Hi from Germany :-)

Drop in and tell us a little about yourself.
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TPK
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Hi from Germany :-)

Post by TPK »

Hi folks,

Sorry but I overlooked this introductions thread. Been here a few days now and really enjoying being here! I was born in Western MD, grew up in Eastern FL and have lived here in Southern Germany since 1991. My english is a bit rusty after all these years and it wasn't that great to begin with but I'll do my best.

Take care and have a nice weekend everbody,

Tom
TOM - KGFG - (Knife-Guy-From-Germany)

I believe..., every knife is a soul, looking for a soulmate. :wink:

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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

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Welcome to AAPK
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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

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Guten Morgen...from Texas!!!
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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

Post by Steve Warden »

Welcome!
I was stationed at Rhein Main AB from 1983 to 1986. My son was born in Wiesbaden. Would LOVE to go back!
Take care and God bless,

Steve
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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

Post by Sharpnshinyknives »

TPK wrote:Hi folks,

Sorry but I overlooked this introductions thread. Been here a few days now and really enjoying being here! I was born in Western MD, grew up in Eastern FL and have lived here in Southern Germany since 1991. My english is a bit rusty after all these years and it wasn't that great to begin with but I'll do my best.

Take care and have a nice weekend everbody,

Tom
Tom, welcome to the forum. You and I have interacted already a good bit. It’s a pleasure talking with you. I am glad that you are here and will stick around for a very long time.
I have taken German and made it to the third level of Rosetta Stone, but the one thing that hangs me up on that system is having to spell German words. I can’t get it right to save me. It has me in a bad habit of pronouncing everyday words in German, plus when I type I am constantly capitalizing all nouns.
I started learning German because of my ancestry and my company offers trips as an incentive and one trip was to Germany where you get to spend a week in your own Porsche and drive the autobahn. I never did earn that trip and hope to do it on my own someday. I want to be able to interact fluently if I ever get there.
Again, glad you are here.
Mark. SSk
SSk Mark “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” Ronald Reagan
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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

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Welcome to the forum.
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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

Post by TPK »

Hi SSK,

Hey thats great for your health that you are learning a language. I took a free MOOC=(Massive Open Online Course) from the University of Tasmania around Christmas time. It was called "Preventing Dementia". I learned in that course that one of the best ways to keep your brain funktioning as it should is to exercise it as much as possible.:

Like by means of interaction with others such as here. We have interacted with each other several times now. I try to remember things about you and you try to remember things about me. This forces the brain to stay active and work by remembering details and this in turn keeps the brain healthier for longer. But here is the good news for you, they say that one of the very best things you can do to keep the brain healthy is to learn a new language. This forces the brain to remember the words you learn over a prolonged period of time. Normally for years. And that is supposedly one of the best ways of maintaining good mental health. So keep on learning my friend. It will benifit you not only with more wisdom but also with better health and memory.

For anyone who enjoys learning, search the internet for MOOC's. Many of them are for free and even offer you a certificate of completion like the one I took just for fun and out of curiosity to find out how they work. The one I took was like 4 parts of 2-3 hours of reading and watching videos, followed by a ten question quiz at the end of each part. You had to get 7 from 10 questions right before passing on to the next part of the course but you could retake the quiz as often as you liked so you can't even really fail unless you give up. And..., you may even find some job related courses you can take. It's good when asking for a pay raise or when applying for a new job. Certificates are always impressive and it shows your willingness to learn new things, shows that your not lazy and so on and so forth. Think about it. ::tu::

Take care Mark (if I remembered right ::hmm:: ) lol

Tom
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I believe..., every knife is a soul, looking for a soulmate. :wink:

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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

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Tom, we have already interacted some on other posts but Welcome to AAPK. I took 3 years of German in high school, then didn’t use it for about twenty years. But then my work sent me on a lot of international travel to Europe and Asia. I spent a lot of time in Germany so my high school German came back to me to some degree. I have been all over Germany, from Düsseldorf to Dresden to Hamburg (where I could understand folks) to Munich (where I couldn’t understand anyone :lol: ) and points in between. One of the best vacations I ever had was a week my wife and I spent at a Gasthof in a small town (im Schwarzwald) where no one spoke English. I have many humorous anecdotes about my poor attempts to speak and interpret German with the native speakers, and their reactions trying to politely and patiently interact with me. :lol:

Ken
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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

Post by TPK »

Hi Mumbleypeg,

Man thats a hard name to remember. Went back and looked at it like 3 times. Hope I got it right. Sounds like you have a good job there. If you don't mind the question, what do you do that you get to travel around like that? Wish I could get paid to travel to the US. That would be awesome!

I have done several different things over here. 8-yrs. as a carpenter & roofer, 10-yrs. as a CNC-grinder, 5-yrs. quality control and my latest and hopefully last type of work is warehouse logistiks.

Talk to ya soon,

Tom
TOM - KGFG - (Knife-Guy-From-Germany)

I believe..., every knife is a soul, looking for a soulmate. :wink:

Weebit-Nano https://www.weebit-nano.com/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weebit_Nano

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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

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I lived for a year near the end of the tram line in Munchen. That was long ago while in the Army. Welcome to AAPK.
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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

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Tom, I worked 40 years for a Fortune 500 global semiconductor electronics company. I traveled all over the U.S., Canada and Mexico, Europe, Asia and Japan. After I “retired” I did consulting for several years in many of those same places. Sometimes I was in one city for only a day or two, and sometimes I was there for a month or more at a time. Over the years I went to most places multiple times, which made it interesting to watch how things change over a period of many years.

Although people often think of travel as being “cool”, trust me if you do it much it’s a hassle. Especially getting to and from places and living out of a suitcase in hotel rooms, away from your family. You get tired of it real quick!

By the way, mumbleypeg (sometimes spelled mumblypeg, mumbley-peg, mumblety-peg, etc) is/was an American game played with pocket knives, usually by schoolboys. There are several variations of the game, I think the differences related to the region of the country you lived in. When I was a boy we played a version of it, and several other pocket knife-centered games, in the school yard at recess or before school while waiting for the school bell to ring. (And in case you’re wondering I don’t recall anyone ever being injured by a knife while playing those games). :lol:

Ken
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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

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Tom,
We were in Germany, from the summer of 1994 through the summer of 1997. I was in the Air Force, at Ramstein Air Base. I could just manage to get a room and a beer with Mein schlechtes Deutsch sprechen. Loved Germany!!!
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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

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I've never been to Germany or even attempted to speak the language, but I'm still glad to have you join us here at AAPK. Make yourself at home. ::handshake::
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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

Post by TPK »

Thanks for all the warm welcomes everyone. It's great to be here and I am deeply enjoying chatting with all you fellow Americans.

@Mumbleypeg: A pocket knife game huh? I'll have to do some research on that subject. Sounds interesting.

Semicoductors huh? Wow!!! Very Impressive line of work!!! That is a topic I don't know too much about but brings up the topic of one of my other hobbies, penny stocks. If you ever have the time and get bored, you could take a look at Weebit-Nano for me and tell me what your impression of them is.

They are listed on the ASX, have an impressive BOD (David-"Dadi"-Perlmutter) and are working together with Prof. James Tour of Rice University in Texas & CEA/Leti in France useing Silicon Oxide to produce a disruptive new Non-volatile-Memory / Resistive Random-Access Memory or ("ReRAM"). They have already successfuly produced 40nm chips, are currently working on 28nm chips and may advance to far smaller scales over time. Now that may sound like I know what I'm talking about but I really don't. Anyways, I don't want to get too far off topic but like I said, I'd love to hear what you think of them if you ever get the chance to look at them. https://www.weebit-nano.com/ A simple ::tu:: or ::td:: would be helpful to me. Thanks in advanced Ken, just incase you do Check them out.

Almost forgot to mention that they are also working on some really ground breaking things such as "IoT", "AI" and "PIM".

Greetings from across the big pond,

Tom
TOM - KGFG - (Knife-Guy-From-Germany)

I believe..., every knife is a soul, looking for a soulmate. :wink:

Weebit-Nano https://www.weebit-nano.com/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weebit_Nano

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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

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Tom, I’m not a stock advisor and if you knew my record at picking stocks you wouldn’t ask my opinion. ::facepalm::

Ken
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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

Post by Sharpnshinyknives »

TPK wrote:Thanks for all the warm welcomes everyone. It's great to be here and I am deeply enjoying chatting with all you fellow Americans.

@Mumbleypeg: A pocket knife game huh? I'll have to do some research on that subject. Sounds interesting.

Semicoductors huh? Wow!!! Very Impressive line of work!!! That is a topic I don't know too much about but brings up the topic of one of my other hobbies, penny stocks. If you ever have the time and get bored, you could take a look at Weebit-Nano for me and tell me what your impression of them is.

They are listed on the ASX, have an impressive BOD (David-"Dadi"-Perlmutter) and are working together with Prof. James Tour of Rice University in Texas & CEA/Leti in France useing Silicon Oxide to produce a disruptive new Non-volatile-Memory / Resistive Random-Access Memory or ("ReRAM"). They have already successfuly produced 40nm chips, are currently working on 28nm chips and may advance to far smaller scales over time. Now that may sound like I know what I'm talking about but I really don't. Anyways, I don't want to get too far off topic but like I said, I'd love to hear what you think of them if you ever get the chance to look at them. https://www.weebit-nano.com/ A simple ::tu:: or ::td:: would be helpful to me. Thanks in advanced Ken, just incase you do Check them out.

Almost forgot to mention that they are also working on some really ground breaking things such as "IoT", "AI" and "PIM".

Greetings from across the big pond,

Tom
Tom, I just retired after 26 years as a stock broker/ financial advisor. My advice and ignore this if you like since you didn’t ask me, is to avoid penny stocks. Penny stocks always have a lot of hype surrounding them. Typically if you are reading or getting information that tells you all of that information that you have on it, it probably came from a promoter of the stock. There are companies that get paid a lot of money to pump these stocks up for insiders who are just waiting to sell their shares. It’s called pump and dump. Penny stocks are the target of these enterprises. Many manipulators have gone to jail over these schemes. So first of all question the information you are getting on this, the source and the motive.
Secondly. Penny stocks trade on the “pink sheets” and have very low registration requirements, which makes them especially prone to misinformation.
Thirdly, the fundamentals of these companies stink. They play games w/ the numbers. Take a look at any penny stock and look at the history of stock issuance. You will see the number of shares starting low and going up by millions of shares per year. In other words the company is selling more stock and diluting the value of all the stock out there. Start up companies do this on a regular basis and continually knock the price of the stock down raising money to operate.
Along the same line as stock issuance is convertible debt. Debt that converts to stock in the future if the price rises. It’s a double ripoff. They have borrowed money from some sucker w/ the promise that when the stock hit’s a high price that is agreed upon, to bond converts to stock and guess what happens then? More stock is issued and the price drops again. You have to dig through the K-1 filings to find this information out. If you got to the company website and look under investor relations you can find all the filings the company has made. Now you have to search through each one to find what you are looking for.
Another source for the filings is “Free Edgar” website.
My best advice is that penny stocks are lottery tickets. It’s not investing, its speculating and real investing is not speculating. Stick w/ quality companies that don’t play these games.
SSk
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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

Post by TPK »

Ok Ken and SSK,

Thanks for the advice and the warning. And yes, I have been burnt bad before (I'll just say DOT-COM Bubble/Invesco New Markets) but I keep hoping I can find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

One more question SSK. What about Dividend Stocks or Dividend ETF's? Or something else? Gold? Silver? Platin? There must be some way to get ahead. ::shrug:: Sure can't get ahead from work alone. At least I have never have been able to get ahead. I'm not lazy either. I work like a dog. I have often worked more than one job over long periods of time. Just never get paid much. I've gotta find something soon or I'll stay poor forever. I either have to find a short cut or a job that pays me good. And guess what, they don't have jobs that pay well for foreigners with a HS- Diploma here so I need a short cut, or a plan, or a trick, or something. You got any ideas for me?

On the other hand, my Grandmother always said..., "If you want to double your money, fold it and put it back in your wallet." :mrgreen:

Looking forward to hearing what you have to say! :D

Have a good one,

Tom
TOM - KGFG - (Knife-Guy-From-Germany)

I believe..., every knife is a soul, looking for a soulmate. :wink:

Weebit-Nano https://www.weebit-nano.com/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weebit_Nano

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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

Post by Sharpnshinyknives »

TPK wrote:Ok Ken and SSK,

Thanks for the advice and the warning. And yes, I have been burnt bad before (I'll just say DOT-COM Bubble/Invesco New Markets) but I keep hoping I can find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

One more question SSK. What about Dividend Stocks or Dividend ETF's? Or something else? Gold? Silver? Platin? There must be some way to get ahead. ::shrug:: Sure can't get ahead from work alone. At least I have never have been able to get ahead. I'm not lazy either. I work like a dog. I have often worked more than one job over long periods of time. Just never get paid much. I've gotta find something soon or I'll stay poor forever. I either have to find a short cut or a job that pays me good. And guess what, they don't have jobs that pay well for foreigners with a HS- Diploma here so I need a short cut, or a plan, or a trick, or something. You got any ideas for me?

On the other hand, my Grandmother always said..., "If you want to double your money, fold it and put it back in your wallet." :mrgreen:

Looking forward to hearing what you have to say! :D

Have a good one,

Tom
Tom, I really can’t give you specific ideas with out doing my background work on you, risk tolerance, time frame, net worth etc. I don’t do that anymore. Because I don’t do that, I can speak in generalities about this here. My most successful clients, invested in dividend paying stocks. Look at the “Dividend Aristocrats” first. These are blue chip companies that have increased their dividend every year for 25 years or more. These are the cream of the crop. You can Google dividend aristocrats and find a list. From that list find the ones that you are familiar with and try to buy the ones that pay around 3% dividend or more.
You can also look at Dividend Champions and Dividend Achievers. Shorter time frames raising dividends. Some really good companies only started paying dividends less that 10 years ago and shouldn’t be ruled out. Apple, Cisco come to mind.
Find a broker dealer that allows you to “dollar cost average” and you can set up a program to invest every month into these companies. You won’t find “penny stocks” on any DCA lists, usually only the biggest companies.
There are no short cuts to acquiring wealth. It takes time, money and smart choices. In 26 years I grew an office from 0 assets and clients to 700 clients and 150 million in assets. Not one of all the people I worked with ever got rich quick by finding that one stock that made them rich. I did have people who bought good stocks and held them for decades and did very well. Utilities, oil, banks and pharmaceutical companies are the ones that grew and grew.
I hope this helps you and I wish you all the best.
SSk
SSk Mark “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” Ronald Reagan
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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

Post by TPK »

Thanks SSK,

That is what I've been thinking for a couple of years now but was not sure If I was on the right track or not. I like the buyupside page. It's easy to work with and find things. https://www.buyupside.com/dividendarist ... sorted.php
l will try to get started going in this direction as soon as I can. Thanks again for your honest oppinion. ::tu::

Gotta get to work now,

Take care,

Tom
TOM - KGFG - (Knife-Guy-From-Germany)

I believe..., every knife is a soul, looking for a soulmate. :wink:

Weebit-Nano https://www.weebit-nano.com/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weebit_Nano

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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

Post by TPK »

Hi again SSK,

Didn't have much time to write back this morning but I am TOTALLY STOKED that you have shared this/your financial wisdom with me and anyone else who may happen to read your last post. Thank you! I believe that a man with your background and experience knows exactly what works, how it works, why it works ect. And what does not work.

As I said, I have been thinking I should try investing in dividend stocks for some time now but I have always shyed away from it because of 2 reasons.:

Nr. 1) I wasn't 100% sure if it's really a good stratigie or if it was just another one of my get rich quick ideas.
Nr. 2) It's also been a question of not haveing enough money to invest enough at once to really make it worth the fee of 20-Euros.

I am gonna spend some more time on this theme now. Read a book or two about it and try to make (small but long term) investments in the direction of a better retirement. Im 46 now, so if I start right away, It can still make a difference in 20 years. Thanks again for your thoughts on this subject! I owe you one! ::handshake::

I wish you and all the other great AAPK members a beautiful Easter! :D

TC+GB,
Tom
TOM - KGFG - (Knife-Guy-From-Germany)

I believe..., every knife is a soul, looking for a soulmate. :wink:

Weebit-Nano https://www.weebit-nano.com/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weebit_Nano

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Re: Hi from Germany :-)

Post by Sharpnshinyknives »

[quote="TPK"]Hi again SSK,

Didn't have much time to write back this morning but I am TOTALLY STOKED that you have shared this/your financial wisdom with me and anyone else who may happen to read your last post. Thank you! I believe that a man with your background and experience knows exactly what works, how it works, why it works ect. And what does not work.

As I said, I have been thinking I should try investing in dividend stocks for some time now but I have always shyed away from it because of 2 reasons.:

Nr. 1) I wasn't 100% sure if it's really a good stratigie or if it was just another one of my get rich quick ideas.
Nr. 2) It's also been a question of not haveing enough money to invest enough at once to really make it worth the fee of 20-Euros.

I am gonna spend some more time on this theme now. Read a book or two about it and try to make (small but long term) investments in the direction of a better retirement. Im 46 now, so if I start right away, It can still make a difference in 20 years. Thanks again for your thoughts on this subject! I owe you one! ::handshake::

You are welcome Tom. Just avoid high dividend paying stocks, don’t get suckered by a company paying 7,8,10 or more percent. Those dividends are a red flag that something is wrong. You will get burnt w/ those stocks. Stick to quality. FInd an investment platform or company that allows you to invest in a DCA program. My old firm would allow as little as 100 dollars per month. The fee was 5 dollars or 2% whichever was greater. My guess is that there is something over there that would fit the bill. Most people don’t realize that you can start investing in such small amounts but you can and it’s a great way to get started. Several mutual fund companies have minimums to start as low as 250 dollars and you can invest on an on going basis for only 25 dollars per month. Doing something is better than nothing. You will be amazed at how much this will build up for you over time. You aren’t that old and you do have a lot of time ahead of you to build a nice nest egg. Be disciplined and stick to it and don’t dip into it. Consider it money you can’t get to and you will thank me even more in 15 or 20 years. I wish you the best.
SSk
SSk Mark “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” Ronald Reagan
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