schlitzy its the hillbillies that will save your butt when things go bad in the country.
no one even the cops are going to help in the city.

schlitz,

If your employer offers a 401k or similar investment, maximize that before anything else.

If, after that and bills, you have money to invest, I like Zeno's advice--find a fund you like, making sure to understand the costs relative to performance. Vanguard's great, I have some $ in Dodge & Cox funds which are pretty good, I think.*

I've pretty much quit adding to my of individual securities. More than I want to deal with keeping up with them. I still hold them, but just let he dividends reinvest, don't buy more.

Just easier to buy a broad-based, low-cost fund.

*Once again, not a professional, and kind of a lazy investor nowdays. This is one of the many areas where people should take my advice critically.

just remember everyone that touches your money is taking out a commission in some way.
that isnt going into your portfolio.
all that doesnt ever get into your compounding.

thx you guys

I just called our benefits office and ironed out some details, including that I contribute the maximum of 6%

and learn where it goes and if you have some choice where to put it. usually it goes into some brokerage they choose that takes a bigger cut of your money. you may have the option to at least have it in an exchange fund.

you look at the price of a six pack when you buy it. so look at what your life savings are being priced at.

I doubt this; especially after a lifetime of playing poker at your high-level of expertise. On paper you are, perhaps, in the poor house. But in reality you are rolling in hard money, gold, and negotiable bonds - even if all stuffed into a mattress or buried in the backyard. Don't pull that stuff on me!

In my neighborhood, stores don't post the price under the beer. It's like playing The Price is Right, except your guess is always wrong.

I'm a little surprised by this. My experience is that employers offer to match up to x% (or $x) of your contributions, but you are allowed to contribute as much as you'd like beyond that up to the federally mandated limit. ($19500/year if under 50, +$6500 if >= 50. IRS Source

That's just wrong.

obviously i could be wrong, but i read Schlitzy's post as he's contributing to the max that his employer will match (which everyone should do when it comes to getting free monies).

thanks for the feedback Ray. i'm well aware of what that particular fund does, the price of entry, and the fees they charge.

it is just a portion of my portfolio, but i'm pretty sure my balance can absorb the $20 a year fee plus a few hundred a year more to manage it for me. i tend to look at it as if they are an employee of mine, continuously balancing my investments to mirror the market, and at that price point i'm not going to find anyone that can do it that well for the same value.

a small basket of say a dozen stocks will mimic the market very closely.

go look at some charts of bigger stocks against the market and you will see most will follow very closely over past a short time frame..
no one effectively beats a buy and hold strategy.

*** and almost all mutual funds do not beat or equal the market.**

Yeah, I was being a little histrionic about the whole thing. I had made some overseas investments that have become difficult to track recently. I've been ignoring them since I haven't any course of action that I could take now. My business deals / investments seldom worry me. What I'm starting to wonder about is my completely unsubstantiated and unjustified self confidence. I always assume that I'll be able to deal with anything that's thrown my way, and wonder how much longer that's going to be true.

And speaking of money stuffed in mattresses, one thing I never thought about when I was young was liquidity. I never thought of investments in terms of how fast I could turn them into cash. The reason I mention this is that I don't believe in the concept of security. People thinking of their later years often hope for it, but it's just make-believe. It's a sales gimmick.

Security doesn't exist, but what does exist is opportunity, and if an opportunity comes along it helps to have some cash in hand to take advantage of it. I'm just trying to offer some food for thought to the younger guys who are starting to think ahead.

But they need to be part of the blend depending on your age and earning power amongst other factors.

I think I figured out how to get back to me.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

they absolutely do not. but can be if you are willing to settle for lesser growth of your money compounded over time.

short time parking place okay. such as a money market fund.

they are doing nothing but buying the same stocks you can for no commission, and charging you a fee to do that and hold them.

then to keep that fund getting new investments into it they use your money to churn the stock portfolio to keep favorite stocks in the news in it so as to attract new investors.

if its fully just an index fund you can for free just buy the major stocks in it.

Good point, it could've been that. If so, I'd still recommend maxing out 401k contributions prior to doing any "personal" investing. Assuming the 401k offers investments one is comfortable with, of course.

Both reduces your taxable income now (maybe saving you some $ there) and allows the investments to grow tax-deferred.

You're right, anyone who isn't saving at least to their employer's match level is doing it wrong.

After looking into it more, how good or bad a 401k is depends on how aggressive the account is along with the fees. You can actually end up with no total benefit at the end if you are too conservative. I know I'll never have a 401k, but no matter which way you do it, parking money in your bank account is the worst option.

Ray Zee is right about ETFs and other funds. Seeing Vanguard ETFs, they all do worse than DJIA, Nasdaq, and S&P 500, but not significantly worse. Other indexes are super conservative and do worse than ETFs.

Over the past 10 years, QQQ (Nasdaq) has been going up like a missile, but that doesn't mean QQQ will maintain that growth over the next ten years.

an island of poetry in a sea of profound disability

jk.. gold diggity, ray ray and davey are my people

In other words, I'm no longer praisefamousmen.



Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

slz=bro

right, I gathered that, but the way you worded it was nice



How do I get to where I've come from?

I agree. It were as though he were solving The Riddle of Existential Angst and the Riddle of the Smartphone with one fell swoop.

it would be a better world if we all got riddle of the smartphone.