Along with the rest of the country, I watched stock prices plummet. Then came the end of 2008, and everything was in free fall. What a great tip! IPI climbed 10% as well. It seemed to be working because POT jumped from $176 to $220 in just two months. He proceeded to sell all of my holdings and bought these two stocks: POT and IPI. Why did I do that? Why would I trust him with full access to my accounts? I began to dream of millions of dollars and he seemed so sure that I gave him full access to my account and said go for it without doing any further due diligence myself. You might have guessed where this is going. He then took it a step further and said I should sell all my other stocks and purchase stocks focused on this industry. Where did he hear that information? As it turns out, he received that info from someone in his investment group, who had heard it from someone else. In fact, I needed to get in now before everyone heard about it. A slab of lovely PotashĪpparently, the Saskatchewan province in Canada was a hotbed of Potash activity as well as a few areas in the US, and that smart money was investing in it. What’s Potash, you ask? Well, it's a potassium-rich salt that is mined and often used in fertilizers. Then, in April of 2008, someone came to me with the “hot stock tip of the year.” He told me that investing in Potash mining was the next big thing. Life got busier and I almost forgot I had this account. In September of 2007, I had a portfolio made up of the following stocks:įor seven months, everything went according to plan. So, I decided to stick to nine stocks based on what was doing well for me at the time, and I told myself that I wouldn’t sell them and only buy and hold them. By then I began to realize that the odds of me “beating the market” were slim, and I was getting too busy to keep up with the day trading. However, once I hit residency a few years later, I read about the concept of “buy and hold” – where you would just buy stocks and simply hold them, avoiding racking up transaction fees and letting them grow over time. I made some money, and I lost some money, but overall the portfolio surprisingly grew. I started to follow certain “experts” in the field, and it was somewhat of a fun game for me. So, I began to search for the stocks that would make me a millionaire and began trading regularly. I began by investing in mutual funds, but then I realized that if I purchase the right hot stocks and they grow to be worth millions, I could withdraw those profits completely tax-free when I’m 59.5 years old. I opened a Roth IRA and began contributing to it a little bit at a time – all in all, I was beginning to be more financially savvy. I was in medical school at the time, and I’d been doing some side hustles and making a little money. Rather, it was about sensible investing and about avoiding spending money on things that don’t provide value, leaving more money for the important stuff in life. Contrary to the title, the book wasn’t about making all the money you can. My Roth IRA and Where It All Went Wrongīack in 2001, someone recommended a book to me called “ Greed is Good,” the title based on the iconic saying by Gordon Gekko in the 1987 movie Wall Street. As you might have guessed from the title of this post, it was a bumpy ride. Well, not too long ago, I got caught up in following one of those hot stock tips. However, how often do you follow up to see how well those hot stocks actually performed? It seems like everyone has the answer for quick glory. This time of year, I bet you've seen posts on major financial sites telling you the hot stocks for the year. Perhaps one of your friends or colleagues has said something like, “you have to buy this stock, it’s gonna skyrocket!” Or maybe an industry expert calls a certain stock a “STRONG BUY.” Then, of course, there’s the attention grabber: Invest now! This stock is going to be the next Amazon (or Netflix)! When it comes to picking stocks, there is no shortage of advice.
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