New To Investing Thread

[ben ji]

Side shot from the General Advice thread.... See below for ben ji's investing advice.

1. Contribute at least the max that your employer will match to your company 401k....Does not matter how poor you are or how much student debt you have, this is free money.

2. Once you have contributed to enough to get the full match to your company 401k and you still have more money to invest you have some options. You can keep putting more money in the 401k or you can open a Roth IRA.

But ben ji, why put it in a roth ira and not keep it in the 401k?

Well....

1. Roth IRA is after tax money and will not be taxed when you take it in retirement. If you are just starting out you will probably be a lower tax rate now than when you retire.

2. You have more investment options with an IRA. This allows you to find funds with lower expense ratio's and more targeted investing than your 401k Options.

[0.42]

buy low, sell high

[Rage Against the McKee]

I contribute enough to my 401k to max out the employer match, and then I use the rest of my spare money purchasing stocks.

[Emo EMAW]

I contribute enough to my 401k to max out the employer match, and then I use the rest of my spare money purchasing stocks.

General trading account?  Wife and I been maxing the Roth IRA contribution the last few years and now we wish we would have been doing just a general trading account for the purpose of pulling out cash to buy a new house.

['taterblast]

of all the "wealth" i have to my name currently, a little less than 20% of it is actual cash that i could spend right now.

is this bad?

[The Tonya Harding of Twitter Users Creep]

I need to invest money in stocks. What's my best route here... Scottrade? I kinda just want someone to take my money and then just tell me when I'm a millionaire. I know nothing about stocks and don't really have the time to pay a whole lot of attention to them.

[steve dave]

I contribute enough to my 401k to max out the employer match, and then I use the rest of my spare money purchasing stocks.

you are pissing away some good tax breaks broseph

[steve dave]

of all the "wealth" i have to my name currently, a little less than 20% of it is actual cash that i could spend right now.

is this bad?

depends how much "wealth" you have. normally that would be way too much in cash.

['taterblast]

of all the "wealth" i have to my name currently, a little less than 20% of it is actual cash that i could spend right now.

is this bad?

depends how much "wealth" you have. normally that would be way too much in cash.

yeah it's not that much so i'm probably ok.

[Emo EMAW]

I contribute enough to my 401k to max out the employer match, and then I use the rest of my spare money purchasing stocks.

you are pissing away some good tax breaks broseph

Depends.  Probably a safe assumption tax rates when we retire will be higher.  Better to pay the income tax up front and not pay it later.  At least that's my way of looking at it.

[steve dave]

I contribute enough to my 401k to max out the employer match, and then I use the rest of my spare money purchasing stocks.

you are pissing away some good tax breaks broseph

Depends.  Probably a safe assumption tax rates when we retire will be higher.  Better to pay the income tax up front and not pay it later.  At least that's my way of looking at it.

it doesn't depend at all. he can either put it in a roth or contribute more than his employers match to his 401k until he hits his personal max. either way it's a tax break over buying stocks (not taking into account potential gain/loss). he would be losing liquidity if that is a factor.

[Emo EMAW]

I contribute enough to my 401k to max out the employer match, and then I use the rest of my spare money purchasing stocks.

you are pissing away some good tax breaks broseph

Depends.  Probably a safe assumption tax rates when we retire will be higher.  Better to pay the income tax up front and not pay it later.  At least that's my way of looking at it.

it doesn't depend at all. he can either put it in a roth or contribute more than his employers match to his 401k until he hits his personal max. either way it's a tax break over buying stocks with after tax money and getting hit again when he sells them.

Well a Roth is an after tax contribution.  So no tax break there.  You might be thinking of a traditional IRA?

Agree on the 401k, although mine won't let me purchase anything other than the two dozen funds they offer (Prudential).

[steve dave]

I contribute enough to my 401k to max out the employer match, and then I use the rest of my spare money purchasing stocks.

you are pissing away some good tax breaks broseph

Depends.  Probably a safe assumption tax rates when we retire will be higher.  Better to pay the income tax up front and not pay it later.  At least that's my way of looking at it.

it doesn't depend at all. he can either put it in a roth or contribute more than his employers match to his 401k until he hits his personal max. either way it's a tax break over buying stocks with after tax money and getting hit again when he sells them.

Well a Roth is an after tax contribution.  So no tax break there.  You might be thinking of a traditional IRA?

Agree on the 401k, although mine won't let me purchase anything other than the two dozen funds they offer (Prudential).

I'm not 100% certain you understand how a Roth works (I'm actually 100% certain you don't).

[Rage Against the McKee]

I contribute enough to my 401k to max out the employer match, and then I use the rest of my spare money purchasing stocks.

General trading account?  Wife and I been maxing the Roth IRA contribution the last few years and now we wish we would have been doing just a general trading account for the purpose of pulling out cash to buy a new house.

Yeah, I use TD Ameritrade. I basically had the same idea, that it would be nice to be able to just take out money whenever I wanted for major purchases, while I still have my tax-exempt account that I can't touch until I'm 65. I really just do that because I enjoy it, though.

[ben ji]

I need to invest money in stocks. What's my best route here... Scottrade? I kinda just want someone to take my money and then just tell me when I'm a millionaire. I know nothing about stocks and don't really have the time to pay a whole lot of attention to them.

Just get a roth IRA, its very simple. I have mine through fidelity and it took about 10 minutes to set up. No minimum starting amount if you set up direct deposit every month.

If you want something where you just invest it and forget it just buy an index fund.

[ben ji]

I contribute enough to my 401k to max out the employer match, and then I use the rest of my spare money purchasing stocks.

General trading account?  Wife and I been maxing the Roth IRA contribution the last few years and now we wish we would have been doing just a general trading account for the purpose of pulling out cash to buy a new house.

You do realize you can pull the principal(not any interest earned) from your roth IRA at anytime.....

[Emo EMAW]

I contribute enough to my 401k to max out the employer match, and then I use the rest of my spare money purchasing stocks.

you are pissing away some good tax breaks broseph

Depends.  Probably a safe assumption tax rates when we retire will be higher.  Better to pay the income tax up front and not pay it later.  At least that's my way of looking at it.

it doesn't depend at all. he can either put it in a roth or contribute more than his employers match to his 401k until he hits his personal max. either way it's a tax break over buying stocks with after tax money and getting hit again when he sells them.

Well a Roth is an after tax contribution.  So no tax break there.  You might be thinking of a traditional IRA?

Agree on the 401k, although mine won't let me purchase anything other than the two dozen funds they offer (Prudential).

I'm not 100% certain you understand how a Roth works (I'm actually 100% certain you don't).

I'm saying your contributions are not tax deductible.  So you pay income tax.  However your disbursements are not taxed as income, nor are there capital gains/losses. 

[Emo EMAW]

I contribute enough to my 401k to max out the employer match, and then I use the rest of my spare money purchasing stocks.

General trading account?  Wife and I been maxing the Roth IRA contribution the last few years and now we wish we would have been doing just a general trading account for the purpose of pulling out cash to buy a new house.

You do realize you can pull the principal(not any interest earned) from your roth IRA at anytime.....

No penalty?  Was not aware of that.

[The Tonya Harding of Twitter Users Creep]

I need to invest money in stocks. What's my best route here... Scottrade? I kinda just want someone to take my money and then just tell me when I'm a millionaire. I know nothing about stocks and don't really have the time to pay a whole lot of attention to them.

Just get a roth IRA, its very simple. I have mine through fidelity and it took about 10 minutes to set up. No minimum starting amount if you set up direct deposit every month.

If you want something where you just invest it and forget it just buy an index fund.

Link me, bro

[mocat]

I contribute enough to my 401k to max out the employer match, and then I use the rest of my spare money purchasing stocks.

you are pissing away some good tax breaks broseph

Depends.  Probably a safe assumption tax rates when we retire will be higher.  Better to pay the income tax up front and not pay it later.  At least that's my way of looking at it.

it doesn't depend at all. he can either put it in a roth or contribute more than his employers match to his 401k until he hits his personal max. either way it's a tax break over buying stocks with after tax money and getting hit again when he sells them.

Well a Roth is an after tax contribution.  So no tax break there.  You might be thinking of a traditional IRA?

Agree on the 401k, although mine won't let me purchase anything other than the two dozen funds they offer (Prudential).

I'm not 100% certain you understand how a Roth works (I'm actually 100% certain you don't).

This is the new to investing thread, steve. Take it easy and spell it out for people who are new to investing.

[ben ji]

I contribute enough to my 401k to max out the employer match, and then I use the rest of my spare money purchasing stocks.

General trading account?  Wife and I been maxing the Roth IRA contribution the last few years and now we wish we would have been doing just a general trading account for the purpose of pulling out cash to buy a new house.

You do realize you can pull the principal(not any interest earned) from your roth IRA at anytime.....

No penalty?  Was not aware of that.

No penalty, you already paid tax on it. You can pull out as much principal as you want at any time.

[EllRobersonisInnocent]

I need to invest money in stocks. What's my best route here... Scottrade? I kinda just want someone to take my money and then just tell me when I'm a millionaire. I know nothing about stocks and don't really have the time to pay a whole lot of attention to them.

Just get a roth IRA, its very simple. I have mine through fidelity and it took about 10 minutes to set up. No minimum starting amount if you set up direct deposit every month.

If you want something where you just invest it and forget it just buy an index fund.

Link me, bro

www.google.com

[mocat]

I need to invest money in stocks. What's my best route here... Scottrade? I kinda just want someone to take my money and then just tell me when I'm a millionaire. I know nothing about stocks and don't really have the time to pay a whole lot of attention to them.

Just get a roth IRA, its very simple. I have mine through fidelity and it took about 10 minutes to set up. No minimum starting amount if you set up direct deposit every month.

Link me, bro

tell me more

[ben ji]

I need to invest money in stocks. What's my best route here... Scottrade? I kinda just want someone to take my money and then just tell me when I'm a millionaire. I know nothing about stocks and don't really have the time to pay a whole lot of attention to them.

Just get a roth IRA, its very simple. I have mine through fidelity and it took about 10 minutes to set up. No minimum starting amount if you set up direct deposit every month.

If you want something where you just invest it and forget it just buy an index fund.

Link me, bro

https://www.fidelity.com/open-account/overview

I also have a general trading account seperate from my Roth IRA but it only has $500 in it and I just use it to screw around in.

[Dr Rick Daris]

invest 10-15% of your salary every year and no more. if you have leftover money, do not invest it but instead immediately spend it on life experience types of things and not things like super nice cars and new couches.