rkbabang

I absolutely had a negative net worth at age 25. I bought my first house at age 24, so I had a 6 figure mortgage + high 5 figure student loans and a low 5 figure car loan. I had a descent job, but just starting to invest.

I haven't bought or sold anything recently. There are a lot of companies I'd love to own, but not at the prices they are trading at. Ignoring my small positions my portfolio is now (in order) BAC(LEAPS & warrants), FRFHF, AIG-WT, SD(common & LEAPS), HOTR, AAPL There is nothing I want to sell right now.

Google doesn't let you track warrants or options, both of which I hold, so I've never seen any value in using it to track some of my portfolio if I can't track all of it. As others have mentioned above, yahoo used to have a decent portfolio tracker only it has really gone downhill in the last few years. I can do without all the auto updates (I have no problem hitting reload when I want it to update) and other bells and whistles, just make it work like it did 4 or 5 years ago.

This is my experience as well. Seems like the site has fallen a lot in quality in the 4 years I have been using, but there is no better alternative. +1 and +1. I wish google would do something more in this area.

Anyone else use Yahoo portfolios to track their stocks? It seems to be going all nuts today displaying crazy quotes being up and down at the same time, dollar amounts in the portfolio messed up. This capture is just one example from the first stock in my list.

;D

As a real coffee geek I buy my own beans from a local roaster who roasts them in small batches and delivers them personally to my door within 24 hours. I grind them right before brewing them myself (sometimes I use my drip machine and sometimes espresso). The only time I buy coffee already prepared is when traveling, and yes I will choose Starbucks. Not because it is the best by any means, but because it is consistently okay. Unknown local shops are very hit and miss in my experience, with Starbucks you know what you will get. Dunkin' Donuts is okay as well. I couldn't imagine drinking that stuff everyday though.

I guess we know why he needed $4B. Larry Ellison Submits Bid for Blackberry

I've come back to this thread. As someone with a young child, I'm going to have to deal with a lot of what was discussed here (and, maybe, in the thread about retail) in the coming years. I was raised in a family that (over) prized academic outcomes versus both general sports results and "learning" and doing what you love. I won't say it failed for me. But, I didn't enjoy it. I was pretty good at sports and didn't mind losing. I liked teams much better than individual (I think for the right reasons). In any case, that was not prized in my family. I did well in school but I'd say I never figured out what I really enjoyed as the goal (the edict from above) was to get the grade. I didn't like to lose but I don't think I was a sore loser. The quote of me from above had to do, in my mind, not with Buffett (or yours truly) wanting to beat Michael Jordan. I feel the quote assumes you can't beat Michael Jordan (that's why he's a useful example) -- it's not about him, per se, but about something you might want to play (or do) but are facing a situation where you cannot win and would prefer not to simply be a lamb leading himself to slaughter but rather to fight on and try to win in another way or at another point in time. I agree with what rkbabang wrote in the rest of the missive. This is a succinct way of getting across the idea of "never giving up." In fact, eventually, you do often have to give up (or lose) but before that you will have achieved what Emerson thinks is useful about a hard-earned loss. It does make sense to play those games even if losing is certain. It might make sense to reward kids for participating in these situations. Some kids get better but won't if they give up because there are no rewards. I guess what I'm asking is: How do other fathers of young children feel on these matters -- both sports and academic? I know the way it was done when I was a child and I don't think much of that method. But perhaps I'm too quick to throw it away without some education on the alternatives. What do others feel they "should" do irrespective of what they (may) hope their child achieves? Or, are those things always aligned for most of you? I simply want my kid to figure out what he likes and pursue it. But, I don't want a sore loser or someone who quits before they have a chance to figure out whether they might like the activity. Thoughts appreciated but none expected :) -- Note: Edited for clarity We are all different, and our areas of giftedness become manifest in early childhood. What toughened up Emerson might defeat or destroy others. He was an "Invictus" kind of guy. Discover your children's tropisms, what they like to do and do very well. Then, you'll see how to facilitate the exercise and development of those gifts. :) I would agree with that. I like how I was raised and try to do the same for my kids. I was never pushed into anything. My parents didn't care if I wanted to participate in any activity or not, and never tried to dissuade me when I decided to quit and try something else (or even nothing). They let me know that they thought education was important (my dad never went to school at all and never learned to read or write), but I was never fearful of being punished or disciplined in any way for bad grades. They pretty much let me choose my own path and let me know that what I did was in the end up to me. My wife and I have tried to use a similar philosophy with our children and (so far) it seems to be working out well.

My worst mistakes were before I discovered value investing. I graduated from college in 1996, got a job and starting investing in tech stocks. I think you know how this ends.

If we're trading quotes George Carlin (most people don't sufficiently appreciate his genius IMHO) has a few relevant quotes for this thread: "If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten." "It's never 'just a game' when you're winning." "People who say they don't care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don't care what people think." "Most people with low self-esteem have earned it." "Just think, right now as you read this, some guy somewhere is getting ready to hang himself." And of course the most important: "It's important in life if you don't give a shit. It can help you a lot."

I love that quote! It explains why the suicide rate is so high and I suspect that raising a generation of self entitled little brats who, not only have no experience losing, but think that it isn't okay to lose, can only raise it. Joshua Greetings, Professor Falken Would you like to play a game? How about a nice game of chess?

I love that quote! It explains why the suicide rate is so high and I suspect that raising a generation of self entitled little brats who, not only have no experience losing, but think that it isn't okay to lose, can only raise it. Joshua Greetings, Professor Falken

I love that quote! It explains why the suicide rate is so high and I suspect that raising a generation of self entitled little brats who, not only have no experience losing, but think that it isn't okay to lose, can only raise it.

This is news to me. I didn't even know there was such a thing as the "Hyperloop Development Team". Former SpaceX director Marco Villa joins Hyperloop development team

That's how I felt as a kid. I'm sure my kids feel the same. :) I don't think many kids like the no scoring policies. They tend to keep score anyway.

Or cheat ;) Or examine yourself to understand why you feel the need to beat Michael Jordan in the first place. If you're kid isn't enjoying something, because he isn't good at it, maybe instead of ruining it for the other kids who are it would be better to encourage him to try something else. I tried basketball in middle school and didn't last even a season. I was horrible (maybe because I was shorter than most of the other kids). So I stuck to baseball which I was at least okay. In highschool I gave up sports all together and focused my time on music, something to which I was much better than average at. I didn't demand my parents get rid of scoring in my town so that I could be happy doing something that I wasn't good at. Instead I found something that I could do. This whole get rid of scoring, which is fundamental to the sport, is like saying "if my kid can't have fun doing this particular activity then no one can". Making sure that your little prince or princess is happy in everything that they decide to do isn't the focus of all of humanity. In fact it isn't even good for your kids to do this. If you make it easy for them to do things which they suck at, they may never find out what they are good at.

Taking it to the extreme, this article is hilarious. To ensure every child 'wins', Ontario athletic association removes ball from soccer I agree with most people above. A game has losers and winners and that's what makes it fun, get over it.

No, no, you got it all wrong. My children are fine, other people's children suck. As do most adults, besides me. I hope that clears it up a little.

The location probably makes a difference, I grew up on the east coast in a lower-middle class (at best) area, so we kind of knew that wearing OP meant that we were just following what was going on out west. That, and there were many kids who couldn't afford it, not just one or two. Same thing with Nike, it was cool to have it if you did, but most kids didn't because it was expensive, so no one got made fun of. Yes they do start young and it isn't always with clothes. In my daughters elementary school, this had to be 3rd grade, they had a big problem with a group of girls calling themselves the "3CG Club" harassing girls at recess to tears over the fact that they lived in a house with a 2 (or fewer) car garage. My daughter didn't get harassed because we have 3, but some of her friends did. This certainly would never have happened in the town I grew up in.

Who, me? Ha. Sure, they do and I think have for a long time. I don't know why, but it reminded me of something from when I was a kid in California. I don't know if people remember the "OP" brand (Ocean Pacific). It was huge back in the day (probably late 70s). That and Lightning Bolt. I can still remember their terrycloth shirts that I loved. But I digress. The big thing was having OP shorts. There was this one kid who in retrospect probably came from a family that wasn't well off. He used to get a very hard time because he didn't have OP stuff. I remember once he came into school very proud and showing everyone his OP shorts. Only, it was clear that his mother had taken a regular pair of shorts and sewed in the OP stitching (trademark infringement, I know). It was misshapen and didn't look anything like the regular one. Kids gave him a very hard time over that and I think he really suffered. So yes, I do believe 12 year olds have brand knowledge. That story actually surprises me a little. I wore OP in the early 80's, but I also had cheap shorts and no one made fun of me for them. Even today my son has no problem wearing anything, he's perfectly okay with wearing an Aero t-shirt or sweatshirt even if he likes A&F better. Him and his friends seem much more concerned with electronics than clothes. Girls however are brutal with each other about this kind of stuff, absolutely brutal to a shocking extent. You wouldn't be able to get my daughter out of the house wearing something that said Aero, if I said "wear that or your punished for a year" that wouldn't do it. There is nothing I could do that would be worse than the wrath of the other girls in school.

Oh boy, you'll find out. For my daughter's 12th birthday all she wanted (from us as well as relatives) was money to shop for clothes. When your daughter is 12 be sure to let us know how your knitting idea works out. :)

I have a 12 year old daughter and a 13 year old son. They both want clothes from A&F almost exclusively. My daughter actually refers to ARO as "the Wal Mart of clothes stores". She'll wear clothes from ARO as long as it doesn't say "Aeropostal" or "Aero" anywhere on it (i.e. pants/jeans, dresses, or skirts).

$12. I've never ordered from this site before, I found it with a Google search.

I have a feeling the largest slice of the pie was left off of that chart completely. Taxes.