My name is Micah McDonald and I am The Deep Value ETF Accumulator. I’m a retired USAF Crew Chief, which is a fancy title for general aircraft mechanic. I am now an electronics technician working in remote locations throughout Alaska. I am married and have seven children and a multitude of ...more

My name is Micah McDonald and I am The Deep Value ETF Accumulator. I’m a retired USAF Crew Chief, which is a fancy title for general aircraft mechanic. I am now an electronics technician working in remote locations throughout Alaska. I am married and have seven children and a multitude of grandchildren. I’m a Christian man who is not perfect, but forgiven. We live in Palmer, Alaska which is about 45 miles north of Anchorage. I enjoy mountain hiking, fishing, driving in the mud, shooting guns, skiing, researching investments, listening to podcasts, reading, spending time with my church family and spending time with my wife, kids and grandkids. We have our investments spread over a traditional IRA, two Roth IRA’s, a 401k, a standard brokerage account and an M1 Finance account. We save about 20% of our income into these accounts. My investment philosophy is relatively simple. I buy ETFs as if they were mutual funds and I hold them for a very long time. I employ a similar strategy as dollar cost averaging, but with a twist. I buy ETFs that have good long term track records, but are currently out-of-favor and relatively cheap. I trim the fat, or sell just the profits on my holdings when when profits are greater than $1100. That’s my idea of tactical re-balancing. I have tried my hand at buying and selling individual stocks with some success. I’ve bought and sold stocks based on the IBD, Investor’s Business Daily CANSLIM method with limited success. I have invested in leveraged ETFs with a great deal of success, until, that fateful time when I invested in UWTI, a triple leveraged oil futures ETN. Although I was making good money using TQQQ, a triple leveraged ETF that tracks the NASDAQ 100 and BIB, a double leveraged ETF that tracks biotech stocks; I sold off my leveraged ETF’s, because I was losing my shirt in UWTI. The loss I took on UWTI had the most transformational effect on my investment philosophy. It was during that 2-year process of losing money that I finally realized that I am investing for our future and not gambling. I’m not prepared to debate the difference between gambling and investing in this forum, but I learned the difference for me. Since I finally discovered the difference between gambling and investing, I endeavored to learn all that I could about actual long term investing and wealth building. As I researched and learned from numerous financial titans, I realized that I liked and agreed with several of them, but I also disagreed with some of their advice. Dave Ramsey helped me get out of debt and have more to invest, but I disagree with the use of actively managed mutual funds. I learned most of what I think I need to know about investing in equities from Paul Merriman, but I don’t agree with the need to keep a balanced portfolio. I went on to learn even more about long term wealth building from Joshua Sheats, Rob Berger, Todd Tresidder, Roger Whitney, Scott Allen Turner, J. David Stein, Ric Edelman and others. What I learned specifically, is that there isn’t just one way to build wealth over time, and there definitely isn’t just one way to build a long-term portfolio of equities. It was through these mentors that I developed a system of investing in equities that works for people like me. People like me enjoy buying and selling stocks, but we also see the need to keep our heads on straight and build wealth over time. Although each of these mentors teach different methods to invest, each one has contributed in some way to the eventual building of The Deep Value ETF Accumulator.less