Stocks, investments, fallbacks, and people's worries these days ...so what then... (Page 2/3) maryjane JAN 06, 06:28 AM quote Originally posted by sourmash: . Nations like Venezuela have refineries. Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) which is known here in North America as ............................CITGO. sourmash JAN 06, 08:21 AM And Valero. theBDub JAN 06, 01:53 PM Trying to time the market will almost always lose, unless you are insider trading. Usually, it’s best to just throw cash in and let it right. Adjust your portfolio based on your age and expected retirement, lowering exposure to variable stocks as you get older, in favor of bonds or otherwise. I have adjusted here and there between large and mid cap based on COVID impacts, and I bought some individual stocks here and there (like SNOW or MSFT), but it’s all emotion and intuition, only my play money. FriendGregory JAN 06, 02:40 PM [QUOTE]Originally posted by sourmash: What ever you do, ignore Dave Ramsey. He's a pay-off-your-debt guy, but an idiot about investing and wealth storage. Similar opinion about him on mortgage rates. Here's a chart of gold pricing. We know gold doesn't change in actual value. You know what it says about your USD value. 2000 is about when Bush opened the Southern border. Soon after, it was the attacks which exposed all the bubbles in housing, hedge funds and thus, municipality investments. /QUOTE] I am going to disagree with you about, " ignore Dave Ramsey." Most people are in horrible financial shape, the best thing they could do is to get out of general debt and finally to be an adult with a paid off home will make the day to day living much safer. The other part is to get the spouses on the same page about goals. We had about $200K in annual income and I felt broke, could not accumulate money to buy a car, buying dinner was going to be on payments, and there was no plan on how to pay for our kids college without school loans or "sell our house" to get money. I ended up creating another $650K of debt on top of the $700K that we already had and managed to make $60K of annual income after expenses about the time our son should have been choosing a college. If my wife would of allowed a discussion about money, spending, planning without getting angry, we could have done much more with what we had at the time. As to Dave being an idiot about investing, you have to consider his history to understand why he is conservative. For myself, I know margin allows the possibility of amazing gains but I am not interested in the risks involved. rogergarrison JAN 06, 07:03 PM You think the economy is bad now, give liberals till summer and it will be 10 times worse. Up everyone taxes, re-regulate the hell out of businesses, huge shortages and foreign relationships in the toilet (except for China, who the Bidens adore). sourmash JAN 06, 07:36 PM quote Originally posted by FriendGregory: [QUOTE]Originally posted by sourmash: What ever you do, ignore Dave Ramsey. He's a pay-off-your-debt guy, but an idiot about investing and wealth storage. Similar opinion about him on mortgage rates. Here's a chart of gold pricing. We know gold doesn't change in actual value. You know what it says about your USD value. 2000 is about when Bush opened the Southern border. Soon after, it was the attacks which exposed all the bubbles in housing, hedge funds and thus, municipality investments. /QUOTE] I am going to disagree with you about, " ignore Dave Ramsey." Most people are in horrible financial shape, the best thing they could do is to get out of general debt and finally to be an adult with a paid off home will make the day to day living much safer. The other part is to get the spouses on the same page about goals. We had about $200K in annual income and I felt broke, could not accumulate money to buy a car, buying dinner was going to be on payments, and there was no plan on how to pay for our kids college without school loans or "sell our house" to get money. I ended up creating another $650K of debt on top of the $700K that we already had and managed to make $60K of annual income after expenses about the time our son should have been choosing a college. If my wife would of allowed a discussion about money, spending, planning without getting angry, we could have done much more with what we had at the time. As to Dave being an idiot about investing, you have to consider his history to understand why he is conservative. For myself, I know margin allows the possibility of amazing gains but I am not interested in the risks involved. You're not disagreeing. You're agreeing that he's a get-you-out-of-debt guy. And I listened to him for probably a decade to base my judgement that he's an idiot when it comes to investing and wealth storage because that's his track record I can illustrate. AND when it comes to mortgages he's been an idiot. When rates went to 7 something he would shout at people, "Where do you think mortgage rates are going?! UP!!!". Rates went to 6. He said the same thing still. They wen to 5. He said the same thing still ignoring how much of an idiot he has been. Then they went to 4 and below 4. He's not very good at predictions. People call in and have cleared their steps and ask about buying gold. "No. Gold is a terrible investment." They didn't ask about investing in gold. You buy it for diversification and wealth storage. No, I don't have any. just a few pieces of jewelry. But even though he's pretty good at advising people on how to get out of debt, he will tell people to pay stupid tax when they can't afford what they have now. He's sometimes an idiot there too Usually it's sound conservative advice. Some woman called in saying they bought a car from family for $2500 but it needs $4000 in repairs. The idiot never asked what the car was worth. It could've been a Bentley but instead he screamed at the woman that it's stupid to put 4k into a $2500 car and he ran her into a commercial and thanked her for the call without letting her explain. He's a head case. Always dropping names of people he's met or knows to pump himself up. 2.5 JAN 07, 12:05 PM From about the 8 minute mark Crypto currency I do wonder where it will lead. I don't understand how it is secure. But then what currency is, especially if its virtual? maryjane JAN 07, 12:51 PM quote I don't understand how it is secure. It's not. maryjane JAN 09, 06:14 PM quote Originally posted by sourmash: And Valero. Valero, unlike CITGO, is not a foreign owned corporation. Valero is a publicly owned company, head quartered in San Antonio Texas. The only foreign refining facility it owns is the Pembroke plant in Wales UK which it bought from Chevron. It's name is an offshoot of the origin of it's current operation , origin being San Antonio de Valero – the original name of the Alamo. It began before that, as a Texas pipline company called Coastal LoVaca Gathering Company. The name change to Valero came in 1980. Coastal LoVaca is still a Valero subsidiary as far as i know but operates under name Valero Transmission Company.. Valero Energy is engaged mostly the upstream portion of things (refining). Just as Exxon sold off all it's company stations and convenient stores, Valero spun off it's downstream business (retail) to a Canadian company, (CST) but still retains all it's upstream production, refining, pipeline, and distribution assets as a North American fortune 500 company. Top institutional stock ownership of Valero is ,in order of shares owned: The Vanguard Group. Blackrock Inc. State Street Holdings. Capital World Investors Ameriprise Financial. Bank of NY Mellon Charles Schwab FMR LLC Geode Capital Management BlackRock Investment Management Columbia Management Investment Advisors LSV Asset Management Fidelity Management & Research Co... Top mutual fund holders are, in order of shares owned: Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Vanguard 500 Index Fund Select Sector SPDR Fund-Energy Select Vanguard Mid-Cap Index Fund Fundamental Investors Inc SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust Fidelity 500 Index Fund Vanguard Institutional Index Fund-Institutional Index Fund Schwab Strategic Tr-Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF Income Fund of America Inc sourmash JAN 09, 08:00 PM I thought Valero was an alternate name for Citgo. Didn't CITGO start using a different name?