We are among the people than lend free money to our government. At the end of this month, the government will pay back the zero pct interest loan we gave in 2105. So, what to do with our tax return?
In principle, this is an easy one: Invest in our ETF portfolio and boost big time our Savings Rate for March! Ready, set, GOOOOOOOO!!
When geldnerd had investment money that needed to be redeployed, my answer was clear: the money is invested today, so reinvest tomorrow. Market timing is indeed not easy, even considered a gamble. I know, I lost 1000 USD doing that.
Now that it is fresh money from us that needs a solution, it turns out it is more difficult to just invest. why? The headlines…
I know, Ignore the headlines, invest regularly and enjoy life
Here is what I read (and no, I do not blame people for writing this)
Sadly, I have to admit that I am a little sceptical to invest now this fresh money…. How to cure myself? Any ideas…
That being said, since I trade options, I do have an alternative. Rather than putting it in the market, I will use this it money to write more put options. Somehow, I have no problem at all doing this… Weird…
How easy is it for you to invest today in the markeT?
amber tree leaves 
I have a 12 year time horizon right now. So, its maybe a bit naive, but I’m not thinking about timing the market right now. Each time I did in the past, i never got it right: either too soon, or too late.
I’ll just trow wads at my ETF portfolio and cross fingers I come out on top in 12 years to come.
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You now what I did. And I think for the next couple of years the best strategy will be to find little niches of value or some special investment opportunities. It is one of the reasons I am a big fan of financial velociraptor. The AFSI stock he talks about here http://velociraptor.cc/blog/2017/03/20/monday-trades-afsi-shop-nvda-eog-gel/
reminds me a lot of Ahold, way, way back. A company with a good earning main business being punished for an accounting issue in another part of the business. If the main business is unaffected and remains profitable this are definitely buying opportunity’s! I am all leveraged out so I didn’t look into the specifics, but there is still some attractive stock or options to write out there. You just need to find them. actually, this is the most rewarding environment to be an investor in. Finding a good stock when everything is cheap, but now, now you have to work for it! and now you are discovering how good your skills really are!
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Agreed, using cash to deploy in niches is a must. That is what i plan to do with the tax refund.
And thx for the pointer to the article… Interesting put to write…
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I’m starting to get a grip on this whole options investing thing, seems a nice way to invest a bit more cash! Otherwise the ETF is still the way to go, you have a long term horizon, so it works out in the long run anyways.
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Right now I am using capital that I get from dividends to trade options, I do not see a lot of opportunities out there and I prefer less long term relationships in this phase. Reading doom predictions is not a thing that I would do though, there is bound to be a market crash somewhere in the future, I see no point in trying to predict it. I was talking to an independent advisor last week about hedging a portfolio like mine, he said it’s wasted time (and money) because my investment strategy is dividend oriented and long term based, so crashes are actually good provided that you picked the right companies…
Anyhow it’s not a market where I can commit to a certain stock now, so options are a good thing to get the money to work…
ciaociao
Stal
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less long relationships… great wording. Same here
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My latest investments were some belgian holdings: GBL, Brederode, Luxempart (luxembourg stock exchange) These are Very good managed holdings, diversified,etc…they have some cash as well so they can use downside moments to buy cheap. No worries and no costs ( these are cheaper then Vanguard ETF’s. You can compare them with Warren Buffets Berkashire
Also Bredrode is very good but it’s now to high to buy I am afraid.
In Sweden you have Investor AB that is also still a buy
In market timing i don’t believe either..
Wish you good luck!!
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Holdings… just read about those this weekend. Sofina and GIMV are on my watchlist
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This year, having my daughters wedding to help pay for, I know exactly where my refund is going. Otherwise, I normally put most of it towards my investment account.
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That is a great plan! Congratz!
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No doubt finding places to invest these days are more of a challenge but not impossible. This month I added to four different stocks, two of them being a new positions. I added CCP, LTC, JCI and HRL. Keep looking, don’t time and just put your money to work.
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It’s getting harder, there are still some attractive opportunities here and there but most things are too expensive right now.
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Mu eyes are on holdings since an article in Trends this weekend. And I still look at some BEL20 companies that yield 2,5 or more after taxes.
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I face a similar dilemma – I have some spare cash, but I’m too timid to deploy most of it in stocks right now. I consider this a good time to build up a small emergency fund while the markets look a little pricey.
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when the emergency fund is not yet at the desired level, that is indeed a good thing to do right now.
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Timing the markets is very difficult, I think impossible. I believe in buy and hold. An interesting article in the newspaper confirms this view. It is in dutch, but with a translator you must be able to translate. To summerize: this article says you can’t time the markets because they go so quickly down but also the upswings are very quickly and unpredictable. So if you are at the sideline with a downturn ,it’s good, but you will miss (a part of) the uptrend…. And above that, you make costs for your broker and pay taxes..
http://www.tijd.be/nieuws/archief/Wie-zijn-beleggingen-probeert-te-timen-verliest-rendement/9876236?highlight=timen
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thx for sharing. A valuable lesson
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It is getting fairly difficult to find great value in the market, however we are becoming increasingly confident in our investment choices as it’s working well for us and we can see the results are paying off for us already.
DGI investing, in the right companies, is definitely key for us to succeed.
Mr DDU
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The power of dgi looks great when i see the results of other bloggers
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