5 ms·

“I don't own or understand stocks.”

13 points by petethomas 8y ago

leesec 8y ago
This tweet is not at all about understanding stocks and more about how the overall state of the economy is not reflected in the lifestyles of the working class. The working class does not care if the DOW is up and unemployment is down if the majority of people are still living paycheck and have to make tough financial trade-offs daily ( food or gas or doctor ? ).
- twtw 8y ago
  > and more about how the overall state of the economy is not reflected in the lifestyles of the working class. This arguably has a lot to do with understanding and owning stocks.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > the overall state of the economy is not reflected in the lifestyles of the working class. The lifestyle of the masses is the overall state of the economy; every thing else is just (often poor) indirect measures.
claydavisss 8y ago
This is why high schools should teach financial literacy. If you do not understand what terms "interest", "bond", "stock", "401k", "mortgage" mean...
twtw 8y ago
I don't understand stocks anymore either, but I own them anyway. It seems like the original idea of "share in the profits" (i.e. dividends) has been entirely replaced with "guess which companies will have the most hype in X years." The role as capital allocation seems have diminished too - it seems like no one goes public to actually raise money anymore, just to cash out. Knowledgable Internet, please educate me.
hourislate 8y ago
I was at Aldi yesterday. 1 dozen eggs were $0.69. A 3 lb bag of apples was approx $1.99. Lots of fruit and vegetables at incredibly low prices (Bananas $0.29 lb). At Sprouts a big head of Green Leaf, Romaine, Red Leaf are all $1.29, Organic Grass Fed Beef was $3.99 and you can find Ground Beef as cheap as $0.99 at some stores like Walmart. Roma Tomato's were $0.48 a lb at Walmart and rBST free Milk was $1.29/Gallon, Avocados were $0.50 each. Chicken livers were $0.99 a lb. I have noticed that many prepared Frozen Foods (Pizza, Pancakes, Waffles, Dinners) were very expensive. Snacks also were very expensive, things like Chips, Cookies, and Pop. I don't consider them in the food category. I filled up at Costco for $2.47 a gallon and I get 4% back. I have never lived in a time when real food was so cheap and plentiful. You don't have to understand Stocks when you can just invest in a Index Fund. It would require very little time and effort to learn and you can get started with just a few dollars. There are those who really don't have enough, I'm not disputing that. But a lot of people have more than they think, it's sometimes their lifestyles that make them feel poor.
antidaily 8y ago
This reminds me of the Simple IRA match no one took part in last year at my (small) company. Student loans and rent trump free retirement money.

13 points by petethomas 8y ago

This tweet is not at all about understanding stocks and more about how the overall state of the economy is not reflected in the lifestyles of the working class. The working class does not care if the DOW is up and unemployment is down if the majority of people are still living paycheck and have to make tough financial trade-offs daily ( food or gas or doctor ? ).

twtw 8y ago
> and more about how the overall state of the economy is not reflected in the lifestyles of the working class. This arguably has a lot to do with understanding and owning stocks.
dragonwriter 8y ago
> the overall state of the economy is not reflected in the lifestyles of the working class. The lifestyle of the masses is the overall state of the economy; every thing else is just (often poor) indirect measures.

claydavisss 8y ago

This is why high schools should teach financial literacy. If you do not understand what terms "interest", "bond", "stock", "401k", "mortgage" mean...

twtw 8y ago

I don't understand stocks anymore either, but I own them anyway. It seems like the original idea of "share in the profits" (i.e. dividends) has been entirely replaced with "guess which companies will have the most hype in X years." The role as capital allocation seems have diminished too - it seems like no one goes public to actually raise money anymore, just to cash out. Knowledgable Internet, please educate me.

hourislate 8y ago

I was at Aldi yesterday. 1 dozen eggs were $0.69. A 3 lb bag of apples was approx $1.99. Lots of fruit and vegetables at incredibly low prices (Bananas $0.29 lb). At Sprouts a big head of Green Leaf, Romaine, Red Leaf are all $1.29, Organic Grass Fed Beef was $3.99 and you can find Ground Beef as cheap as $0.99 at some stores like Walmart. Roma Tomato's were $0.48 a lb at Walmart and rBST free Milk was $1.29/Gallon, Avocados were $0.50 each. Chicken livers were $0.99 a lb. I have noticed that many prepared Frozen Foods (Pizza, Pancakes, Waffles, Dinners) were very expensive. Snacks also were very expensive, things like Chips, Cookies, and Pop. I don't consider them in the food category. I filled up at Costco for $2.47 a gallon and I get 4% back. I have never lived in a time when real food was so cheap and plentiful. You don't have to understand Stocks when you can just invest in a Index Fund. It would require very little time and effort to learn and you can get started with just a few dollars. There are those who really don't have enough, I'm not disputing that. But a lot of people have more than they think, it's sometimes their lifestyles that make them feel poor.

antidaily 8y ago

This reminds me of the Simple IRA match no one took part in last year at my (small) company. Student loans and rent trump free retirement money.