I work on just a couple good name brand stocks and have some other money in bonds and mutual funds that I don't mess with.
With the way the market is going right now, up and down every other day, you just ride a straight line over time.
I buy when it falls a couple dollars and don't sell till it goes up about $3 to $4.
Over a year, you can do good, if it is a strong company. I don't screw with companies who's name I never heard of.
I let a company named Financial Engines take over my account for a year. They said they could do better than an individual could. After 6 months, I was $60K in the hole. I complained to them over the phone and they moved everything around. Still steady falling all year. When I took my account back after 8 months of them screwing around, I was almost 10% in the hole. Right now, I am only -2.1%.
So all the money I put in, and a big hunk of profits I made on my own would have gone down the hole if I didn't take it back. Basically, I wasted many thousands of dollars I took out of my check this year due to a big company who promises big profits.
On top of all that, they charged me $1500 to lose my money. I would have been beter leaving it in a saving account drawing .5%. I learned my lesson the hard way.
If I get back to where I was on Jan. 1 by the end of the year, I still would be about $68K in the hole, gauging from what I put in and what I made in the markert last year.
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