Retirement-Era |OT| How to Invest For Retirement

[sleepnaught]

I know this isn't the right place for this, but I didn't want to start a new thread.

I have a couple accounts in collection that are delinquent. Both are pretty small, $95 and $135. They are hurting me from building my credit score. I can't get approved for credit cards or anything else to improve my credit score so I can eventually buy a house. Will paying off these old accounts raise my credit score or, at the very least, allow me better odds at being approved for a unsecured credit card? I've read a lot of mixed info, some saying that paying them off essentially does very little and you should just wait them out.

 

[Cilidra]

I know this isn't the right place for this, but I didn't want to start a new thread.

I have a couple accounts in collection that are delinquent. Both are pretty small, $95 and $135. They are hurting me from building my credit score. I can't get approved for credit cards or anything else to improve my credit score so I can eventually buy a house. Will paying off these old accounts raise my credit score or, at the very least, allow me better odds at being approved for a unsecured credit card? I've read a lot of mixed info, some saying that paying them off essentially does very little and you should just wait them out.

Click to shrink...

Every time your not making a payment hurt your credit. Those are small amounts but the amount itself is not that important. The credit score is basically a calculation on how often you make your payments on time and for at least the minimum.
It will take time for your credit to heal after you repay those two deliquent debt but if you don't pay them, your score will continue to be dragged down instead of improving over time.

Then just make all your payments on time and for at least the minimum. Try to get a very basic credit card (even if secured) and don't put anywhere close to the limit. Pay in full at each statement.

The only way your score go up is if you actually have some type or credit card or loan and show that you repay your debt. Not having any debts or credit cards actually hurt your credit over time (I know it sounds weird but credit score is a score that reflect your borrowing/repayment habits not your ability to pay).

 

[sleepnaught]

Every time your not making a payment hurt your credit. Those are small amounts but the amount itself is not that important. The credit score is basically a calculation on how often you make your payments on time and for at least the minimum.
It will take time for your credit to heal after you repay those two deliquent debt but if you don't pay them, your score will continue to be dragged down instead of improving over time.

Then just make all your payments on time and for at least the minimum. Try to get a very basic credit card (even if secured) and don't put anywhere close to the limit. Pay in full at each statement.

The only way your score go up is if you actually have some type or credit card or loan and show that you repay your debt. Not having any debts or credit cards actually hurt your credit over time (I know it sounds weird but credit score is a score that reflect your borrowing/repayment habits not your ability to pay).

Click to shrink...

I have a secure credit card and its improved my credit score about 60-70 points in about 18 months. Would opening up a second card help any?

 

[Cilidra]

I have a secure credit card and its improved my credit score about 60-70 points in about 18 months. Would opening up a second card help any?

Click to shrink...

It does. Having multiple sources of lending with good repayment habits helps build it up (as long as the total debt/credit potential is not too high, which is very unlikely to be your case).

edit: trick to do it easy.
A good 'easy way' would be to have a few credit cards with low limits (lets say 1000$) and no annual fees. Then, have a recurrent automatic bill set to be paid by each of those cards (like a internet provider, fix cell phone bill, gym membership) and nothing else. You paid the cards each month on time.
That show you keep your borrowing away from the limit, pay on time and use your credit/borrowing power monthly.
This will improve your credit score efficiently as long as you don't mess up and don't pay.

 

[Mr.Mike]

Every now and then Garth Turner provides useful information.

...


Apparently we all die (who knew?) and tax-free accounts now form a key part of planning for the inevitable. Tens of billions will be flowing between account-holders and those they choose to receive the money. The rules favour spouses and common-law partners the most, but you can give your TFSA to anybody – at least what it contains. Only your partner can get the account itself.

Huh?

It comes down to a simple choice. When setting up a TFSA you can choose a 'beneficiary' or a 'successor holder.' If you're married or have a stable long-term relationship (other than with your border collie), always pick the SH option. By doing so, your partner will actually take over your TFSA, incorporating it into her/his own, retaining all of the assets and the tax-free growth status. So all income or growth earned after you croak remains untaxed.

Not so if you name a TFSA beneficiary.

In that case the money in your TFSA still passes on free of tax, but the income and growth from the date of your death until the distribution is taxable as income (ouch). Also the beneficiary would need sufficient contribution room in their own TFSA to incorporate this money into that account (if not your spouse), to continue enjoying tax-free returns. Successor holders, in contrast, don't need to have this room available. They can just Hoover the existing assets into their plan.

If your spouse messed up and named you as a B instead of a SH, it may still be possible to roll the TFSA assets of the deceased into your own. This 'exempt contribution' must be done before the end of the year in which death came, and be registered with the CRA within 30 days.

Because they like to be complicated and different in Quebec, by the way, where it takes twice as many words to say something, a valid will is required to pass on a TFSA. Unlike everywhere else, TFSA assets cannot bypass the estate process or be transferred directly to a beneficiary. So while everywhere else this can be dealt when a TFSA is opened, in that province only a will can determine who gets it.

...

Click to shrink...

On Questrade I found it a bit difficult to find the form. Under the "Find Forms" tab you have to first select "Registered" in the blue header at the top of the page.

http://media.questrade.com/downloads/accounts/NAAF031EN.pdf

 

[TheTrinity]

What up guys. We're planning on buying a place most likely in 2 years or so. As a reminder, I'm Canadian. Where should I stick the new money that we intend to be used for the down payment?
We've got more than enough in our TFSAs for it, I'd just prefer to have at least a portion in somewhere more stable so we're not drawing out of index funds if the market happens to be down when we want to buy.

I just know the market will go up if we invest somewhere 'safe' and if I put it in the usual suspects the market is going to go down.
I can feel it.

 

[Cilidra]

What up guys. We're planning on buying a place most likely in 2 years or so. As a reminder, I'm Canadian. Where should I stick the new money that we intend to be used for the down payment?
We've got more than enough in our TFSAs for it, I'd just prefer to have at least a portion in somewhere more stable so we're not drawing out of index funds if the market happens to be down when we want to buy.

I just know the market will go up if we invest somewhere 'safe' and if I put it in the usual suspects the market is going to go down.
I can feel it.

Click to shrink...

If you are not maximizing your RRSP, you could always do that, put them in whatever level of risk your comfortable with and then borrow the down payment with the first buyer program (RAP in French, unsure what is called in English).
That way you get your tax return now (that you can put toward the down payment ).
I personally believe that leveraging your assets is one of the best way to earn higher returns while paying lower taxes. It certainly helped me quite a bit.

 

[TheTrinity]

Yeah, we're already doing that as well. The HBP feels a bit weird to me. I think I'm against the concept of pulling money out of what is ostensibly a retirement fund to purchase a home.
Maybe I'll just keep doing what we're doing and stick with our TFSA plan.

 

[Cilidra]

Reason why I think borrowing from RRSP over TFSA work better is that you get both the immediate tax benefit of the RRSP and you keep you interest free gains on the TFSA. So assuming that they are both invested in the same funds, you end return (after taxes) will be higher for the same amount withdrawn.

 

[AndyD]

This is a question I couldn't find a great answer to researching myself. I would appreciate any help.

My wife got a promotion to a new class of employee. Part of that, there is an increased mandatory contribution to 403b by 5%. In addition to whatever other figure she wants to do. To offset, they are seemingly giving the 5% as a salary supplement on paychecks, and tax is being withheld from the additional income. To our financially uneducated minds, it appears she's essentially paying taxes on her 403b contribution now, largely defeating the purpose of the contribution.

What questions can she ask of the fiscal department to better understand this?

 

[WishyWaters]

This is a question I couldn't find a great answer to researching myself. I would appreciate any help.

My wife got a promotion to a new class of employee. Part of that, there is an increased mandatory contribution to 403b by 5%. In addition to whatever other figure she wants to do. To offset, they are seemingly giving the 5% as a salary supplement on paychecks, and tax is being withheld from the additional income. To our financially uneducated minds, it appears she's essentially paying taxes on her 403b contribution now, largely defeating the purpose of the contribution.

What questions can she ask of the fiscal department to better understand this?

Click to shrink...

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/1/403bplan.asp

As I understand it, money put into a 403b is not taxed. If the employer gave her a 5% raise along with the forced contribution, then it's a straight up 5% contribution to the fund and you will not be made to pay taxes on that money. So this is a pretty huge perk from her promotion, congratulations.

You mention that it seems like you are paying taxes on it, so maybe the amount of tax withheld in her paycheck changed with her promotion? This can be adjusted by you and your wife. It's pretty easy to use their calculators and make the suggested adjustments. Or you can pay over and take the refund next year.
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/employees/tax-withholding

 

[tokkun]

This is a question I couldn't find a great answer to researching myself. I would appreciate any help.

My wife got a promotion to a new class of employee. Part of that, there is an increased mandatory contribution to 403b by 5%. In addition to whatever other figure she wants to do. To offset, they are seemingly giving the 5% as a salary supplement on paychecks, and tax is being withheld from the additional income. To our financially uneducated minds, it appears she's essentially paying taxes on her 403b contribution now, largely defeating the purpose of the contribution.

What questions can she ask of the fiscal department to better understand this?

Click to shrink...

The fact that she is paying taxes on such contributions is normal. What you need to look at is which specific taxes are being withheld and at what rates are they being withheld. Retirement contributions are tax-advantaged, not tax-free. They are still subject to FICA taxes, and in certain locations may be subject to state or local taxes. Furthermore, any amount that is removed from the contribution in order to pay those taxes is then also subject to normal income taxes. For most people this will work out to something in the range of a 10-15% tax rate, with the majority going to FICA.

Second, if your wife got a raise with this promotion, your effective tax rate is going to rise, and that means that the company has retroactively under-withheld on all of her paychecks so far this year, because they were based on the effective tax rate for her old salary. It is possible that they are withholding more now to make up for that.

Lastly, it is important not to confuse tax withholding with tax liability. They amount they withhold has absolutely no bearing how much you are required to pay in taxes. All it changes is whether you get a refund or a bill when you file your taxes. So if the company is actually making a mistake in its withholding, all it means is that you will get a big refund when you file your taxes.

 

[AndyD]

Thank you all. This month's paycheck had a catchup of several months (her promotion and raise was effective in August) so I'll wait til December to see a "clean" check that should lay out the various numbers.

 

[Chan]

I'm about to leave my current job, is it better to leave my 401k with my soon to be ex job or roll it over to an IRA?

 

[Linkura]

I'm about to leave my current job, is it better to leave my 401k with my soon to be ex job or roll it over to an IRA?

Click to shrink...

Depends on if you have good investment choices and low expenses on your current 401k. Usually it is better to roll over.

 

[Chan]

Depends on if you have good investment choices and low expenses on your current 401k. Usually it is better to roll over.

Click to shrink...

They've increased the expenses across the board for Fidelity from my old hospital, thinking about rolling it over to a Roth IRA with Vanguard

 

[Linkura]

They've increased the expenses across the board for Fidelity from my old hospital, thinking about rolling it over to a Roth IRA with Vanguard

Click to shrink...

Eff that then. Def roll over. Just remember you have to pay taxes if you convert to a Roth.

 

[Chan]

Eff that then. Def roll over. Just remember you have to pay taxes if you convert to a Roth.

Click to shrink...

I'm not sure whether to do a traditional or Roth since I got a 50% pay bump with my new job. I'm in the 30% bracket now, thinking it should be traditional now.

 

[Ionitron]

Hey y'all, was wondering if I could have some help.

I was wondering if I need to do anything else to help me with retirement. I see people say they invest like 800 dollars a month and I'm like... how. I currently take out 200 dollars a paycheck twice a month to a Roth Ira and I have a 401-k-like thing where 3% of my salary is put in and my employer matches 3%. I make about 50,000 a year right now.

Am I doing something wrong? I'm 23 so I kinda have been trying to get a hold of this thing, literally no one else I know is saving for retirement lol.

 

[Cilidra]

Hey y'all, was wondering if I could have some help.

I was wondering if I need to do anything else to help me with retirement. I see people say they invest like 800 dollars a month and I'm like... how. I currently take out 200 dollars a paycheck every month to a Roth Ira and I have a 401-k-like thing where 3% of my salary is put in and my employer matches 3%. I make about 50,000 a year right now.

Am I doing something wrong? I'm 23 so I kinda have been trying to get a hold of this thing, literally no one else I know is saving for retirement lol.

Click to shrink...

You are never wrong by saving money. There SO many people that are in terrible problems at some point in their life by not having saved anything.

5400$ a year at 23 is pretty good (close to 11% of your income). You'll get way ahead in life if you keep it up compare to other people that don't save.

My advice is to put in as much as your employer match, if they match 5% or more do it, it basically free money your employer is willing to give you. 3% of 50k a year for 40 years with 5% return (which is conservative) is over 200 000$ and this not even factoring in the tax benefits and the growth of the salary. That is a LOT of money that a lot of people could just have but don't because they rather spend now than save a bit.

I was in similar situation (salary and employer match). With that and bit of investing/saving on the side, and my wife doing the same, 20 years later our net worth is now in the seven figure

2 years ago both me and my wife were mostly unemployed for 6 months and it didn't felt stressed at all financially because of our good financial habit we had all our life.

The earlier you start saving the bigger your saving grows. Compounding interest is very powerful.

 

[TheTrinity]

People have different situations and so forth. You do the best you can with what you've got.
I certainly don't expect everyone to be putting away $3500/month.

 

[zulux21]

I'm looking for a bit of advice from some financial savvy people.

I've ignored my student loans for years (just letting them auto pay) when I last looked at them they were at 4% and 4.5% interest.
I've managed to get some money saved up, and I was looking into either putting more into investments or paying off the student loans, and when I looked at my loans they are now 6.5% and 7% (yay variable)

my question being that I have a good credit score now (last I checked it was over 800) I don't have enough money to pay off the student loans (they are still a bit over 46k) so I figure I should refinance them to at least get the interest rate down.

but I'm not sure how to go about this, or what companies I should trust with that. Like could I go to my local bank and potentially do it through them. My loans are currently through Navient.
I technically have a bit more loans from the government, but I'm not sure who owns that loan right now, that thing gets sold to a different company every 6 months and I just have auto pay going for that as well.

like I get letters from sofi from time to time, but the letters feel like they are trying to trick me.

 

[Mr.Mike]

The TFSA limit for 2019 will be $6000, up from $5500 in 2018. The TFSA contribution limit rises with inflation in $500 increments.

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-ag...ment-personal-income-tax-benefit-amounts.html

 

[Linkura]

And the US 401(k) limit will be $19k!

AND THANK FUCK THEY ARE RAISING THE IRA LIMIT TO $6000.

I'm sick of getting screwed on saving with my own damn money for retirement just because I work part-time and don't qualify for my employer's 401(k).

I also convinced my husband to double his 401(k) contribution. And we are both going to max out our Roths ASAP. Lots of savings.

 

[FliX]

The TFSA limit for 2019 will be $6000, up from $5500 in 2018. The TFSA contribution limit rises with inflation in $500 increments.

Click to shrink...

And the US 401(k) limit will be $19k!

AND THANK FUCK THEY ARE RAISING THE IRA LIMIT TO $6000.

Click to shrink...

noice!

 

[Prax]

It'll be a looooong time before I can catch up to max out my TFSA room, if ever.. which sucks. :P

And how about them markets recently? lol
2019 is probably going to be really ugly and I predict it'll take more than 5 years to recover when a crash does happen, so I'm glad I'm still early in the game.

 

[TheTrinity]

How 'bout them markets indeed. I ran my spreadsheets end of October and we ended up 'losing' ~$18,000 in October. Going by what I've seen on the daily swings we'll probably be down a significant amount this month as well.
We were going to wait for the new year TFSA refill but I got my wife to put in 4k recently to hopefully take advantage of the sale :D

 

[FliX]

How 'bout them markets indeed. I ran my spreadsheets end of October and we ended up 'losing' ~$18,000 in October. Going by what I've seen on the daily swings we'll probably be down a significant amount this month as well.
We were going to wait for the new year TFSA refill but I got my wife to put in 4k recently to hopefully take advantage of the sale :D

Click to shrink...

Everything is on sale!
I hope it holds till January first for my new years IRA contributions.

 

[Filipus]

Hey guys, quick question.

I read over this and have been googling a bit and I'm confused in something pretty fundamental.

Are is the difference between Index Funds and a ROTH IRA? I know it sounds dumb but while googling some people said that the money from the ROTH IRA goes to Mutual funds and now I'm confused.

If they are totally different, should I do both? A ROTH IRA just seems something that you should do, even if you don't max it (I can't max it at all, working part-time right now).

Also, should I do a ROTH IRA through my bank account (Wells Fargo) or just try other places? Acorns Later seems to manage all that for you for 2$ a month, how good of a deal is that actually?

 

[demosthenes]

Hey guys, quick question.

I read over this and have been googling a bit and I'm confused in something pretty fundamental.

Are is the difference between Index Funds and a ROTH IRA? I know it sounds dumb but while googling some people said that the money from the ROTH IRA goes to Mutual funds and now I'm confused.

If they are totally different, should I do both? A ROTH IRA just seems something that you should do, even if you don't max it (I can't max it at all, working part-time right now).

Also, should I do a ROTH IRA through my bank account (Wells Fargo) or just try other places? Acorns Later seems to manage all that for you for 2$ a month, how good of a deal is that actually?

Click to shrink...

An IRA or Roth IRA are investment vehicles. An index fund is an investment.

You can open an IRA or Roth IRA on a site like vanguard. You can then invest in a fund like vtsmx which is an index fund.

 

[Filipus]

An IRA or Roth IRA are investment vehicles. An index fund is an investment.

You can open an IRA or Roth IRA on a site like vanguard. You can then invest in a fund like vtsmx which is an index fund.

Click to shrink...

OOOO.

That makes total sense, ok. Sorry, I was confused. Thanks!!

So, to my second question... If I have a wells fargo bank account, should I just open a ROTH IRA account with them and then invest in index funds? Or should I go with someone else? (A lot of people seem to talk about Vanguard as the best in the business).

 

[Prax]

Yeah I just think of 401k, IRA/Roth-IRA, TFSA, RRSP, etc as "wrappers" or boxes. While mutual funds or index funds are the money or boxes of candy (they are like variety packs) you put into the wrappers (individual stocks you can think of as the actual individual candy pieces? lol).

So you can put the index fund into the Roth IRA for taxfree growth (usually reccomended), or you can leave the index fund "outside" for "easy access" but be taxed for growth made on it when you sell.

I am Canadian but I helped a friend open up a Vangaurd Roth IRA and had her buy a target fund and it was pretty easy.

 

[demosthenes]

OOOO.

That makes total sense, ok. Sorry, I was confused. Thanks!!

So, to my second question... If I have a wells fargo bank account, should I just open a ROTH IRA account with them and then invest in index funds? Or should I go with someone else? (A lot of people seem to talk about Vanguard as the best in the business).

Click to shrink...

People like Vanguard because they have very low expense ratios. I think Fidelity is another one that has very low expense ratios. This is very important over 30 years.

 

[Walter White Walker]

OOOO.

That makes total sense, ok. Sorry, I was confused. Thanks!!

So, to my second question... If I have a wells fargo bank account, should I just open a ROTH IRA account with them and then invest in index funds? Or should I go with someone else? (A lot of people seem to talk about Vanguard as the best in the business).

Click to shrink...

Definitely do not go with your bank as the fees will be a lot higher with no benefit to you for those higher fees. Vanguard, Schwab, or Fidelity will offer you index funds with very low fees. I'm with Schwab but if I had to do over again I'd go with Vanguard because of the way that company is set up. Their interface apparently isn't as good as Schwab's from what I gather but otherwise that would be my first choice. Either way, one of my investments is the entire US stock market (except micro caps) and I pay 0.03%. You'll find nothing even remotely close at a bank.

 

[tokkun]

Definitely do not go with your bank as the fees will be a lot higher with no benefit to you for those higher fees. Vanguard, Schwab, or Fidelity will offer you index funds with very low fees. I'm with Schwab but if I had to do over again I'd go with Vanguard because of the way that company is set up. Their interface apparently isn't as good as Schwab's from what I gather but otherwise that would be my first choice. Either way, one of my investments is the entire US stock market (except micro caps) and I pay 0.03%. You'll find nothing even remotely close at a bank.

Click to shrink...

What's stopping you from switching to Vanguard now?

 

[Walter White Walker]

What's stopping you from switching to Vanguard now?

Click to shrink...

In addition to my Roth IRA I have a taxable brokerage account at Schwab, so that.

 

[New Fang]

So my wife and I both have 401K. We're contributing a healthy percentage.

However, in recent years we've been hyper conservative and have amassed a large savings. I've recently awoken to how foolish this is. So I want to invest a good chunk of money.

Question is, what's the best route for investing this money and maintaining our ability to access it though if we want to? I recently starting using the Stash app just as a fun experiment ($20 lol). I'm completely clueless though on whether I should just invest directly like this, because I know I can withdraw at any time, or is there a smarter way?

 

[CelestialAtom]

For someone who only makes $35,000/year, I am trying to invest $150-$200 every two weeks based on how my bills are looking. I just opened up a Roth IRA with Charles Schwab and will be investing in VTI & VXUS. If I am already investing in VTI, but want to build on dividends, is VYM worth looking into, or is that mainly covered in VTI?

 

[QuigleyMcShine]

So my wife and I both have 401K. We're contributing a healthy percentage.

However, in recent years we've been hyper conservative and have amassed a large savings. I've recently awoken to how foolish this is. So I want to invest a good chunk of money.

Question is, what's the best route for investing this money and maintaining our ability to access it though if we want to? I recently starting using the Stash app just as a fun experiment ($20 lol). I'm completely clueless though on whether I should just invest directly like this, because I know I can withdraw at any time, or is there a smarter way?

Click to shrink...

I'd probably start by contributing the max to a Roth IRA. Then invest in a taxable account, whether it's a few stocks for fun or index funds to grow your savings.

 

[New Fang]

I'd probably start by contributing the max to a Roth IRA. Then invest in a taxable account, whether it's a few stocks for fun or index funds to grow your savings.

Click to shrink...

Can you withdraw money from a Roth at any time?

 

[Linkura]

Can you withdraw money from a Roth at any time?

Click to shrink...

Your contributions, yes. Your earnings, no.

 

[vehn]

I followed this thread from the "old site" days and put like 70% of $ into vanguard total stock market... and like 30% into vanguard total international. Very much regret the total international -- I didn't really follow the performance of total international until recently, and now I see it is 10% DOWN for the year (compared to 2% up that total stock market is).

Morale of the story - highly recommend staying away from vanguard total international!!! The U.S. stocks are where its at! You can also pull up some articles on how overall, US stocks etc... have been break even or doing pretty well, while most countries' are like -10 to -30% down for the last year or two.

And some might say you need to diversify, but intentionally market is NOT doing well, they are much worse than how US stock is doing.

 

[New Fang]

What is the most fun to use mobile investment app? I've been dabbling with Stash for a few days now and it seems pretty good. Is it weird that it locks you out of your money for several days after selling shares though?

Your contributions, yes. Your earnings, no.

Click to shrink...

Interesting. So is that the key difference between a 401K and a Roth account? Roth lets you extract your contributions, penalty free, while 401K does not?

 

[FliX]

I followed this thread from the "old site" days and put like 70% of $ into vanguard total stock market... and like 30% into vanguard total international. Very much regret the total international -- I didn't really follow the performance of total international until recently, and now I see it is 10% DOWN for the year (compared to 2% up that total stock market is).

Morale of the story - highly recommend staying away from vanguard total international!!! The U.S. stocks are where its at! You can also pull up some articles on how overall, US stocks etc... have been break even or doing pretty well, while most countries' are like -10 to -30% down for the last year or two.

And some might say you need to diversify, but intentionally market is NOT doing well, they are much worse than how US stock is doing.

Click to shrink...

"Past performance is not an indicator of future results."

What is the most fun to use mobile investment app? I've been dabbling with Stash for a few days now and it seems pretty good. Is it weird that it locks you out of your money for several days after selling shares though?

Click to shrink...

I'm not sure fun to use is a metric worth considering for retirement investing. You should not be in there all the time buying and selling anyway. :p

 

[New Fang]

I'm not sure fun to use is a metric worth considering for retirement investing. You should not be in there all the time buying and selling anyway. :p

Click to shrink...

I get both your points, but I've got a good 401K going, I've got a nice savings, I have no debt. I'm looking into having a smaller investment that I manually work on regularly. For example, just yesterday I woke up, read the tea leaves and put in a sell order on my Stash app to take all of my money out of the S&P. That worked out nicely. ;)

Currently I've got $20 in the app (lol), but I'm just experimenting. I might up that a bit and play around with it. That's why I'm asking about the app. Of course I'm not going to use a 'fun' app if it has some bad flaws or terrible fees.

 

[FliX]

I get both your points, but I've got a good 401K going, I've got a nice savings, I have no debt. I'm looking into having a smaller investment that I manually work on regularly. For example, just yesterday I woke up, read the tea leaves and put in a sell order on my Stash app to take all of my money out of the S&P. That worked out nicely. ;)

Currently I've got $20 in the app (lol), but I'm just experimenting. I might up that a bit and play around with it. That's why I'm asking about the app. Of course I'm not going to use a 'fun' app if it has some bad flaws or terrible fees.

Click to shrink...

Having some play money is fine, especially if you are set on all other fronts. :)
Just know you're gambling. :p

 

[vehn]

"Past performance is not an indicator of future results."

Click to shrink...

It's in a pretty clear descending channel. I shoulda sold long ago, and not buy back in until it either breaks this channel or wait until the EMA cloud turns bullish

 

[Linkura]

Interesting. So is that the key difference between a 401K and a Roth account? Roth lets you extract your contributions, penalty free, while 401K does not?

Click to shrink...

Yup. Though if you have a Roth 401(k), you can't extract your contributions penalty free. Only with a Roth IRA.

Also Roth is post-tax and 401(k)/regular IRA is pre-tax for contributions. On Roth/Roth 401(k) you are not taxed on your earnings when distributed, but with regular 401(k)/regular IRA you are.

 

[Deleted member 2145]

I followed this thread from the "old site" days and put like 70% of $ into vanguard total stock market... and like 30% into vanguard total international. Very much regret the total international -- I didn't really follow the performance of total international until recently, and now I see it is 10% DOWN for the year (compared to 2% up that total stock market is).

Morale of the story - highly recommend staying away from vanguard total international!!! The U.S. stocks are where its at! You can also pull up some articles on how overall, US stocks etc... have been break even or doing pretty well, while most countries' are like -10 to -30% down for the last year or two.

And some might say you need to diversify, but intentionally market is NOT doing well, they are much worse than how US stock is doing.

Click to shrink...

moral of the story - don't knee jerk about yearly performance for retirement investing unless you're going to be pulling your money out soon

 

[FliX]

It's in a pretty clear descending channel. I shoulda sold long ago, and not buy back in until it either breaks this channel or wait until the EMA cloud turns bullish

Click to shrink...

You're in the retirement thread, not the day trading thread. We don't look kindly upon such fancy graphs around here. 😜