I don't use any of that stuff, so I kind of figured that it was the standard, and therefore a relatively safe investment. Maybe it's down because it apparently takes ten minutes to start up a competing service.
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From an investment standpoint its probably the giant that's most used since it was a pioneer for boomers

So kind of like Bud (when it was a good investment)

Something to make money on but not personally utilize/consume
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I also hedged a bit with some Square stock, and it's been catastrophic too, but on a lesser scale. I wish I'd never heard either name.

The feds are coming out with their own service soon, and that can't be good for these private companies, but they'd tanked long before that news.
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Well paypal owns Venmo.

It also owns Braintrust which is I think a clearinghouse.

They also have zettle which I believe is a POS system.

I poked around on this stock rather than doing shit I should have been doing. I'm guessing going from 4+ billion in Net Income to 2.4 billion is a big driver. Their debt is increasing, but not alarmingly so.

They also have an activist investor. Elliot Investment Management got a seat on their board.
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It's pretty surprising given their financial numbers. They are a stock that is severely undervalued and seems to be beaten down more than most. PE ratio of 14.


https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/PYPL/
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My mom made the mistake of opening hers last week and it took several days for that mood to wear off. I almost felt sorry for dad.

I'm sure it was only a small part of it, but there is an auction house clone of eBay where you can buy firearms, parts, accessories, ammo etc. PayPal was basically it's only quick and easy version of payment for years because all three parties involved and .gov liked it's ease of use and trust throughout the background check process. Once some background on the company got out it's use was basically eliminated in that sector. That business is never coming back.

For me, it was all the email scams and their "the customer is always right" stance. Once people figured out how to play the system, sellers were getting fucked left and right to the point many stopped accepting PayPal.
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Eh, maybe. Their margins are shrinking substantially. They grew Gross revenue by 8% in 2022 but their Net Income fell 42%.. 2.4B is still a nice tidy profit, but is staggering compared to the 4.2 they'd been pulling in the last 2 FY. Their debt also rose by 8% and was roughly the same amount as the increase in gross revenue. A good chunk of that is long term debt, which may have been shifting operating debt to long term debt (which I wish I would have done before the interest rate went clear to fuck).

It seems to me that companies that were riding the cheap money wave to achieve stock price improvement by growth at the sake of everything else are paying the piper. I don't know if Paypal is one of those, but it appears to me the pullback is growth related. And since the prices were irrationally inflated for tech companies (IMO), it's hard to tell where wall street sentiment will think it needs to be.

DISCLAIMER: REDDIT FINANCIAL ANALYSIS AHEAD

https://www.reddit.com/r/ValueInvest...ng_pypl_stock/

There is some interesting discussion on it in a recent reddit thread. These assbags who may know less that nothing suggest otherwise. 15 is fine for a PE which shows growth, while their gross revenue did grow 8% (which they'd consistentlly grown 18-20%), their net income declined 41%. That suggests that there is not much more growth to be had outside of M&A.

These assbags who may know nothing suggest that a PE without growth should be around 8.

These assbags who may know nothing also linked a pretty decent read, though dated.

https://valueinvestorsclub.com/idea/...INC/4614694159
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I'd never thought about this, but I wonder if all of the hackers and scammers go after a particular company while shorting the stock. That sounds like a very North Korea or China thing to do.
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Well, NVDA killed it in earnings. Again.
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I thought I was going to be rich, but I guess the market looked at the astounding growth and success and is now pushing the stock lower because it might not happen as much in the future.

I really hate the gambling element of owning stocks.
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End of the year should be a time to reflect and calculate if you're on track to meet retirement goals, no matter how long or short your timeline.

I like this calculator from nerd wallet for determining investment returns. I tend to choose 6% as my rate of return because I can plan to achieve my retirement investment number with something conservative and if I end up doing better, maybe I could retire earlier!

Number 1 rule that most people struggle with when investing is "pay yourself first" and learn how to live off the rest of your take home. You must be consistent with investing for retirement, it can't just be "when you have extra money." 6 years ago we started saving 25% of our income to investments and made it work to live off the rest. It's not always easy but it's the only way to make it work when planning for the future. And my plan is not to work forever!

https://www.nerdwallet.com/calculato...ent-calculator

I think I've mentioned before but I use TBIL in a brokerage account to keep the small amount of money actually labeled as an "emergency fund" in something that is liquid but generates 5.3% interest. There is no reason to have any substantial amount of money in a savings account today unless it's a high interest savings account. I like the ease of TBIL compared to a savings account, however, and just parking it there for an easy 5% annualized return with interest paid out monthly.
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Do you see more uptrend or possible correction?

I'm conflicted but see upside more than downside.
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I'm optimistic. The market went down when interest rates went up, so it seems logical that the opposite should happen next year. And we've essentially been at a 0 percent return on average for the past couple of years, so at some point it'll go positive.
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I see a short term uptrend with plenty that could put us into more downside risk/return to bear market territory. But I also know I'm just one douche and I try not to let noise freak me out and continually invest as the long term trend is almost always your friend!

If I was older, I'd definitely be more cautious right now. There are some out there predicting a true bear market and possible 2008 crash sometime in the next 2-5 years. I think if you saw housing crash again, followed by some banking issues those could be a catalyst. Probably lots of conjecture in that though from those predicting it.

Here's a good reminder using the monthly chart of the S&P for the past 10 years. Pretty incredible isn't it? Staying consistent will get you much farther ahead, especially if you can get consistent when you're younger.


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That's my thought. Market is 6-9 months ahead of what is happening. :-)
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