Stop in for a cup of coffee

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I actually have the wife almost on board with my Montana plan. Although she wants to keep a place here and use the Montana property as thing to fly out too in the summer time.
Better check the history of land values and future prospects for development. Otherwise you are likely only going to get a 2-3% return on investment (at best) when conservative funds are paying 3-4x that. Waste of funds unless it’s just a Dream house...and not an investment.

The boonies of Montana are not likely to ever pay back the lost opportunity of investing somewhere else...no matter how long you wait.
 
I actually have the wife almost on board with my Montana plan. Although she wants to keep a place here and use the Montana property as thing to fly out too in the summer time.
I'd have to buy some land where there's hills and mountain streams. There is gold in Montana as well as gemstones link Jasper, garnet,topaz, tourmaline and the like. That would give me something to do other than hang out here. LOL
 
We don't have a portfolio with stocks and such. The wife has some she needs to switch. The fees are about equal to the dividends. We have a couple small Roth IRA's that have been paying 12% or so. Might need to increase those a bit.
Saw earlier that the nationwide portfolio gain, both in 401ks and Roth’s, was 2.72% on the year. I netted 68.55 %, not counting my company’s match or my own contributions. And that’s all thanks to staying situational aware.

see in Feb 2020 when China shut down Wuhan, within minutes of that announcement, I moved out of stocks and corporate bonds , and into 100 percent US bonds. Very very conservative but they paid a guaranteed 2.12 percent minimum return. At the time of the move, I was up 6 percent. Three weeks later, when the US flatlined and shut everything down, I lost 3 percent, and hovered about that +3 percent overall, meanwhile the average account took a minus 30% and change loss. When I thought the market was at its bottom in mid March, I pushed all back to a 70/30, stocks/government bond holding. By early June, I was back up 33%, August I started approaching 60 percent. In Early October, using history as a guide, I expected a pull back. So I pushed all back to government bonds. Since then, I’ve only gained an additional 11.42 percent, that part was a mistake cause I missed out on an additional 5 percent gain had I stayed where I was. But it bucked history so go figure.

I think ill stay bonds thru this month. Really thinking Feb/March will either go real bad again, or it’ll go real good, depending on who/what happens surrounding this coronavirus stuff. If the big time tourist spots stay on lock down thru spring break, I think we’ll see another “crash”. If this vaccine is proven safe and works and the curve starts to flatten, it’s gonna go boom
 
I'd have to buy some land where there's hills and mountain streams. There is gold in Montana as well as gemstones link Jasper, garnet,topaz, tourmaline and the like. That would give me something to do other than hang out here. LOL
The area I have picked out is northern Montana, average elevation is 6800 ft. But it’s currently about 40 acres, top of a mountain ridge. Nearest house is 3 miles away. There is utilities near by just not on the property. Only accessible by 4wd May thru September. Sometimes more. It’s not exactly the most hospitable property but it’s got a 20 acre, flat clearing. Has a nice sized mountain stream running thru it

this of course is more for a getaway from it all vacation spot more than an investment property. But I figure land values generally only increase and worst case, I use it to hunt on.

but first, I gotta go out and tour it. Not buying site unseen
 
Saw earlier that the nationwide portfolio gain, both in 401ks and Roth’s, was 2.72% on the year. I netted 68.55 %, not counting my company’s match or my own contributions. And that’s all thanks to staying situational aware.

see in Feb 2020 when China shut down Wuhan, within minutes of that announcement, I moved out of stocks and corporate bonds , and into 100 percent US bonds. Very very conservative but they paid a guaranteed 2.12 percent minimum return. At the time of the move, I was up 6 percent. Three weeks later, when the US flatlined and shut everything down, I lost 3 percent, and hovered about that +3 percent overall, meanwhile the average account took a minus 30% and change loss. When I thought the market was at its bottom in mid March, I pushed all back to a 70/30, stocks/government bond holding. By early June, I was back up 33%, August I started approaching 60 percent. In Early October, using history as a guide, I expected a pull back. So I pushed all back to government bonds. Since then, I’ve only gained an additional 11.42 percent, that part was a mistake cause I missed out on an additional 5 percent gain had I stayed where I was. But it bucked history so go figure.

I think ill stay bonds thru this month. Really thinking Feb/March will either go real bad again, or it’ll go real good, depending on who/what happens surrounding this coronavirus stuff. If the big time tourist spots stay on lock down thru spring break, I think we’ll see another “crash”. If this vaccine is proven safe and works and the curve starts to flatten, it’s gonna go boom
Wat
Saw earlier that the nationwide portfolio gain, both in 401ks and Roth’s, was 2.72% on the year. I netted 68.55 %, not counting my company’s match or my own contributions. And that’s all thanks to staying situational aware.

see in Feb 2020 when China shut down Wuhan, within minutes of that announcement, I moved out of stocks and corporate bonds , and into 100 percent US bonds. Very very conservative but they paid a guaranteed 2.12 percent minimum return. At the time of the move, I was up 6 percent. Three weeks later, when the US flatlined and shut everything down, I lost 3 percent, and hovered about that +3 percent overall, meanwhile the average account took a minus 30% and change loss. When I thought the market was at its bottom in mid March, I pushed all back to a 70/30, stocks/government bond holding. By early June, I was back up 33%, August I started approaching 60 percent. In Early October, using history as a guide, I expected a pull back. So I pushed all back to government bonds. Since then, I’ve only gained an additional 11.42 percent, that part was a mistake cause I missed out on an additional 5 percent gain had I stayed where I was. But it bucked history so go figure.

I think ill stay bonds thru this month. Really thinking Feb/March will either go real bad again, or it’ll go real good, depending on who/what happens surrounding this coronavirus stuff. If the big time tourist spots stay on lock down thru spring break, I think we’ll see another “crash”. If this vaccine is proven safe and works and the curve starts to flatten, it’s gonna go boom
I have a friend that has a few thousand in John Deere. Seems to be pretty steady but unless you buy low and cash in high you don't gain much. They rarely split. I should take a few thousand and get into the market online. Learn a little and if I loose I don't loose my retirement.
 
Wat

I have a friend that has a few thousand in John Deere. Seems to be pretty steady but unless you buy low and cash in high you don't gain much. They rarely split. I should take a few thousand and get into the market online. Learn a little and if I loose I don't loose my retirement.
Actually, don’t. Learn first. There’s a really good website, that’s free, used by colleges and high schools to teach investing. It’s very informative and even has a free online, real-time, real stock simulator.

Www.investopedia.com

basically you create an account, use fake money like in monopoly to buy stocks that are real and the prices are in real time to the markets. Allows you to experiment and learn without ANY risk at all. Then when you’re ready, you can go to a place like Etrade and do it for real. It’s essentially a “game” you won’t lose anything, won’t win anything. And it’s done in real time at real speed, with the goal to learn real stock strategies.

I’ve been using it since 2004... I’m still learning new tricks and strategies.
 
It was all timing man. Timing and common sense. A little bit of world affair knowledge sprinkled in helped.

normally, I average about 4 percent HIGHER than whatever the nationwide yearly average is. But it’s because I actively monitor each fund Im in. News, balance sheets etc. this is the first time I really killed it.
 
n
Actually, don’t. Learn first. There’s a really good website, that’s free, used by colleges and high schools to teach investing. It’s very informative and even has a free online, real-time, real stock simulator.

Www.investopedia.com

basically you create an account, use fake money like in monopoly to buy stocks that are real and the prices are in real time to the markets. Allows you to experiment and learn without ANY risk at all. Then when you’re ready, you can go to a place like Etrade and do it for real. It’s essentially a “game” you won’t lose anything, won’t win anything. And it’s done in real time at real speed, with the goal to learn real stock strategies.

I’ve been using it since 2004... I’m still learning new tricks and strategies.
Thanks Chris. Sounds like fun and learning without the risk.
 
n
Thanks Chris. Sounds like fun and learning without the risk.
It is. I was very skeptical and nervous about trying what I learned in real life, but I finally did this year and so far so good. I’m putting 200 a month into a variety of monthly dividend paying stocks, all solid companies that are off their 10 year averages a little bit but not hurting. (This is where understanding balance sheets really really helps). Anyway, Etrade let’s me automatically re-invest those monthly dividends into more of the stocks. So it compounds.

Right now, I’m up to about 110 dollars a month in dividends being reinvested. I’m only up 4.82 percent in my portfolio and a couple of the stocks are down a point or two from when I got them. But the dividends strategy isn’t so much about the stock price gain per day as it is about a renewing revenue source. I chose companies that have a solid history of monthly dividends payouts.

For example, one such company hasn’t missed a monthly payment of dividends in 381 months. That’s a bit over 30 years. They pay 2.00 bucks per share per year, so 2.00/12 times the number of shares is what they pay per month. there’s others that pay way more but generally the higher the dividend percent, the more risky.

Oil companies generally payout the highest percentages along with investment companies. I’m in one that is my riskiest, but they pay 58.6 cents per share per month. As a share price of 8.90. They’ve got just 86 months of consecutive payments but their debt to income in only 11 percent. It’s a fracking oil transport company. But it only has maybe 15 percent of my contributions tied up in it. And I check it twice a day cause it has me so worried.
 
But...dividends are fully taxable at the full rate. Long term investment are taxed at a much lower rate. Making a regular dividend is a post retirement strategy when tax brackets are lower...not a sound investment plan pre-retirement when you are building your portfolio. Every good MBA knows that.
 
The temp has gone up a couple degrees since i last looked about 4 hours ago. Forecast is two days that will be above freezing. hope sun comes out.
 
The temp has gone up a couple degrees since i last looked about 4 hours ago. Forecast is two days that will be above freezing. hope sun comes out.
Same here. Temps are up to 38* now and going to close to 60* tomorrow...rain is supposed to end around 8 am. I might even take the GTS out.
 
But...dividends are fully taxable at the full rate. Long term investment are taxed at a much lower rate. Making a regular dividend is a post retirement strategy when tax brackets are lower...not a sound investment plan pre-retirement when you are building your portfolio. Every good MBA knows that.
Actually that’s not entirely true.

Yes, they are taxable, but how they are taxed is varies. If you buy the lows, collect the dividends and then sell on short term gains like a lot of people do for whatever reason, yes, they are taxed at your annualized income rate or 22.8% whichever is higher.

However, if you buy and hold on to it for at least a 60 day period (90 days for certain stocks) your tax hit drops SUBSTANTIALLY. It’s called a qualified dividend at that point and is taxed as a capital gained. Just like any long term stock gain is... It’s driven by the dividend amount and your income bracket,

There’s only 3 tax brackets for qualified dividends to be taxed at. 0, 15 and 20 percent.

for me, I’ll be paying 15 percent and I have it figured in and have it already set aside out of each dividend already. That way the taxes are paid upfront vs in April. So yes, I’m losing 15 cents on every dollar and I would be not happy about it if I didn’t have multiple other investment accounts that are growing tax free. But 15 cents on every dollar is less than 22+ percent or 22 cents per dollar. So out of that 110 I’m getting right now per month, I’m giving $16.50 cents to the gov. I’m still netting 93.50 afterwards. And until I suddenly make 450,000 a year, it’ll stay at that 15 percent rate(or until they increase taxes).

Furthermore, that 15 percent bracket starts at a shade north of 40k AGI for a married couple and goes to north of 450,000. With my 401k savings, even if they average a modest 5 percent gain over the next 30 years, I’m gonna be pulling in about 68K just off my one 401k a year, not counting social security, my TSP or my pension from the Guard. So the tax rates really aren’t a giant difference now vs then unless the laws change in the next 30 years, which they could. Which odds are, taxes will be higher in 30 years than now, not lower. I’m expecting to be in a 22-25 percent income bracket when I retire.

even with the taxes figured in, IF this works the way it appears to be working, which I’m still skeptical of as a whole but looks solid enough, I potentially could retire as early as 43 making, after taxes mind you, what Im grossing now. but I’m gonna stick with it at least until I’m 50. Lord willing and the creek don’t rise. And if this continues to work the way it looks too. Lots of factors involved.

Course world events can and likely will affect it. But again, it’s one of several diversified strategies I have going.

and as any good MBA holder would do, you do your homework and have it critiqued extensively. these figures have been checked by 4 different independent sources including 1 each from Fidelity, Edward Jones, and Etrade plus an IRS treasury investigator.
There’s also plenty of available and highly credible calculators and programs that have been vetted by highly credible financial professionals that will confirm these figures.


Disclaimer: That said, everyone’s financial situation and strategies are different, your mileage may vary. Consult a licensed professional before making any investments.
 
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So has anyone ever seen finned valve covers for a 440 that do not have any emblems or logos and that run the entire length? Like what you used to see on old flat heads that were In hotrods?


I'm gonna take these off and go with a stock set...

Superbird Engine D02 B.jpg


Superbird Engine D03.JPG
 
Close but I dont want that raised rectangular piece there in the middle


We tried the M/T covers and couldn't get them to seal... Found out it's a common problem with the M/T BB covers and found these...

7 Sets of gaskets on the M/T's and they wouldn't seal, these sealed the first time...
 
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