Subject: Re: Target Maturity Funds (TMFs)
Thank you, MisterFungi. I so appreciate your attention and thoughts.

"I have to say that putting your money into things you don't really know anything about (other than that some guy on the internet, even a very smart guy, recommended it) can blow up in your face. I admire your effort to learn. But the way you are doing it carries avoidable, unrewarded risk."

I knew what that looked like as soon as I posted it. I also knew that this was an exploratory thing when I bought it. I also knew that I needed to buy one thing so I would pay attention to it and learn about it. It's possible there are better ways to learn, but this is my method, right now. I need to triangulate the actual with the intellectual or something I read. I don't know enough to understand the written example without actually seeing what it does in the real world, and then I can understand the words that go with it. Like eating a cinnamon bun, you can't explain it to someone, it needs to be tasted.

If you can tell me a better way to have done it without incurring any avoidable risk, I'd be so grateful. And sorry that this was a preferred stock was not a bond and being on the wrong board...

A long time ago, I bought Berkshire Hathaway for $32,000. I only understood a bit about probabilities, and nothing about investing, except what I started to read on boards after meeting Warren. To learn more, I needed to buy a share. It had doubled in the time i met him. I knew I wouldn't lose 100% of my money; so since I had no formal education in finance, whatever I might lose I would charge toward an education in finance. It was an investment in myself. I would learn.

Maybe not be the best way to do things, but it is a way that opened a door for me, which is better than if I'd done absolutely nothing and losing for not even trying. I am mindful of Buffett's rules #1 and #2.

Thank you, again, for your concern. It pains me to know I make anyone uncomfortable or cause them to worry. I appreciate it, but please be easy. I may not be great at this, but I am mindful of balancing the risks I'm taking--very small ones with the goal of learning about these instruments. I'll stick to the Beginner board from now on! Thanks, again and again.