Playing the stock market to pay off your debt.

[tvguy]

Well, I've owned my Disney stock for over 30 years, so I am in the market, but I don't trade. Wish I had bought more. 10 shares set me back $1,100. Due splits it is now 120 shares worth over $21,000

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

Play, of course, but if you can't play with it then do something else with it, the markets should be treated like a day in Vegas or AC, go for it but know you can lose. I would never play the markets or do sports betting or horse racing to pay off debt, this sounds like a terrible idea and shouldn't be encouraged unless you are independently wealthy.

I had a lot of stock for many years but was forced to sell it all in 2009 in order to keep my business and home. I started getting back into it a few years ago and the stocks I hold are long term and I purchased at a low enough price so those don't worry me at all. This past November I started dabbling on Robinhood and got into Crypto. Over the last 6 months, my total out of pocket was $10k. I have since pulled out that $10k plus another $15K. I also pulled out $7k and paid my taxes. As of this moment I have a little over $30k invested in a few different Crypto currencies. Mainly Dogecoin. Right now I am playing with "house" money since I have taken back my initial investment, paid my taxes and paid $15k towards my DVC. My goal is to use the $30k to keep earning money at zero risk since it's above and beyond what I invested in the first place. And I am not independently wealthy.

 

[LuvOrlando]

My intent is not to talk high risk tolerance gamblers out of gambling, it is a thing many enjoy as evidenced by the entire city of Vegas, which was not built by winners BTW but I digress.

My intent is to caution the uninitiated who maybe shouldn't participate in the markets and who can't absorb losses to think before they jump. It's my personal experience that with gambling, and with substances and really any one of a number of risky endeavors, that the people who relish them most have an uncanny ability to completely block out all the losses and maintain an almost trancelike focus on the wins. When I talk to a gambler they will ALWAYS talk about the time they won 10K in Atlantic City or $x by doing ABC , but will block out all the times they lost thousands.

If anyone hasn't seen it I'd say watch, "The Big Short" because the traders make money whether the investment is good or a fail and I don't think people realize this, buyer beware it's on you.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

My intent is not to talk high risk tolerance gamblers out of gambling, it is a thing many enjoy as evidenced by the entire city of Vegas, which was not built by winners BTW but I digress.

My intent is to caution the uninitiated who maybe shouldn't participate in the markets and who can't absorb losses to think before they jump. It's my personal experience that with gambling, and with substances and really any one of a number of risky endeavors, that the people who relish them most have an uncanny ability to completely block out all the losses and maintain an almost trancelike focus on the wins. When I talk to a gambler they will ALWAYS talk about the time they won 10K in Atlantic City or $x by doing ABC , but will block out all the times they lost thousands.

If anyone hasn't seen it I'd say watch, "The Big Short" because the traders make money whether the investment is good or a fail and I don't think people realize this, buyer beware it's on you.

I just think your posts are missing nuance and painting with broad strokes. Yoloing every penny into GME is very different from putting money you don't expect to need for 5+ years into VTI. Day traders have a failure rate in the 90%+ range (similar to Vegas) which is very different from the success rate people see in total market index funds.

 

[georgina]

My intent is not to talk high risk tolerance gamblers out of gambling, it is a thing many enjoy as evidenced by the entire city of Vegas, which was not built by winners BTW but I digress.

My intent is to caution the uninitiated who maybe shouldn't participate in the markets and who can't absorb losses to think before they jump. It's my personal experience that with gambling, and with substances and really any one of a number of risky endeavors, that the people who relish them most have an uncanny ability to completely block out all the losses and maintain an almost trancelike focus on the wins. When I talk to a gambler they will ALWAYS talk about the time they won 10K in Atlantic City or $x by doing ABC , but will block out all the times they lost thousands.

If anyone hasn't seen it I'd say watch, "The Big Short" because the traders make money whether the investment is good or a fail and I don't think people realize this, buyer beware it's on you.

You are not drawing a distinction between long term investing in stocks of stable companies vs speculation and short-term trading. Someone a few posts back asked if that meant you do not invest in ANY stocks. The days are long past when you can make income in T-bills which is what my dad did. We've been investing for over 40 years, and yes there are ups and downs, but over the long term the trend is definitely up. If people are putting all their savings in savings accounts making 0.5% interest, they are losing money.

 

[LuvOrlando]

You are not drawing a distinction between long term investing in stocks of stable companies vs speculation and short-term trading. Someone a few posts back asked if that meant you do not invest in ANY stocks. The days are long past when you can make income in T-bills which is what my dad did. We've been investing for over 40 years, and yes there are ups and downs, but over the long term the trend is definitely up. If people are putting all their savings in savings accounts making 0.5% interest, they are losing money.

Not looking to debate the merit of a win, of course a win is fab. Point is do you understand that long term or short term, nothing is immune from full loss? If you do understand this it's all good, if you do not understand this it is not all good.

There is a link between risk and payoff, the greater the risk the better the promise of payoff or else why would anyone participate? The reason savings accounts are so low on earnings is that they are FDIC insured, so it is about as safe as possible. Safety has a cost, but so too does risk, where we all sit in the spectrum is an organic sort of thing called risk tolerance. It is neither wrong nor right, it simply is.

 

[redleader74]

Assuming an annual inflation of 3% or whatever it is now, a savings account with a measily 0.5%, maybe even less, means you're paying that difference for the FDIC protection.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

Not looking to debate the merit of a win, of course a win is fab. Point is do you understand that long term or short term, nothing is immune from full loss? If you do understand this it's all good, if you do not understand this it is not all good.

There is a link between risk and payoff, the greater the risk the better the promise of payoff or else why would anyone participate? The reason savings accounts are so low on earnings is that they are FDIC insured, so it is about as safe as possible. Safety has a cost, but so too does risk, where we all sit in the spectrum is an organic sort of thing called risk tolerance. It is neither wrong nor right, it simply is.

Individual stocks can go to zero but if the entire market goes to 0? You'll have much bigger problems than stock investments. That is "what local rodents can I eat" territory.

 

[MomToOne]

Anyone "playing the market" is a speculator, not an investor.

Which is all fine, if you know what you are getting yourself into.

I personally invest about 99.5% of my available funds, and speculate with about 0.5% for fun. I can tell you I haven't made any great profits on my speculation over the long term. Sort of mirrors my history of gambling in Vegas Some people win big gambling, most people don't. But you hear the stories of the people that win big, not the people that don't.

 

[RamblingMad]

Assuming an annual inflation of 3% or whatever it is now, a savings account with a measily 0.5%, maybe even less, means you're paying that difference for the FDIC protection.

I agree savings rate sucks. The same is true of short term treasury bills. But you have to keep your emergency fund liquid, so you don’t have many options.

It’s pretty certain that over a 20 year period you’ll make money in index funds. It’s not certain over ten. And it’s even less certain in less than 5 years. The problem the OP will face is investing short term to cover short term debt. The math is very iffy. However, investing versus paying off a 30 year mortgage makes more sense to me up until retirement.

 

[georgina]

Not looking to debate the merit of a win, of course a win is fab. Point is do you understand that long term or short term, nothing is immune from full loss? If you do understand this it's all good, if you do not understand this it is not all good.

There is a link between risk and payoff, the greater the risk the better the promise of payoff or else why would anyone participate? The reason savings accounts are so low on earnings is that they are FDIC insured, so it is about as safe as possible. Safety has a cost, but so too does risk, where we all sit in the spectrum is an organic sort of thing called risk tolerance. It is neither wrong nor right, it simply is.

Do I understand that? Sure. Our investments are in broad spectrum index funds, so the risk is spread out over hundreds of companies. If all the companies in the US suddenly go under, nothing will be safe anywhere. Do you understand losing money in 'safe' savings accounts because the earnings are less than inflation?

 

[redleader74]

Oh and don't forget, if you're using short term returns to cover debt, you'd better make sure you budget for taxes. Meaning, if you've got a short term gain of $50K, you're not gonna be able to use all of it to coverage a $50K debt.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

NO, I do not
I'm a Buy and Hold investor

 

[DLgal]

Individual stocks can go to zero but if the entire market goes to 0? You'll have much bigger problems than stock investments. That is "what local rodents can I eat" territory.

Exactly. Even when the markets absolutely tanked last March, our investments only lost about a third of their value. The rebound has made our new value 60% higher than that low from last spring.

 

[dvcgirl67]

My intent is not to talk high risk tolerance gamblers out of gambling, it is a thing many enjoy as evidenced by the entire city of Vegas, which was not built by winners BTW but I digress.

My intent is to caution the uninitiated who maybe shouldn't participate in the markets and who can't absorb losses to think before they jump. It's my personal experience that with gambling, and with substances and really any one of a number of risky endeavors, that the people who relish them most have an uncanny ability to completely block out all the losses and maintain an almost trancelike focus on the wins. When I talk to a gambler they will ALWAYS talk about the time they won 10K in Atlantic City or $x by doing ABC , but will block out all the times they lost thousands.

If anyone hasn't seen it I'd say watch, "The Big Short" because the traders make money whether the investment is good or a fail and I don't think people realize this, buyer beware it's on you.

Well, it's certainly not true that "the traders make money whether the investment is good or a fail"....when you reference The Big Short. I read the book and saw the movie (the book is better), and lived through the Great Recession and experienced the Tech Bubble bust/recession about 8 years before that. And with the Great Recession, not many investors at all saw the impending explosion of the markets ahead on the horizon. Very few figured out that our housing market then was essentially a house of cards built on cheap money and ruinous lending practices by the big banks. Ultimately, almost all of the big banks were bailed out by us along the way....because that's how we do it in our country, we privatize the profits and socialize the risk. But very few traders made big money on that bet....that's why the Big Short is such a great book....because it focuses on the few that saw the black swan event unfolding in front of their eyes.

 

[mefordis]

I have been buying stocks and making big money on NIO. MY DEBTS ARE GONE.
ANYBODY ELSE PLAY THE STOCK MARKET?

Don't really play the stock market but I did buy a single BTC for $9500 last year and made enough to pay a full year of college + expenses when I sold it.

 

[hsmamato2]

I have been buying stocks and making big money on NIO. MY DEBTS ARE GONE.
ANYBODY ELSE PLAY THE STOCK MARKET?

Nelson! You're back! Hello..... is my only answer to your OP

 

[4luv2cdisney]

I think there are a lot of young people "playing" in the stock market and crypto right now. Some truly believe they will be retiring in a few years. They've yet to experience the lows that come with it. No doubt some are smarter / luckier than I and will "win" , but I can't imagine this lasting forever.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I think there are a lot of young people "playing" in the stock market and crypto right now. Some truly believe they will be retiring in a few years. They've yet to experience the lows that come with it. No doubt some are smarter / luckier than I and will "win" , but I can't imagine this lasting forever.

Some already have. I sure wouldn't have minded a 6-digit Mother's Day gift.
A Goldman Sachs boss has reportedly quit after making millions on dogecoin - MarketWatch
25-year-old says he's a millioniare after investing early in ETH, BTC (cnbc.com)

 

[Twilghtsprkle]

My husband does sometimes when he finds something that will pay off. I don’t have the stomach for the risk. He managed to make enough to pay off our house so we are debt free now.