Post Your Wins

[disneysteve]

Every now and then I get an urge to trade some individual stock. I don't do it often and I don't commit a lot of money to it. I also stick to doing it in a retirement account to avoid any taxes.

On 12/4 I bought 100 shares of stock. I just sold it today, 12/18, for a small profit of $55.00. Nothing dramatic at all but it's $55 more than I had 2 weeks ago.

[Budget Kitty]

I'm a manager with 10 people reporting to me and I wanted to give each of them a small holiday gift like a bottle of wine. I found a bottle of pinot noir I enjoy that normally costs $12/bottle but it was on sale for only $9.97. Even better, there was a mail-in rebate attached and if I buy 12 bottles the rebate would be $28. So I bought a case, kept two for myself and handed out the rest to my team. Paid only $92 for $144 worth of wine which is a nice savings!

[Gailete]

While it isn't anything that I'm touching currently, our IRA's paid out their capital gains, etc. two days ago. It had a return of 30%+ so far this year! Huge win for me as the added dividends added more shares. Increased our share amount value another 10%. Knowing we are facing retirement with not even the bare minimum, to see a boost like this is very encouraging. I know this has been a stellar year for the stock market, but it doesn't negate the fact that we made money in it using the stock market. This was a huge win for us. Considering for all practical purposes, I'm self taught when it comes to finances and investing, I feel really good. As, James mentioned to me in another post, the share values did go down, but I'm still ahead of the game with dollars in the account that weren't there last year.

Thanks for all the great advice that people give here. Last year for the life of me I couldn't figure out why when I had been given around $500 in dividends, my account was in the red by about the same amount. It took months to get up to even, and I couldn't understand what had gone on. This year it stayed in the green.

[bjl584]

I'm calling all of 2017 a big win financially.
I'm up dramatically this year across the board.
The markets have been on fire.

[bjl584]

Every now and then I get an urge to trade some individual stock. I don't do it often and I don't commit a lot of money to it. I also stick to doing it in a retirement account to avoid any taxes.

On 12/4 I bought 100 shares of stock. I just sold it today, 12/18, for a small profit of $55.00. Nothing dramatic at all but it's $55 more than I had 2 weeks ago.

Nice.

Earlier this year I bought into a high risk REIT.
I collected a monthly dividend of around $55 for 3 month, then sold my position for around a $100 profit.

In all, I made around $265 less commissions in 3 months. A small win, but a win nonetheless.

[Gailete]

bjl584 - For the most part, to NOT make money in the stock market this year, you would have had to try really hard!

[scfr]

Earnings Wins: Picked up 3 hours of extra work on Dec 23/24.

Spending Wins: Got through Christmas having stuck to the budget! Purchased a $25 Marshalls gift card for myself for net cost of $18.40 ($25 - $5 off coupon - 6% credit card cash back); it will be used towards buying a new pair of summer work shoes. I need a new computer and in spite of the desire to go out and buy a new one, I realized I could make due just fine with a hand-me-down from DH so I went ahead and got it set up today with what I need.

[QuarterMillionMan]

On Christmas eve I caught the free Harrah's San Diego bus from Los Angeles. I returned home that same night with $220 more than I took there. I played most Cleopatra keno, Caveman keno, regular keno, and video poker. Some wins that I got were $200, $70, $30, $25, $20, $15, etc. I keep a running tally calculating continuously in my brain with every amount put into the machines and every cashout. I never was more than negative $40 at any point in time. Not sure if this makes sense but it's my strategy that I use to keep track of my bank roll when ever I visit any casino.

[Gailete]

I'm not a gambler at all, but years ago I went to LV to a nurses continuing ed seminar. One of the girls at work gave me $5 to gamble with. I got it up to $12 and when it dropped to $10, I cashed out and brought it back to her although she had forgotten she had given it to me. My one and only venture into gambling. One year at work one of the nurses passed out instant lottery ticket, I won a $1 or 2, and when most of them were throwing their winners into a pot, I did as well and it didn't win. No skin off my back. The last thing I wanted to do or be seen doing was cashing in a lottery ticket. I grew up poor partly because I had a father that gambled and it was more important to him than making sure his kids had food.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I should mention that I calculate my risk before arriving to a casino by setting a $100 loss limit and $100 win goal for a day at a casino. Once I reach my goal I’m done and I leave. My mindset is not to win $1 million. People who don’t set limits or believe they’ll hit a $1 million jackpot are the ones who lose more than they would like because they don’t have a strategic plan.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Or they don’t stick to it. If I lose $500 when my plan was to stop at a $100 loss limit, that plan is irrelevant. I’m very disciplined and adhere to my plans.


Edit to add: I worded this wrong and should have said that if set my loss limit at $100 and lose $500, that would make me a degenerate. However, sometimes I might go over my loss limit by $20 or $30 but never more than that.

[Thrif-t]

Or they don’t stick to it. If I lose $500 when my plan was to stop at a $100 loss limit, that plan is irrelevant. I’m very disciplined and adhere to my plans.

I'm not really a gambler but if I were this would be me ^.

When we went on a cruise for our honeymoon that had a casino I allotted $20 for each night. If I lost it all right away I was done. If I won and was over $20 I was done. DH would win, then lose it all. He said I can't be a gambler because I'm always worrying about losing my money. True!

I had an older friend that played the daily pick 3 lottery. She would also let me know when she won a big pot, anywhere from $100-$600...I always wanted to know how much she had spent all year to win that $$, she'd get mad at me, so I had to stop asking. She didn't care how much she lost, this was her entertainment. My brain doesn't work that way, it's not entertainment to me if Im losing my hard earned money! Now if I'm winning, it's fun

[Gailete]

I'm not really a gambler but if I were this would be me ^.

When we went on a cruise for our honeymoon that had a casino I allotted $20 for each night. If I lost it all right away I was done. If I won and was over $20 I was done. DH would win, then lose it all. He said I can't be a gambler because I'm always worrying about losing my money. True!

I had an older friend that played the daily pick 3 lottery. She would also let me know when she won a big pot, anywhere from $100-$600...I always wanted to know how much she had spent all year to win that $$, she'd get mad at me, so I had to stop asking. She didn't care how much she lost, this was her entertainment. My brain doesn't work that way, it's not entertainment to me if Im losing my hard earned money! Now if I'm winning, it's fun

I worked with a girl that did that. She would go away to Niagara Falls and com back talking about the room she got comped, and the food she got comped, etc. and of course how much she won. If she came into work on Monday in foul mood, wouldn't talk about her weekend, etc. we knew she had gone and for sure had lost it all. She was wasteful in other areas, besides her money. While we all worked together, one of the ladies had no kids and no husband and two very well taken care cats, I had a two boys and was going through a divorce, others were marred some with kids and some no kids or husband, but of all the ones in that office SHE was the one that declared bankruptcy. I don't know how many times she had told me how she couldn't understand how I could live on what I did (we all had the same wages).

[Gailete]

Just got my first win for the year. I've been researching car insurance and just signed up for a new policy that actually covers way more than my old one. One year policy is $454 LESS than what we had been paying plus no $5 fee each month for paying monthly. The 6 month premium was only $194!

My major goal this year was to decrease expenses and increase income. So far here are my savings:

Medicare D policy ~$1000 less in total on my medication over the year's time.
Car insurance $454

Total $1454

Now I have to research home insurance and insurance for our rental property and then to figure out what the next item I should be looking at will be. Suggestions?

[msomnipotent]

I have had several wins since I last posted. I just switched from Comcast to WOW and cancelled the home phone. I am going to save more than $100 per month, and not having spammers call me all day is bliss. I don't really like the new service, though. Their remote control makes no sense and I'm having internet problems already. I can't wait to see what the new T-Mobile/Layer 3 merger will bring, which is why I opted for no contract with WOW. I would have saved almost $130 per month if I got the 2 year contract.

I bought two queen size cot/air mattress combos for camping. They were $199 each when I started tracking them on Amazon. I wound up buying one for $95 at Walmart, and then Amazon lowered their price to $75, so I got another. They are almost like sleeping in a bed.

I think Kohls lost their minds when I shopped there before Christmas for my daughter. I got 2 coats, two pairs of cute knee highs, a sweater, and a shirt for $62 and I got $10 Kohls cash. Just one of the coats was regularly priced at $69.99.

I got a down jacket for $30. I thought I would still need a new winter coat to go over it since it gets very cold here, but so far so good.

I locked in a 25% profit on Macy's stock just minutes before it started to go down. I only had 20 shares, but still a win!