I got a degree in Finance from Pitt and have never used it. My Freshmen year I took Business Calculus and it was the same exact course I took in high school. I got all A’s my first college semester, made the Dean’s list, and thought I was born to find intrinsic values of companies. Little did I know that Finance was never going to be a part of my life.

When I was 21 and graduated, I took one week off and then started working at the family business. Frankly, I never even considered using the degree because I had my career set from summer work with JC. It wasn’t that finance didn’t interest me, it was only I needed to learn how to be useful in real world situations instead of a suit behind a desk watching market symbols. I’ve always paid attention to the market though and at this point have been investing my own money for almost 20 years.

Simply put, there is investing and there is gambling. I do both. Investing is opening up a Roth IRA and contributing the max each year to low expense index funds. I use Vanguard for this. Our company has a profit sharing and we control how to invest which I use similarly with Schwab’s funds and Berkshire Hathaway B shares. Set and forget. In my own personal TD Ameritrade account (owned by Schwab), I gamble.

I’ve lost thousands of dollars chasing stocks. The hardest concept to grasp is that no one ever tells you when to sell. You need to know when not to be greedy and when you need to let it ride. Back when Sirius was going bankrupt (2008) I owned thousands of shares at .10 cents. I probably sold it at $.50 and was ecstatic. It’s $6.00 12 years later. Not huge money but why did I sell to make a few thousand bucks? Once you realize that there is no magic formula for “gambling”, you’ll hear Jim Cramer’s advice of “pig’s get slaughtered”. Which in this market is what will happen to millions of people.

Young kids are purchasing highly volatile equities (and crypto) on margin and it will not end well. This goes hand in hand for all the hedge funds who are going to crash the market. When the market crashes, you must have money on the sideline. Putting the money back into the market as it crashes is a great way to become wealthy. You don’t do it all at once because no one can predict the bottom. On down days, put whatever amount of money you’re comfortable with into an index fund. They tell you it’s idiotic to keep your money in cash. Well I’m saying it’s idiotic not to be prepared for a huge buying opportunity. Inflation, margin trading, stimulus, moronic handling of supply chain is all prevalent right now and these wild market days are not over. Get ready to buy into weakness. Remember, I’m only a finance major from Pitt with the smallest opinion possible, but I think this is offering good advice. Don’t miss this potential upcoming buying opportunity. Also, buy more UAVS. It’s cheap.