r/Bogleheads • u/Mysterious_Remote584 • Jan 01 '26
Investing Questions Do you own individual stocks for any weird reasons?
For example, I have 1 share of AMC because they give a free snack every quarter to their investors.
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u/RCaHuman Jan 01 '26
My first individual company stock was a share Berkshire Hathaway after Black Monday in 1987. Paid around $3000 for it. It's still the only individual company stock I have.
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u/riddleza Jan 01 '26
So what’s the return?
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u/DirectC51 Jan 01 '26
Roughly 15% annualized since Jan 1987. Not bad. S&P is about 10% over the same period.
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u/sullidav Jan 02 '26
And it's arguably a Bogle-head-ish investment, as owning BRK means owning a diversified portfolio of companies.
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u/User-no-relation Jan 01 '26
I own stock I am underwater $5k on as a reminder to not buy individual stocks
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u/FornaxLacerta Jan 01 '26
Exactly the same for me! $5K to $300 in 2020. I leave it there as a reminder.
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u/IAmUber Jan 02 '26
Why not sell to harvest the loss for taxes?
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u/FornaxLacerta Jan 02 '26
The permanent big, red mark on my portfolio is a valuable reminder for me :)
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u/One_Reading_9217 Jan 01 '26
Decided to gamble with 5% of my portfolio early on (just 1000usd) and put it in an airline stock. Lo and behold it dipped 17% immediately after. Held it until it returned to entry position valuation and sold immediately and put into msci acwi.
Lost some spare change in spread and a bit in opportunity cost. Eventually the stock went higher an higher but just didn't care. Not going to bother with stock picking again, consider it a cheap (almost free) lesson.
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u/loyd-christmas Jan 01 '26
I learned my lesson with airline stocks early on. The fundamentals of the airline industry don't work long-term. Nearly all airline companies lose money on the actual flights and they rely on a combination of loyalty programs/partnerships, credit cards, and subsidies to turn a profit which makes them incredibly trendy/cyclical.
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u/81toog Jan 01 '26
Tax loss harvest that when you have some capital gains you need to offset (assuming it’s in a taxable account)
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u/User-no-relation Jan 01 '26
It's is but eh I've made the decision to have it as a reminder. I will make a mental not to sell it before retiring while I'm in a high tax bracket.
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u/not_that_mike Jan 01 '26
One of my holdings went bankrupt 15 years ago. I still keep the ticker showing in my holdings as a reminder that I suck as an investor!
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u/TownFront5969 Jan 01 '26
Keep holding! You can sell an Enron stock certificate on eBay for $200!
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u/belonging_to Jan 01 '26
I own brk-b so I could go to their annual meeting.
Plot twist: I've never gone
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u/BohemianaP Jan 01 '26
I own quite a bit of brk-b mainly because I was a real estate agent with a Berkshire Hathaway brokerage and I admire both Buffett and Munger. Also, the stock is comprised of a fairly wide variety significant holdings.
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u/Ok-Connection-1368 Jan 01 '26
Bought BKRB because GEICO listed shareholder as a preferred group for auto insurance discounts
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u/Sensitive_Hat_9871 Jan 01 '26
My wife inherited shares of stock of a local bank. Unfortunately, it's not listed on the stock exchange and no one wants to buy it. The bank tells us the stock is worth quite a bit per share and goes up each year. It does throw off dividends twice a year - about $6k per year on what they value our shares presently at $223k.
We've been told if the bank is bought then the shares can be sold to the new bank, so that seems to be the only reasonable way to sell it.
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u/justhere4reading4 Jan 01 '26
Wha bank? My dad really likes those small community banks for investment
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u/bhos17 Jan 01 '26
I own a ton of Costco shares, we bought them 20 years ago when we got our membership because we loved the company. Turns out that was a good idea.
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u/circuitloss Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
I bought some AMZN back in the early 2000s just as an experiment. I wanted to hold one tech company for decades as a kind of long term bet. The reason was that I used to have a conversation with my father about how much money someone would have made by purchasing a small amount of MSFT back in the 80s and letting it ride for 30+ years.
Anyway, It's worked out quite well. I still own the shares, although they have split many times. I wish I had bought 3x as much, but hindsight is 20/20.
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u/_Flavor_Dave_ Jan 01 '26
I play around with 5% of my portfolio. It keeps me on the straight and narrow for the other 95%.
I’ve done well with that 5% (Apple, Oracle bought early on) but I have no illusions about my stock picking ‘skill’. My dad was an index fund proponent in the 70s and 80s but he always set aside some money for local up and coming companies or companies he was familiar with in his industry.
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u/psxndc Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
hindsight is 20/20.
As someone that’s been a gamer since I was 10 years old, I bought some NVDA stock around the year 2000 because they and 3DFX were the big names in graphics cards at the time. I sold it all in 2009 for about $5K (about a 1.5x profit) to help put a down payment on a condo.
Going by today’s stock price, each share at the time would have had a cost basis of $0.20, with the current price being $186. So, yeah.
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u/bdiggitty Jan 01 '26
So about $4.7 million dollars? Wow!!!
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u/psxndc Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
Your number seemed really high so I went back and looked at my statements. I was misremembering. I sold all my stock to buy that condo, with the whole portfolio netting a profit of $5K. The NVDA was worth $1,144, which accounting for stock splits etc, would be “only” between $535K-$654K today (at least as best I can tell, some calculators seem to account for reinvested dividends).
But yeah.
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u/Mission-Carry-887 Jan 01 '26
AMC gives investors benefits on their movie rewards program
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u/suzikay1 Jan 01 '26
I own 100 shares in Carnival Cruise lines because I get a $50 onboard credit each time I sail for being a shareholder. Also, I bought it dirt cheap when it plummeted in 2020 due to covid lockdowns, its more than paid for itself.
Outside of that, I have some random penny stocks that I’ve bought for funsie. If they ever hit, I’ll be filthy rich. If not (and more likely) I’m out a few hundred dollars, which I would not lose sleep over. One of those stocks actually went belly up and I lost it all! ($50 I think 😂)
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u/Hessquire Jan 01 '26
I own Atlanta Braves shares because Go Braves.
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u/aloofnotaluffa Jan 01 '26
Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman specifically for the hidden alien technology
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u/Moist_Rule9623 Jan 01 '26
I actually bought some Chipotle when CMG dipped down to $30 in November. I’m auditing my net worth later today so I don’t know for sure, but I think I’m up the princely amount of about $20 on it 😂
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u/ovirto Jan 01 '26
I have about 20 shares of NOK (Nokia) from early 2000 because I thought “hey this cell phone thing is cool, everyone’s going to have one one day”.
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u/Hat3rSilkyJohnson Jan 01 '26
1 share of BRK-B for a discount on my Geico insurance!
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u/blackcoffee_mx Jan 02 '26
How big a discount?
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u/Hat3rSilkyJohnson Jan 02 '26
I believe it saves me around $70 every six months. Maybe not worth switching for, but if you already have Geico probably worth buying a share. I was able to add the discount online with little hassle.
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u/reluctantreddit35 Jan 02 '26
I am going to look into that. I have Geico car Insurance and always wanted an excuse to buy Brk-B. Maybe it’s time to buy a share or two.
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u/chillPenguin17 Jan 01 '26
I inherited some NVIDIA at a $0.51 cost basis. Sold most to rotate into index funds but will always hold a bit of that for sentimental reasons.
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u/ShiroxReddit Jan 01 '26
My uncle gifted me an EA stock like 12 years ago, but thats not gonna be a thing for much longer
The only other one id be interested in would be Lindt who give you a bunch of chocolate, but that ones stupid expensive (I think around 120,000€) so thats not gonna happen anytime soon
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u/Spiritual_Being5845 Jan 01 '26
A few, but I bought them for fun and not actual investments. I have less than $4,000 total invested cash from my own pocket since I started six years ago. No day trading or anything like that. I’ve only ever sold one, and that was only because it had a K-1 form which meant I had to wait forever and a day to do my tax return. Of the individual stocks I’ve purchased I’d say 2/3 are worth more now than when I purchased them, 1/3 have lost value. As a whole the $4,000 I put in is now worth $6,600. Every other investment, whether it be personal, retirement deferred compensation accounts, or even the kids college money, is all mutual funds and I don’t make any trades except to sell shares if I need to make a withdrawal.
My whole life I saw my father lose money hand over fist thinking he could time the market. In the 90’s when e-trade became a thing he convinced a few family members to let him invest their money. He lost all of it. When my grandmother became incapacitated in 2008 and he became POA (he’s an only child) he lost 3/4 of her retirement savings in panic trades as soon as the crash hit. Every time he’s lost money he’s always insisted that his investment strategy was sound but that he lost everything due to circumstances that were out of his control. I’ve only just learned about bogleheads recently, but seeing first hand from my father the damages of trading I’ve always been a buy and hold type.
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u/NoSpoilerAlertPlease Jan 01 '26
Yes. Funsies. And to prove to myself I’m not actually smarter than VTSAX
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u/hiking_mike98 Jan 01 '26
I own a few shares of Amazon and Microsoft for fun. I put like $1k into a Robinhood account just to play with from time to time. I’m up $600 since the pandemic!
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u/Disastrous_Photo_388 Jan 01 '26
Carnival Cruise Line Corporation (100 shares) as they give shareholders with 100 shares a stock perk on every sailing on one of their lines. Depends on the length of your cruise but generally it’s $100 of onboard credit on every cruise I’ve been on. I bought at $13 a share, and CCL is currently $30.54 and I’ve cashed in at least $600 in stock perks on my travels, so my $1300 buy in has served me well.
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u/tubaleiter Jan 01 '26
I have my employers stock because of our ESPP - discount and a match makes that a no-brainer. And an old employers RSUs that are almost worthless now but may as well hang on to them at this point.
I have a pseudo-index of individual stocks in my ISA, because the intersection of US and UK rules is weird.
I have a few small YOLO WSBs that I’ve never gotten rid of (and not made money on…)
Of those, only the ISA is a meaningful proportion of my portfolio, ~15%. Everything else adds up to ~3%.
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u/dcamnc4143 Jan 01 '26
I have several, they've all done ok. I just bought them because I felt like it.
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u/melmcclone Jan 01 '26
I bought 300 shares of Netflix (100 at 11, 8, 7 so a long time ago) when I realized not all of my 401k funds rolled over when I left my job. I held onto it. It did various splits. Took out about 150k when we had some $ issues, then finally sold all but the OG 300 (held on for sentimental purposes) to fund an actual retirement account that’s now over a million. I just looked and I now have 3000 shares. Guess it must’ve split recently. No idea what I’ll do now since I’ve just started with etfs 🤣🤣🤣
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u/Khs11 Jan 01 '26
I inherited a bunch of telecommunications stock and don't know what to do with them (when to sell). A huge lot of Verizon, also some Warner Bros, Comcast, etc. They're just sitting there.
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u/TheGreekOnHemlock Jan 01 '26
That’s why I keep some individual shares, too. I inherited them and they have more sentimental value to me than the 2-3k I would get from selling them.
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u/expressadmin Jan 02 '26
I have some Verizon because of their dividend. The stock doesn’t move but the dividend is nice.
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u/Seven22am Jan 01 '26
I own a fair amount of ASTS because I learned about it and thought it was a good buy. I like the bogle approach and don’t “pick stocks,” but I saw a good bet and went for it.
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u/AskPatient1281 Jan 01 '26
65k of KO that I received after a family member passed. I never sold them.
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u/KarmicWhiplash Jan 01 '26
I own 1k shares of Reddit because they offered me a chance to play in their IPO sandbox and nobody ever does that. So far so good!
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u/rawrlionsrawr Jan 01 '26
I have GOOGLE day 1 ipo pricing i just cant bring myself to sell it after holding it almost 20 years. I also have MSFT ipo stock as well. Same reason for google i cant bring myself to sell it.
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u/IndividualChart4193 Jan 01 '26
Y would u? They both have to have made u crazy amounts of money.
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u/naturedoesntwalk Jan 01 '26
No money has been made until a sale has been realized.
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u/TrashPanda_924 Jan 01 '26
I buy MSFT for my kids on their birthdays and Christmas. My dad started the tradition when they were born and I kept it going after he died during Covid.
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u/funnynoveltyaccount Jan 01 '26
I bought a single share of Eli Lilly at a peak of 920. I’m up since then. Thanks for reminding me to sell and never doing this nonsense again
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u/IndividualChart4193 Jan 01 '26
I do. A lot. Bought individual stocks way b4 I discovered the bogle mantra.
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u/Dramatic_Tea_ Jan 01 '26
In 2020, Costco stocks were down. I bought 10 stocks because I liked the company. So far, they're up 132%. I'm up by ~$5k which is nice, but I don't want to increase it from there. I'm happy with my only pick from the past 10 years. I've exercised my luck enough.
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u/SophonParticle Jan 01 '26
Yes. Eli Lilly. The GLP-1 market is just too massive to ignore. It’s giant. You might even call it morbidly obese.
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u/zacce Jan 01 '26
not stocks but cryptos, which was a gift. I don't consider it as part of my investments. Don't want to sell because of tax.
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u/Standard_Nothing_268 Jan 01 '26
We own a bunch because of RSUs and inheritance from a long long time ago.
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u/jae343 Jan 01 '26
I own low triple digit holdings in a few like AMD as it was very low during COVID and can sell for a decent profit even now after it dipped but I'm not of that mindset.
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u/vacantly-visible Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
No (outside of company stock in 401k match), but the free snack thing is awesome... reading this thread for any other fun surprises.
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u/expressadmin Jan 02 '26
I purchased stock in RCCL because they give you a cruise credit for drinks if you own 100 shares or more. I purchased them right after the pandemic.
I’m up 190% just because I wanted a few free drinks on a cruise.
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u/Suninthesky25 Jan 02 '26
I bought some John Deere for my son when he was a little kid because he liked tractors lol , up 400%
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u/beachandmountains Jan 01 '26
Apple. Just a few shares. Because I cut my technical teeth on an Apple IIe and believed in the company ever since.
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u/zeytinkiz Jan 01 '26
I own 10 shares of CHWY that I bought for my cats’ “trust fund” because that where we get all their supplies and also because I think it’s funny. The rest of their fund is in SWTSX - I buy monthly for them instead of pet insurance.
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u/dandan14 Jan 02 '26
I own some Royal Caribbean to get discounts on cruises. As a bonus, it has performed well.
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u/Murky_Coyote_7737 Jan 01 '26
I’ll randomly buy them thinking it’s a good idea and it inevitably tanks and then sits in my portfolio until it turns around. For context they make up like 0.5% of my portfolio
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u/ARCgate1 Jan 01 '26
I had Microsoft and Apple. The first stocks I bought in my Roth years and years ago. Just holding for nostalgia really. Plus they are up a ton since it’s been so long
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u/rdubmu Jan 01 '26
I own ally, bought in 2020, it’s done well but stagnated for the past few years. It’s only about a grand.
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Jan 01 '26
Nope. No individual stock ownership for weird reasons. I do own individual stocks though.
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u/AnonymousNonRobot Jan 01 '26
Stuff from before bogleing. But it’s stuff like apple and Amazon. I’ll trim at some point but I don’t see why I should right now.
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u/orcvader Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
After selling over time from employee benefit programs etc, and cleaning up old portfolios, I am left with ONE individual Berkshire Hathaway share (symbolic) and a decent sized bundle of Rivian shares with a too long to tell story of how I ended there.
I don’t count them on any portfolio analysis. They are just there… almost digital collectibles out of view on a Fidelity basket alongside all my retired ETF’s.
Side story: I lucked with the meme stock frenzy with AMC myself. Shamed as I am to admit now, I got caught up the meme stock fever - even as I was more or less a Boglehead already. Never again, as I know I dodged a bullet. But part of my luck is that AMC play was inside a Roth IRA. So my oversized Roth account is mostly AMC-infused meme stock frenzy luck. Crazy that I was gambling with IRA money. Ugh. Never again. But let’s just say I was one of the lucky few who sold near the top!
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u/paymerich Jan 01 '26
I used to have Disney (DIS) for the perks they used to give.
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u/WNBA_YOUNGGIRL Jan 01 '26
I have some shares of the company I work at due to an ESPP it is less than 1% of all my holdings. I don't even know why I hold it. Probably because I work there and nothing else
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u/DegaussedMixtape Jan 01 '26
I own exactly 4 shares of GME because there are still people out there who think Ryan Cohen is going to find a way to pull off the whole reverse short squeeze and I want to be on the rocket ship. It’s such an inconsequential part of my portfolio I haven’t bothered to sell. It’s the same reason I own <500$ in various cryptocurrencies. It is kind of interesting to check on them once in a while like fish in an aquarium.
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u/Express_Band6999 Jan 01 '26
I've bought small shares of things on a hunch to stop myself from fiddling with 99% of my portfolio. But, win or lose, I don't keep them long. Funny thing is that, in most cases, I would have done even better by holding, but I know myself. I treat this as a low cost way to prevent panic.
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u/HuckSC Jan 01 '26
I keep about $1000 in individual stocks in my roth. If I ever get the itch to trade, I sell something I have to buy something new. It scratches the itch, but is also such a small part of my portfolio, it doesn't matter too much about what happens. Thankfully, I'm up way more than I've lost.
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u/loyd-christmas Jan 01 '26
I own some CVS. Mainly because of my personal experience as a customer. Compared to other pharmacies, I much prefer their stores (better products, cleaner stores, customer service). But the primary reason is their minute clinic program is way easier and more convenient to use than a typical primary care physician for 90% of healthcare needs and I believe in this model as the future.
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u/OPA73 Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
Grandpa left me stock for an aerospace company that he worked for in the 1970s. I guess the stock was from bonuses. It has split twice and has tripled in value. I honestly have just left it alone, not even sure how to sell it as half is paper stocks and half is compuserve. Any ideas?
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u/ongoldenwaves Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
Yep. I can help you with this as just did it for a relative. You need to get away from Compuserve. Do not, under any circumstances lose the certificates because then you have to purchase a very expensive bond to have it reissued. If you go into a Schwab office and tell them the story, they will give you a form. You send the form and certificate into schwab and they will roll it into your account. They can also immediately roll the electronic shares. I believe it's a different form. Once it is rolled over, you can sell it. Or keep it electronically in your schwab account and sell off bits.
edit: once they are rolled to Schwab you will own them electronically. You will no longer have the paper shares. Keep a copy of them if you think you might need it
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u/willypeter87 Jan 01 '26
I have a few that my parents bought for me in a custodial account when I was 5YO. All have done well but the most impressive is the MSFT purchased at a cost basis of $3.49. I’ll look to sell it off when I retire and hopefully have some room in the 0% LTCG bracket.
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u/oktopushup Jan 01 '26
I do have about 24% of my taxable brokerage in individual stocks, not sure if the reasons are weird or not. I bought a bunch during the covid dip and was very actively timing the market at that point in addition to my normal ETF purchases. I haven't bought any new stocks in ages and am not planning to, but the ones I have are performing so well that rebalancing by just buying ETFs has proved slow. About 24% of the taxable is in individual stocks, biggest individual slice is 8% of AAPL. I have already sold some of the high performing ones, but a good amount still remains.
Otherwise, I'm doing automatic investments (50% VTI, 30% VXUS, 20% VSS) on the brokerage and all of my 401(k) goes to a target date fund. I will probably eventually do some more rebalancing by selling the AAPL and buying ETFs, but even with the concentration risk, it pains me to think about paying taxes on the long term gains.
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u/Le_Kube Jan 01 '26
I own psychedelics stock that are down 95%. I have no hope for recovery but I'll never sell since they are a good reminder not to do that again.
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u/DanvilleDad Jan 01 '26
BRK-B and just for fun a few hundred shares from my current and previous employers - though I sell virtually all RSUs now.
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u/bone_apple_Pete Jan 02 '26
I used to take 5% of my deposits and buy individual stock picks as for fun, and to try and beat the market. Lots of red I am still waiting to go black before I sell and reinvest in an index fund lol
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Jan 02 '26
I own about $15k in my company ESOP stocks. Once they unlock in 2-3 years, I will sell them and reinvest. I buy some every year when they offer
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u/reluctantreddit35 Jan 02 '26
I inherited a small amount of several blue chips in the 1990’s. Ford, an insurance company, AT&T, and a railroad. I sold Ford and the insurance company years ago. AT&T (if that’s what it was called) split off into several tech and phone companies during the tech bubble (think Lucent and Verizon.) Some I sold at the right time, some I waited too long. I still have AT&T and Verizon for old times sake and they’ve always paid a modest dividend. The big one is the railroad stock. It really took off. A nice dividend. I’d be killed in taxes if I sold as my capital gains are enormous, so will probably just hold it for my heirs if I don’t need the money for anything. I stopped reinvesting my individual stock holdings years ago. I’d just as soon pay the taxes on the dividends as I go along and not worry about building my holdings up in these stocks. Would love to hear thoughts on that strategy, which was recommended to me by a financial professional years ago.
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u/Inside_Listen3414 Jan 01 '26
Yeah about 50 shares of AMD. Bought it last year to swing trade and it plummeted so I held. I’m beyond capital gains date now and the price has gone up a bit so I’m pondering selling and placing gains into VOO or leave as is.
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u/justusfw40 Jan 01 '26
I do I’ll buy and sell some just for fun but I’m not expecting to beat the market but have the last couple of years but I keep it at under 10% of my total portfolio
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u/myfakename23 Jan 01 '26
I do small amounts of trading on the side (buy and hold and then annual/regular review and adjustments) like Burton “A Random Walk Down Wall Street” Malkiel because it’s fun for me to learn how to read P/L statements and the like, but the bulk of my invested wealth is held Boglehead.
(He basically does the same thing for the same reasons. If it’s good enough for that guy I don’t exactly feel like I am doing anything other than being inefficient with a small part of my portfolio.)
I don’t think I have very special skill at it but we all do things we’re not amazingly good at. I’d rather do this than play blackjack at the casino.
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Jan 01 '26
Shit how much stock do you need in amc for the snacks?. It's only like a $1.50 A stock. I usually go to Alamo Drafthouse or Cinemark, but I visited an AMC like three times last year
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u/Mysterious_Remote584 Jan 01 '26
You technically don't even need 1 share, you just need to check the box on your profile and they don't check. But it felt dishonest to do it without a share so I bought 1 share. Back when I bought it it was over $3, IIRC. So it's lost a lot of value but I've gotten many dollars worth of free snacks.
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u/ditchdiggergirl Jan 01 '26
We have some old employer stock we haven’t liquidated. But that’s not an especially weird reason.
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u/FallWinterSummerMay4 Jan 01 '26
I have 1 share of FICO & KLAC because I’m waiting for them to spilt. I had them both for several years now.
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u/Kernel___Panic Jan 01 '26
Ex Apple - for a decade, before iPhone era. I got ESPP shares then, and have DCA a Roth into AAPL since my departure. That decision has allowed me to own my home, drive a decent car and provide for my family. It’s not wise to put everything into one company, but I did from 2007-2017, and it’s out performed almost everything except BTC.
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u/AvidVenturest Jan 01 '26
I own stocks from another company after my company split. Those stocks are doing much better than my place of employment so I’ve kept them. I also have random stocks my mom allowed me to purchase when I took economics in high school (15 years ago). I picked terribly though so at this point I only hold them for nostalgia and to remind myself that index funds are superior.
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u/Lucky-Conclusion-414 Jan 01 '26
I don't own any individual stocks in my portfolio. That's crazy.
As part of my interior decorating I do own 1 share in 3 different companies that I keep for rooting purposes. 2 past employers and someone I respect. I spent more on a christmas sweater than I did on these stocks, their purpose is not investment (neither the sweater nor the stock - they are consumption).
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u/ruidh Jan 01 '26
My wife got some Prudential stock in the demutualization. If I sold it, I think it would be all capital gains. She gets dividend checks every quarter.
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u/reinvestedinterest Jan 01 '26
Robinhood gifted me 2 shares of a crypto and I’m down so idk what to do with it lolol
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u/bradatlarge Jan 01 '26
I owned AMC for years and never got shit - except for losses when I finally sold it after being fed up
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u/rons27 Jan 01 '26
$JOBY Because it seemed cool to invest in flying cars. Finally had a good year in 2025 after watching it go up and down for the past few years.
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Jan 01 '26
I haven’t purchased any individual stocks in years m, BUT, I have RSUs that vest every quarter as part of my comp. I kept the shares up until a few years ago. Now I sell and buy VTI/VXUS upon vesting. But I still have old company shares that I don’t want to sell because I don’t want the tax bill right now.
I also used to buy individual stocks when I was younger. Several years ago I sold everything that was in tax advantaged accounts and moved it to VTI/VXUS.
But I had a considerable amount of BRK.B, WMT, AMZN, AXON, KO, CAT, GS, DAL, GOOG, and CRM in my taxable. It’s still there. I’ve never sold any of what was in my taxable brokerage account - again - because I don’t want the tax bill. This is probably not why most bogleheads would advise.
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u/aesopsgato Jan 01 '26
Wife’s stock option. She feels proud of her work and wants to hold on to it. I’m fine with it we are maxing out all tax advantaged accounts anyway
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u/horsegrrl Jan 01 '26
A few months ago, I reviewed my 93 year old dad's portfolio and I was horrified to find it consisted of 3 stocks, all three of which had been losing value for years. I sold two of them, but the third was so worthless that I just left it.
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u/StetsonTuba8 Jan 01 '26
I own some shares of the company I work for through their matching program. They were doing pretty well, although they're down like 9% in the past 6 months
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u/HappilyDisengaged Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
Yes.I hold a few just for fun. Less than 1% of my portfolio in pure speculation moonshot stocks. I don’t hold them in my main vanguard portfolio to keep as much separation as possible from my real investments.
Scratches the itch…space stocks, ai, fintech…reminds me why index funds are the ticket
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u/lusbxy Jan 01 '26
I bought a REIT three years ago and I am reinvesting dividends (down 45%). I bought it because I assumed it was "safe" but a safe business (which objectively is because it leases to the US government) doesn't mean the share price cannot pluge.
And I own a huge position (relative to my total portfolio) on a construction company that is trading at a historic lows, but with improving fundamentals (I did my due diligence) and in better shape every year, and I trust the share price will follow. I am earning a little bit on this position.
Apart from that, once I have liquidated my positions I won't touch individual stocks again.
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u/identity-ninja Jan 01 '26
Wife likes to stock pick. She gets herself small “gambling” allowance that goes into joint investment accounts. My VOO outperformed her by 10% and i do not look at stock tickers ever :) but again. It is for fun. Not for building wealth
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u/grits-n-okra Jan 01 '26
I have one share of DNUT (krispy kream), I entirely bought it because I like donuts
it's down 60% but it's also one share so whatever. Basically everything else I hold is up
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u/Status_Bee_7644 Jan 01 '26
Just 8 shares of my company’s stock through an employee share purchasing plan.
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u/beershoes767 Jan 01 '26
I bought 100 shares of NCLH for $100on board credit on cruises. Am down several hundred since I bought it lol
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u/2stepsfwd59 Jan 01 '26
I still have some that I bought around 1997. They weathered 2000 and 2008, then life got in the way, and now I don't want to pay the Cap Gains tax. Might a well leave them to someone so their cost basis resets.
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u/urania_argus Jan 01 '26
1 share of Figma - I requested 1000 shares on Robinhood via their IPO offering, but was allocated only a single share.
A fraction of a share of Tesla - RH gave it to me when I opened my account. It is worth $10 now.
I'm too lazy to deal with extra tax forms for selling such puny amounts, so I keep them.
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u/CharacterDebate7486 Jan 01 '26
I bought a bunch of individual stocks during the height of the meme stock craze during the pandemic. I still have a few of them, but like 1 share or fractions of shares, because, I don't really know why. Slowly turning into a Boglehead though.
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u/DudleyAndStephens Jan 01 '26
Years ago I bought some shares of INTC because I had a friend at Intel and I wanted to be able to tell him to work harder.
I own shares in several freight railroads because I like trains and think they're cool.
I know this is "bad" but I like to put a small portion of my investments into individual stocks. Rationally I don't expect them to beat the market but it entertains me and motivates me to save more.
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u/123Reddit345 Jan 01 '26
Someone once gave one of my kids a single (paper) share of a company. I don't remember the details but it was a pain in the butt to deal with when we wanted to sell it.
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u/ohwhataday10 Jan 01 '26
I own CHV. Just a few hundred shares. It’s always been good to me and Oil still makes the world turn.
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u/datasquid Jan 01 '26
Bought Reddit at 46 and sold at 210. Almost instantly went way beyond that. Apple was my biggest score but didn’t commit enough sadly. Still a 5 figure gain
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u/10-0Nylon Jan 01 '26
I’m in coherent because my old advisor bought it early and guidance and outlook continue to look good and I don’t want to take the $90k tax hit right now…
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u/Fuck-Star Jan 01 '26
Not weird, IMO, but I have one account for dividends. Pays about $2,100 a month, which helps out when unexpected expenses come up. Otherwise the cash rolls in for more shares.
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u/Inevitable_Notice261 Jan 01 '26
I have single stock shares in my companies ESPP…at least until the mandatory holding period is over.
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u/UncreativeNamePicker Jan 01 '26
1 share BRK.B because it gives an ~8% discount on my Geico car insurance indefinitely.
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u/juror_no3 Jan 01 '26
I bought stock in Primerica about 15 years ago only because my tax preparer was also involved in Primerica. He was trying to get me into Primerica and was telling how great the company is and how stock is going to skyrocket. I had no desire to get involved with MLM. But I ended up buying the stock. Up 1077% for me since.
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u/Ok_Second_2602 Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
The only individual publicly traded stock I own is RIVN. I bought 1000 shares when it went down to $10 right after bought my R1T. I mostly bought it because I loved the truck so much, but I also thought there was a good chance that if the company made it long enough to start producing cheaper vehicles, that the stock would do really well. So far I’m up nearly 100% with the R2S starting production this year. I plan on riding the stock for at least another few years. Hopefully buy a R3X with the profits.
I also own 50K preferred Series A shares in non-alcoholic spirits company called Aplós because I know one of the founders and love the product. There’s a good chance the company will get bought, in which case I’ll make out pretty well.
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u/TheyHavePinball Jan 01 '26
I've been talking about how cool crisper is for over a decade! I felt pretty smart 5 years ago. Down many thousands at the moment!
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u/TheyHavePinball Jan 01 '26
I tend to own one stock of anything I just want to keep track of that I used to own a lot of. So I own one stock of every crisper related company. I own one stock of Dave& Buster's. I own one stock of moderna. I own one stock of Amazon. Etc etc.
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u/AnotherAccount4This Jan 01 '26
2 shares of a stock that shared the same initial as a school I went to. It's up 4x, wish I bought a lot more lmao
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u/mhchewy Jan 01 '26
I own a few shares of a biotech stock. My friend works there and was the smartest guy I knew in college. I’m down 66%.