Back in the Game with Etsy

Seeing Etsy's stock dip back to $12.86, we re-entered and will continue our long position. roulette-1278066_960_720 I could have also elected to hold through the little dip and add to the position, but I really don't want to play big on Etsy. Not only do I see investing as a necessary evil to turn a little measly Etsy Shop salary into a sustainable living wage, I enjoy breaking up the work day with a little background research and reading the charts. As we discussed last night over dinner, there are so few good opportunities for the middle class to find solid upward mobility. Those fortunate enough to sock away a little extra every year will most likely drift through the doors of Chubb, Schwalb, Merrill or other well known wealth management investment corp, while the 1% venture over to their buddy running a Hedge Fund. The big players are likely to offer a mix of mutual funds, ETFs, and on rare instances they will sweeten the deal with a few dividend aristocrats such as PG or WBC. Total returns on such vanilla investment portfolios are often times between 4% - 8% on up years. Many Hedge Funds flirt with 12%-15% albeit the risk may be significantly greater. In the end, the question I was left to ponder is whether wealthier folks are willing to take on greater risks because they simply have more financial security or whether wealthy investors tend to simply take higher calculated risks from the start, therefore they have become wealthy through a sum of well played and well calculated risks. The answer is obviously a mix of both ideas, while the sad reality is even the most industrious and hard working blue collar worker will most likely only find wealth through pure luck as long as they continue to believe hard work is the one and only path to successful upward mobility. Too often I write about the challenges of running a business without pointing out the positives. Initially, the home office worker is usually bedazzled by the freedom of "self-scheduling" which soon is nothing more than a passing dream when the 7 day work week schedule takes hold and you wish for even more hours in a day, but the real freedom is in leaving behind office politics and taking control of your own fate. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of self-determination over your own future as perhaps the biggest drive towards leaving behind that fantastically comfortable cubicle where the weather is 67F and fluorescent all year round. Once you take that first step away from being safe beyond the felt padded aluminum walls and well protected under the fortress of ceiling tile overhead, seeing the bright sun overhead can be enough to send just about anyone running for cover. As the days pass though, sunrise becomes a welcome sight and signals the beginning of the next fight instead of drudgeries of rolling out of bed in order to start the mindless motions of a routine. It would seem after 4 years of NiciArt, the creative processes should be well entrenched in our daily lives, however we are just beginning to mature enough to recognize creative processes reach well beyond our business and influence all aspects of our choices. This year, creative process brought me to manage my own trading, retirement, and investment portfolios. Like closing your eyes and diving straight into the deep dark water below, the leap of faith has returned 17% this year. Of course, that's not exactly an amazing accomplishment when the markets are up, but again it's not always about the immediate results rather the actual creative process and inspiration to look to self-determination. Perhaps I've just been listing to a bit too much Rush lately and have "Freewill" stuck in my head....    
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