, yeah. VOO !!!

300 bucks a month for 34 years - every single American kid should be told about this. We would have a lot less pathetic left wing whiners criticizing capitalism if this was pushed as a public service announcement and a part of their education.

300 bucks = $1,361,697

My boy recently graduated from college and he got his first career type job.

I was so proud when he, unprompted, asked me to help him figure out how much he could contribute to his 401k each month.

He has seen the positive results of saving for the future, as well as the negative consequences of living only for today.

 

[Bigfatcock]

I have a tech background I've been interested in the energy sector because of all the datacenter hype but making a couple bets with monopoly money I found I don't know much about it.

I’m buying what Blackrock is buying. Also looking at things like Duke Energy, OKLO, and water companies.

I’m also starting to put hedges in place. I see the S&P running to $7200 like JP Morgan, but I hope there will be some dips of 10% or more somewhere in there.

I’m also starting to stockpile cash. Not too much, but enough to take advantage of a significant drop in the stonk or housing markets.

 

[david walter]

Hey new kid. Mine was $273/month.

I must be older than you. I remember my E-1 pay being $590 monthly

 

[doubloon]

I’m also starting to stockpile cash.

That's been my number one weakness. I need to convert some investments to cash.

I'm only playing with what started out as a relatively small amount of money, not the whole nest egg, about 3 years ago. I've gotten a 600%+ return on it in those three years but current investments are leveling off so looking for the next lucky guess.

 

[Bigfatcock]

Gay bears absolutely devastated.

Still holding onto my December Spy $550 and $600 calls. I’ll trim half at $675 and probably exercise the rest.

 

[LRRPF52]

I must be older than you. I remember my E-1 pay being $590 monthly

My grown son (had to look it up - Gen Z) makes more than I do and has no college degree (I have an advanced degree). He has all kinds of money and is investing early plus having some fun. I do not worry about him.

It was 1994. I’m just going off fuzzy memory of what my LES said. We used to get printed LESs every 15 days. Either way, we were getting paid peanuts, but I never joined for the money. I should have joined the Air Force, but I wanted to insert 11B suck into my life to balance out the mega-geek. I had already been an Air Force cadet for years prior to enlisting, but I was always an outdoors-type of kid. Started rucking before I even enlisted, ran track already, and was doing PT regularly.

If I could go back now and put $1000 from every pay period into the market, I would have done that. I remember some people mentioning it, but didn’t specify the next step to go in that direction and the duties of the day took over. If there are any young enlisted reading this, use all your beer, dip, and cigarette money for investments and go cold turkey. Don’t finance stupid newer vehicles. Make investing your new addiction, but with pacing with basic deductions each pay period. Just go long-term investor, not day-trading or anything like that. There really isn’t much worth buying when you’re young that will be more valuable than investing.

If you did a $5000 entry into the market, assuming the basic 11% consistency of the market long game, if you put $1000 into your investments each month, you could retire at 20 years with $848k. If I could go talk to my E-4 to E-6 self....

My wife just ordered Investing for Kids and my youngest son read it in a day, then said there wasn’t anything he didn’t learn from me already other than about bonds and the types of traders.

I’m showing him the Congressional Insider Trading ETFs now. Democrats see 73.11% market gains, while Republicans “only" see 41.41%. Those are probably good metrics for party corruption index as well.

 

[LRRPF52]

My boy recently graduated from college and he got his first career type job.

I was so proud when he, unprompted, asked me to help him figure out how much he could contribute to his 401k each month.

He has seen the positive results of saving for the future, as well as the negative consequences of living only for today.

Did you tell him to do a Roth IRA instead of 401k?

 

[Pharmseller]

Did you tell him to do a Roth IRA instead of 401k?

Dude

I told him to do both.

That what quarterly bonuses are for. Pay your bills with your salary, fund your future with your bonuses.

 

[S3th]

Nice to see this thread is still alive

 

[Bigfatcock]

So close to start trimming some of my calls. I’ll sell half and exercise half. Gimme those $550 spy shares, losers!!