“DON’T EVER TELL ME THE ODDS!”
-Han Solo
How much of a risk taker are you? Are you the type of person who throws it all down and sez “Let it ride!” Or does the mere chance of losing make you twitch?
I am a selective risk taker. When I know when the game is rigged or the only way to win is not play the game then I don’t… (see Casinos and game odds and reasons not to play).
When it comes to finances, I am a bit of a risk taker. I will take losses and not cry but not to the point of losing it all as there a difference to faith in something and being a complete moron. The risk taking came from losing a good portion of my Nortel pension leading to the realization that their ineptitude cost me a number of my prime earnings years. For a while it didn’t look good as I made stupid decisions and had some bad luck (cough penny stocks cough.) Lately it has started to pay off.
As for other risks… Well I was pushed into a deep financial corner by Cokehead Narcissist. Without putting my own life on the line (or so I thought) and challenging her with nothing left to lose then I wouldn’t have broken her hold on me. Stuff like ambushing my abusive supervisor with the help of HR helped too.
I am not usually the type to jump into unknown waters but when I feel I don’t have a choice I will go feet first without hesitation (with much crying and whimpering though.)
All that risk management goes out the window when it comes to people I care about, well, I believe my track record speaks for itself.
As with all NOTs, open threat/thread.
I’m pretty risk-averse. There was no safety net for anything in my childhood and I don’t like the stress of risks.
My dad grew up very poor despite having a rich dad (neglectful.) He is very risk adverse too. It showed in his investments.
However he did rather well though stretching the dollars he had to enjoy a comfortable retirement.
Risk involves more work than I’m usually willing to do. I don’t need any more math in my life.
I love working the numbers out. It was how I could consistently beat my friends on poker night (I took a big risk by gambling with my laundry money) by calculating the odds in my head.
Well aside from all the times I almost offed myself with dangerous activities, I have almost zero risk tolerance. It’s only when my hand gets forced that I’ll swallow hard and take a step forward.
A lot of us are similar in approach. I am not surprised we get along on in this part of the Internet.
Also risk adverse.
I’m okay with reasonable risk. My investment portfolio is aggressive, but I used to have to model portfolios at a job, and I also had to research stock market performance since its inception. I’m really familiar with how the stock market works (plus it has always performed better under Democratic administrations — that’s not exaggeration — ALWAYS WITHOUT EXCEPTION). So I earn solid returns without too much craziness, but I push it to make up for lost time like Manchu.
I have zero tolerance for gambling. I don’t enjoy it and it’s just throwing money away, as far as I’m concerned. One of my finance professors made us calculate the odds for every major type of gambling, and they were terrible then. I know some games have been modified since then to make the odds even worse. I do know people who enjoy it and are careful with their spending, and if that’s their thing, fine. But I’ve also known people who were addicts and made themselves and, more importantly, their families suffer. I just find the whole business distasteful.
About the only gambling I enjoy is poker because you are playing against the person more than the cards.
Any game against the house is a losing proposition.
I really love playing poker with friends or family. Growing up, typically any family function involved poker at some point in the night. However, we just used poker chips and never actually did anything with real money. It was a fun way to add conversation and give eachother shit about bad hands, bad luck, etc while hanging out together.
I tend to enjoy the cheap slot machines enough that if it’s super easy to go to one (like at the hotel I’m staying at), I’ll go drop $20 and play that until I lose it to the house. It’s the sounds and fun lights and graphics of the machines that I like, but there’s absolutely zero expectation of doing anything other than wasting some time and my $20.
If anyone says that’s irrational ask how it’s different from dropping $20 at a batting cage.
I used to go to the Meadowlands for the carriage racing, but I don’t think they have that anymore. The conditions were perfect: one of us was a long-time veteran of the track and could read a racing sheet fluently so I never lost money. Then, to make things even better, a friend of a friend was a bartender, so we drank for free (aside from the lavish tips we showered on him at the end of the night.) The races only last for a couple of minutes but they’re really thrilling. No wonder QEII spent half her life with her bookie.
I will gamble. I used to really enjoy sports betting before it became legal and I still enjoy craps. When I was a kid I used to go to the pavilion on Chicago’s lake shore where the old men played chess for a dollar a game. They always beat me, but I figured it was like paying a dollar for a chess lesson.