Investment Advice from Someone who Got a C+ in Corporate Finance and an A in Intro to Finance at a no50 Ranked Business Uni
I’m paying off student loans at the moment and have $20,000 left to pay. I’m really hoping that Joe Biden cancels student loan debt before he leaves office Jan 6.
When I was employed, I maxed out my employer’s 401k match which was a nice 8%. I invested that in VOO.
I’ve recently been investing in a few individual stocks which most investment professionals advise against… and I agree with their advice. S&P500 all the way.
That being said… I also think it’s okay to invest in stocks you truly believe in. I believe there’s a bright future for certain companies and if I, myself have user tested the brand’s products and have an understanding for the business sector the business operates in and how that may be affected by macroeconomic factors… then I don’t see anything wrong with investing in individual stocks. For example… I invested in elf at $103 and it’s currently surfing around $130.
Despite receiving subpar grades in corporate finance in uni… I received As in my micro and macroeconomic courses which were taught by a Boston University professor who made economics extremely intuitive. I still utilize a lot of the frameworks and concepts taught in those intro economic courses.
My thought process for choosing to invest in elf was that our economic environment seems to be turbulent right now according to how the media speaks about it… whether this is true or not is not important because the media is responsible for shaping much of human behavior. The lipstick theory says that during times of economic distress… sales of lipsticks and smaller “luxuries” increases. With much of the discussion around the economy being that it is headed toward a recession can honestly be a self-fulfilling prophecy and I personally think that the sales of lip products, cosmetics, especially at the mid to low end of the cosmetic industry market of suppliers will increase.
For this reason… I invested in elf. Elf is a product which has been around since I was in middle school… at this time they were famous for everything in their cosmetic line being just $1 or $1.50 maybe $3 maximum. Their products were decent to good quality especially given the price. In particular, their beauty tools were used by people who even preferred higher-end cosmetic brands. They’ve extended their product line to now including skincare and their products consist of many dupes to higher end products that I think could appeal to a lot of middle school tweens who may not be as willing to spill $45 on a blush product but could possibly convince their parents to dish up $5 or $8 for a media crazed dupe.
I remember being a middle school tween and posting makeup tutorials on Youtube during the era of Juicystar07 and Allthatglitters21. I used to ride my bike to Ulta and swatch half the store’s worth of makeup on my hands and forearms. I would ask my parents for makeup for christmas and would play with makeup to the point where I had better makeup skills back then than I do present-day.
Elf is a brand that caters towards the beginner crowd just getting into cosmetics while also creating quality products for regular consumers and wearers of makeup. I also notice elf has a nice store setup within Target locations… this has one on occasion led to me buying something from elf with no intention of purchasing anything from them on a particular target shopping trip.
It’s for these reasons that I took a chance and invested in an individual stock. After having watched this stock’s price fluctuate for a few weeks… I decided to bite the bullet and buy the stock when it dipped in price down to $103… low and behold the following week it jumped up by $30.
If you’re just getting into investing… I would recommend investing in the S&P500 or VOO. If you’re wanting to invest in individual stocks… do so at your own discretion and own risk. Also, trust your intuition.
I have yet to invest in bitcoin and don’t think I ever will. I find bitcoin influencers and the general community surrounding bitcoin to be very offputting (no offense - if you’re offended; sorry) and it disways me from looking further into it. Maybe this is something I’ll regret further in the future but right now I don’t feel like I’m missing out.
I’ve been using WeBull as my main investment app and I have my retirement in Fidelity. Meanwhile I use SoFi as my main bank for Savings - their HYSA has a 4.2% APY.
Meanwhile for my spending I use almost exclusively my Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card which is the only credit card I own with an annual fee. I find the annual fee to be worth it considering the benefits far outweigh the costs.
Meanwhile I use bilt to pay my rent - it allows me to earn points on my rental payments. I have to make 5 purchases a month to meet this minimum to be elligible to redeem my points on rent… so I have to conscientiously make payments on this card at least 5 times to earn the points. I tend to use it on low cost payments like a metro fee or something so that I can maximize the points earned from my Chase Sapphire card.