Financial Investments

[MountainCruise]

I love the bogleheads forum and John Bogle. Index funds make it SO easy to save for retirement!

[JRRIII]

I felt this was worth sharing with everyone

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mos...ngs-2015-10-06

[EAGLE5]

Getting a good renter takes work. We had our real estate agent do it.

[ichitaka05]

man, these are pretty good reads/posts. Very educational

[GeorgeJFrick]

Originally Posted by RichardsFRS

Ehh I have a 401K which right now is losing and has been losing for a while no matter what way I adjust it. Just hoping it will go positive again soon, else I may be looking for other forms of retirement

I had money once and lost it when the economy crashed, don't define yourself with your money and material items, its a waste of time and energey

It took me almost losing everything I had to realize that. It was very humbling

I will still be able to retire okay but i won't be cruising in any yacts when I do. Which is okay because I want to work as long as I can. I have to be doing something. I'm not a sit downer

Um... when things are going badly is not the time to futz or stop buying? Just rebalance and relax. (TM)

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ows-80187.html

[soulreapersteve]

Originally Posted by GeorgeJFrick

"Long Haul" Boglehead here.
Will be FIRE ASAP, hence the "I can't afford parts". I just drool.
401k maxed, roth ira maxed, + private index fund investment up to X% of income.

edit, if you are looking for good resources, I've always lurked around early-retirement.org
They're a bit old, cranky, and cheap; but good people and a lot they can teach...

Originally Posted by MountainCruise

I love the bogleheads forum and John Bogle. Index funds make it SO easy to save for retirement!

Are you two doing the 3 fund portfolio approach? Once I pay off the car later in the year, I have no other obligations except for typical monthly bills so most of my income will go toward savings/investments.

I honestly don't know which direction to take; I asked for advice on BH and people just said "pay off the car ASAP" and "max out 401k", which I already planned to do.

[GeorgeJFrick]

Originally Posted by soulreapersteve

Are you two doing the 3 fund portfolio approach? Once I pay off the car later in the year, I have no other obligations except for typical monthly bills so most of my income will go toward savings/investments.

I honestly don't know which direction to take; I asked for advice on BH and people just said "pay off the car ASAP" and "max out 401k", which I already planned to do.

Yes, for example POMIX, PBDIX, and PIEQX.
(Just an example, I am not an advisor or professional! <insert standard disclaimer>)

In my case, I started with TRowePrice because I could open an account with almost no money as long as I set up automatic transactions. I started off very small and just followed the "Automatic Millionaire" thing - I inch the monthly deposits up over time so I don't notice them. Started at $50/month.

[RichardsFRS]

All the talk on dollar averaging. It's interesting and tempting but where is your pay off in a volatile market. If you keep buying same amount of dying stock you are just throwing money away. Are you people applying this formula to high risk moderate or low risk stocks. How diversified are you playing the market. It's same old with 401k as well its stagnent and if its not moving, neither is your portfolio. There really is no sure thing anymore and when we have to rely on a shitty market for retirement its pretty sad. My 401 did climb from a 4.65 loss to a 4 gain but that's steel pretty sad. All my stuff is moderate to safe. I'm not a gambler.

[bjreynolds202]

Originally Posted by soulreapersteve

Hey all!

During my time here, I have learned there is a very broad range of Twin owners with regards to age; as young as 18 (maybe younger?) to retirement age+

I've been lurking on an investing forum (https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/index.php) which seem to focus on the long haul. Curious to see what owners here are doing with regards to current, past, or possible future investments.

No need to list exact details such as dollar amounts, salary, etc. Just types of investments: 401k, common stocks, indexes, bonds, mutual funds, blah blah blah...

I just turned 21, got a job as a web developer/software engineer when I was 20. Bought the BRZ about 3 months into the new job. I've been putting money away into a 401k account since I turned 18. Now I have 2, the original and the new company's. I plan on buying a house close to the end of this year or next depending on GF's school, and whats available. We would then rent out a room or 2 in the house to cover our mortgage/ produce some extra income. I am socking away about 52% of my income after buying the BRZ and about about 80% before hand. Once the GF gets her career started we would live off one of our incomes, and use the other to slaughter the mortgage in around 6 years plus savings and investments. Should hopefully be debt free and own a house by the time we are 30. From which we can fully rent out the house and buy our own home for a family ( kids or cars )

[aegisdrgn]

Originally Posted by bjreynolds202

I just turned 21, got a job as a web developer/software engineer when I was 20. Bought the BRZ about 3 months into the new job. I've been putting money away into a 401k account since I turned 18. Now I have 2, the original and the new company's. I plan on buying a house close to the end of this year or next depending on GF's school, and whats available. We would then rent out a room or 2 in the house to cover our mortgage/ produce some extra income. I am socking away about 52% of my income after buying the BRZ and about about 80% before hand. Once the GF gets her career started we would live off one of our incomes, and use the other to slaughter the mortgage in around 6 years plus savings and investments. Should hopefully be debt free and own a house by the time we are 30. From which we can fully rent out the house and buy our own home for a family ( kids or cars )

Good job on the savings discipline!

The power of the DINK lifestyle is wonderful - I have a few friends who have delayed having kids because they are enjoying the ability to live large.

[GeorgeJFrick]

Originally Posted by RichardsFRS

All the talk on dollar averaging. It's interesting and tempting but where is your pay off in a volatile market. If you keep buying same amount of dying stock you are just throwing money away. Are you people applying this formula to high risk moderate or low risk stocks. How diversified are you playing the market. It's same old with 401k as well its stagnent and if its not moving, neither is your portfolio. There really is no sure thing anymore and when we have to rely on a shitty market for retirement its pretty sad. My 401 did climb from a 4.65 loss to a 4 gain but that's steel pretty sad. All my stuff is moderate to safe. I'm not a gambler.

"Volatile markets" is a short to medium duration term. Dollar Cost Averaging is a long duration term. They don't really relate.

If you own X shares of a stock or fund, you own X shares. While many funds 'target' keeping the value of a share at a dollar; that isn't done by taking shares away. They will balance the shares through balancing the stocks/etc that the account represents. So you are building shares over time, in a long duration market. Dollar cost averaging wouldn't work if you 'lost' shares.

A 401k is generally horribly performing, they don't care about your money they care about their fees. I keep my main portfolio outside of my 401k, and it continues to do well even in this short term volatile market. A 401k is profitable based on you doing your own math on company match, tax savings (vs when you retire), etc. Demand an index fund in your 401k. They'll say no right to your face, then tell you how horrible index funds are. While you bleed money.

China has "come into power" stock market wise, but they don't have long term investors yet; so their market is completely volatile. It's affecting other markets right now.

[Cole]

I have 2 RRSP's. One is a few years old, but I won't be contributing to it much anymore, the other is one through my work where they do a match of up to 2% of my income every pay. Once I get a few debts paid down, I'll be putting about 50% of my income into it. The other is a TFSA "parts fund" I started in around September. Now, I'm going to be using that to save up for car parts, and if I want anything, I'll be cashing it out after tax time.

[EAGLE5]

The problem with money and debt is that the more you get, the more possibilities you have and the more you want. It's like gambling in the sense that you keep going in for more and more debt because you can, and because it improves your standard of living. If you do well in work, then you can take on even more debt and an even better standard of living. You get locked in. Do you get the next hot car? Do you take that vacation? Do you make that donation? All of that costs money, which takes work, which takes more time, and so on. Do I want to leave a legacy to my kids? Do I want to savor life?

At least none of us are the moron I saw buy $1000 in lottery tickets the other night. I admit I bought $10 worth, but it was a fun birthday gift for my mom, and she won $7!!! That's actually beating the odds by quite a lot.

[bjreynolds202]

Originally Posted by aegisdrgn

- maxed out Roth IRA in VTSMX
- 3% in work 401k (no matching contribution, )
- 6 month emergency fund, separate 1k fund for car emergencies (treat like a HSA - so spend it or loose it at the end of the year )
- brokerage account in a couple different mutual funds (made some bad choices, stick to low cost, no load, index funds, boys and girls!) - aiming to cash out in the next decade as a house downpayment. Deposits are made once a month - dollar cost averaging is the way to go~~~
- probably going to ladder some CD's while waiting for house downpayment to build up ("When your time frame is short, prioritize return of your money instead of return on your money")
- finally paid off my student loans, only debt I have is my car loan.

I'm pretty lucky to have a decent paying job and a low-cost living situation. I'm socking away ~65% of my after-tax income for my midterm (house) and longterm (luxurious retirement) goals.

I've learned a lot from my mistakes - doesn't help that I am in the only one in my family / group of friends who is really into financial planning.

This is wonderful to read. I dont know many people who care about having an emergency fund or plan for retirement. I personally have a 1 year expenses saved up, in addition to the "car allowance".
In response to your response to my response though, thank you! I figure if a couple can live off one of their incomes and utilize the other towards debt, savings, investments, etc. then given the possible job loss, we wouldn't be hindered in any way. These habits would of course carry along to having kids and ensuring the kid never feels "Poor" (not spoiling them though, I just mean not worrying about if we can make dinner)