Investments questions.

A

afolk83

Club Member
Ok long story short. I have a 401k that is 100% vested. I recently got divorced and had to give 50% of it to cuntzilla. I am wondering if I should try some really aggressive investments to try and recover or just keep it where it's at. I am 32 and have one child. Now is the time I could afford to take some losses. Right now I have about 50% guaranteed interest and 50% semi aggressive. Or since I know very little should I just shut the hell up and keep working. I just feel like it's kinda crazy to believe that some financial adviser I have never even meet or spoken to is making the best choices for me. Any help is much appreciated.
 
FWIW my wife and I have ours the same way 50/50 when the stock market tanked a few years back we didnt get hit as bad as a friend of mine who is the same age as me and says he will have to wait to retire because he had 75% of his portfolio in aggressive funding
The older I get ... I am becoming less of a fan in Wall Street
 
Thanks for the input. Some very wealthy people I know tell me at my age I should be more like 90-95% extremely aggressive now and slowly reduce as I get closer to retirement age. Which I was hoping would be 35. Lol. I just know that like anything you can't win big if you don't bet big. And the older I get the less I will be able to take that risk. Maybe I am better off allocating some funds( only what I can afford to lose) purely for the aggressive stocks.
 
The 7 year financial bubble is 2 years out...just an FYI, it will happen again...

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk 2
 
You're young. Diversify, mutual funds, bonds, money market certs that can be liquified easily if you need cash. Invest in 401k pretax and IRA aftertax to lower your tax debt both today and in the future. Just keep adding to it and your be set when you get to retirement. If you get into some good stable bonds you can be a little risky with the mutual funds. Just don't put all you eggs in one basket.
 
Go as aggressive as you can at this age. Invest in low cost index funds and don't look at it for about 20 years and then get more conservative as retirement approaches. The market should double your money every 10 to 12 years. Don't listen to all the pessimists, even when sh!t hit the fan in 2008 you made it all back by 2011 if you stayed invested.
 
I look at and have always responded to this question from a different perspective.
You can only invest so much and risk so much that you really need to hedge your
money game by the things you can (somewhat) control.

I've done ok on my investing, but have done really well on my eliminating debt and
saving as much as I could. Doing these two things has maximized my savings and retirement.

I guess what I'm saying is, the average person focuses on the 401K portfolio in hopes that
will somehow be enough for what they need. I would contend, look past that and search how else
you can create / maximize your resources to yield the best dividends and returns you can.

When it comes to financial investing, research and do your due diligence………..
………and pray.
 
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I'm 32 and I think my split is like 85% aggressive and 15% very low risk. Realistically I've got 25-30 years before I'll touch any of it anyhow, so I'll see quite a few more up/down trends.

Unless you really know what you're doing, or plan on going to someone who does, just stick with it.
 
4Gas$ is is right on. It's how much you don't spend that gets you where you want to be. Regardless of how your investments pan out.
 
32 is still "young" enough to make life changes to get better paying jobs, or look for jobs with better benefits. Maxing out your 401k at a higher annual income coupled with a nice company match and then some will do way more than worrying about investment options.
 
RyeLou said:
32 is still "young" enough to make life changes to get better paying jobs, or look for jobs with better benefits. Maxing out your 401k at a higher annual income coupled with a nice company match and then some will do way more than worrying about investment options.
Click to expand...

True. And keeping debt to a minimum.
 
Don't have much to contribute other than I set up a target date fund which starts off aggressive and gradually tapers off im 26 and have built a decent amount up but up until now it has been all low risk, but it has grown a lot now that it is more aggressive. also I guess don't get married would be the best for long term wealth.
 
Thanks for all the help guys. My company matches 100% up to 7% of my income. So that's what I contribute. But I will talk to my advisor and switch my allocations to a higher percentage aggressive. Maybe like a 90% aggressive and 10% low risk. 4gas and some others gave the best advice as far as reducing spending. I need to make some changes there. Thanks again guys.
 
I think 15% is the max you can contribute yourself to a 401k so start by shooting for that as you increase earnings.
 
Unfortunately, the "Maybe like a 90% aggressive and 10% low risk" time to switch was back in early 2010 - not now when the markets are pushing all time highs and we're overdue for a correction. JMO.

Live below your means.
Avoid debt as much as possible. Certainly all bad debt - credit card balance, car loans, student loans, etc.
Invest as much as you can afford. Ideally to the IRS maximum.
Pick an AA (asset allocation), stick to it and rebalance often.

Read this: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads®_investment_philosophy
Watch this: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Video:Bogleheads®_investment_philosophy
 
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RyeLou said:
I think 15% is the max you can contribute yourself to a 401k so start by shooting for that as you increase earnings.
Click to expand...

There is no max percent. You can do 100% if you want. The max is $18,000 if you are under the age of 49.

--Joe
 
Just for the record, there is no "max" for investing. There are many options
to invest past a 401K and still be tax deferred and or exempt.

One of my favorites:

I wrote this about a year ago...

"You really want to “earn” some money? Get & stay as debt free as you
can get.

Don’t always follow the popular wisdom on finances & investing.
I am a good example of this thinking. All my life I have heard (as
most of you), when it comes to life insurance “NEVER buy universal
or whole life (investment insurance), but always buy term insurance.”

This is what almost every financial guru has preached for the last 40
years (including Dave Ramsey). I am so happy I didn’t listen to all those
experts. They said it then & they are still saying it today.

Well I bought an investment life insurance policy (whole / universal
life) at the time (about 12 years ago) the guaranteed interest rate was
about what you could get at most banks, so I pulled the trigger and bought
the policy & fully funded the account.

The way it works is, my pot of cash is sitting in an account with the insurance
company. They pay me interest, that interest dividend is not taxed, it grows.
The cost of my life insurance is deducted from the account.

The down side is, the insurance cost more than term insurance – BUT, the up
side is remember that “guaranteed interest rate” I mentioned above? My
rate started at 6 ½ %, but of course it doesn’t pay that today. I’m earning
the account minimum, 5% on this very safe & secure account, with no tax liability.

The cost of the life insurance is a fraction of the amount of money this account
makes monthly. In other words, I get free life insurance, my account
grows by thousands every year and I’m making about 5 times more than any bank
would pay me."
 
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