Need serious guidance on what exactly I should be doing right now? For a short background: I'm 25. Started first full time job in Aug out of grad school making 56k. My company offers 401k 2.5% match up to 5% contribution and also a stock option plan for 1% match up to 2% contribution. I have 50k in the bank, rent an apartment, and literally have no debt (car, student loans, etc) so I have great credit. I enrolled in both programs with my company contributing 5% to the roth 401k and 2% to the stock option. I am getting married in March and plan on buying a house next year. Fiance has about 85k in the bank also with no debt. She is in law school currently. What else at this stage in my life do I need to do in terms of 401k's, stocks, cd's, bonds, iras, savings accounts, etc? I am new to alot of this but want to learn more about it. So what would the-mainboard recommend I start looking at doing?
I'm not going to count the fiancé's money in the equation, but you can if you want. First, figure out what your monthly expenses are. Whatever that number is, multiply it by 6 (months) to get you're emergency fund. Then, figure out how much you want to put down on a house (including how much the fiancé is putting down). If you have extra money in the bank, I would look into a traditional IRA if you have a ROTH 401k. You make less than 61k, so your 5500 contribution would be fully deductible. If you still have extra money, look at a brokerage account or increasing your contributions to the 401k. Those are just my two cents.
So you have your shit together .... good job. Keep investing with your 401k and stock plan just like you are doing. Then you will want to have an emergency cash position in case you lose your job or face unexpected health related issues etc. Most recommendations are to have a good 6 months of expenses in cash. That is if your burn rate is 5K a month then have 30k in cash. This number should vary depending on personal factors like upcoming weddings or if you have kids etc. Decide approximately how much you are going to spend on your wedding and add that to the 30k. I personally wouldn't invest money for something as important as a wedding for the short term. Maybe a CD or something but that doesn't really pay a whole lot. After you get to a comfortable number there then i personally would just start index investing. Meaning buy ETF's that mimic the market like SPY or whatever vanguard ETF is equivalent. I also like the theory behind wealthfront.com and would consider using them. Then just keep investing and adding to it and in 10-20 years you will be a very happy person. The best thing that you have going for you is time. Start investing now, dont wait. You are in good shape for 25 y/o.
Small addition: add ~$500-600/month to your baseline monthly expenses prior to multiplying it by 6 because you might need to pay COBRA in that emergency. Jealousy Comment: Must be nice to have $50k in the bank prior to ever having a full time job.
I think it's well established that I come from wealth, and even I laughed at him having $50,000 in the bank and his fiancé having $85,000 in the bank while she's in law school. GITTTT OUT
Started working full time summers and holidays the day I turned 16. I had full ride scholarships to pay for all of college and even got a monthly stipend for my research in grad school. Bought car fully up front so no note. Among many other things I've been pretty financially saavy and responsible. Idc if you believe me I just need advice. As for my fiance she is a lot like me and has saved since she turned 16. She also got a large settlement for a car accident hence the really large amount. Her dad is a lawyer and if she went to his Alma mater he offered to pay for it (also the cheapest law school in the country). We have both been.very fortunate but also responsible and worked hard for what we have. I can choose between Roth and traditional 401k's and I went with roth. What are the major differences between a 401k and ira? Also I work some overtime and in a year I will probably earn a little over 61k after overtime. Can you explain further how that would work? Thanks for the advice I appreciate it. Fortunately the brides family has offered to pay for the whole wedding so we do not need to budget or save for it. For the emergency account would I basically place it in a low yield savings account at my bank for would you recommend something else? What would you recommend the best help and.source is for learning more about investing because I am kind of green with it all? Thanks also for the advice. I do know enough to know that the more I contribute now the better.
no reasoning ... but fair to say oil responded well to the feds announcement. VDE had leveled off and basically flat for the last month, feel like it's had a few better days than the broad market. Any conjecture why that may or may not be the case?
To me investing style depends on the time that you have to put into it. Unless you you have time to really analyze stocks AND you are good at it, it has been proven that you are most likely better off index investing. It boils down to a few things 1) peoples natural tendencies to panic often times causes them to have really bad timing and end up buying high and selling low. 2) FEES - whether it be trading commission, management fees or whatever, over time they really eat at returns. 3) Information - you dont have as much information as everyone else when you make a trade. So in order to justify active management of your portfolio you have to overcome all 3 of those things (maybe more that im not thinking of but those are the major ones). It can be done, however, unless you really have the time to put in and find a way to get your advantage you are going to be better off index investing. Its not the coolest way to invest but you can decide whether you like money or want to be cool. These are some of the reasons that I like Wealthfront.com The management fees are .25% which is pretty low by industry standards. They have other things like tax loss harvesting and automatic re-balancing which help justify the management fees. There are tons of places that you can learn stuff about investing on the internet. Not sure where you want to start? One of my favorite investing books is "a random walk down wall street." (The author happens to be the chief investment officer for wealthfront.)
anyone else looking at acquiring some VW once they're done getting reamed over this emissions scandal? Down like 20%.
From what i can tell VDE has performed the same as the s&p 500 over the last month. I noticed that it seems to be a little less volatile than the oil market as a whole. If that is correct I would assume that its by design as its a Vanguard product. Vanguards mojo seems to be low fees and "safer" or less volatile.
401k and IRA's function the same way. Traditional 401k/IRA you get a tax deduction for specified amounts. Your contributions (and your employer's in the 401k) grow tax deferred. You pay taxes when you take it out. ROTH 401k and IRA don't have deductible contributions, but it grows tax free and can be withdrawn tax free. Major differences between the two are: 1. You can put more in a 401k. You can put 18500 a year into it, but IRAs are capped at 5500. 2. You should be able to take a loan out against your 401k, but can't do it for your IRA. Eventually, your 401k will have to be rolled into an IRA because it has to be an IRA to take distributions out of it.
Just put some money into Dorsey wright focus five ETF to help build my core portfolio up a little bit. Right now my brokerage account: long term international growth fund, mid/large cap domestic growth fund, technology trust, mid cap growth ETF fund, few ETFS, long term cap appreciation fun, and then my 401k through work and basic roth set up. Have about 2.5K to play with, anyone have suggestions on solid blue chips that would be considered a bargain right now? Want to stay away from big tech/healthcare so I don't have too much overlap in my portfolio. Also looking for a longer hold, 25 single don't plan on needing to take any out in the next 5 years.
Like all of them. Disney is solid if you want to avoid tech. Also might take a look at some of the banks and energy companies.
Goes against your wishes for no tech, but I recently bought AT&T. Pretty good value with a strong dividend yield. Also would agree with Jake on the energy companies, the integrated companies like Exxon, Shell, or Chevron offer strong dividends. If you're brave and looking to hold for a long time, COP is down quite a bit right now because of oil prices but has a really strong dividend as well that, according to the CEO, will not be cut
That was poorly worded I guess but just looking to put it into something before the interest rates rise. Had looked at Exxon, wells fargo and mastercard but still working on a starting point really. Only reason I am staying away from tech or had planned to is because HACAX and QQQ are made up of Tech and I already have a decent chunk invested...If my thinking to stay away is wrong by all means let me know but I figured a little more diversity would be the way to go.
Yeah, nothing wrong with waiting a bit. China PMI numbers were below estimates and futures are down big. It will be a bad day tomorrow and maybe the rest of the week.
You could try IBM. Warren Buffet is buying and you can get into it for a much better level than where he started buyingg it.
good shape? the man is in the top 2-3% of millennials. no debt AND 50k in the fuckin bank and maxin out employer contrib? shit. half our fuckin generation is either working as a barista or still living with parents.
TFW you realize only have 11 student loan payments left and your income will almost double once you've paid them off.
I was pretty lucky to escape undergrad with no debt. I grew up in Virginia and my parents participated in a pre-paid tuition plan. The way it was explained to me, they paid my tuition when I was pretty young - before higher ed costs started to skyrocket. If I went to a state school, my tuition was already paid at that price all 4 years. If I went private or out of state, they'd get the money back plus nominal interest. I think that's how it worked, but I honestly haven't researched the plan all that in-depth, but it sounded like a great deal. All my debt is from grad school which I paid for and, all things considered, turned out to be a solid investment.
take your pick on a long hold: chevron Exxon Connoco Wells Fargo MasterCard Bank of America Volkswagen IBM xpo ups fedex What I've looked at so far... For shits and giggs I threw 200 in fuel cell FCEL at .81 this morning just to see what happens
RDS.B has the highest dividend of the oil supermajors. i would and did pick them for my ultra long term hold oil stock
This isn't so much a comment on RDS.B, but too many ppl ITT think that a high dividend = good investment. The sustainability of the div (how long it has been paid, how often it is raised, the % by which it is raised) is much more important than the gross amount that is paid out.
And most importantly the free cash flow generation of the company which will give you the best indication of whether they can continue paying it.
It's amazing how simple some products are in philosophy and practice and yet people get so far away from these simple proven themes.
CAT announced they're cutting 10k jobs. I have quite a few friends who work there. Hopefully they're safe.
Most analysts at the big firms are buying the idea that, while volatile, equities will still grow at a moderate pace due to higher reported earnings later in the year. Good sign.
2 out of the 5 largest holdings I have my parents allocated to - Nike and Under Armour. I only recently opened the position in UA, but have an avg cost on their NKE position of 78.07. Would love to see NKE hold the after hours move above 117 and over the next month or so come back and test (and more importantly hold) that level so that I can add to the position. I'm sure UA will move on the NKE news, but prior today UA looked like a great buy to me - it just made a new all time high last Thursday (which should tell you a lot about how the company is doing given how few stocks are near all time highs let alone making new ones) and has since pulled back to just above the prior highs around 100.50 on low volume. This is about as clean of a entry point as you can get IMO with a very clearly defined level of risk (close out the position in UA if it cannot hold the move to a new all time high). FL (Foot Locker) is another name in this space with a great LT chart (it probably makes a new all time high today as well on the back of Nike earnings) and is a bit more "cheap" for those of you that concern yourselves with fundamentals (some very basic fundamental stats on all three here).