Author Topic: New To Investing Thread  (Read 327072 times)

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Offline Emo EMAW

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #725 on: January 31, 2014, 01:20:51 PM »
I'm relatively new to investing.  I get my company 401k match and everything but want to invest more rather than have money sitting in a checking/savings account.  Any advice?  Is it worth paying a financial advisor and let them worry about it after telling them your goals?  Ugh

no.  investing is (can be, if you want it to be) incredibly easy.  there's no reason to pay someone to help you.

 :thumbs:

Offline meow meow

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #726 on: January 31, 2014, 01:50:33 PM »
Ok so let's say you're married, couple kids, lower 30's.  Mortgage is your only debt.  Have extra money at the end of the month sitting in your checking.  Do you contribute more to your 401k?  Invest somewhere else I don't know about?

Offline slobber

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #727 on: January 31, 2014, 01:57:03 PM »
Ok so let's say you're married, couple kids, lower 30's.  Mortgage is your only debt.  Have extra money at the end of the month sitting in your checking.  Do you contribute more to your 401k?  Invest somewhere else I don't know about?
How much extra money? If it is just a couple hundred bucks and you have good choices in your 401k, invest there. Otherwise, depending on your income, start a Roth IRA.

Offline Rage Against the McKee

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #728 on: January 31, 2014, 02:01:39 PM »
Ok so let's say you're married, couple kids, lower 30's.  Mortgage is your only debt.  Have extra money at the end of the month sitting in your checking.  Do you contribute more to your 401k?  Invest somewhere else I don't know about?
How much extra money? If it is just a couple hundred bucks and you have good choices in your 401k, invest there. Otherwise, depending on your income, start a Roth IRA.

A couple hundred bucks per month (give or take) could get you nearly halfway to maxing a Roth. If you are maxing your employer match on the 401k, wouldn't it be better to just put what you can in the Roth?

Offline meow meow

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #729 on: January 31, 2014, 02:23:48 PM »
Like 1k or so. 

Offline EllRobersonisInnocent

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #730 on: January 31, 2014, 02:30:10 PM »
start putting some of it in 529 accounts for your kids' college

Offline slobber

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #731 on: January 31, 2014, 02:37:10 PM »
Ok so let's say you're married, couple kids, lower 30's.  Mortgage is your only debt.  Have extra money at the end of the month sitting in your checking.  Do you contribute more to your 401k?  Invest somewhere else I don't know about?
How much extra money? If it is just a couple hundred bucks and you have good choices in your 401k, invest there. Otherwise, depending on your income, start a Roth IRA.

A couple hundred bucks per month (give or take) could get you nearly halfway to maxing a Roth. If you are maxing your employer match on the 401k, wouldn't it be better to just put what you can in the Roth?
Short answer: Yes, but probably not too significant. I love the idea of a Roth, but I have that in my 401k as well.
However, sometimes people are intimidated by starting something new. Adding $200 per month to your 401k contributions is actionable in about 2 minutes. Setting up a Roth IRA seems more daunting to some.

What I invest in on a monthly basis:
Roth 401k (this is the most significant)
Roth IRA (not actually monthly, but a couple of times/year I make a contribution)
Company stock (buy at 15% discount. Have to hold for a year, but I now sell some 3-4 times a year. I don't want too much money invested in company stock)
3 529 savings accounts
HSA

Offline slobber

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #732 on: January 31, 2014, 02:38:34 PM »
Like 1k or so.
Max out a Roth IRA for you and your wife.
Start 529's for the kids. Even if you only put $50 a month in there, do it.

You can use the principle in the Roth for college if necessary.

Offline sys

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #733 on: January 31, 2014, 02:52:46 PM »
Ok so let's say you're married, couple kids, lower 30's.  Mortgage is your only debt.  Have extra money at the end of the month sitting in your checking.  Do you contribute more to your 401k?  Invest somewhere else I don't know about?

i'd need to know when you want to retire, when your wife wants to retire and how old she is, if you get a 401k match, and if so what, what investment options you have in your 401k, your current marginal tax rate and your best guess at your marginal tax rate your first 5-10 years after stopping working (assume you file jointly, if not i need to know that too).  also how flexible you are, especially w. regard to retirement dates.  also mortgage rate and % equity in house.
"experienced commanders will simply be smeared and will actually go to the meat."

Offline meow meow

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #734 on: January 31, 2014, 02:56:43 PM »
Already have 529 acct, mort rate is 2.875, about 20% equity, wife is 28 would like to retire around 60 I guess.  So many questions.  Also I cont 6% in 401k get a 6% match threw employer, and I contribute another 6% to a Roth, I'm stuck on 6's maybe?  Max out the 529's at 6k per year

Offline steve dave

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #735 on: January 31, 2014, 02:57:16 PM »
Ok so let's say you're married, couple kids, lower 30's.  Mortgage is your only debt.  Have extra money at the end of the month sitting in your checking.  Do you contribute more to your 401k?  Invest somewhere else I don't know about?

i'd need to know when you want to retire, when your wife wants to retire and how old she is, if you get a 401k match, and if so what, what investment options you have in your 401k, your current marginal tax rate and your best guess at your marginal tax rate your first 5-10 years after stopping working (assume you file jointly, if not i need to know that too).  also how flexible you are, especially w. regard to retirement dates.  also mortgage rate and % equity in house.

oh eff, let's just go blow that money in vegas meow meow

Offline steve dave

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #736 on: January 31, 2014, 02:57:48 PM »

Offline slobber

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #737 on: January 31, 2014, 02:59:08 PM »
Ok so let's say you're married, couple kids, lower 30's.  Mortgage is your only debt.  Have extra money at the end of the month sitting in your checking.  Do you contribute more to your 401k?  Invest somewhere else I don't know about?

i'd need to know when you want to retire, when your wife wants to retire and how old she is, if you get a 401k match, and if so what, what investment options you have in your 401k, your current marginal tax rate and your best guess at your marginal tax rate your first 5-10 years after stopping working (assume you file jointly, if not i need to know that too).  also how flexible you are, especially w. regard to retirement dates.  also mortgage rate and % equity in house.
I just made accurate assumptions for all of this. You can just use my advice, meow meow. No reason to divulge all of this on a blog.

Offline Tobias

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #738 on: January 31, 2014, 02:59:31 PM »

Offline sys

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #739 on: January 31, 2014, 03:00:52 PM »
dobber, i'm just guessing at your income and flexibility, but i think you should probably put some or all of your money into a traditional 401k instead of the roth.
"experienced commanders will simply be smeared and will actually go to the meat."

Offline steve dave

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #740 on: January 31, 2014, 03:03:00 PM »
dobber, i'm just guessing at your income and flexibility, but i think you should probably put some or all of your money into a traditional 401k instead of the roth.

yes, agreed here (using my own guesses) (my guess is that dobber makes mad stacks)

Offline meow meow

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #741 on: January 31, 2014, 03:03:31 PM »
mort rate is 2.875

 :horrorsurprise:

If only it was my dream house probably be giving up that sweet rate in a few years

Offline sys

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #742 on: January 31, 2014, 03:04:43 PM »
Already have 529 acct, mort rate is 2.875, about 20% equity, wife is 28 would like to retire around 60 I guess.  So many questions.  Also I cont 6% in 401k get a 6% match threw employer, and I contribute another 6% to a Roth, I'm stuck on 6's maybe?  Max out the 529's at 6k per year

tax rate?  and not to get you to divulge personal info you don't want to divulge, but 6% doesn't tell me if you are at 17,5 or nowhere near it.  when you say roth, you mean ira or 401k?

one caveat - i dunno anything about 529s and don't care if your children go to college or not.  you have to figure that part out on your own.

you said 1k/month, correct?
"experienced commanders will simply be smeared and will actually go to the meat."

Offline steve dave

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #743 on: January 31, 2014, 03:05:11 PM »
mort rate is 2.875

 :horrorsurprise:

If only it was my dream house probably be giving up that sweet rate in a few years

yeah, that will hurt. I currently have like a 3.3% on a 15 year at my current place but now I'm going to have to get a 30 year  :frown:

Offline slobber

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #744 on: January 31, 2014, 03:08:07 PM »
dobber, i'm just guessing at your income and flexibility, but i think you should probably put some or all of your money into a traditional 401k instead of the roth.
I couldn't convert what was in traditional 401k, and what the company contributes is still traditional. So I have a significant amount that is traditional and everything that I have invested over the past 5 years is Roth. I think it is a good mix. It is hard to know for certain what the taxes will be in the future, so having a mix feels right.

I have considered that maybe I should go back to traditional, since I have the Roth IRA's as well. Maybe that is what my guy wants to talk to me about.  :eek: ARE YOU MY GUY? :eek: Is your name Joe R.? :runaway:

Offline steve dave

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #745 on: January 31, 2014, 03:10:33 PM »
it really just matters what you make right now, not how you contributed to way back when (mostly)

Offline ben ji

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #746 on: January 31, 2014, 03:13:11 PM »
Anyone have any experience with rolling over 401k's when you change jobs? May be changing soon and I was just planning on rolling it all into my roth IRA.

Offline raquetcat

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #747 on: January 31, 2014, 03:19:02 PM »
mort rate is 2.875

 :horrorsurprise:

If only it was my dream house probably be giving up that sweet rate in a few years

yeah, that will hurt. I currently have like a 3.3% on a 15 year at my current place but now I'm going to have to get a 30 year  :frown:
meow meow and I must have gotten loans at the same time, I refinanced a year after getting my house and now have the 2.875% 15 year EMAW loan
I'm purple down

Offline sys

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #748 on: January 31, 2014, 03:19:30 PM »
dobber, i'm just guessing at your income and flexibility, but i think you should probably put some or all of your money into a traditional 401k instead of the roth.
I couldn't convert what was in traditional 401k, and what the company contributes is still traditional. So I have a significant amount that is traditional and everything that I have invested over the past 5 years is Roth. I think it is a good mix. It is hard to know for certain what the taxes will be in the future, so having a mix feels right.

I have considered that maybe I should go back to traditional, since I have the Roth IRA's as well. Maybe that is what my guy wants to talk to me about.  :eek: ARE YOU MY GUY? :eek: Is your name Joe R.? :runaway:

if you're paying 25% or more on your top rate  (the more over that, the stronger the case), i think you should put as much as you can into the traditional.  that gives you more flexibility.  you can convert the traditional to a roth (advantageously), you can't go the other way.
"experienced commanders will simply be smeared and will actually go to the meat."

Offline sys

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Re: New To Investing Thread
« Reply #749 on: January 31, 2014, 03:21:08 PM »
Anyone have any experience with rolling over 401k's when you change jobs? May be changing soon and I was just planning on rolling it all into my roth IRA.

depends on your tax rate and how much you have in it.  you might need to roll to a trad ira and then convert some each year to the roth.
"experienced commanders will simply be smeared and will actually go to the meat."