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I saved a significant amount of the money I made as a salaried employee, about $110k in total, over a five-year period. What did I do with it? I bought Tesla st
by maxharris 6y ago
I saved a significant amount of the money I made as a salaried employee, about $110k in total, over a five-year period. What did I do with it? I bought Tesla stock right after the crash last March, and now I'm retired at age 40. I recently moved out of California into in a luxury apartment in Tennessee, where prices and taxes are low. I am completely free to do as I please.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22970810 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22970810
- nojito 6y agoSo you gambled and got lucky. You really shouldn't assume that your story is the norm.
- maxharris 6y ago"Luck" is a way of coping with the fact that someone else did the work required to choose wisely and you didn't. It is especially insidious because it ensures poverty in direct proportion to the extent you rely upon it to guide your actions.
- hsbauauvhabzb 6y agoWhat advice do you have for somebody who is yet to retire? Buy a stock which is about to boom?
- maxharris 6y agoIf you don't have a lot of money to invest, it's far better to put that cash into developing yourself. That can be as simple as reading books such as The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen or The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand, or following an interest you already have (mine are things like machining, chemistry, structural engineering, neon art). If you have a business idea, one of the best books I've read is The Right It: Why So Many Ideas Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed by Alberto Savoia. Making stuff is a lot easier than learning whether or not you're on the right track without spending everything you have. The last thing I'd suggest is to be concerned with history and America's oncoming fascist trainwreck. Peikoff wrote The Ominous Parallels forty years ago, and his words are every bit as chilling as they are prescient.
- hsbauauvhabzb 6y agoHow does any of that relate to investing in Tesla?
- maxharris 6y agoInvesting intelligently isn't a matter of luck. The ability to think very broadly and deeply helps a lot. Be curious! Read stuff! Don't blindly copy others.
- distances 6y agoTesla in the last year has been a meme stock with valuation that has no connection to reality or any fundamentals. Is this what you predicted with your research?
- maxharris 6y agoThat’s what you think. I disagree, obviously, which is why I haven’t sold any shares. Why don’t we come back to this in five years? I am pretty sure I’ll still be rich, and you'll come up with more evasions to explain why you aren't.
- dataangel 6y ago> The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand Oh yeah, buying into a cult whose entire appeal is convincing selfish people they can stop feeling bad about it, you're very very developed. Also hysterical that this nose-to-the-grindstone approach is what you're advocating when you retired over a one time return from a super volatile stock.
- maxharris 6y agoLet's check back in five years ;) I'm maxharris9 on Twitter
- DC1350 6y agoThe luck part is that you could have made the same prediction about lots of different companies that didn’t increase as much as Tesla. I think it’s reasonable to take credit for predicting the direction of the stock, but 10xing your money in a single year is lucky.
- nojito 6y agoIt’s “wise” when it works but it’s gambling. Nothing wrong with it but individuals shouldn’t assume that the only way to succeed is by gambling.
- eulers_secret 6y agoAgreed, putting all your eggs in one basket like this is just gambling. This person got lucky, but make no mistake anyone else reading this: IT IS STUPID AND YOU WILL PROBABLY LOSE. MOST DO. If you want to do something with your $100K, use it as a house down-payment or consider mutual funds. Or just yeet it into GME, I'm not a financial advisor.
- maxharris 6y agoIf you don't know what Williams %R is, can't fathom the concept of normalized average true range, have never studied corporate history in the automotive and computer industries, and have no idea of the effects of monetary policy, you might just be gambling. Fortune really does favor the curious :)
- WWWWH 6y agoMore realistically, he was just speaking casually. It’s highly unlikely anyone would be stupid enough to put everything into one stock.
- maxharris 6y agoNo, I wasn't speaking casually. https://twitter.com/maxharris9/status/1370117445378265088 https://twitter.com/maxharris9/status/1370117445378265088 11.14% Bitcoin, 87.96% TSLA, 0.90% ARKG. NB: this is not investment advice. What worked for me in the past may not work for you now. Do your own research.
- syspec 6y agoWeird flex, but okay
- maxharris 6y agoMy linked post is timestamped and proved to be quite correct. I actually think it's quite helpful, especially to people that are actually capable of learning from others.
- notsuoh 6y agoBased on your other comments you're attributing your stock pick to an ability on your part and not blind luck like it is. Socrates said that he's better off because he knows nothing and knows he knows nothing, whereas others know nothing but think they know something. Paraphrasing, but this seems applicable to your situation.