After my older sister retired, she warned me that it took her over a year to find successful volunteer opportunities. That if you are unhappy with the people, the commute, the work, or the color of the paint in the building, you can say goodbye. It's not a job, so it needs to be enjoyable. The best fit was something that uses skills you have, but isn't what you did for work, or why retire?
Several years before the summer Olympics in Beijing I was buying stainless steel for a factory. The owner of a supplier, just back from Japan, made a sales call. The Japanese stainless steel mill execs were all worried because China was busy building multiple stainless steel mills. The were afraid steel prices would fall. I knew there is limited nickel available (one of the metals that makes steel stainless) and the mills would have to bid the price up. That night I found a publicly traded nickel mining company in Canada trading on the NYSE, my wife and I figured out how much we could afford to loose, and we bought stock the next day. The price of nickel, and the stock, rose. When the stock price doubled I sold half, the price kept rising, then the company got bought out at a premium. We made a nice amount of money but I thought I was so smart. Then I lost too much of my gains buying losing stocks before I switched to broad ETF's and mutual funds.
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After my older sister retired, she warned me that it took her over a year to find successful volunteer opportunities. That if you are unhappy with the people, the commute, the work, or the color of the paint in the building, you can say goodbye. It's not a job, so it needs to be enjoyable. The best fit was something that uses skills you have, but isn't what you did for work, or why retire?
Post: Retirement Ready
Link to comment from January 10, 2024
Several years before the summer Olympics in Beijing I was buying stainless steel for a factory. The owner of a supplier, just back from Japan, made a sales call. The Japanese stainless steel mill execs were all worried because China was busy building multiple stainless steel mills. The were afraid steel prices would fall. I knew there is limited nickel available (one of the metals that makes steel stainless) and the mills would have to bid the price up. That night I found a publicly traded nickel mining company in Canada trading on the NYSE, my wife and I figured out how much we could afford to loose, and we bought stock the next day. The price of nickel, and the stock, rose. When the stock price doubled I sold half, the price kept rising, then the company got bought out at a premium. We made a nice amount of money but I thought I was so smart. Then I lost too much of my gains buying losing stocks before I switched to broad ETF's and mutual funds.
Post: What do you consider your greatest financial mistakes?
Link to comment from August 30, 2023