Charles Schafer

Comments:

• Equity crowdfunding. I was listening to a lot of popular VC's at the time and thought I should try investing in startups too. My only goal at the time was "get rich." I have 1 company that is doing really well, a few that held my money for years only to return my original investment when the company was acquired (0% return!), and the rest have either failed completely or are chugging along with few prospects for growth or acquisition. I don't think I realized at the time how painful having money tied up somewhere you can't access it would be. Since then, I've realized other goals and expenses I would have rather saved the money for instead, with much less risk. Learned the lesson though, and now try to keep my investing simple, goal-oriented, and liquid.

  Post: What do you consider your greatest financial mistakes?

  Link to comment from June 19, 2024

• Maybe I didn't explain it well. You are correct, the things I had to pay for were NOT emergency expenses, which was exactly the problem. The problem was I ONLY had cash for emergency expenses (about 6 months to cover expenses if we all lost our our jobs), and NO other cash available for non-emergencies. I was trying to be "a good investor" and invest heavily for the future. I now realize that I was too heavily invested and didn't plan on having enough cash to actually enjoy life. It was the combination of poor year-long planning my part plus the extremely slim margin for error I made for myself that led to me having to dip more into my emergency savings than I would have liked. Does that make sense?

  Post: Counting the Cash

  Link to comment from November 2, 2022

• Well our 5 year old is already playing 14y+ strategy board games with us, so I might in store to help pay for a PhD, who knows? Just happy knowing we're in a good position to pay off a bachelors is good enough for now. The animal spirits of the market will decide the rest.

  Post: A+ for Effort

  Link to comment from July 13, 2022

• That would be amazing! And practical! And help the economy! (Which means it will never happen)

  Post: A+ for Effort

  Link to comment from July 13, 2022

• I enjoyed trying to evaluate business models, investigating the competitive landscape, and digging into the financials of companies, for a time at least. But after awhile I found that it just takes too much time to track them all and keep up to date on the companies. A well-diversified portfolio is around 20 stocks, and I found it was not only more risky, but also more time-consuming. I'd rather keep it simple and go out and live my life instead. I found I prefer to read books more than I like reading 10-K's and 10-Q's. Listening to podcasts and audiobooks more than I like listening to investor conferences and earnings calls all day.

  Post: Harsh Reminder

  Link to comment from July 13, 2022