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Question: How much money have you made in stocks?

(Posted by: on 2010-09-04 14:39:29)

There are scam artists online who will always profess that you can make millions in stocks, While i do not discount the profitability of the stock market to an educated individual in that field, Does anyone have their own success stories? percents and amounts would be appreciated, along with any advice. thank you! No trollers please! :D

Posted by: J on 2010-09-04, 15:50:52

Good question. Better to be cautious when considering investing. It is really hard for people to accurately calculate how much they made by investing in equities over the long term. I have made a lot of money investing in stock mutual funds over the last 30 years. Most of those years were very good for equity investors - you could hardly lose money the markets were so good. i worked in the financial service industry for more than 30 years. I was very cautious early on and put all my money in a fixed interest account. Later I put money into Actively Managed Mutual Funds. I read the Four Pillars of Investing by Wm Bernstein twice. It gave me a better philosophy of investing - that book made a good case for focusing on what individual investors can control - investing costs and their allocation to stocks, bonds and mutual funds. It also made the case for using low cost index funds rather that individual stocks. A similar book, a little easier to read, is the Boglehead's Guide to Investing. My guess is that I made about $500k or more in equity mutual funds. But remember many of those years were in boom times. The scam artists usually tout making money quickly buy buying certain stocks or using their "system ". Run away from them. Educate yourself, don't get greedy and you can do fine. good luck

Posted by: Stephen on 2010-09-04, 15:12:44

You can pretty much assume that the average investor responding to your survey will be typified by the following SimpleStockInvesting article, which shows the average stock market returns for the S &P 500, including dividends, for the past six decades. Of course some individuals do far better (or far worse!) than the average. This is simply a guide as to what you can expect if you are (like most of us) an 'average' investor. Meanwhile, best of luck in your investing! PS: I'm curious how my sincere, 'intended to be helpful to a new investor' post gets a thumbs down? Oh well..can't please everyone, I guess.

Posted by: The Son of Rage and Love on 2010-09-04, 15:42:11

I am very distrustful of people who say they have "made millions " or anything like that, because my experience tells me that the stock market is a rough road to hoe a lot of times. On the average, over the past 4-5 years of active investing, I have probably averaged right around 10% pre-tax. My nut was about $30,000 and I usually ended up taking a capital gain right around $3,000, give or take $300 or so, every year. Am I a great investor? I have strengths and weaknesses like any other investor, and I think I am above average but not great. In my IRA account, I am right even with the pre-crash days when the Dow was 14,000. I didn't lose half my assets like many people did and I was smart enough to jump in when no one else was willing when the Dow was under 7,000.

Posted by: Mike on 2010-09-04, 17:35:14

You are right to be suspicious of investors claiming large profits. During the credit crisis, over 50% of the hedge funds closed down because investors pulled their money and the hedge fund was so far under water that the hedge fund manager would not share in the profits until the fund got above the water again. Their hopes was that they could open a new fund and attract investors again (many didn't attract new investors). Over the past 2 weeks, 2 of the best known hedge fund managers (one had over $10 billion in investor money) closed down their funds because they were under performing the market since the beginning of the year.

Posted by: Mark on 2010-09-04, 19:34:02

I've made a lot more money in Bonds than in stocks.