Hi, I know this post is going to sound like I'm patronizing investors but this isn't the case. I'm 30. Most of my savings are in funds, and more recently in individual stock, and now I'm wondering how long I'm "supposed" to hold (assuming I don't need that money). I am just not sure what happens next after holding I guess.
People always say to long term hold certain stock, but when do you actually sell? In retirement? When you need money? Like yeah sure sell whenever you want or need money, but what's the ideal timeline? What is everyone holding for? Just for the value to go up? And then what? What is your plan?
Thanks everyone.
ELI5: What exactly do people do with long term holds? When are you "supposed" to sell?
byu/foureightnine instocks
Posted by foureightnine
19 Comments
When you want to buy a home
As long as you think it will go up or at least up faster than say an etf. Unless you think a stock is going to beat say thr sp500 or qqq or w.e etf you like there really is no reason to be invested in stocks.
Since 2022 or whenever I opened my fidelity account outside of day trades the sp500 is my best total return. Of about 30%. The others are all behind but most of those are incase of recession so I have silver, alittle bonds, pharmaceutical companies(these are highly speculative start ups).
When the underlining Asset no longer produces a profit, or a better Cost of Potential Presents itself. Or the most Common response u will probably receive is “Money is just an act of transaction used to improve your lifestyle”.
I went all-in in 2022 and managed to hit a million right when the war started. I ended up pulling out when my portfolio was down 20% so that i can day trade and make the money back. Turns out the war is now over and my portfolio would have fully recovered with even more gains.
Moral of the story is…. Don’t pull out until you need to spend it.
For individual companies I think a good q to ask is “if I didn’t own this stock already would I buy it now?”. If the answer is no then maybe you should sell. For indexes just buy and hold for the most part.
Sounds like you still need to gain experience on how to invest for long-term.
What I would have liked to learn before on my investing journey is how to value companies and, based on that, know how would be a good time to make a position bigger or trim it.
Rule of thumb: You should never want to sell completely a company unless something big happens that affects the long-term hypothesis (don’t focus on headlines that only affect the short term) but instead only you get more or less exposed based on current valuation and growth projections that you should have made before invest on it.
*Investing is a means to an end.* It’s not just buying random shit and then wondering, “Okay now what do I do with this?”
You hold something until you need it for one of your financial goals, like buying a home or paying for a kid’s education, retirement, whatever.
Or until your thesis or justification for a position no longer holds, and there’s an opportunity cost where your $$ would be better off invested elsewhere. No need to be a bag holder.
Hold them till your 6 feet under. Step up to Kids/heirs no Taxes.
When you need the cash or when you no longer believe in the company.
If you’re mostly in funds you sell when you’re 65. You want that 35 years of compounding interest. You can end up with millions when you go to retire. For individual stocks take a more watchful approach and exit when you feel comfortable. Their volatility may necessitate a quicker trigger. All this is to say you don’t overextend your money and don’t come across professional/medical emergency.
My dad imparted some logic on me. I think it’s excessive but it has helped me a lot.
“If you had the amount your stock is worth in cash, would you buy the stock at its current price?”
Now, if I took this to heart 100% of the time I’d be poorer than today, but it has helped me quite a bit regarding when to sell.
I personally also incorporate some other logic like weighing why I purchased the stock and if it still applies, as well as what bin of money I used to purchase the stock.
If it’s house money, I’m much more flexible. One example was PLTR, purchased at ~$7. I sold my initial investment worth at $40 because I would no longer buy them at that level, and rode the rest to $60-100 because it was house money.
I sold because they’re a POS company and my initial reasoning (NATO integration following UA success) became less likely. If I kept holding I’d be richer but you never go broke selling at a profit.
When you want to go from your old tiny house to a new big house
Once you retire your “accumulation” phase (of three decades? four? more?) ends. You are then faced with the equation of net wealth divided by years left to live* (minus fudging about with what to leave as your legacy) as your de-accumulation phase: how “best”** to tap into your net wealth for the duration of your remaining life. And that’s as tricky as accumulation: lots of factors to consider. Anyway, sell somewhere in this phase 😬
* usually an unknown/unknowable, but averages and wiggle room come into play 🤷♂️
** tax efficiently, etc.
Never sell. Use it to get a loan.
Usually as you get older you’ll move more and more of your investments into safer assets, like bonds or high-quality dividend paying indexes. That rebalancing will naturally lead you to sell some of positions as you move things around. A general rule of thumb is the “120 minus your age” rule, take 120 and subtract your age, and that’s the % of your portfolio which should be invested in very safe interest paying assets, like bonds and fixed income assets.
you trim on gains, sell if outlook of growth companies turns sour, and buy other stocks with better growth potential.
Just leave it the fuck alone.
I bought Google at 14$
Never sold because they keep getting right eventually.
I’ll retire on it if I need it.
Trade in retirement account.
Sell beyond what you need for retirement? Never. Look up “generational wealth”
You cant hold individual stocks forever like you can spy. With spy the fund drops losers and adds winners every year. You need to sell if the company stops doing the thing that made you buy it in the first place. Some stocks have been successful for decade after decade but thats not true for most. They have a lifespan of success and then they fall off. Maybe the market changed, maybe the visionary founder left.