At least I made a few bucks at the casino

[disneysteve]

because I sure as heck didn't make any in the market.

DW and I took a ride to the local slot parlor tonight. I won $100 at video blackjack and lost $7 on video poker, so a net win of $93. DW won $11 and change on slots. So a total win of just over $104.

Of course, Wall St. sucked far more than that out of our portfolio today, but at least there was a little bright spot.

[kork13]

hahaha congratulations on your winnings!

I, sadly, finally found out today exactly how much i've lost over the last little while.... I got my quarterly reports recently, and today I finally opened them up so I could file them away.

The verdict: Roth down 22%. Taxable MF's down 14%, spared (ironically) by some allocation mistakes I didn't even realize existed in my investments. Can't explain it entirely, but basically I had more in some international assets than I meant to have, and assets in precious metal companies which I probably had too much of anyway. It turns out that those two happened to not get hit quite so hard.

However, in spite of it all, I'm also making some major changes in all of my investments right now... Turning the Roth into primarily just a target-date retirement fund, changing over to my (much simpler) 401k equivalent for my directed allocation, and fixing my regular MF's allocations to something a bit more reasonable, and for simplicity focusing in on my S&P index for now, hoping it can lead me back as things improve (whenever that happens).


A bit closer to the original topic, Guam (home for me) is looking at allowing casinos to come to the island. Pretty much since we liberated it from the Japanese, the island's economy has been firmly dependent on tourism. However, there is significant concern about what negative impacts such a move would have on crime, family finances/family relationships, and the overall impression visitors have of the island. Basically, they don't want Guam to become the Pacific's Las Vegas and Reno (no offense to anyone from there). Thoughts, anyone? What do you think gambling and casinos bring to a local community, both good and bad? (Keeping in mind, Guam is so small that it is pretty much just one large "local community")

[Johansen8]

Cheers to that! every time I visit a casino, I make sure I'm having a good time. For me a casino is a place to have fun .
It is not a place to make money.There wouldn't be casinos if everyone won big.

Enjoy a nice meal, people watch and have a great time.
Set a spending limit and expect to pay for your entertainment with that. Gambling is entertainment.If you win a few buck great. If not- no worries.

[disneysteve]

Cheers to that! every time I visit a casino, I make sure I'm having a good time. For me a casino is a place to have fun .
It is not a place to make money.There wouldn't be casinos if everyone won big.

Enjoy a nice meal, people watch and have a great time.
Set a spending limit and expect to pay for your entertainment with that. Gambling is entertainment.If you win a few buck great. If not- no worries.

I totally agree. I consider gambling part of our entertainment budget. Last night, we drove over (it is about 25 minutes from home). We played for about an hour then had a casual dinner in their sports bar and watched the baseball pre-game show and then headed home. Just a little diversion and some time together without our daughter.