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

:thumbs:

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.

:thumbs:

[joepa66]

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

LMFAO! :laughing:

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!

:thumbs:

[joepa66]

.....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.

:sm:

[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]

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! :bang:

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]

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.