Investing

[drkelly]

Just to be clear, I'm not asking for investment strategies, experiences, or advice. I'm asking people who are successfully investing how or where they learned to do so, not what they are doing.

Just read "Stock Market Investing for Beginners," by Richard Stooker. It's a quick 85-page, $2.99 read on Google Play Books. (The Play Books App will even read it to you if in case you are blind or illiterate!) It seems to follow my general understanding of what I should vs shouldn't be doing very closely. I am going to read some more by this guy.

I read financial news CONSTANTLY. My wife thinks I'm crazy. I wake up reading finiancial news and go to bed reading financial news. As soon as the alarm goes off in the morning I pick my phone up and see what is going on in the world with money. I have become obsessed with it over the years. Whenever I read something that mentions something I don't know, I do a google search and read and learn. I READ a **** ton about money. I almost exclusively watch financial news on TV. It takes time to learn. Think about how much you know about how to build a good wheeling rig. You didn't learn that overnight. It is knowledge you accumulated over many years. Learning about investing is no different. Be patient, and read.

Buying individual stocks can be very risky. As a beginner, you are better off buying mutual funds with good track records of high returns over many years. Don't buy just one mutual fund. Create a diverse portfolio of various mutual funds (ie large-cap, mid-cap, small-cap, technology, health care etc). Two of my father's friends lost there ass in the tech crash of 2001 because they were too heavily invested in tech stocks. Both of them had to push back retirement several years. Never have more than 10% of your portfolio invested in one stock or 25% invested in one mutual fund. I break that rule in my 401k because my options are ****, but I don't break those rules in my investment account.

Invest as much as you can afford in your 401k or at least enough to get the company's full match. If you don't, you are leaving free money on the table.

Most investors will tell you that you can't time the market, but I disagree. I have successfully sold high and bought low many times. IT goes against natural emotion though. It is like leaving a party at 1am when it is rocking hard, but you know the cops are eventually going to show up and bust it. You want to leave right before the cops get there, lol.

 

[patooyee]

I'm having a hard time figuring out the difference between an SEP IRA and traditional IRA. Can anyone explain that clearly to me?

 

[CHASMAN9]

I'm having a hard time figuring out the difference between an SEP IRA and traditional IRA. Can anyone explain that clearly to me?

Go Rothe and start earning your 1.3% annually

 

[snoball]

I think one is taxed on the front side(like a Roth) and one when it gets pulled out. Sep has the ability to invest more money also, up to 25% of your salary. Sep and regular IRA are very similar beside corporate regulations a standard IRA has.

 

[patooyee]

Go Rothe and start earning your 1.3% annually

I have a Roth but am trying to shelter some 2014 income from taxes at the moment so I opened a traditional also. I don't understand the 1.3% part of your comment though. I would hope that by investing you could do better than that?

 

[patooyee]

I think one is taxed on the front side(like a Roth) and one when it gets pulled out. Sep has the ability to invest more money also, up to 25% of your salary. Sep and regular IRA are very similar beside corporate regulations a standard IRA has.

The SEP is taxed on the back side like the traditional is. But the SEP has the option of company contributions whereas I don't think a traditional does. The SEP is meant for business owners who want to contribute personally AND from the company. That's the best I can figure out so far.

 

[CHASMAN9]

I have a Roth but am trying to shelter some 2014 income from taxes at the moment so I opened a traditional also. I don't understand the 1.3%( facetiously speaking) part of your comment though. I would hope that by investing you could do better than that? You can get a better rate from a bank on a savings account

Exactly, no guts, no glory. I am 65% Risk, 35% Conservative and I'm no spring chicken. :****:

 

[Trailabite]

Exactly, no guts, no glory. I am 65% Risk, 35% Conservative and I'm no spring chicken. :****:

I'm 47 and for my 401k I put just enough in to get the free match from my company and then I also dump money into high risk stocks through Wells Fargo. Even the money I put into my 401k is considered high risk. I have at least 20 years before I can retire. That's a long time so no reason at all to be conservative. For you younger guys, start early, that's the biggest advantage there is for investing money. Even if it's only $50 a month, over 40 years of compounding interest makes good money. I waited too long to start doing this and now that I'm almost 50 I'm having to dump a lot of money into savings for retirement and still will not be able to catch up to what I need.

Here's a chart that shows starting at different ages:

 

[CHASMAN9]

I'm 47 and for my 401k I put just enough in to get the free match from my company and then I also dump money into high risk stocks through Wells Fargo. Even the money I put into my 401k is considered high risk. I have at least 20 years before I can retire. That's a long time so no reason at all to be conservative. For you younger guys, start early, that's the biggest advantage there is for investing money. Even if it's only $50 a month, over 40 years of compounding interest makes good money. I waited too long to start doing this and now that I'm almost 50 I'm having to dump a lot of money into savings for retirement and still will not be able to catch up to what I need.

Here's a chart that shows starting at different ages:

Mr. Buffets money been bery beery good to you Mr. Brainerd.

 

[Trailabite]

^I wish lol

 

[wgamble]

I put 25% of my gross check in 401k weekly and my company matches dollar for dollar up to 3% so really 28% goes in on a weekly basis.

I say that to say this, I know a lot of guys on here are talking about how much they pay in taxes so instead pay yourself. 401k is taken out pre taxes so your tax rate is based off on how much is left over. If you do the numbers, the difference in your check will not be that big of a difference and you are keeping that money for long term use.

 

[CHASMAN9]

^I wish lol

What are you doing in sunny So Cal Chuck? Spending your stipend checks or just tired of the long northern winters? Either way, get that jeep back on the trails out there.

 

[Mortalis5509]

Re: Re: Investing

I put 25% of my gross check in 401k weekly and my company matches dollar for dollar up to 3% so really 28% goes in on a weekly basis.

I say that to say this, I know a lot of guys on here are talking about how much they pay in taxes so instead pay yourself. 401k is taken out pre taxes so your tax rate is based off on how much is left over. If you do the numbers, the difference in your check will not be that big of a difference and you are keeping that money for long term use.

Yea, but less in retirement. Tax rates will always go up.

 

[Trailabite]

I put 25% of my gross check in 401k weekly and my company matches dollar for dollar up to 3% so really 28% goes in on a weekly basis.

I say that to say this, I know a lot of guys on here are talking about how much they pay in taxes so instead pay yourself. 401k is taken out pre taxes so your tax rate is based off on how much is left over. If you do the numbers, the difference in your check will not be that big of a difference and you are keeping that money for long term use.

You also need to make sure that you don't go over the IRS limits or you will end up getting taxed on the amount that's over. For 2015 under the age of 49 the limit is $18k a year.

 

[collinmaune]

I would say to try and read about a formula called the Monte Carlo it is basically an estimation on when you want to retire with how much money and how much debt at the time of retirement. It shows how much to put in your 401k or other accounts as certain risk levels to achieve your goals. I'm 22 years old and have a small 401k but at this moment I put more money into my Roth and have a larger percentage of my Roth invested in higher risk investments. For a single person investing also look at the systematic risk that you can prevent by diversifying your investments once you get over 30 different investments your systematic/ controllable risk go down greatly. I know if I look at my accounts everyday I would jump up and down so the investing i have is more of a marathon rather than a 100 yard dash.

 

[TheViking]

So my social security deductions aren't going to work.....

 

[wgamble]

Yea, but less in retirement. Tax rates will always go up.



How do I have less in retirement?

 

[Trailabite]

Yea, but less in retirement. Tax rates will always go up.



How do I have less in retirement?

I think he's trying to say that you will be paying more in when you pull your money out of the 401k at retirement because the tax rate will be higher than it was putting the money in.

 

[Jsanders]

I learned from listening to people like dave ramsey on the radio everyday and learning from other people's mistakes... We don't have a 500k house like some do but everything we have is paid for in full and my wife and I both contribute 15% into retirement funds

 

[wgamble]

The magic number where I live is 5 when it comes to houses. I am trying to get there so I can make it a legit business and be able to write off a lot more than I do. I want to be able to buy a new tow rig and then lease it to my company to drive and slap my business name all over my crawler for marketing and advertising so i can write off all of my trips and upgrades.