losing money in stocks

[gambler2075]

First, I don't know the experience that he has so I can't say that trading would be a bad idea, but I can say that there are many, many pitfalls on the road to becoming a successful trader, and many (most) people will never get there.

The past 2 years have been ridiculously good for trading, as we have been in a bull market. Yet you say he has not done as well as your boring professionally managed investments? Well, that should be a wakeup call for him.

I also agree with DS that swingtrading (buying and selling, say, a month later) is not the same as daytrading. For a beginner trader, swingtrading is alot more likely to be successful, imo.

Finally, most people have no idea how hard it is to trade... especially beginning traders. And they tend to see patterns where there are none, or look at bad trades and try to rationalize how they would have done things different, where they are really looking through 20-20 hindsight. Trust me, I have been there (lol).

Ultimately, the bottom line is what matters... if he is not beating the market significantly (and I mean at least 30-40% per year returns) then IMO it is much better for him to give up trading and spend more time living and doing the things that really matter in life.

g

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by MonkeyMama

I think a good compromise is just to let him do what he wants with HIS ROTH. You do what you want with yours.

JMHO but I would not accept this compromise. If my wife decided she wanted to start trading stocks in her Roth, I'd have a problem with that. Our money is all joint, no matter whose name happens to be on the account. In fact, our retirement accounts are the only ones that don't have both names, since they can't or else they would. My retirement savings is part of OUR retirement plan. Her retirement savings is part of OUR retirement plan. How that money gets invested should be a joint decision. If one partner isn't comfortable with the plan, you need to change the plan.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I guess about half of our retirement. 401k is $130k and Roth/Rollover is about that much too? I haven't been watching the Roth/Rollover IRA. I am a boring buy some MF/ETFs and don't bother. I'm not exactly into stocks.

He hasn't touched our cash savings. I don't know his Roth is large because we did the rollover conversion last year.

[krantcents]

Be very careful! My wife has a friend who is a widow. She relied too much on her husband to take care of the finances. He did very bad job and left her in an almost broke condition. He earned in the low 6 figures, mortgage paid off and had a rental. He gambled most of it away. He is losing your money too.