One of the best parts about the Blossom community is how open everyone is sharing knowledge and experiences. To make things easier for anyone just starting their investing journey, here’s a simple glossary to help understand and simplify various terms. Common Terms: Dividend: A share of a company’s profits paid to shareholders, usually quarterly. Ex-Dividend Date: The cutoff date by which you must own a stock to receive its next dividend. ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund): A fund that holds multiple stocks or bonds, traded like a single stock. Covered Call ETF: An ETF that owns stocks and sells call options to generate extra income (higher yield, limited / capped upside). Earnings Report: A company’s quarterly financial performance summary. EPS (Earnings Per Share): A company’s profit divided by its number of shares. Market Cap: A company’s total value (share price × number of shares). ACB: The total amount you’ve paid for an investment, including the purchase price plus any fees or commissions. Book Value: The value of a company according to its financial statements (assets minus liabilities). Yield: Annual dividend as a percentage of the stock/ETF price. Liquidity: How easily an asset can be bought or sold without impacting its price. Volatility: The degree of price fluctuations in a stock or market. Index: A benchmark of stocks (e.g., S&P 500, Nasdaq, TSX). Bull Market: A period of rising stock prices and optimism. Bear Market: A period of declining stock prices and pessimism. False Breakout: When a stock’s price moves above (or below) a key level, making it look like a new trend is starting, but then quickly reverses back. P/E Ratio: Price-to-earnings ratio (stock price ÷ EPS), used to assess valuation. Blue Chip: Well-established, financially strong companies with a track record of stability. Diversification: Spreading investments across assets to reduce risk. Broker: A platform or firm that facilitates buying and selling investments. Limit Order: An order to buy/sell a stock at a specific price or better. Market Order: An order to buy/sell a stock immediately at the current market price. Bid/Ask Spread: The difference between the highest price buyers offer and the lowest price sellers accept. Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA): Investing a fixed amount regularly to reduce the impact of market swings. Capital Gain/Loss: Profit or loss from selling an investment for more/less than its purchase price. IPO: When a company first sells shares to the public. Index Fund: A fund designed to mirror the performance of a market index. Short Selling: Selling borrowed shares, hoping to buy them back cheaper. Margin: Borrowing money from a broker to buy investments, which amplifies gains and losses. Margin Requirement: The minimum amount of your own money (equity) you must maintain in a margin account to open or keep a leveraged investment position. Margin Call: A demand from your broker to deposit more funds or sell assets because your account equity has fallen below the required margin level. Time Horizon: The length of time you plan to hold an investment before needing the money. Short horizons = more risk-sensitive, long horizons = more room to ride out volatility. Stock Split / Reverse Split: A split increases the number of shares (e.g., 2-for-1) while lowering the price per share. A reverse split reduces the number of shares (e.g., 1-for-10) while raising the price per share. Your overall value doesn’t change just the math. Long (Being Long): Buying a stock or asset because you expect the price to go up. Short (Being Short): Selling a stock you don’t own because you expect the price to go down, so you can buy it back cheaper later. TER: The total yearly cost of owning a fund, including the management fee plus other costs like administration, audits, and legal fees. MER: The annual cost that a fund charges for management (includes any leverage costs if used). Management Fee: A portion of the MER that goes directly to the fund managers for running the fund. Withholding Tax: A tax deducted on dividends/distributions from foreign investments (e.g., U.S. dividends to Canadian investors face a 15% withholding in TFSA/Non-Registered accounts). Total Returns: The full picture of an investment’s performance, including both price gains and dividends/distributions. CAGR: The average yearly growth of an investment over time. NAV: The price of one share of a fund (stock or etf) NAV Depreciation: When the fund’s share price goes down over time. Mutual Fund: A pool of money from many investors used to buy a mix of stocks, bonds, or other assets. Bond: A loan you give to a company or government, and they pay you back with interest. Asset: Anything valuable you own that can generate money. Portfolio: Your collection of investments. Option: A contract that gives you the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell a stock at a set price. Future: A contract to buy or sell something at a set price on a future date. REIT: A company that owns real estate and pays investors income from rent. Alpha: A measure of how much better (or worse) an investment did compared to the market. Beta: A measure of how much an investment moves compared to the market. Sharpe Ratio: A way to see if returns are worth the risk taken. Hedging: Protecting your investments from risk. Rebalancing: Adjusting your portfolio back to your target mix of assets. FCF: Free Cash Flow Understanding these terms makes investing far less intimidating. If anyone feels other terms should be included, please share in the comments. I’ll update this post so we can build a complete beginner-friendly resource together! *Sorry tagged a few etfs for reach 🫣read more
Hello everybody, I’m Briggs Williamson and my current financial position revolves around HBF memory and, more broadly, AI infrastructure. Most of my research is focused on the hardware behind the AI buildout: memory, semiconductors, packaging, compute, and the infrastructure required to support it. I invest with a longer-term thesis in mind, but I also actively trade options around earnings, catalysts, and short-term setups—we like the fundamentals around here. I’ll use Blossom to document the thesis, individual positions, trades, and, importantly, when the data gives me a reason to change my mind. Let’s make some money.
I was at Blossom Con this weekend, and one of the panel conversations that really stuck with me was when @brandon talked about how he eventually sold all of his individual stocks and moved into index funds. Even during a chat with @bdinvesting said he was close to 60% index funds now himself That honestly says a lot. Here are two people who spends time around investing, stocks and the markets and even they decided that keeping things simple made more sense to a degree. It reminded me why I invest the way I do. There is no need to find the next 10x stock, or trying to predict the next crash.You don't need to constantly figure out which company is going to outperform. I've been investing for a decade now and i'm not completely against individual stocks either. I still own some myself but roughly 90% of my portfolio is ETFs because building wealth doesn't have to be exciting. The goal isn't to become the best investor in the room. It's to become financially independent. What's your portfolio mostly made up of individual stocks or ETFs?read more
$NVDA reported earnings today but I was more focused on $CRM and $CRWD as they have become bigger positions in my portfolio than Nvidia. Here are key takeaways from both reports: Salesforce (CRM) Q2 Earnings Highlights: - EPS & Revenue Beat: Salesforce delivered strong top- and bottom-line growth, with revenue reaching $11.35 billion (up ~11% YoY) and outperforming analyst expectations. - AI & Agentforce Momentum: Massive adoption in AI capabilities, with Agentforce ARR reaching $1.5 billion and agentic workloads spiking 97% quarter-over-quarter. - Raised Guidance: Management raised full-year FY27 revenue guidance to $46.1B–$46.4B, driven by robust demand across Slack, Data 360, and new AI integrations. - Strong Cash Flow: Free cash flow increased by 81% YoY to $1.1 billion, backed by steady execution on its $25B share repurchase program. CrowdStrike (CRWD) Q2 Earnings Highlights: - AI Security Acceleration: CrowdStrike continues to capitalize on strong enterprise demand for Falcon's threat intelligence and AI-driven cybersecurity modules. - Robust ARR & Revenue Growth: The company remains on track toward its full-year net new Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) goal of ~$1.291 billion. - Solid Margins: Outperformed consensus expectations across operating income and free cash flow as cybersecurity remains a top enterprise spending priority. Salesforce report assuaged fears of revenue growth slowdown and its announcement of partnership with Anthropic to build claudeforce is also helping bump up the stock. Crowdstrike proved that security is going to be a major benefactor in the era of AI. Happy to hold both of these long term. ✌️✌️ read more
XLY continues to be a sector we are ready to accumulate PUT LEAPS in. Last week, Walmart $WMT (Thursday Aug. 20th: -9.15%), announced that the poor are retreating to dollar stores now......and the upper middle class activity at Walmart is growing (😉). Also, Advance Auto Parts $AAP (Thursday Aug. 20th: -24.55%), just announced forward earnings estimates in significant decline. Advance Auto is where the poor goes to buy car parts to fix their own cars. If they quit fixing their cars......what are they going to do? Sit their ass on a couch - that's what. And now this Monday, Dick’s Sporting Goods $DKS closed at -30.68% after reporting lower revenue than expected, an adjusted EPS decline of -19% YoY and cutting FY2026 guidance for revenue and adjusted EPS… who tries to integrate a shoe company at the peak of the cycle!?!??!🤪🫨😳😜💥 People are running out of money. Do you know what comes next? Learn to read and listen to the markets. They are speaking to us loud and clear. See how at: www.beskarcapitalkts.com This is the Way! 🏄♀️🌊🏄♂️🌊🏄🌊 read more
It was my first time attending, and it was an amazing experience—definitely worth attending! It was awesome to meet some people in person than online, especially Moe and Sophil. Congratulations to Moe @moementumfinance on winning Blossom Creator 2026! I was lucky to sit beside you—hopefully some of your luck will rub off on me during my investing journey. 😊 Sophil @sophii.svg thank you for the opportunity to guide me into the world of investing and introduce me to the Blossom app. I also really appreciate Anthony @anthony.invests for setting up the closed captions and sitting beside me to ensure it ran smoothly throughout the conference. The panel discussions about investing topics opened my eyes and boosted my confidence. I will definitely come blossom Con again next year! read more
If you have been on here or follow income investing on YouTube you will inevitably see the argument of house money. The idea is that a person invests $100,000 and three years later says they are now playing with house money because the fund has paid them $100,000 in distributions. They look at it as getting 100% of their original capital back and now every distribution going forward is basically extra. It does look like that is a fact but you have to look at what the investment is currently worth. If they started with $100,000, received $100,000 in distributions over three years but the investment is now only worth $20,000, they didn't make a 100% return. The $100,000 in distributions received plus the value of the current investment = $120,000 of total value from the original $100,000 investment. So the total return is 20% over the three years and we simplify the calculation and treat it as $100,000 growing to $120,000 over three years, that works out to roughly 6.3% annualized. The yield and distributions might look impressive but the distribution rate is not the return. What matters is the distributions you received plus what happened to the value of your investment. When you hear people saying a fund with a 30% yield lets them safely spend more than a traditional 4% withdrawal strategy, you have to understand that the distribution rate alone does not tell you how much the investment is actually earning. A 30% distribution does not mean the portfolio is generating a 30% total return. If over time you spend more than the portfolio generates in total return you are consuming your portfolio, no different than the person selling shares to fund part of their spending. Consuming a portfolio by selling shares or consuming a portfolio by spending more than the fund earns both result in less capital in the portfolio over time. Saying “I don't want to sell shares to fund retirement” doesn't mean you aren't still consuming the portfolio. The method of withdrawal may be different, but the math of consuming capital is the same. read more
Dividend metrics that actually matter, yield, payout ratio, growth rate, FCF payout, streak, and yield on cost. Yield alone tells you almost nothing. Sustainability and growth tell you more. Save this. Study it. Which dividend metric do you check first?
A Genuine Investing Question Something occurred to me on my walk this morning. For the past three years, I’ve been trying to continually improve my financial literacy — books, audiobooks, podcasts, research, all of it. There are well-known books about index investing, dividend investing, stock picking, active vs. passive investing, tax strategies and even the Smith Manoeuvre. But I realized this morning: I’ve never had a book recommended to me that makes the case for covered-call ETFs as a long-term investing strategy. There ARE books about options and how to write covered calls. And I found a newer book, Option-Premium ETFs: Risk Transfer and Return Profiles, that discusses these products. But I’m thinking more along the lines of Millionaire Teacher, The Wealthy Barber or The Little Book of Common Sense Investing. Something that lays out: Here’s why you would build a long-term portfolio using covered-call ETFs. Here’s the evidence. Here are the benefits, risks and trade-offs. Covered-call ETFs have become increasingly popular, yet after three years of trying to educate myself about investing, I can’t remember ever coming across that book. Maybe I’ve simply missed it. Has anyone read one they would recommend? Genuinely asking. If it’s out there, I’d like to read it and increase my understanding of the strategy.read more
The amount of thematic ETFs coming into the market this year is quite shocking and I’ve spotted a clear pattern with thematic ETF products that I would like to share with you. Not just that, I’m also going to share with you my favorite tip to help spot the ETFs that will likely cut through the crap, survive after launch and actually make strong gains. So, first for the pattern I’ve noticed with examples to prove my point as always: Thematic ETFs are usually launched when the underlying theme is at peak Hype with providers actively launching when themes are hot to exploit investors’ tendency to chase recent performance. Examples: - $LAZR launched within 30 days of most its underlying assets hitting ATH and at the beginning of the biggest AI crash on record. - $LYTE & $NCLD launched 3 days after the Situational Awareness’s forced liquidation cleared the sellers out of AI infrastructure space starting a new rally. - $NASA launched on the hype of SpaceX IPO actually launching 1-day before the confidential SEC filing and then crashed hard post IPO. - $DRAM launched post a massive memory rally created by one of the biggest supply bottlenecks in history. Does that make them bad products? No, but it does make them pretty good marketing tools first and investment products second… The underlying holdings are amazing companies, the themes are often very valid, but the launch timing is optimized for asset gathering, not for investor returns. These ETFs are run by great marketing teams who are following trends, social feeds, sentiment and then packaging a product to meet the demand at the exact moment it peaks, some will still obviously succeed regardless of launch time, but those also share a common factor as I’ve noticed and explain below. Now let me share with you the ultimate signal I look for in a newly launched thematic ETFs: My number 1 watch out is AUM… if it’s below $1B that’s probably the result of major hype and crowding by retail investors with no or limited institutional conviction. I want to see inflows rapidly growing cause that is a confirmation smart money is also investing on your side and not betting against you. Corgi launched 28 thematic ETFs on the same day May 6th, including $CQTM, $STYL, $WR and $NYNY the problem is that most of them will fail due to the simple fact that ETFs with similar fees need between $30M-$50M AUM to justify the investment and the majority of there are $1M or less of AUM. A big red flag for me. Now let’s use capital inflows or AUM growth as a pattern before rapid theme breakout and I can give you 3 amazing examples: $DRAM crossed $1B after 10 days of launch and then surged 198% in June, currently sits at +117% YTD and $26B AUM $QTUM this one was lost at sea for 4.5 years until the whales found it and got to $1B AUM in Jan. 2025 and surged 80% after that and now stands at +34% YTD and $5.5B AUM. $CHAT hit $1B late 2025 and surged +100% after, currently sits at +49% YTD and ~$2B AUM. So, my point here is I use AUM growth as a factor for identifying institutional interest and confirmation for the themes I’m personally watching and I WAIT until enough of that validation is positioned before making a move. Institutions move markets and know a lot more about future prospects of a company or a specific theme than us retail investors ever will… so getting a confirmation of their interest in a theme is a good sign to have and that only shows as AUM grows beyond a specific point. ( this point seems to be confusing some people, ETFs DO NOT move based on inflows or outflows of investment, they move inline with the price movements of the underlying stocks, what I’m reflecting on here is a signal of institutional interest) I joined the $DRAM train when AUM crossed $5B and my cost avg. is $38 currently +46%, but having $26B of institutional money sitting next to me even after an extreme downturn is keeping me very comfortable my remaining position will continue to grow. Another important rule for me: these types of thematic ETFs are never a hold and forget for me… they are timed satellite positions to capitalize on a trend that will deteriorate over time. They usually show extreme concentration behind a handful of names making the quite volatile to single company news and downturns are extremely aggressive, which is why I don’t use them in my core and trim to capture gains as growth momentum continues. I hope this helps anyone interested in thematic ETFs understand how I evaluate these products, and if you watch this pattern you’ll notice it cuts across most successful thematic ETFs that survive and flourish. Not financial advice, Do your own researchread more
NVDA at that price after that amazing earnings report was a no brainer. Thank you to everyone who sold/took gains after the numbers came out but before the actual call.
Cathie Wood's ARK disclosed a $765 million position in SpaceX, bringing the private space company to nearly 5% of the portfolio. This comes as Wood cuts Teradyne by 48%, banking a 347% gain on the semiconductor testing stock. Visit Wood's profile to see her full portfolio and recent trades this last quarter from her 13F filing.
📊 Long-Term Investing: The Power of Thorough Analysis When it comes to long-term investing, understanding the fundamentals of a stock is crucial. It’s not just about jumping on trends; it’s about making informed decisions based on solid data. This chart breaks down the essential financial statements—Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Cash Flow Statement—that every investor should analyze before committing to a stock. 🔍 Balance Sheet: This tells you about the company’s financial health, specifically its assets, liabilities, and equity. A healthy balance sheet is a sign of stability and resilience. 💸 Income Statement: This shows the company’s profitability by detailing revenue, expenses, and profits. A strong income statement indicates a company that’s generating profits, a key factor for long-term growth. 💰 Cash Flow Statement: This reveals how the company manages its cash, from operations to investments and financing. Positive cash flow is essential for sustaining operations and fueling future growth. By mastering these fundamentals, you can make smarter investment choices that stand the test of time. Remember, successful long-term investing isn’t about timing the market; it’s about time in the market, supported by thorough analysis. $VGT$TXN$QQQ$AAPL$META #InvestSmart #LongTermInvesting #FinancialLiteracy #StockMarketAnalysisread more
$NVDA earnings tomorrow. We’ve reacted negatively in the last 4 earnings reports and 6 of the last 8 despite a double beat all those quarters. Implied move is around ~6%.. if they go +6% the market will rip faces off. Thoughts?
It’s been 1 year since I started using margin. Here is a brief run down of lessons learned on how I manage margin health, what I’ve been charged monthly from interest costs and some ideas on paying down margin or maintaining a balance to accumulate more units. https://youtu.be/lspIbg68Xkw?si=pPPV5_ah90Z7_CAb
Good day all, just wondering. When you guys make a trade through your brokerage, does it automatically appear on your profile? In my case, it doesn’t, and my portfolio only updates days later. Any tips for getting trades to show up live without me having to add them manually?
Industrial and Utilities were the top-performing sectors in today’s market. Follow the strength. Prediction: Technology will be the top-performing sector tomorrow. What do you think?
Am I qualified to talk about investing compared to people like Ben Felix and The Plain Bagel? Because surely they know more than me, just some guy! I have been seeing quite a few posts getting mad at "finfluencers," so I can only speak for myself, no one else. I am going to copy and paste a response I just gave to @etf.go because I think the critique is valid, and I simply want to provide more insight into my background. I know most of you just see some brown guy in a hat who never changes his clothing and spends all day with his wife and kids, and yes, I am definitely that. But I worked EXTREMELY hard to build a life I can live on my own terms without financial stress. I started Youtube because I was becoming depressed working for funds and banks in Canada (regarding their ETFs) and felt like I was just spending all my spare time making the rich....richer, which is why I started my Youtube channel, it was the final step in me living the exact life I wanted, a way for me to share everything I know, share everything I am curious about and learning about, and hopefully make a positive impact my family would be proud of. SImple as that, no more, no less. Attached is ETF Go's response to a post questioning finfluencers. It is a VERY valid critique, so there is no defending anything, and here is my response below: "To give you some insight into my background, I have been working in capital markets for over a decade. I have worked alongside every major bank and fund in Canada, as well as several in the US. I understand the industry inside and out because it was my job to know exactly how everything works. In fact, I walked away from massive six figure contracts to start my YouTube channel, since breaking the NDA terms of my contracts could lead to institutions possibly suing me for speaking freely. Some of these NDA are still in effect, even though I stopped working with the funds/banks over a year ago, all NDA's will be completely null by May 2027, so look for more behind the scenes insights then. I personally hold well into the high seven figures in Index ETFs like VFV, Covered Call ETFs, and single stocks. I sell absolutely no courses or consultation services. My private community is just $1 a month, which is strictly to keep out scammers who pretend to be me and to give back. I only partner with companies I have years of experience with, ensuring they do not push predatory products, basically companies that I personally have a minimum of 6 figures invested in for a minimum time horizon of 10 years. The main difference between Ben Felix and myself is his objective. He uses his channel to acquire high net worth clients for PWL, he is actively monetizing his Youtube audience and selling his services, I AM NOT. I run my channel because I have already achieved financial freedom and can afford to say exactly what I want, without needing to sell a course or charge for services. These are the facts. Over time, as you become more familiar with my actual track record, success rate, and work history, I am confident you will see this too. It is easy to assume I am just another guy who turned on a camera to talk about a topic he just discovered. The reality is I made a living as an expert investor and used to be a consultant for every major bank and fund everyone loves on this platform for over a decade. Now, my focus is simply simplifying finance so everyday investors can learn and succeed. I have the freedom to be who I truly am online and to not care about the opinions of funds, institutions, or even viewers. Because I do not need the money, I can simply share what I know, how I feel, what excites me or what cool new thing I learned and what I like, with the hope that someone out there finds value in it. I hope that helps you understand me a bit more!"read more
Summarizing this article $ENB Full ownership of the Orla and Wink North gathering systems, plus a 50% interest in the Delaware Crossing system... so roughly 500 miles of additional crude gathering infrastructure in the Delaware Basin (the western half of the Permian). Combined, these systems can handle 420,000 barrels per day and offer 350,000 barrels of storage. They're already serving more than 20 producers across ~320,000 net dedicated acres, locked in under long-term agreements averaging about 10 years of remaining contract life. The real value isn't the gathering systems...it's how they connect. These assets tie directly into Enbridge's existing Gray Oak Pipeline, creating a more integrated route from the wellhead all the way through to the Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center near Corpus Christi, which the company describes as North America's largest crude export terminal. Enbridge just bought the last mile of gathering infrastructure that feeds oil into a pipeline network it already controls, all the way to export. Classic midstream moat play on their end... locking in producers on long-term contracts at the wellhead, then owning every step of the journey to the water. The longer that chain gets under one roof, the harder it is for a competitor to displace any single link. Management explicitly stated the deal is expected to be immediately accretive to distributable cash flow and earnings per share...not a multi-year payoff, but additive from close. They also maintained full-year 2026 guidance, meaning this fits inside the existing financial plan rather than requiring a reset, which a lot of companies do, so props to the management team... The deal is expected to close later this year, funded fully in cash This all lands right in the middle of the keystone/trade talk conversations. Growing US crude exports are increasing the strategic value of exactly this kind of Permian-to-Gulf-Coast infrastructure. I started my position last week and am looking to add more on further weakness LONG ENBread more
Apple is set to unveil its next iPhone lineup on September 9 the first major launch under new CEO John Ternus 👀 📱 iPhone 18 Pro & Pro Max expected 📖 Possible first-ever foldable iPhone ⚡ New A20 Pro chip ⌚ New Apple Watch models 🤖 More Apple Intelligence updates “Surprise and shine.” ✨ Is Apple about to enter a new era? 🍎📈read more
I am crushing it with $ISBG$BDAY and SUPER close to being break even on price with $MSTE . In the video I explain why the bear market is over, my average price per share with $MSTE, the 3 most likely scenarios for $BTC between TODAY and December, and also interview the CEO of Quantify funds to see why $ISBG surged 14% on Thursday when everything else only went up around 5% and also the future of $MSTE$MSTR and $BTC (It's a must watch interview for $BTC$MSTE$MSTR$IBIT investors). You can check out the video here, it's a long one so make sure to use the chapters, but this should tell you MOST of what you need going into September: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm2FtVB7du0
Want to respond to @ronan's feedback yesterday (and the feedback in the comments) with my own post so my response doesn't get lost in the thread Will start my saying I hear the concerns and am taking them very seriously and this is something I take personal responsibility to fix. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to write out their thoughts and see a ton of passion from everyone in solving these issues. As @ronan mentioned, Blossom has always had a spark and uniqueness and it's our job to make sure that spark doesn't go away as we grow. Here's my summary of the top problems I'm hearing and my plans to fix them: 🤖 1. The rise in AI slop posts crowding quality content - This was the #1 problem raised across the comments and is one we're actively working on. We're following @jacobb's suggestion of an 'AI detection' feature with the ability to see less posts like this. This is set to go live in 3-4 weeks, will see if we can accelerate this 😢 2. Us vs them mentality, hostility especially to new creators - This one is a bit tricky as we don't want to overly police what people say. But there's one example someone gave of a new user being called a loser that are blatantly against our community guidelines of respecting one another. I think the same way we've built in spam/scam detection, we need to do the same for these kinds of comments so we can uphold these guidelines better 🏆 3. Too many milestone posts crowding out quality content - I think there is an important place on Blossom for this kind of content as the milestones are encouraging to other investors in their journey (including myself). I think the issue more so is the volume of them. Curious for folks feeling this issue whether they've tried clicking 'see less posts like this' as that should fix this issue. If not I'll investigate and perhaps not a lot of people know about this feature. I think #1 and #3 stem both stem from the feeling that quality content isn't being rewarded... let me think deeper about how to solve this problem more broadly as I definitely see this too and I don't think fixing AI slop will fully solve this. One commitment I have is to spend much more time connecting with and chatting with Blossom's creators, I want to solve this problem as much as you guys do. One good news is we recently hired our first product manager (who is a Blossom shareholder and creator) who will be fully dedicated to helping me solve this and together we'll have much more time to chat with your all and think about how to solve these problems. 🙏 Let's get Blossom back to the glory days of this community!read more
I am currently 47 years old. Unfortunately in that time frame I have lost a lot of family members. Some (most) were accidents, some to age, some to cancer, and one to suicide. That’s 11 deaths total. Only 1 person out of 11 had a will. When you are grieving the last thing you want to do is close an estate up. It’s even harder if nothing has been prepared in advance. After the initial shock of the death settles (the phase where everyone is usually nice), greed comes through in a most alarming manner. I’ve watched people turn into monsters. Make sure you have a will!!!! or people will fight.  I know most people hate thinking about their death or their spouses death but honestly it’s just a fact of life. I’ve personally been the executor of 2 estates now. This is my advice: 1. If your young get life insurance. If you’re retired it’s not worth it. 2. Make sure you have a will. 3. Make sure you have a personal directive. 4. Make sure you have a power of attorney set up. 5. If your married make your spouse the beneficiary of your TFSA and RRSP(has to be done through the account not the will), they will roll into the spouses account without taxation. 6. If you’re married, and you own a house, make sure both names are on the title, joint tenant, NOT tenant in common. This activates right of survivorship on property and doesn’t have to go through the estate. 7. If you’re married, both people should have their name on all the vehicles, joint, otherwise it’s a headache after death. 8. Buy a file folding system. I have a plastic one that has a clasp and handle. 9. Put EVERYTHING in this file folder that would be needed if you died tomorrow. a) all land titles B) information on house insurance so it can either be eventually canceled or name changed over. C) your will (or the location of your will),  power of attorney, and personal directive D) the information for your car, car insurance, and registration on vehicles. E) information on life insurance. F) all current year papers needed for filing your taxes. Because the survivor will have to do it and will need that information. G) where your household bills are. ALL OF THEM, electricity, gas, Netflix, magazine, subscriptions everything you can think of that is in their name. Because you are going to have to cancel them. H) their credit card information where to contact to cancel the cards I) birth certificate, SIN numbers, marriage, license, etc. J) information on all your investments accounts, bank accounts, etc. K) anything else you can think of for your situation If you’re married, I’d have one box per person. When you die, the funeral home will issue many death certificates. And your lawyer will give you copies of the will. These will be needed to change over any accounts. Everything else goes through the estate which is taxed and the lawyers take their fees so I’d avoid this as much as possible especially if you’re married. This is why having property in both people‘s names is so important because it doesn’t have to go through probate. I am widowed now and I have my black file folder and my two remaining children know if something happens to me, all they have to do is grab the folder. Everything they need to take care of my estate will be located in this folder. At the beginning of every year, I open this file up and go through everything to make sure it’s up-to-date. If you are young and do not own much or can’t afford a will, you can draft one up but it must be handwritten to be classified as a legal document. You cannot type it out!! If you’re not worth much, everything will most likely be sold to pay your bills and cover your funeral expenses. But you can state who your executor will be in your handwritten will.  Disclaimer I’m not a lawyer or an accountant and this is not legal advice. Talk to a lawyer and talk to an accountant. Make sure everything is set up for you and your situation. These are situations that I personally ran into. Good luck Also I’ll add in. IF you have a lot of assets make an appointment with your accountant first. They will tell you how to properly set things up. Then take that information to your lawyer. read more
I’m probably going to jinx it by saying this, but I don’t know guys, this could be the week we see $150,000 in the portfolio. It has to happen eventually, right? 😅 What were your best and worst performing stocks today? Let me know in the comments! 👇
