Post Your Wins

[disneysteve]

I'm going to North Carolina in just over a week. I just checked hotel rates. The rate for the first hotel night hasn't changed. The rate for the second hotel night came down by $14.86 so I cancelled and rebooked.

Then my wife and I are going to Atlantic City later in February. That rate dropped by $10.23 so I cancelled and rebooked that one, too.

Total savings $25.09 for maybe 10 minutes of my time.

Always recheck hotel rates at least once as your trip gets closer. I've saved hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the years by doing this.

[disneysteve]

How do you sell those Disney stock certificates? And what fees or commissions do they charge?

When you own a stock directly and hold the certificate, there is still a holding company involved. There just isn't a broker. In the case of Disney, it's Computershare. We own a few other stocks held by EQ Shareowner Services. I inherited those from my cousin. If we want to sell any of those shares, we can log into our shareholder account and do so. We would need to surrender the paper certificates by mailing them in. I don't know what fees are involved, if any.

Years ago it was quite normal to hold the certificates when you purchased stock. Companies designed really beautiful stock certificates. A lot of people would buy one share of Disney just to get a certificate. There even used to be a company that facilitated single share purchases for that purpose. I don't know if they're still around or if most companies still produce paper certificates like that. Apparently Disney stopped making paper certificates in 2013 but if you look on ebay you can see them. Here's one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/29691165323...3ABFBMzJTEvpZl

[QuarterMillionMan]

How do you sell those Disney stock certificates? And what fees or commissions do they charge?

[disneysteve]

I discovered tonight that I’ve had a mistake on our portfolio spreadsheet for many, many years. We own Disney stock. I have down that we have 70 shares. That’s true in our Schwab account. What I had completely neglected to account for is that we also own some shares directly in certificate form that were purchased 30 and over 40 years ago. 39 shares currently worth $4,373. Not an huge amount and certainly doesn’t move the needle but it’s a nice bit of “found” money.

[jenn_jenn]

We shop at Target a lot and especially since COVID, do so largely online. My wife got an order the other day which included a new Contigo water bottle that she wanted. When it arrived, she realized that it was actually metal, not plastic like the one she already has. That wasn't to her liking so she asked me to open a return so that I could ship it back. We just went through the process only to have them say the refund was approved and we don't need to return the item. We can keep it or donate it. It was $24.50 so that was a nice little win. She will keep the bottle and if it doesn't hold up well, at least she won't feel she wasted the money.

Nice little win!!

I have a friend that has a strategy at stores that do this and will mark to initiate a return to see if they’ll give it to her for free or at a discount. Morally debatable there.

[disneysteve]

We shop at Target a lot and especially since COVID, do so largely online. My wife got an order the other day which included a new Contigo water bottle that she wanted. When it arrived, she realized that it was actually metal, not plastic like the one she already has. That wasn't to her liking so she asked me to open a return so that I could ship it back. We just went through the process only to have them say the refund was approved and we don't need to return the item. We can keep it or donate it. It was $24.50 so that was a nice little win. She will keep the bottle and if it doesn't hold up well, at least she won't feel she wasted the money.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

DisneySteve - he's 51. And he's still planning on working for at least another few years. And yes, he is excellent health and has his withdrawal rates all well planned out.

Yay Congratulations!

[disneysteve]

DisneySteve - he's 51. And he's still planning on working for at least another few years. And yes, he is excellent health and has his withdrawal rates all well planned out.

That’s great. He’s won the game and can stop playing whenever feels right. It’s a nice position to be in.

[james.hendrickson]

That’s great. How old is he? When does he actually plan to retire? If he has enough saved to live with a 4% or lower withdrawal rate he’s in good shape, though I’d be nervous if I didn’t have a decent cushion above that to account for bad market years. Also be sure he’s accounting for “lumpy” expenses like a new car, replacing the roof, a special vacation, medical bills, etc. But I’d also say what we’ve pointed out before. The first million is the hardest. The portfolio grows much faster the larger it gets so from $1M to $2M happens much quicker than $0 to $1 M.

DisneySteve - he's 51. And he's still planning on working for at least another few years. And yes, he is excellent health and has his withdrawal rates all well planned out.

[disneysteve]

Guys - sharing a family win. After ten years of scrimping and saving, and investing in index funds, on Monday my brother hit his FIRE number. He's now a millionaire and could stop working - just living off his dividend payments if he wanted to.

This is huge - saving and investing over the long term really works.

That’s great. How old is he? When does he actually plan to retire? If he has enough saved to live with a 4% or lower withdrawal rate he’s in good shape, though I’d be nervous if I didn’t have a decent cushion above that to account for bad market years. Also be sure he’s accounting for “lumpy” expenses like a new car, replacing the roof, a special vacation, medical bills, etc. But I’d also say what we’ve pointed out before. The first million is the hardest. The portfolio grows much faster the larger it gets so from $1M to $2M happens much quicker than $0 to $1 M.

[james.hendrickson]

Guys - sharing a family win. After ten years of scrimping and saving, and investing in index funds, on Monday my brother hit his FIRE number. He's now a millionaire and could stop working - just living off his dividend payments if he wanted to.

This is huge - saving and investing over the long term really works.

[james.hendrickson]

Community - starting off Monday with a couple of wins.

First, over the weekend, my toilet started running. Which was fine, but annoying. So, I replaced the hardware in the tank by myself. Instead of calling a plumber and paying $250, I went to the hardware store, and got like $30 worth of new parts. It only took about a half an hour and now everything is working just fine.

Also, one of the small cap stocks I invested in - ALLT - is up to nearly $7. I've been buying it consistently since it traded at $4 and have been liking the gains,

So, two solid, if not modest wins.

[disneysteve]

I don’t usually share reselling wins here since I have another thread for that but I like to throw one in now and then.

I went to an estate sale on Saturday. I flipped through a box of books and picked out two about the USS Shangri-La. One was the 1962 deployment yearbook and one was the 1944-1964 history. They were $2 each. I did not look them up to check comps. I just know that specific ship items like that tend to be good sellers.

I sat down to list them Tuesday night and discovered that the last copy of the 1944-64 book that sold went for $195 so that’s the price I put on mine. It sold this afternoon just 2 days later. $2 to $195 in 5 days.

The other book is still listed. I priced that at $125. There were no sold comps for that specific book but ones from other years close to that went for that much. Hopefully mine will too.

[james.hendrickson]

All - posting another win. My Vanguard index funds paid their quarterly dividend payments today. Its nice to wake up and have cash in my brokerage account. Thanks everyone for the great feedback that lead to the decision to get these!

[disneysteve]

I can't find the "like" button, so
Very nice.

The like button disappeared with the last site update.

And yes, I agree with "liking" the win, Fishindude77.