Investments

[WRXtranceformed]

What are you guys putting money into nowadays? I like to spend recklessly and I've put some away over the years but it's not enough and I want to start making more aggressive strategic investments. My blue chip stock portfolio chugs away making slow but steady gains over the years but lately it's not doing well thanks to the stock market woes. I also have lost a lot of faith in stock investments due to the nature of how you make money and are taxed on the profits.

I have forgone the gun purchase I spoke about a while ago now that my stimulus check finally came in and have decided to open up another mutual fund with that and the overpayment to my loan on the Lexus. Although it's not going well for real estate investors in most parts of the country, my goal is to put away as much cash as possible to buy another house here where it's still a decent investment within the next XX years. Obviously also predicated on me not making dick like I am now :lol: Ultimately I'd like to do some ROTH IRAs but I don't even know if I'll be alive by the time I can touch it so I'd prefer something more liquid that I can play with

I'm just curious, what routes are you guys taking to prepare for the future? Investing in Coors Lite and Soco like me? :lol:

[Evan]

Ive had this delusion that I could buy a house in this area for about the past 2 or 3 years so most everything Ive got is in a ING savings account for liquidity.
I dont really have any market investments worth mentioning, Im pretty sure they are all down at least 20% since buying them last july

I didnt start a 401k until last year, and I didnt realize it but it all has been going into a money market, which has turned out to be a good thing!

[Apoc]

-401k contributions and rollover IRA are going mostly into large cap and bonds
-mutual fund is a "large blend" and I don't add/delete money
-stock market is in whatever's hot, these days it's Visa
-liquid assets are in a money market account

[Ole]

Your 401K should be for long term, don't fret about whats going on day to day. If you want more information, check out my website, or you can give me a call.

[Mike]

most of my money is in my 401k, which i started day 1 of professional life. my other money is in e-trade savings... i like the convenience of being able to use any atm, and have a MUCH better rate than 99% of places.

[JustinG]

my Fiancee is a Financial Advisor..... I can give you her number FOR BUSINESS REASONS!!!!!

[WRXtranceformed]

my Fiancee is a Financial Advisor..... I can give you her number FOR BUSINESS REASONS!!!!!

You should not give your fiance's number to me for any reason.. :lol:

[JackoliciousLegs]

my Fiancee is a Financial Advisor..... I can give you her number FOR BUSINESS REASONS!!!!!

I'll take her number for businesssssss reasonssssss.... :wink:

[CaptainHenreh]

What about sexy reasons? Can I have her phone number for that?

[WRXtranceformed]

Giving your fiance's number to ANY of us would not be a good investment in YOUR future Justin... hahaha

[Sijray21]

my Fiancee is a Financial Advisor..... I can give you her number FOR BUSINESS REASONS!!!!!

I'll take her number for businesssssss reasonssssss.... :wink:

it's business time....

[WRXtranceformed]

Hahaha beautiful reference!

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[HAULN-SS]

-401k, i've had it going mostly maxed out ever since starting work, have about 7% return on that
-Capital Accumulation Plan through work, automatically enrolled in, don't contribute to, but they put in 3% of my salary for me, I pick what i want them to invest in, and after i think 3 years I am vested, and is basically free money to me. It's up 5.5% or something.

[John]

My current employer's matching is pretty decent - 401K matching dollar for dollar up to 6% and currently fully vested (they do some sort of discount that actually merits around a 7.x% match). My 401K is an aggressive blend with 20% going towards my company's stock (which is doing strong at 20% YTD return). Otherwise, my Schwab profile is mostly composed of sin stocks such Ricks, Bud, et cetera and some raw materials providers such as Hexcel and wind power utilities...

[Dave]

I've had a significant chunk in mutual funds since I was high school and have pretty much trained myself to pretend they don't exist. I've taken a pretty good beating in the past 6 months, but I have no doubt that the market will recover. It will be nice to get a tax break for once, since I've had to pay taxes on my gains almost every year since I've been filing.
I invest 10% of my take-home pay into my 401k, which has a quarterly match based upon company performance. When I worked at Sheetz I vested 7% of my income from that and they matched ~4% as well. Mine is spread over value, international, and large cap blends, with some also being dropped into a real estate fund b/c it's getting beat up now but should give me significant ROI in the long run b/c I'm buying cheap.
I dump another 15% of my net into liquid savings accounts: ING, BoA, and my credit union. The rest gets used for survival for the most part.

[ScottyB]

i have a REALLY hard time not letting money burn a hole in my pocket so i kind of know how you feel. there's always something cool to buy. that said, i've really buckled down lately on not spending too much and Jen has kept us on target with our savings plans:

401k - Fidelity, set up aggressively, putting between 10-15% in it. i don't really touch it since it is so long term. started that about 2 years ago.
Savings account - ING and Capitol One, ING is for fun/travel expenses, we like both pretty well and have a decent interest rate on both (much better than our local bank).
Mutual Fund - Fidelity, getting beat up right now. Fidelity has been great to work with though, very good customer service.
Roth IRA - Jen set hers up this January

doesn't really count i guess, but we've been putting primary credit card use on our AMEX to go toward sky miles, which i consider an investment. its also the only CC company that has actual American citizens talking to you on the phone if you call them :lol:

don't underestimate savings....it's amazing the difference in your total savings by the time you get older if you just start a few years earlier. i can't recall the math but it's pretty startling.

[WRXtranceformed]

Charlotte is holding strong!

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[KPWSerpiente]

I'm a pretty bad investor. I used to do individual stocks more for fun more than any other reason. Deep Sea Oil drilling was treating me well.

One day I'd like to own some property but not for another year or two. All I do now is play cards. Just over 40% ROI online since the start of 2006 which is discounting live games and my much better results before then on a different site.

-T

[WRXtranceformed]

Was peeping some interest rates online today during lunch and it looks like Capital One has some pretty decent rates on their savings accounts. 3.5% if you can keep 10k in a standard savings, I think like 2.5% otherwise (which isn't bad for a savings account) and 3% high yield money market accounts.

[.paul]

401k since I had the option to.
max our a traditional IRA for the past 4 years ( for tax purposes, since i was making too much )
now I max out ROTH since I bought my house, and in 2010 transferring all the traditional to ROTH
stock market for fun - do about 3-5 trades a month
money market.