Wife is "forcing" me to buy stock(s)

[smalliebigs]

Now, you might be initially thinking, "this guy's wife is making him invest his money." Fortunately, this isn't the case. Our strategy has always been (for now) just 90% VTSAX, 10% VTBLX and call it a day.

However, my wife has itchy fingers and wants to buy single stocks. But she doesn't really quite know about the mechanics, so wants me to do it.

She has given me (or herself), a budget of US$3,000 and wants to dabble. I've turned to you guys because, I honestly don't really know what to buy (which I feel is a good thing!)

I was thinking throwing it all in BRK.B, because that technically is a single company. Or maybe an actively managed Vanguard growth fund? Or just put it all in VTI, because she honestly has no clue about the ticker names. But that's kind of boring.

So, I thought to ask you guys about it. If you had $3,000 play money, and this really was play money, what would you do? If it gains, we get money. If it drops, it'll be a lesson to her to stop having windfall fantasies. Disclaimer, this doesn't affect our retirement strategy at all.

[Mr.BB]

Actually we just decided to spend $3,000 on a stock pick; call it fun money. We pick up some shares of Apple. (I wish we were having this conversation 20 years ago.. ).

[rich126]

Use it as an experiment and put $1K in WCLD (high flying tech stocks, kind of), BRK.B and some other company you think it well run and look back in a year and see what happens.

I'm assuming $3K is a tiny fraction of your total portfolio.

[Whakamole]

Does she want to participate in picking the stock, or does she want you to pick?

I'd encourage her to think of a public company she likes and buy the stock, since this seems to be her idea.

[Noobvestor]

If she wants to gamble, she should learn how he slots work, not force you to put in the coins and pull the levers.

[MN-Investor]

I own a small number of individual stocks mostly because I like the companies, they are mostly all local companies, and I just enjoy seeing how they're doing. They make up <5% of my portfolio so not a big deal. Individual stocks I own - 3M, Target, Hormel, Toro, Honeywell, General Mills, and Donaldson.

[000]

Never heard of a person wanting to buy individual stocks but not knowing which ones.

OP, are you the "wife" in this story? Are you looking for some lottos?

[protagonist]

Your wife is the one with the itch, but you are the one picking the stock?

[Hiker8]

If you and your wife are resorting to an online forum for stock tips , well, my suggestion is to invest in VTI. Tell your wife its a great company . Worst case scenario, she finds out its an ETF.. In that case, you can tell her you wanted to purchase her a share in every company. What a great husband.

[TropikThunder]

One would imagine that her itch to buy individual stocks came from somewhere specific, like FOMO for Apple or whatever. Just have her buy whatever it was that lit the fuse.

[Enzo IX]

I'm biased but Ferrari (RACE} has done really well since it went public. Overlay the performance with the SP 500 since inception.

[Grt2bOutdoors]

I own a small number of individual stocks mostly because I like the companies, they are mostly all local companies, and I just enjoy seeing how they're doing. They make up <5% of my portfolio so not a big deal. Individual stocks I own - 3M, Target, Hormel, Toro, Honeywell, General Mills, and Donaldson.

You should just buy the Mairs and Powers Growth Fund - they own MN domiciled companies and are more diversified than the list you have above.

[cogito]

OP this is an opportunity. 3k is going to be a great price for a lifelong learning opportunity. Start figuring out what's got her excited. Instead of just buying the stock, get her pumped up about short dated calls that are guaranteed to pay off 5x. Pressure her HARD to go all in, maybe even an extra 2k for Bitcoin and TQQQ. After the money disappears maybe she'll want to slow down a bit and keep following the Boglehead strategy that has worked well so far.

[Grt2bOutdoors]

Now, you might be initially thinking, "this guy's wife is making him invest his money." Fortunately, this isn't the case. Our strategy has always been (for now) just 90% VTSAX, 10% VTBLX and call it a day.

However, my wife has itchy fingers and wants to buy single stocks. But she doesn't really quite know about the mechanics, so wants me to do it.

She has given me (or herself), a budget of US$3,000 and wants to dabble. I've turned to you guys because, I honestly don't really know what to buy (which I feel is a good thing!)

I was thinking throwing it all in BRK.B, because that technically is a single company. Or maybe an actively managed Vanguard growth fund? Or just put it all in VTI, because she honestly has no clue about the ticker names. But that's kind of boring.

So, I thought to ask you guys about it. If you had $3,000 play money, and this really was play money, what would you do? If it gains, we get money. If it drops, it'll be a lesson to her to stop having windfall fantasies. Disclaimer, this doesn't affect our retirement strategy at all.

Buy BRK.B - then you can tell her she owns a bit of all the companies plus has the investing prowess of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger to watch over her money.

[Ged]

If I were to speculate in an individual company right now it would be NVIDIA.

[retire2022]

Op

Vanguard has stock screen tool:

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/StocksScreenerSec

I brought 333 shares of Apple (aapl), post split, 9/4/2020 & 9/5/2020, this is first time since 1993 that I own stocks and when I had a margin account with Dean Witter Reynolds. DCA 123.0826 or $40,986.50 total cost or 2% of my portfolio. Very low risk for me.

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/ ... icker=AAPL
check this out one year 131%, five years 345%

Argus analyst from vanguard site

http://djcs.factsetdigitalsolutions.com ... 310050.pdf

glossary for Argus report: http://custom.factsetdigitalsolutions.c ... ossary.pdf

I don't recommend https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-fu ... file/VWUSX US Growth but rather Vanguard Growth Index Fund below:

VIGAX/VUG which includes top growth stocks, currently including Apple.

https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-fu ... file/VIGAX ER 0.05%

ETF version VUG ER 0.04%

https://investor.vanguard.com/etf/profile/vug

Then you could invest also invest in https://investor.vanguard.com/etf/profile/MGK ER 0.07%

If you have a Roth account, I would recommend you put those in there.

I have 1803 Shares of Vanguard Information Technology VGT, ER 0.10 in my Roth IRA

https://investor.vanguard.com/etf/profile/VGT

[MishkaWorries]

Tell her to:
Select on industry or sector she thinks will outperform in the future;

Select a few companies in that sector;

Then research these companies to determine p/e ratios; management; products in pipeline; creditworthiness; corporate culture; review financial statements; and internet research on how the company is doing.

After all that and she has identified a company that all full-time, highly trained and highly paid wall street analysts have mispriced, then buy the stocks.

Or tell her to learn Elliott Wave and sentiment analysis and pick stocks that way.

Good luck!

[JonnyDVM]

Your wife is the one with the itch, but you are the one picking the stock?

Yah. Let her pick. It’s her idea. Nothing wrong with some fun money.

[TropikThunder]

I'm biased but Ferrari (RACE} has done really well since it went public. Overlay the performance with the SP 500 since inception.

Username checks out.

[whodidntante]

What you do with $3,000 is inconsequential most of the time, so I just wouldn't bother. If you happen to hit a hundred bagger it will move the needle somewhat.

[cheese_breath]

Your wife is the one with the itch, but you are the one picking the stock?

So it's not her fault if you pick bad ones?

[cheese_breath]

Pick bad ones and lose the whole $3000. It'll be a cheap lesson in the long run.

If you happen to get some winners she might get the idea single stocks are the way to go and want to 'invest' more.

[cogito]

Pick bad ones and lose the whole $3000. It'll be a cheap lesson in the long run.

Can you expand on this strategy? I'd like to short it.

[retired@50]

Instead of buying a high flying (possibly over-priced) tech stock, put a few bucks into a dud that's had a hard year. Maybe ExxonMobil or something like that, then hope for a rebound. I have no idea if this will work, since I don't buy individual stocks.

Regards,

[xenial]

You might as well choose something interesting. I'd go with Compugen (CGEN), an Israeli biotech company working on cancer immunotherapies.

[retire2022]

Instead of buying a high flying (possibly over-priced) tech stock, put a few bucks into a dud that's had a hard year. Maybe ExxonMobil or something like that, then hope for a rebound. I have no idea if this will work, since I don't buy individual stocks.

Regards,

retired@50, it is called Dogs of Dow theory: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dogsofthedow.asp

Though not an entirely new concept, in 1991, this strategy first became a popular fixture with the publication of Michael B. O’Higgins’s book, “Beating the Dow,” in which he also coined the name “Dogs of the Dow.”

[cheese_breath]

Pick bad ones and lose the whole $3000. It'll be a cheap lesson in the long run.

Can you expand on this strategy? I'd like to short it.

Pick some that are headed for bankruptcy.

[retired@50]

Instead of buying a high flying (possibly over-priced) tech stock, put a few bucks into a dud that's had a hard year. Maybe ExxonMobil or something like that, then hope for a rebound. I have no idea if this will work, since I don't buy individual stocks.

Regards,

retired@50, it is called Dogs of Dow theory: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dogsofthedow.asp

Though not an entirely new concept, in 1991, this strategy first became a popular fixture with the publication of Michael B. O’Higgins’s book, “Beating the Dow,” in which he also coined the name “Dogs of the Dow.”

Exxon Mobil isn't in the Dow anymore, but I get your point.

Regards,

[camillus]

You could also buy some companies of which you are fans, or ones you think are doing important work in the world.

[RickyAZ]

Buy 1 share of AMZN and watch what happens. Gives her something to talk to her friends about. See how she feels when it moves $175/ day.

[anoop]

Buy 1 share of AMZN and watch what happens. Gives her something to talk to her friends about. See how she feels when it moves $175/ day.

That currently costs more than $3000, but fortunately most brokerages will allow you to buy a fractional share.

[kelvan80]

My husband asks me to do this from time to time. I reminded him we don't gamble and also if he wants to complicate our taxes then he'll have to take that over as well since I do them for free but I'm not interested in comparing our life.

[BL]

Insist that she choose the stock(s), with some advice from you if she insists. Then you can help her do the actual purchase online. This is a great opportunity to learn how to do it rather than leave everything to you.

Someday she may be left a widow and any knowledge she gains now could be invaluable to her then. If not, it is great to know something about how these things work, and she has given you the perfect opportunity to get her started. Never pass up a teaching/learning opportunity!

[stimulacra]

I've succumbed to this a few times.

In the past:

1) Chipotle; I bought an extreme dip after a bad outbreak that got a lot of media attention. Sold it triple a while later.
2) Coca Cola; I was on a dividend kick and bought a slug of KO. Ended up holing on to it. Had the good fortune of traveling around the world for work and saw first hand how pervasive and robust Coca Cola's portfolio of products are.
3) Got a nice bonus a few years back and got equal allocations of Google, Apple, Microsoft and Disney. Held on to all of them. Apple and Microsoft has slowly become my two largest single holdings. I like Disney in theory but the returns to date has been rather ho-hum.

I keep a short list of tickers I bookmark for possible buying opportunities (Target, Walmart, Costco, Yum Brands) but more often than not either Total US Stock, International or TIPS is a more compelling buy when it comes time to direct new cash inflows.

[hereverycentcounts]

Now, you might be initially thinking, "this guy's wife is making him invest his money." Fortunately, this isn't the case. Our strategy has always been (for now) just 90% VTSAX, 10% VTBLX and call it a day.

However, my wife has itchy fingers and wants to buy single stocks. But she doesn't really quite know about the mechanics, so wants me to do it.

She has given me (or herself), a budget of US$3,000 and wants to dabble. I've turned to you guys because, I honestly don't really know what to buy (which I feel is a good thing!)

I was thinking throwing it all in BRK.B, because that technically is a single company. Or maybe an actively managed Vanguard growth fund? Or just put it all in VTI, because she honestly has no clue about the ticker names. But that's kind of boring.

So, I thought to ask you guys about it. If you had $3,000 play money, and this really was play money, what would you do? If it gains, we get money. If it drops, it'll be a lesson to her to stop having windfall fantasies. Disclaimer, this doesn't affect our retirement strategy at all.

I like the 5% rule -- never have more than 5% of your networth in any one stock. I make sure I adjust for taxes (ie if my networth is in an IRA I reduce that value by expected future tax so it balances right) and then, go for it. Just be prepared to lose 5% of your portfolio, or some chunk of that. Or maybe you'll beat the market!

[stimulacra]

If it's truly $3k of fun money, I would get something that is not encompassed in your current 90% VTSAX, 10% VTBLX allocation.

International (VXUS) or Emerging Index ETF (VWO) if you want to keep it simple.

[trigger08]

Similar boat here, perhaps it's the rebound from the COVID crash but my spouse has been talking about friends who are "making a lot of money" on stocks and that since I'm analytical/good at math/level-headed I should be picking stocks too… I told her those are precisely the reasons why I'm a Boglehead! Anyway, she's convinced to stay the course with index funds overall but we'll put aside $2k or so for dabbling in stocks and consider that fun money as spent and gone.

But I agree with the other posters, the one with the "itch" should be the one doing the picking. In our case she is genuinely interested in learning more about finance/economy so the idea is she will be in charge of picking the stocks (with a bit of advice from me) and I'll try to educate her about how someone would evaluate whether to buy/sell a particular stock in terms of looking at financials, etc.

[UpperNwGuy]

After reading this thread, I am glad to be single.

[BarbBrooklyn]

Do you guys ever do cruises?

With some cruise line stocks, you get some sort of perk if you hold 100 shares of the line's stock. They are al pretty cheap right now...

[OCDinvestor]

Now, you might be initially thinking, "this guy's wife is making him invest his money." Fortunately, this isn't the case. Our strategy has always been (for now) just 90% VTSAX, 10% VTBLX and call it a day.

However, my wife has itchy fingers and wants to buy single stocks. But she doesn't really quite know about the mechanics, so wants me to do it.

She has given me (or herself), a budget of US$3,000 and wants to dabble. I've turned to you guys because, I honestly don't really know what to buy (which I feel is a good thing!)

I was thinking throwing it all in BRK.B, because that technically is a single company. Or maybe an actively managed Vanguard growth fund? Or just put it all in VTI, because she honestly has no clue about the ticker names. But that's kind of boring.

So, I thought to ask you guys about it. If you had $3,000 play money, and this really was play money, what would you do? If it gains, we get money. If it drops, it'll be a lesson to her to stop having windfall fantasies. Disclaimer, this doesn't affect our retirement strategy at all.

Single stocks represent <4% of invested assets, but we recently bought Peloton (PTON). They report on September 10th for Q2 2020 and with COVID, gym bankruptcies, etc. I’m hoping it goes berserk! Hopefully people will realize, as I have, the efficiency of working out at home!

[Compound]

Insist that she choose the stock(s), with some advice from you if she insists. Then you can help her do the actual purchase online. This is a great opportunity to learn how to do it rather than leave everything to you.

Someday she may be left a widow and any knowledge she gains now could be invaluable to her then. If not, it is great to know something about how these things work, and she has given you the perfect opportunity to get her started. Never pass up a teaching/learning opportunity!

Completely agreed. If she wants to invest in single stocks so badly, it’s time she educate herself on investments! She may even come to learn about the advantages of index investing and change her mind.

[RobLyons]

The thinking with stock purchases is usually the opposite - you want to buy xyz stocks because you heard something or someone encouraged you, not just here's a lump sum I want to buy stocks and I don't know which ones.

The only stock I have owned recently was apple and I did not regret it. I purchased AAPL because
-I know the company
-I owned the products
-I researched the financials
-fully believed the stock was undervalued
-wasn't selling if the price dropped, was ready to buy more actually
-the amount invested wasn't much

I don't think you could go wrong if you find a company that checks most of those boxes

[smalliebigs]

I'm shocked to wake up and see so much lively discussion!

So, maybe I'll try and address some of the questions with a background/context. The $3000 is about 1% of our current retirement fund. She knows about diversification/S&P500, the whole concept. Mostly because I mention it to her occasionally. She actively monitors and checks the performance of our investments. However, she finds it dreadfully boring! She craves excitement and wants more volatility!

The only issue here is, she doesn't know the exact procedure to purchase shares, so she just wants me to do it. In a way, this is her attempt to force me to buy individual shares because she's been bugging me to do it and for a long time my answer was, "nah".

She's leaning towards the companies she knows, such as Zoom, Apple, Alphabet, etc. Honestly, if she would just pick something and make up her mind I wouldn't even need to make this thread. She's the final veto; if she says $3,000 in Zoom, I'll do that for her.

We're chuckling at the comments, especially the one that thinks I'm the wife in this scenario.

[batrleby]

Advice from a Boglehead who also follows /r/WallStreetBets:

Stick $3K in a RobinHood account and install the app on her phone.

/jk

[yohac]

She actively monitors and checks the performance of our investments. However, she finds it dreadfully boring! She craves excitement and wants more volatility!

Your wife and my wife cannot possibly be in the same species.

[Call_Me_Op]

However, my wife has itchy fingers and wants to buy single stocks. But she doesn't really quite know about the mechanics, so wants me to do it.

Is she aware that individual stocks have the same expected return (as the index) but much higher risk?

[smalliebigs]

Is she aware that individual stocks have the same expected return (as the index) but much higher risk?

She lives for the risk!



That Robinhood suggestion is a good one. Pretty sure she'll be raking in millions in no time

[Dottie57]

Is she aware that individual stocks have the same expected return (as the index) but much higher risk?

She lives for the risk!

Gamblers Anonymous?

[Helo80]

I don't have a gambling tendency, but I've been thinking of putting up $1k or so on options trading and see what happens.

For $3k, I don't think it's that bad... it's safe (e.g. No COVID risk).... and probably won't make a dime's bit of difference in your final retirement.

[Call_Me_Op]

I don't have a gambling tendency, but I've been thinking of putting up $1k or so on options trading and see what happens.

For $3k, I don't think it's that bad... it's safe (e.g. No COVID risk).... and probably won't make a dime's bit of difference in your final retirement.

That's a good point. If it's limited to $3k, it's a don't care. The question is will it be limited to $3k?

I think the OP actually asked for stock suggestions. It shouldn't be a stock you've already heard of, because it's too late to make a killing.