Investing megathread extravaganza

[DaFace]

A place to talk about investing stuff.

[TwistedChief]

Originally Posted by -King-

What's worth putting 2500 on right now? This is a my small portfolio right now should I just add on to one of these or buy something else? And should I keep FBIOX? It's been pretty shitty lately after going going up at the beginning of the year. I'm a novice when it comes to all of this so please dumb down your advice for me lol.

I personally never invest in anything but the most broad index funds. So if you have a longer-term horizon and don't have a great deal of conviction in any asset class/sector/stock in particular, my vote would be FSKAX or VTI.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by -King-

What's worth putting 2500 on right now? This is a my small portfolio right now should I just add on to one of these or buy something else? And should I keep FBIOX? It's been pretty shitty lately after going going up at the beginning of the year. I'm a novice when it comes to all of this so please dumb down your advice for me lol.

That an "interesting" mix if that's your entire portfolio.

[RunKC]

Someone talk to me about owning vs renting. I’ve always been told my whole life that owning a home is “great bc you keep your equity!”

I’ve owned my house for almost 4 years and the “equity” I’m getting on it is shit compared to the money I’ve had to spend to fix shit in a brand new house when I moved in.

It’s to the point where I’m thinking **** it. I’m close to selling this damn house and renting so I won’t have to spend a lot of money every year paying to fix the goddamn thing.

Oh and then when I sell the goddamn thing the realtor gets 6%.

Owning feels like such a sham.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by -King-

I have both Fidelity and the vanguard because my whole strategy is to just follow what I hear other smart people recommending. My sister recommended the fidelity find and I think I read about VTI on here lol. Like I said, I'm a novice so not too much of my own research or knowledge goes into it. I just see a recommendation, do about 10 minutes of reading up on it and that's basically it.

When I get some time today I'll try to do more than my usual 15 minutes of reading up on MPW. And as far as stocks vs funds, yeah I'm not interested at all in buying and selling and trying to time markets. Just want to put money in and see a steady return.

Focusing on the second paragraph -- I'd stick to low very cost mutual funds, which generally means index funds, or ETFs which are a type of stock which tracks a group of stocks. It's basically an even lower cost way to invest in an index.

The upside to ETFs is no fees. The downside is that dividends are not automatically reinvested.

For now, I'd go 50/50 with your money -- a total market index (which you already have) and a 500 index, which tracks the largest companies. The two are not the same by any stretch.

This is assuming you have a long investing horizon, of course (in other words, that you're pretty young, say under 40) and can stomach the bad year or three that will inevitably happen and just ride it out.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Someone talk to me about owning vs renting. I’ve alwaya been told my whole life that owning a home is “great bc you keep your equity!”

I’ve owned my house for almost 4 years and the “equity” I’m getting on it is shit compared to the money I’ve had to spend to fix shit in a brand new house when I moved in.

It’s to the point where I’m thinking **** it. I’m close to seeking this damn house and renting so I won’t have to spend a lot of money every year paying to fix the goddamn thing.

Oh and then when I sell the goddamn thing the realtor gets 6%.

Owning feels like such a sham.

You need to also own a rental so all your home repairs become tax deductible.

The main thing about owning is that one day your home is paid off and nobody can ever take it from you so you have that security. If you rent , you rent for life.

And as far as repairs you can do what I do and don't fix shit. Unless its a broken water line.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Someone talk to me about owning vs renting. I’ve always been told my whole life that owning a home is “great bc you keep your equity!”

I’ve owned my house for almost 4 years and the “equity” I’m getting on it is shit compared to the money I’ve had to spend to fix shit in a brand new house when I moved in.

It’s to the point where I’m thinking **** it. I’m close to selling this damn house and renting so I won’t have to spend a lot of money every year paying to fix the goddamn thing.

Oh and then when I sell the goddamn thing the realtor gets 6%.

Owning feels like such a sham.

You'll get a million opinions on it, and there really isn't a clear answer. I largely think it's a decision you should make based on your own life preferences rather than trying to figure out what the best decision is from a purely financial perspective. Do you like being able to customize your place to your preferences? Are you capable of making minor repairs and doing minor maintenance? Are you planning on staying in the same place for a long time? Are you comfortable saving up for the more major expenses? If so, ownership is probably the way to go. Would you rather not have to deal with repairs and maintenance? Are you OK with just living with a fairly generic space that you don't customize? Do you like the idea of being able to pick up and move easily? If so, renting is probably better.

If you want to try and figure out the best financial decision, you can play around with an online calculator to help you see where the differences are. For me, what it really comes down to is that your mortgage is a fixed amount, while rent will increase over time. So if you plan to stay in your place for 50 years, there's almost no question that buying will be the best option. But you're right that big maintenance items suck, and if you get hit with a bunch of them right after you buy, you might be behind where you'd be if you'd rented in the short term.

Side note:
I'm kind of ignoring the "equity" argument even though it's a valid one. I personally bought my place in 2009 when the government was giving out free money to buy a house, and I live in Denver where the housing market has been booming ever since. Nearly half of my net worth is due to my house, so I've been really fortunate. The problem is that another housing market collapse could eliminate all of it, and the situation in Denver this past decade is far from typical. Again, if you plan to stay in your place for years, the equity will absolutely be a benefit, but it doesn't work for everyone, and the benefit is pretty small if you're not in it for the long haul.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Someone talk to me about owning vs renting. I’ve always been told my whole life that owning a home is “great bc you keep your equity!”

I’ve owned my house for almost 4 years and the “equity” I’m getting on it is shit compared to the money I’ve had to spend to fix shit in a brand new house when I moved in.

It’s to the point where I’m thinking **** it. I’m close to selling this damn house and renting so I won’t have to spend a lot of money every year paying to fix the goddamn thing.

Oh and then when I sell the goddamn thing the realtor gets 6%.

Owning feels like such a sham.

I won’t tell you one way or the other but one thing I know for sure is if you rent, you’ll still be paying all the same maintenance costs, taxes, whatever. It will just be amortized over the whole year. You won’t write a separate check but you’re still paying for it.

FWIW if you have a loan on an amortization table (as opposed to straight line) you will not accumulate much equity early on. If you really are worried about the numbers make sure you read up on how amortization tables work.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by DaFace

...
Side note:
I'm kind of ignoring the "equity" argument even though it's a valid one. I personally bought my place in 2009 when the government was giving out free money to buy a house, and I live in Denver where the housing market has been booming ever since. Nearly half of my net worth is due to my house, so I've been really fortunate. The problem is that another housing market collapse could eliminate all of it, and the situation in Denver this past decade is far from typical. Again, if you plan to stay in your place for years, the equity will absolutely be a benefit, but it doesn't work for everyone, and the benefit is pretty small if you're not in it for the long haul.

I've mentioned something about this in the past, and while it seems silly I'm serious. The best financial advice that I would give a person just out of college would be to find a city that's growing and move there to start your career and buy a house as soon as possible. Buying a house in a growing market is like adding another wage earner in terms of increasing your net worth. You're paying a lot more for your home, which is rough, but you're leveraging the bankers' money in a way that gives you more wealth in the long run.

[-King-]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Focusing on the second paragraph -- I'd stick to low very cost mutual funds, which generally means index funds, or ETFs which are a type of stock which tracks a group of stocks. It's basically an even lower cost way to invest in an index.

The upside to ETFs is no fees. The downside is that dividends are not automatically reinvested.

For now, I'd go 50/50 with your money -- a total market index (which you already have) and a 500 index, which tracks the largest companies. The two are not the same by any stretch.

This is assuming you have a long investing horizon, of course (in other words, that you're pretty young, say under 40) and can stomach the bad year or three that will inevitably happen and just ride it out.

I'm 27. So yeah I'm very long term.

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by -King-

I'm 27. So yeah I'm very long term.

Amnorix is partially right.

You can reinvest your ETF dividends easily if you go through Fidelity and I assume even Schwab or others.

I use Fidelity. I own a number of ETFs. I have dividends and capital gains automatically reinvested in them. So if you want to go the ETF route don't let that dissuade you as Amnorix is wrong about that.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by -King-

What's worth putting 2500 on right now? This is a my small portfolio right now should I just add on to one of these or buy something else? And should I keep FBIOX? It's been pretty shitty lately after going going up at the beginning of the year. I'm a novice when it comes to all of this so please dumb down your advice for me lol.

I love Visa. If I were put money into one stock and let it grow for 5-10 years, Visa is one of my top picks.

I’d also consider adding Target. They’ve ascended since 1996 and they pay a 2.36% dividend yield.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Originally Posted by -King-

I'm 27. So yeah I'm very long term.

You could die at any time in an accident. you should play it safe and keep all your money in cash.

[displacedinMN]

Put everything in a trust.

[RunKC]

So I use Fidelity and they sold me their target managed fund for my Roth IRA.

My question is, why would I do that and not just get an S&P low cost Index Fund, specifically the Fidelity version FXAIX?

Here’s the comparison:

Fidelity managed target fund-average life of return to date is 7.70%. It’s got an expense ratio of 0.75%

Fidelity S&P FXAIX-average life of return to date is 13.22%. It’s expense ratio is 0.02%

It also seems like a large portion of the target fund is made up of the S&P anyway.

That seems like one hell of a huge difference. Any downside to this in your minds?

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by RunKC

So I use Fidelity and they sold me their target managed fund for my Roth IRA.

My question is, why would I do that and not just get an S&P low cost Index Fund, specifically the Fidelity version FXAIX?

Here’s the comparison:

Fidelity managed target fund-average life of return to date is 7.70%. It’s got an expense ratio of 0.75%

Fidelity S&P FXAIX-average life of return to date is 13.22%. It’s expense ratio is 0.02%

It also seems like a large portion of the target fund is made up of the S&P anyway.

That seems like one hell of a huge difference. Any downside to this in your minds?

The target fund is a mix of stocks, bonds and cash. The asset allocation is proportionate to what they deem is "right" for your current age. As you get closer to retirement the fund will become more and more conservative.

The SP500 fund is just that. It's 100% stocks. Most people fall in love with the return of the SP500 and lose site of proper asset allocation.

The downside is if you go 100% SP500 you are in nothing but stocks. So if the SPX goes down 20% you go down 20% because you have nothing else to cushion or otherwise stabilize your portfolio.

I will give you a hint: 90% of people with proper asset allocation will rarely outperform the SP500 unless you are very young and pretty much in all stocks.