Yes.

Yes. Subtract out the 3% fee and (assuming USA) that your student loan interest is a deduction...

Usually this is a simple math problem. Whatever saves you money, you go with. However with student loans and mortgages I take the "longer" route even if it costs a bit more, dependent on your income and cash reserves.

The advantage of student loan debt is you can take your good old time paying them off. If you make 100k a year and have 50,000 banked, then who cares if you pay it all off. If you make 40k a year and have 4k banked, then I'd say just wait. Saving 1-2k and being in a rush or just paying a hundred bucks a year or so and paying it off as a miniscule amount every month is peace of mind.

It's very dependent on income. You can't tell the future and what you might need some money for.

So if instead I wanted to invest $450/mo somewhere with low fees that didn't require me to know too much about what I was doing, would something like the Vangaurd fund that tracks the S&P be a good route?

What would be some other options?

Roth IRA (assuming your income is low currently), Vanguard Target Fund is a no brainer way to do it and it's definitely a superior allocation vs. something only tracking S&P.

https://investor.vanguard.com/what-w...stment-options Link to a page associated with the Target fund.

• Quote:

  "I want a complete portfolio in a single, all-in-one fund."
  
  Consider Vanguard Target Retirement Funds
  Based on your current age or years to retirement, we'll suggest a broadly diversified Vanguard Target Retirement Fund with a professionally managed investment mix.
  
  Once you've made your selection, the fund automatically rebalances itself and gradually reduces its stock exposure, adding more bonds to become more conservative as your retirement date approaches.

• Quote:

  "I want some help making my decision."
  
  Consider a fund that works for your existing portfolio
  You may have an idea about which type of investment you want, but take a look at your overall retirement portfolio to make sure your new IRA investment complements your current mix of stocks, bonds, and cash. If you already invest in an employer-sponsored 401(k) plan, for example, you should think about how the fund you choose for your IRA will affect the risk level of your overall retirement portfolio.
  
  Are you interested in assuming greater risk in hopes of getting a higher return with a stock fund, or less risk and a lower expected return with a bond fund? You may also be able to maintain your mix with a balanced fund.

• Quote:

  "I want to see a list of funds."
  
  Review your fund choices
  If you've already made up your mind about the type of investment that will work best for your specific goals, you can use our detailed fund list to help you decide on a fund for your IRA.

I'm assuming I'm not a "I want to see a list of funds" kind of guy since I have very little knowledge about investments, but should I just go right for the retirement fund or is there something in the other option I should consider?

you want the target retirement fund.

This.

Also, since you'll be picking a date for off in the future, the fund will likely be 90% stocks, so it is very aggressive. It's as close to a perfect investment vehicle as someone like you can ask for.

Thanks for the responses.

Is anyone familiar with the following two industries:

1. Water rights, or water desalinization. Water is, along with air, the most vital resource on the planet. Eventually, without major changes to human civilization, fresh water will become much more scarce and will be the most valuable commodity on Earth. Wars may be fought over water instead of oil.

When the supply of water starts to become dangerously low, we'll have no choice but to turn to desalinization. I'm just not sure if this will be in my lifetime (I'm 33) or not. The other play is water rights, which is basically when the water supply of an area is privatized and a corporation controls is and sells the water to the people in the area.


2. Robotics and Automation. I used to be a robot programmer, but it was 9 years ago and I didn't know much about the financial health and futures of the companies anyway. Obviously Robots and other automation devices like PLCs are going to replace a lot humans, but I'm not sure if there are any companies that stand out as good long term investments. I'm familiar with many of the names, such as Fanuc, ABB, Nachi, Allen-Bradley, etc, but I don't know much about their value as long term investments.


Basically I'm looking for companies that you admire in these industries, and that might be worth a closer look. Are these industries good long term plays? Any other thoughts on these industries as investments?

Staying in business until water starts to become dangerously low is tough. It is probably a good use of your time to invest in companies that can turn a profit in the near term. Not sure if there are any in this space.

Also, if (and where it is now) water becomes an issue, government(s) will likely step in and take away privately held water rights.

McKesson is pretty cool. It isn't a pure play though.

Is it possible for people outside US to invest in Vanguard ? I tried searching for info in my own language (romanian) but couldn't find anything really on the subject for some reason. If it is possible, any idea where should i look? Thanks .

Trying to understand the Fees associated with the Target Retirement Fund; particularly, the Acquired Fund Fees as it seems like the other fee is obvious: $20/yr for a Roth IRA with less than $10k in it.



Does the .18% apply to any newly deposited cash, or does it also apply to gains too?

the ER affects everything. it is the rake to the mutual fund custodian.

don't think vanguard takes non-americans. i don't have any recs on european brokerages but obv the internet does.

So, expense ratio isn't actually what I'm being charged, it's sort of a metric to judge the company by? It essentially says what expenses vs income are?

How do you determine how much it costs to invest with a company? What fees should I be taking into consideration, simply the $20 annual fee? There has to be more to it than that.

It's not impossible, but it's a hassle. There are likely equivalent index funds available to you in Romania in some form: at the very least, something in Europe is likely to be easier for you.

I use Barclays Stockbroking in England (even though I live in Isle of Man) and they provide access to equivalent services.

The expense ratio is how much the fund company takes from your invested funds each year to cover their own expenses and make a profit (small in the case of Vanguard). So the .18% means that for every $1,000 invested they take $1.80 out per year to cover their expenses.

The expense ratio is by far the most important consideration. Compare Vanguard to other fund companies and you'll see it's very low. That has the single biggest effect on your long term returns.

It sounds like the $20 fee is waived if you set everything up to be paperless, so obviously do that.

Awkward topic, but I'll ask anyway.

Given the recent reports of an escalated chance of some form of terrorist strike, are you guys adjusting your portfolio? I think any (attempted?) attack, even on an overseas embassy, would rattle the market.

No.

No, I'm not, because I don't think I have any more information on that issue than the rest of the market. Thus, I assume that the markets generally have taken that information into account when pricing that issue.


Also, there's a probability risk (0-1) of a terrorist attack taking place, and while you are right that prices might move if there is an attack, there's also a probability that the attack not take place, and you would suffer as a result if your wager did not win.

Makes sense. So the ER is, essentially, the sticker price you comparatively shop with. Thanks.

When shopping for life insurance (and I'm thinking of doing it just online, is this a bad idea) what are we looking for in a company?

Here are the profiles of two companies that gave me quotes.





The only things that stand out are the age of the company, the assets managed and the grade. How do these two compare? How different is an AA- rating vs an A+ rating?

.

[QUOTE=Acemanhattan;39675620]Trying to understand the Fees associated with the Target Retirement Fund; particularly, the Acquired Fund Fees as it seems like the other fee is obvious: $20/yr for a Roth IRA with less than $10k in it.
/QUOTE]

Acquired fund fees are the fees of the funds inside the fund you are buying. Funds, A B and C charge fees to holders of them. Fund Z charges fees to holders of it. Fund Z buys funds A B C so you pay fees of Z and the acquired fund fees of A, B and C.

Hi all-- thanks for any responses you can give me here.

1) I currently have E*TRADE and am looking to transfer my securities and previous employer 401(k) to a site with lower costs and fees. Any suggestions?

2) I will make $45k total salary in 2013, and something around $55k total salary in 2013. I purchased $4,600 of stock in early 2012 and it's worth $5,700 as of August 2013. Should I consider selling at the end of the year so that the $1,100 capital gains is taxed while I'm in the $45k tax bracket? I have no clue how the capital gains tax works, or if it's even correlated with income.