How Are You Investing in Retirement?

[joepa66]

Just polling people to see how many are taking charge of their own retirement plans!
Interested to see what and how people are investing.

I have a 401K at work, but I am not depending on that for retirement. I also have mutual funds through Valic, a small portfolio of stocks that includes shares of SD, KOPN, F, BMY, JPM, WFT, EGO, and also took out a 5-year Roth IRA guaranteed a 3.5% yield (18mos. are paying just 1%). I was interested in municipal bonds but with the way cities and states are going bankrupt, I have lost interest in that sector.

Let me hear what you've got going!

[joepa66]

As an FYI:

I bought Ford stock at $2.25, JP Morgan at $24, Bristol Meyers at $21, Weatherford International at $15.00, El Dorado Gold at $13.25, Kopin at $4.20, and Sandridge Energy at $7.70.

I also joined the Motley Fool Stock Advisor for some extra tips and reading. Nice tools on that site and they were offering a "membership" for $49 which is $150 off the regular price.

[snowman]

i have 401k and doing a little stock market dabbling. i also sports invest which is one of the better ways to show a profit.
and in a few days opening a pizza kitchen in a bounceland type of place

[Q-Unit]

1) Individual Roth IRAs
2) 401k equivalent for federal work the last 5 years
3) Couch cushion change
4) Windfall from abstaining from going to the strip club on certain weekends
5) individual savings
6) dabble in stock market



Back in school now, so retirement earnings are on hiatus, but hope the extra $ I put in the last 5 years are a good head start + I've contributed to my Roth IRA every qualifying year since I was 16 (blame Mom for not letting me buy a car lol but in hindsight God Bless her).

I've heard it a million times, so it's worth repeating:

"When it comes to investing, nothing is more valuable than time + compound interest"

As for you more mature playas, take advantage of those catch up contributions at work (past 55 age I think?), or for everyone at least max out the company match, that's just free money.

[joepa66]

Originally Posted by Q-Unit

4) Windfall from abstaining from going to the strip club on certain weekends

LMFAO!

I actually tightened up the belt a little bit....or at least as best as I can! I quit eating lunch out during the week except for Fridays. I figure that I save at least $20 a week which translates to $80 per month...and all of that goes into a Roth I opened in July!

Also, we just refinanced our home thru Quicken Loans at 3.75% and got a 15 year mortgage (had 25 left), and our payment went up just shy of $100 per month. That way we can pound the house payment and also hit the retirement also. My radio money has also been handy even though it amounts to just $120 a month during football but $200+ per month during HS hoops. That ends up being my mad money and play money for my Scottrade account.

MOM, more wisdom than you'll ever know Q - Lio!

[joepa66]

Originally Posted by snowman

.....and in a few days opening a pizza kitchen in a bounceland type of place

NICE! GL with the venture Snowman! I am now a distributor on the side for a whole food natural vitamin drink/weight loss/energy drink company that is just breaking into the field and which has mega potential.

[snowman]

thx joepa. gl with yours also

[joepa66]

Is it time to take some $$ off the table? Huge rally last week. Is anyone thinking about ringing the register and playing with the house's money?

[Q-Unit]

Originally Posted by joepa66

Is it time to take some $$ off the table? Huge rally last week. Is anyone thinking about ringing the register and playing with the house's money?

it's been like that this whole month!

Like the dumbass I was, I pulled out right when the rally was starting to peak, so I missed out, No way I'm jumping back in, but I do think these prices are inflated. Not that I can back that up with any prudent financial reasoning, but I just don't know about this rally based off mixed signals from the market? dunno, I'm more than likely wrong.

All I know is, I'm not jumping back in anytime soon if it keeps going up

[blitzkrieg555]

401k at work. I didn't take their worthless preselected "moderate" or "agressive" portfolios though. I researched all of the available funds and picked the best performers. I have a nice mix of large cap, mid cap, real estate, and bond funds and have actually been getting good returns this year. Especially with this economy.

Right now I invest 10% of my earnings but I will probably bump it to 15%.

[joepa66]

Damn, where are the pollsters.....145 views and only 4 votes!

C'mon guys......we can do better than this!

Nice Blitz....wish I had the option of choosing!

[gadfly36]

put 17% of my income into the federal equivalent of 401k at work, plus a little bit of stocks and mutual funds on the side. have a small ira also, but my son is in college so most of my discretionary income goes there for the moment. on the plus side when i do retire i get a pension equal to 1% of my salary per year that i have worked so i think i will be ok.

[Q-Unit]

Originally Posted by gadfly36

put 17% of my income into the federal equivalent of 401k at work.

TSP?

- Had 3.5 years worth of 10-15% of my salary in the G fund until the subprime crash back in 2008, then waited a month and a half when prices were sorta rock bottom, and moved everything into the C, S, and I funds lol

- Took it out right at 14, 18, and 20 points (C, S, and I respectively) a couple months ago, and hated myself because they all went up a couple points higher, but not so bad since I was playing with house money anyways... no way I'm buying back in though I can tell you that!

[gadfly36]

yeah its TSP. took a real bath last year when the market tanked. was all in the I fund and maxed out at 26 a share, rode it all the way down to about 10 and now its back to 20. Hoping the market keeps climbing even if it does it slowly.

[joepa66]

Great week for stocks, especially WFT! Even my mutual funds jumped this week! Finally almost back to pre-2008 levels, but still way behind!

Check out SODA, that's is the ticker symbol. Its IPO was on Nov. 10, 2010! The stocked jumped from $26 to $45 last week but has settled near $35 after a downer earlier in the week. It's a company called Sodastream that allows you to make your own soda at home for pennies on the dollar. There are also two other upsides: 1)you save on plastic bottles which helps the environment 2)tons of less calories and no HFCS! Might make a great Christmas gift for the soda drinkers in your life.