Tuesday, November 2, 2010

The Sorry State Of My Stocks

I knew it was going to be frustrating to sell my stocks but it was REALLY frustrating. I found the paperwork and managed to log on to ComputerShare which handles 3 of my stocks. Two of them were easy to sell online. The third, GM, said it couldn't be processed through the website. I went to the old GM stock info page and it said I had to sell through the ComputerShare web site. I'll have to look in to it more. That one is going to be a big loss anyway. The only thing it is good for is offsetting my gains on the others...if there are any gains.

Then I went to the Mellon site because it manages three of my other stocks. I tried to log in and ended up using the online chat to get my account reset. I finally got past the first password page and it sent me to a second password page. This page said I was supposed to use a log in and password that they sent me in 2002. Gee, I don't think I have that. There was a number to call to find out the password but when I called it was for UPS shareholders only. I don't have UPS. So I called the general help line and the guy had no idea what I was talking about and was no help at all. I was so frustrated that I ended up hanging up on him because he made me so mad. Luckily I am able to use the mail-in form to sell those stocks.

I also have some P&G stock and I had to go to their website to print the form to sell. The last thing was some old company stock but when I called they said I didn't have any shares in my account. I am still confused about that. I don't remember selling them. When I came home I found my 2009 record and it said I still had $500 worth of stock. I hope I still have it and that I can figure out how to sell it.

$3,000 was my goal for all of my stock. I don't know how much it is all worth yet. The ones that I sold online were worth $1,100. That's a good start. I do hope I still have the $500 in company stock. That would certainly help me reach my goal.

So, 2 sold online. 4 mail-in, 1 unknown, and 1 cannot figure out how to sell. Now that I have started the process it is a relief. No more worrying about whether it will go up or down or if it is a good time to sell. I am not looking forward to doing my taxes though. Maybe I can hire someone to do them for me this year if I make enough money on this stock!

9 comments:

Marc Brown said...

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Anonymous said...

GM went bankrupt and was restored as a new company.

The old GM stock is now basically worthless...

Daizy said...

Anonymous,my old GM stock is now Motors Liquidation Co. stock. It is worth $8. I would like to sell it so I can claim the loss to offset any gains I may have have elsewhere...even though I probably didn't have any gains anyway. I sent them an email and asked. Maybe I can claim to loss without selling.

Petunia 100 said...

Daizy,

You can write off a stock loss without selling, but only if the stock is worthless.

What a headache! Were these DRIP accounts? Is that why the custodians are all over the place?

Chin up, soon it will be behind you and your mortgage will shrink even more.

The Executioner said...

Probably too late at this point (since you are selling), but if you decide to plunge back into stocks in the future, it might make sense to consolidate all of your stocks into a single account at a brokerage firm or bank. That way, when you want to sell, you can deal with a single entity (and maybe even online!).

Daizy said...

Petunia, $8 is worthless to me especially since it used to be worth $800. I wonder if the IRS will agree. Yes, they were DRiPs and Direct Stock Purchase. Very annoying. Next time I think I will stick with mutual funds, although, I sold my mutual funds years ago because they were easy to sell. That could be a good thing or bad.

Daizy said...

Executioner, these were an experiment back in 1999. I got them as direct purchase to avoid the broker fee. It would have been a successful experiment if I had actually made money on them. Next time I will probably stick to mutual funds.

Dave said...

Yes, Daizy, stick with mutual funds. You don't have enough money to create your own diversified portfolio, so you increased risk from owning so few stocks is big.

Daizy said...

Dave, I had great plans back in 1999 when I got my first full time job and started reading financial books and bought these stocks. I had more too (and mutual fund also) but they either went bankrupt or were bought out. I was going to put all of my money in them. Good thing I didn't! The best stock of the bunch was Nabisco. It tripled and was bought by someone else within a few months. Of course at that time I only owned one share. I ended up using the mutual funds for my house down payment.