Kossacks are a smart bunch, so crowdsource me some wisdom. Please.
I am responsible for a family stock portfolio. I never owned a stock until my mid-fifties. I had no business education, but a solid liberal arts education, supplemented by law school.
I’ve done well enough in the marked that I got lots of question from friends and I took to posting my trades on Facebook. I refer to stocks as my “retirement hobby,” and that’s kinda sorta true.
There are some responsibilities here that are serious as a heart attack.
My mother in law cannot run her own money. When I took it over, she was being horribly ripped off by a commercial money manager who was doing her no good and charging her for it. I have been able to pretty much keep her nut from shrinking while covering her large expenses.
She hovers on the verge of needing assisted care, which she cannot afford, and so the size of her nut will define how long she can fund the bleed. She has not enough contact with reality to deal with any of this.
Less urgent but still urgent is that I have IRAs for myself and my wife that represent pretty much all we have outside of our retirement income, which covers our monthly expenses. But you know how that goes?
My point in revealing the above is that this is serious stuff. Yes, I have a portfolio of speculations and, yes, I do treat this as a hobby and I’ve done some fooling around and had some fun with it…but going broke would be catastrophe not just for me, but for those I owe a duty of care.
This is my life and I can handle it.
However, below the fleur-de-kos, I anticipate a frontal assault on my family by the Tea Party
