An investment or an expense?

Spending money is personal — and of course, you’re going to have your categories. Housing, bills, transportation (obviously), fun — and then the big one, investments.

As a millennial who has admittedly grown up with a true lack of investment knowledge in school (a story for another day), I can tell you that the investment I’ve made in my own financial freedom has been a true investment. 

If it wasn’t for my father, introducing to me the management of money and importance of investment when I was young, who knows where I’d be today (but surely not here, writing to you).

Ever since I found my financial freedom through trading and investing, it’s been my goal to bring it to you. 

Why…?

Because my life has been forever changed because of it. 

Last year I started an experiment. I wanted to invest for my son, the way my dad taught me.  Except, with my son’s account, I put my own twist on investment.

How?

I used my Five Star/Phoenix method to pick my stocks. 

Now let me just say, my dad’s a wizard — but like everything I do, I wanted to do it my own way.

And so, I opened up a YouInvest account with JPMorgan Chase. It makes it pretty easy to transfer money (I transfer $200 a month) and invest it for my son. 

But, which stocks to pick?

For that, I always look to the Phoenix Finder.

Here’s what the account looked like at the end of last year:

For those of you who know me, you know I’m primarily an options trader — with a bit of futures, and aging into stocks. Which is ironic because I think it’s normally the other way around.

I blame John (in a fantastic way) for getting me excited to trade options in my young age. 

And, it was with my knowledge of options that I wanted to expand and begin growing long term investment accounts. I did this with my favorite method, just on a longer term time frame, and, with a different investment vehicle — stocks. 

I like to think about Warren Buffett, and one of his key points of wisdom. 

When asked about Warren Buffet, here’s what Jeff Bezos had to say:

“Jeff, what is the best advice Warren ever gave you?”

Bezos: “I asked Warren… your investment thesis is so simple. You’re the second richest guy in the world and it’s so simple. Why doesn’t everyone just copy you?”

Buffett: “Because nobody wants to get rich slowly.”

This stuck with me, and it was one of my primary considerations when I went about creating the Phoenix Finder.

I thought to myself… I KNOW which stocks are the best to trade options on. I know this without guessing it. But I also want to be able to do this analysis in a quick, easy fashion — that doesn’t require hours of work, and in a way that can be replicated by anyone using the same tool.

And so, I created the Phoenix Finder.

It’s that tool that I use to trade options, and it’s what I used to grow Leo’s account from 2k to almost 8k in a year. 

Now, you may say, $5,000 isn’t much is it? But this 5k was entirely passive income that I generated by picking 1-2 Phoenix stocks per month. That’s it. Some months I didn’t add anything. I just used my tool to pick the best names, most favorably at a discount.

Now, I’ll be the first to tell you… I love a good sale.

I don’t like paying full price, and I like getting more for my money when I can buy something I want on sale. I also believe in passing along my good faith and fortune — which is why for the final day of 2019, you can find the Phoenix Finder at a huge discount here. 

Because this right here, is an investment. Not a cost.

And 2020 for me, is all going to be about focusing on my investments.

What about you?

2 thoughts on “An investment or an expense?”

  1. Yes Danielle, 2020 is a year to focus on investments and your Phoenix Finder is a great tool.
    I have some share holdings here in New Zealand. I selected to reinvest my dividends back into shares of Stock and that just “Turbo Charges” the returns over time. The power of dividend compounding is amazing more than Triple My initial investment in 4 years.(I changed to this 12 months ago).
    The Banks are paying a very low interest rate of about 2% so it takes more than 48 years with compounding to double your money!! People argue and say that Shares are dangerous and will eat your money, my positions could drop by 75% while this would hurt, the return would still be better than the Bank!
    Here’s to passive Investment’s. 🙂

    My primary focus of 2020 is to crate a Probabilistic Mindset and achieve consistency in Trading the Options market (the knees are pretty scared from falling off the bike quite often).
    Upon reflection… 2019 for me has been. Learning who I am as a trader. With this information I have been able work out my Strengths and weakness’s. What has worked. What has not. What I do best. Learning form the mistakes I have made and ultimately taking responsibility for them. It has been hard as I have no like minded people ‘directly around me’ to discuss the market. But the Team at at Simpler have been AWESOME!!! Enough babble.
    I look forward to continue to Learn from you through 2020, it has been an Honor and a privilege to be able to do so for the last almost 2 years.
    All the best with your Trading Journey, Life and Family for 2020

    Reply
  2. Thanks for sharing I recently purchased a few items from simplertrading and I will spend the time to improve on what I am doing and make this journey to becoming a better trader. I am sharing with my two daughters praying that they will get the bug and start down trhe path to becoming a better trader as well.

    Thanks again,

    Steven Abu Dhabi

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Up Next...

NFLX: Taking Profits (A Follow Up)

Hey traders! Last week, I posted a bullish Netflix (NFLX) setup at Five Star Trader. At this point, this trade is making targets, and I’m taking profits. What does that look like? Well, Netflix has hit just below my price target of $730. My put credit spread, and my butterfly has two days remaining. One could … Read more

Read More

A Bullish Trade in Netflix (NFLX)

Relative Strength, Squeezes, and Earnings Netflix has been at the top of my radar for the past few months due to its trend and relative strength. This is primarily for trading only versus investments because I don’t invest in stocks at new all-time highs. With this ticker, I added some put credit spreads and bullish … Read more

Read More

The Post-Fed Break Out Continues…

Relative strength stocks continue to break out after the Fed cut rates. When semiconductors (SMH) break higher, along with Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX), Meta (META), Tesla (TSLA), and Broadcom (AVGO), this relative strength is a bullish sign for continued upside price action. There’s also a difference between where traders and investors should focus. … Read more

Read More

Subscribe Today!

Want my up-to-date analysis, setups, top trading tips, and more? Be a Five Star trader, and join my free newsletter today!

Sign Up Now
all-as-seen-on-logos