Investing megathread extravaganza

[DaFace]

A place to talk about investing stuff.

[ChiliConCarnage]

Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin

I'm thinking about taking some losses now before Jan1

From Mayish to October of this year I was just contributing to index ETFs. This last week I harvested the last of my small cap contributions. End of day Friday I pushed some of that money back into my large cap etfs. 7% down in one week? Seems way overdone.

Like Rain Man, I've harvested a few individual stocks that've done poorly. I got lucky to get out of Micron at 60 but held onto Lam Research and semiconductors have been wrecked. I've harvested part of my position and I'll move back in next year if things look good. They pay a pretty decent dividend for a tech company. They had to dump their CEO which didn't help. I need to follow up and do some more research on this I think.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Question:

I just got a job offer. Salary will start ~120 with a significant increase after about three years. Company offers an IRA that they match 50% of up to 5 percent of my salary (2.5% ). I'll have about 180k of student loan debt.

What resources do you recommend I look at, and how would you diversify?

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

Question:

I just got a job offer. Salary will start ~120 with a significant increase after about three years. Company offers an IRA that they match 50% of up to 5 percent of my salary (2.5% ). I'll have about 180k of student loan debt.

What resources do you recommend I look at, and how would you diversify?

What’s your risk tolerance?
What funds do they offer?
Do you have other investments?
What’s your retirement timeline?

You obviously have to do minimum 5% to gather all the free money.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by lewdog

What’s your risk tolerance?
What funds do they offer?
Do you have other investments?
What’s your retirement timeline?

You obviously have to do minimum 5% to gather all the free money.

1) moderate
2) Not sure yet
3) No
4) 35 years

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

1) moderate
2) Not sure yet
3) No
4) 35 years

So no other investments at all? Any investing experience?
What’s your age? The helps determine how behind you are in saving for retirement.

Can’t help with resources until we have idea of the fund choices they offer.

[TwistedChief]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

1) moderate
2) Not sure yet
3) No
4) 35 years

Keep it simple: invest in low cost index funds. Something like 80pct equities/20pct bonds. Slowly decay that ratio such that in 25yrs you're 50/50 and then look to be 20/80 at retirement.

Don't spend time reading this megathread looking for great alpha investing opportunities.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by TwistedChief

Keep it simple: invest in low cost index funds. Something like 80pct equities/20pct bonds. Slowly decay that ratio such that in 25yrs you're 50/50 and then look to be 20/80 at retirement.

Don't spend time reading this megathread looking for great alpha investing opportunities.

Hey, don't diss me. I was an investing genius for the last six years. Up until the past three months, anyway, and for some reason I'm an idiot now.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

We're ALL idiots right now.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by TwistedChief

Keep it simple: invest in low cost index funds. Something like 80pct equities/20pct bonds. Slowly decay that ratio such that in 25yrs you're 50/50 and then look to be 20/80 at retirement.

Don't spend time reading this megathread looking for great alpha investing opportunities.

Target date index fun if they have one would be my suggestion too.

However, my work 401k didn’t get any index funds until 2 years ago.

His bigger decision will be how much he can/should put in a year if he’s really got no other investments and is mid to late 30’s. He’s gonna have to makeup some ground there and should think about maxing if able but that student loan debt is basically a second mortgage payment.

[DaKCMan AP]

Originally Posted by lewdog

Target date index fun if they have one would be my suggestion too.

However, my work 401k didn’t get any index funds until 2 years ago.

His bigger decision will be how much he can/should put in a year if he’s really got no other investments and is mid to late 30’s. He’s gonna have to makeup some ground there and should think about maxing if able but that student loan debt is basically a second mortgage payment.

Target funds typically charge higher fees/expense ratio and are more conservative than necessary. A 2055 or 2060 target fund likely still has near 30% bonds and fixed income which is too high.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by DaKCMan AP

Target funds typically charge higher fees/expense ratio and are more conservative than necessary. A 2055 or 2060 target fund likely still has near 30% bonds and fixed income which is too high.

This is just all false (at least in the case of mine). I'm in SWYMX (target 2050), and it's an 0.08% expense ratio and is currently at 90% stocks.

[DaKCMan AP]

Originally Posted by DaFace

This is just all false (at least in the case of mine). I'm in SWYMX (target 2050), and it's an 0.08% expense ratio and is currently at 90% stocks.

That's how it should be, but not how the target funds in my company's 401k offering are structured.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by TwistedChief

Keep it simple: invest in low cost index funds. Something like 80pct equities/20pct bonds. Slowly decay that ratio such that in 25yrs you're 50/50 and then look to be 20/80 at retirement.

Don't spend time reading this megathread looking for great alpha investing opportunities.

I'm not trying to turn into a day trader at all.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by DaKCMan AP

Target funds typically charge higher fees/expense ratio and are more conservative than necessary. A 2055 or 2060 target fund likely still has near 30% bonds and fixed income which is too high.

Originally Posted by DaFace

This is just all false (at least in the case of mine). I'm in SWYMX (target 2050), and it's an 0.08% expense ratio and is currently at 90% stocks.

My experience is more like DaFace as well. Vanguard Target Date Fund of 2050 is 90/10 and expense ratio of .15%. This is offered through my company as a choice and my wife's when she was working. Vanguards track higher percentages of equities across the timeline in target date funds, which IMO is good.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin

Do you have any targets for reinvestment other than General Mills. Apple is being recommended by Motley to buy now as it's down 30% in this correction.

I've got a little Apple, and it's still up from when I bought it (maybe three or four years ago). I've always been a bit skeptical that they can maintain their golden aura.

I've been increasing positions in little drips as the market falls. My latest is PEB, which has a bunch of independent hotels. It pays a nice dividend and I'm not sure how things like tariffs would really hurt it.