Saturday, November 1st, 2008
I’ve Been away for a while and I apologize. I’ve been swamped with different projects and things. I’ve been paying really close attention to the market lately because of it’s downward spiral. It’s actually a good thing it’s like this.
Think of it this way… There’s a big sale at the moment. Instead of commodities such as clothes and other goods… It’s stocks and mutual funds.
To put things into perspective… I’ve lost 40+% from my 401k & IRA as well as other investment options. It’s horrible news for the short term but GREAT news for the long run. Not only am I will I get that 40% back down the road but with the prices I’m currently buying in at I’ll be gaining 40% on those purchases.
I’ve taken out $25000 recently and $20000 of it is going on long term investing. I’ve been really paying attention to the ticker (OIL). It’s currently REALLY low and bound to rebound once the summer rolls around for you short term investor’s.
Also at this time the ticker (FNARX) is a mutual fund I use in my Roth IRA investments and it’s bound to make a huge comeback long term as the world grows more dependent on natural resources.
Of course, I’m not a professional and you should always seek the help of one when thinking about investing. At the same time, I’m just informing you of what I’m going to jump in really soon.
I’ll keep you posted. I think I’m going to jump in on another one of these days when the market takes a huge dive Hopefully really soon. I have to admit it’s scary timing the market but considering we’re in our lower 30’s we have a lot of time to play around.
Til next time…
Posted in Generate income, education, purchases | 1 Comment »
Monday, August 11th, 2008
Some of you know I have ideas about what I’m going to put on my blog by some of the conversations I have during my daily strolls on earth. Today, I happened to walk upon a conversation about finances and investing today with one of my cousins who was seeking advice from my grandfather.
During our conversation my cousin discussed his investment avenues and he has a portfolio that consists of a 403b & some account he contributes to out of pocket. Basically, he had no idea what he was throwing money into.
His investments were giving him good returns but as with every conversation I bring to you, I realize that a lot of US (yes I’m guilty) are ignorant about things that’re really important to our future. OUR RETIREMENT!
During our conversation, he was only involved in the dollar amount he was getting for the quarter. Instead, he should be concerned with the percentage of his returns. LET ME REPEAT… NEVER LOOK AT THE DOLLAR AMOUNT OF RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENTS. ONLY LOOK AT THE PERCENT OF RETURN!
Reason being, he got a pretty good dollar amount from his quarterly statement but he was only getting a 5% gain (because 65% of his portfolio is in a fixed fund). He’s 35 and that’s a BIG no-no. The younger you are, take the biggest chances. You have time to recover from something catastrophic.
Use the well adopted rule of “120″ when figuring out what should be allocated where. 120 - your age is the percent of your portfolio that should be in stocks. So by that rule he should have 85% of his portfolio in stocks (or mutual funds). I’d suggest Mutual fund because they aren’t as volatile as individual stocks.
Back to my point of focusing on the percent. Not bragging, but following Dave Ramsey’s advice of picking the 4 best performing mutual funds over a 10-15 year period, I was able to gain 24% last year within my 401k. Within my Roth (I started last year), I managed 15% (ticker:FNARX). This year is down in my 401k as I’m currently posting a -15.7% return (but that’s OK considering the market is down more than that). I look at it as a buying opportunity (as every investor should).
Anyhow, just imagine what his numbers would’ve looked like if he got even a 12% return last year instead of 5%?
It’s not all bad however, I managed to get him to look into a Roth IRA account and I encourage you all to do the same. It should be the first individual investment you guys should make. It’s already taxed since it’s coming out of your pocket. Did I mention that it’s already taxed? Did I? That means that when you turn 65, you can take it all out without taxes or penalty. What about before 65 you ask? What you contribute to it is YOUR MONEY ANYTIME YOU WANT IT without taxes or penalty. The catch is, it’s so good of a retirement plan that it’s capped at $4k/year you can contribute. For you ballers, I’d suggest paying monthly or quarterly instead of contributing all at once in order to average in your buy-in points of the mutual funds you select.
This article took a different turn than what I intended it to so I guess I’ll follow up later on what I wanted to originally write about: Differences in investment options.
Posted in Generate income, Inspirational, Personal debt, education | No Comments »
