A little thank you to Warren Buffet

[Rain Man]

On December 21st I was looking for a stock to buy with some extra cash, and I liked Heinz, the ketchup company. It's pretty stable and pays a nice dividend, and I've really liked dividend stocks the past few years. So I bought $5,000 worth. It's gone up a couple of percent over the last couple of months, and I've been good with that since that's a very good annualized return so far.

Today it was announced the Berkshire Hathaway is buying Heinz. The stock is up 20% today. Blammo. I sold out my initial $5,000 worth, left the profit in, and I now have $1,200 of free Heinz ketchup stock for two months of investment.

God, I love America.

[Pilsner]

I'm disappointed to hear that they don't pay dividends in Ketchup.

[Garcia Bronco]

I'd get out completely myself

Did the same thing myself JEC, Voda phone, Merck, and Wells Fargo. This is over the past two years. On JEC I bought it before the last debt ceiling/down grade bullshit and ended up have to buy more after the drop to average myself out and made over a grand. Then get the heck out.

[ptlyon]

It's amazing the debt Heinz had.

Democrat in Debt. Duh.

[rageeumr]

I hadn't seen this yet. The wife owns about 200 shares of HNZ. It's not noon yet, but I'm going to go ahead and chalk this one up as a good day.

[ReynardMuldrake]

I just bought 500 and 100 shares of Arch Coal and Cliffs Natural Resources a couple weeks ago. I've already lost $1500. FML.

[Chief Pote]

I need a good stock to throw some money at....anybody? I'm tired of mutual funds, I need to spread out a little.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by ChiefButthurt

I need a good stock to throw some money at....anybody? I'm tired of mutual funds, I need to spread out a little.

I pretty much stick to dividend-paying stocks these days. You make money even if the market is stagnant. You have to work a little harder to diversify, but you can do it.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by ChiefButthurt

I need a good stock to throw some money at....anybody? I'm tired of mutual funds, I need to spread out a little.

Slow and steady wins the race.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Slow and steady wins the race.

I enjoy the irony that a person could have gotten rich with ketchup stock today if they'd've invested a lot in it.

[Chief Pote]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Slow and steady wins the race.

I know, sometimes I just want to get aggressive and find that lucky stock. Maybe it doesn't exist right now.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by ChiefButthurt

I know, sometimes I just want to get aggressive and find that lucky stock. Maybe it doesn't exist right now.

It does exist right now. The problem is that neither you nor I are very likely to be the ones to find it. :-/

[ottawa_chiefs_fan]

Originally Posted by ReynardMuldrake

I just bought 500 and 100 shares of Arch Coal and Cliffs Natural Resources a couple weeks ago. I've already lost $1500. FML.

Are you sure you are on the right forum? You just admitted to making a mistake.

[DaKCMan AP]

Nice.

I've recently invested in a couple of individual stocks opposed to just mutual funds. Hoping my basic valuation proves correct.

[DaKCMan AP]

Originally Posted by DaKCMan AP

Nice.

I've recently invested in a couple of individual stocks opposed to just mutual funds. Hoping my basic valuation proves correct.

So a little over 2.5 years later I sold everything except for 1 holding. We just purchased a house and what was "play money" is now better suited for savings.

Over the time period I had bought and sold a few stocks or some shares of different holdings. I can't complain with the results. The total investment time from my first purchase until today was 966 days and rate of return less all fees was 12.02%.

Still have some incredible (and my total portfolio-best) performing individual stocks and mutual funds in my Roth account. The 401k only includes mutual funds.