I'm completely uneducated on stocks, what site would you suggest I go to start investing? What should I know?
I have a 401k too but I just basically went with the default plan they had there because it's not like they educate you on your choices, they just tell you to sign up.
I'm 30 now, I figure I should probably put something aside for when I'm a fragile old fart that no one will hire.
To remove first post, remove entire topic.
I'm completely uneducated on stocks, what site would you suggest I go to start investing? What should I know?
I have a 401k too but I just basically went with the default plan they had there because it's not like they educate you on your choices, they just tell you to sign up.
I'm 30 now, I figure I should probably put something aside for when I'm a fragile old fart that no one will hire.
You can always take a finance course 1 once a week at a community college at night.
I wasn't self-taught; majored in Accounting and Finance as an undergrad.
Here's some sound advice though: Do you own due diligence when researching and investing in a stock, bond fund, ETF or mutual fund.
Since you're a beginner, look in to some investments through Vanguard. I started out with a mutual fund, bond fund and now precious metals early this year. It's free if you keep your balance in the fund above $10,000.
WSJ digital network like marketwatch.com is good for article and opinions from analysts but like I said; your own due diligence is key.
Good luck
You can always take a finance course 1 once a week at a community college at night.
I wasn't self-taught; majored in Accounting and Finance as an undergrad.
Here's some sound advice though: Do you own due diligence when researching and investing in a stock, bond fund, ETF or mutual fund.
Since you're a beginner, look in to some investments through Vanguard. I started out with a mutual fund, bond fund and now precious metals early this year. It's free if you keep your balance in the fund above $10,000.
WSJ digital network like marketwatch.com is good for article and opinions from analysts but like I said; your own due diligence is key.
I have a few investing strategies that may help you going
forward. These are my strategies I’ve come up with and have had good results.
In your 401(k), check the expense ratios of the funds you
are invested in. Hopefully your employer offers Vanguard funds which have the
lowest expense ratios. Expense ratios will eat away at your returns much more
than you think as you continue to add to your 401(k). Just do some due
diligence for 30 minutes and Google expense ratios. It will be very clear after
30 minutes how much in your lifetime you could lose by paying high expense
ratios. Just my opinion but at your age I would have most of your 401(k) in an
S&P tracking fund with maybe 15 to 25% in an emerging market fund. FYI I’m
only a few years older than you so this is what my strategy is.
I personally only put into my 401(k) the amount my company
matches. So if your company matches 5% only put 5% into your 401(k). If you
have additional funds you would like to save for retirement I would suggest
putting the rest in a Roth IRA or a brokerage account. This will give you the
ability to invest in stocks, ETF’s, and mutual funds. You’re pretty hamstrung
in your 401(k) on what you can invest in so that’s why I don’t like putting
anything above the match in that account.
My major strategy since starting to invest in 2007 has been to
triple or quadruple your normal monthly percentage you save in your retirement
account when the market drops at least 10%. At our age I believe you have to
take advantage of all corrections. I don’t know exactly how much more I have
made by using this strategy in 2008/2009, the 2011 Greek debacle, last summer,
and this past January February but I know my returns have exceeded the market.
I stop tripling and quadrupling down when the market reestablishes the previous
high before the correction.
I would say if you are not well versed in finance or don’t
want to do due diligence stick to ETF’s or mutual funds. If you do want to
start with individual stocks I was suggest putting aside a small portion of
money and use it almost as play money. The reason I say this is you probably
will make some big mistakes when you 1st start picking stocks and
this will minimize your downside and give you the knowledge you need when you
actually start playing with big money. I like to think of as a cheap education
and picking and choosing stocks.
For research, I like to use Seeking Alpha, guru focus, and I
have a subscription to www.fastgraphs.net. These sites help me find new individual
stocks and ETF’s. Then I start doing due diligence. You need to go through
their financial statements, recent annual report, investor presentations, and I
would also suggest listening to the conference call of any company you want to
invest in or are invested in already.
Hope this helps.
I have a few investing strategies that may help you going
forward. These are my strategies I’ve come up with and have had good results.
In your 401(k), check the expense ratios of the funds you
are invested in. Hopefully your employer offers Vanguard funds which have the
lowest expense ratios. Expense ratios will eat away at your returns much more
than you think as you continue to add to your 401(k). Just do some due
diligence for 30 minutes and Google expense ratios. It will be very clear after
30 minutes how much in your lifetime you could lose by paying high expense
ratios. Just my opinion but at your age I would have most of your 401(k) in an
S&P tracking fund with maybe 15 to 25% in an emerging market fund. FYI I’m
only a few years older than you so this is what my strategy is.
I personally only put into my 401(k) the amount my company
matches. So if your company matches 5% only put 5% into your 401(k). If you
have additional funds you would like to save for retirement I would suggest
putting the rest in a Roth IRA or a brokerage account. This will give you the
ability to invest in stocks, ETF’s, and mutual funds. You’re pretty hamstrung
in your 401(k) on what you can invest in so that’s why I don’t like putting
anything above the match in that account.
My major strategy since starting to invest in 2007 has been to
triple or quadruple your normal monthly percentage you save in your retirement
account when the market drops at least 10%. At our age I believe you have to
take advantage of all corrections. I don’t know exactly how much more I have
made by using this strategy in 2008/2009, the 2011 Greek debacle, last summer,
and this past January February but I know my returns have exceeded the market.
I stop tripling and quadrupling down when the market reestablishes the previous
high before the correction.
I would say if you are not well versed in finance or don’t
want to do due diligence stick to ETF’s or mutual funds. If you do want to
start with individual stocks I was suggest putting aside a small portion of
money and use it almost as play money. The reason I say this is you probably
will make some big mistakes when you 1st start picking stocks and
this will minimize your downside and give you the knowledge you need when you
actually start playing with big money. I like to think of as a cheap education
and picking and choosing stocks.
For research, I like to use Seeking Alpha, guru focus, and I
have a subscription to www.fastgraphs.net. These sites help me find new individual
stocks and ETF’s. Then I start doing due diligence. You need to go through
their financial statements, recent annual report, investor presentations, and I
would also suggest listening to the conference call of any company you want to
invest in or are invested in already.
To help you cut to the chase, invest in "Index Funds" .
Look for the funds in your company's 401k that are "Index Funds" , and invest in those...nothing else. They will have the lowest expense ratios that the "Soothsayer" talks about above.
That is the clearest way of putting things. Index Funds !!!
Index Funds beat the other actively managed funds over time... this is a fact (and not just my opinion), and they do it at a lower expense ratio !! So, This is a win-win. This is very important.
If you diligently follow this... you will beat most other investors.
To help you cut to the chase, invest in "Index Funds" .
Look for the funds in your company's 401k that are "Index Funds" , and invest in those...nothing else. They will have the lowest expense ratios that the "Soothsayer" talks about above.
That is the clearest way of putting things. Index Funds !!!
Index Funds beat the other actively managed funds over time... this is a fact (and not just my opinion), and they do it at a lower expense ratio !! So, This is a win-win. This is very important.
If you diligently follow this... you will beat most other investors.
You can always take a finance course 1 once a week at a community college at night.
I wasn't self-taught; majored in Accounting and Finance as an undergrad.
Here's some sound advice though: Do you own due diligence when researching and investing in a stock, bond fund, ETF or mutual fund.
Since you're a beginner, look in to some investments through Vanguard. I started out with a mutual fund, bond fund and now precious metals early this year. It's free if you keep your balance in the fund above $10,000.
WSJ digital network like marketwatch.com is good for article and opinions from analysts but like I said; your own due diligence is key.
Good luck
My 401k is on Vanguard so that's convenient. I'll look into everyone's suggestions, thanks a lot.
Quote Originally Posted by Slobbasaurus:
You can always take a finance course 1 once a week at a community college at night.
I wasn't self-taught; majored in Accounting and Finance as an undergrad.
Here's some sound advice though: Do you own due diligence when researching and investing in a stock, bond fund, ETF or mutual fund.
Since you're a beginner, look in to some investments through Vanguard. I started out with a mutual fund, bond fund and now precious metals early this year. It's free if you keep your balance in the fund above $10,000.
WSJ digital network like marketwatch.com is good for article and opinions from analysts but like I said; your own due diligence is key.
Good luck
My 401k is on Vanguard so that's convenient. I'll look into everyone's suggestions, thanks a lot.
I have a few investing strategies that may help you going
forward. These are my strategies I’ve come up with and have had good results.
In your 401(k), check the expense ratios of the funds you
are invested in. Hopefully your employer offers Vanguard funds which have the
lowest expense ratios. Expense ratios will eat away at your returns much more
than you think as you continue to add to your 401(k). Just do some due
diligence for 30 minutes and Google expense ratios. It will be very clear after
30 minutes how much in your lifetime you could lose by paying high expense
ratios. Just my opinion but at your age I would have most of your 401(k) in an
S&P tracking fund with maybe 15 to 25% in an emerging market fund. FYI I’m
only a few years older than you so this is what my strategy is.
I personally only put into my 401(k) the amount my company
matches. So if your company matches 5% only put 5% into your 401(k). If you
have additional funds you would like to save for retirement I would suggest
putting the rest in a Roth IRA or a brokerage account. This will give you the
ability to invest in stocks, ETF’s, and mutual funds. You’re pretty hamstrung
in your 401(k) on what you can invest in so that’s why I don’t like putting
anything above the match in that account.
My major strategy since starting to invest in 2007 has been to
triple or quadruple your normal monthly percentage you save in your retirement
account when the market drops at least 10%. At our age I believe you have to
take advantage of all corrections. I don’t know exactly how much more I have
made by using this strategy in 2008/2009, the 2011 Greek debacle, last summer,
and this past January February but I know my returns have exceeded the market.
I stop tripling and quadrupling down when the market reestablishes the previous
high before the correction.
I would say if you are not well versed in finance or don’t
want to do due diligence stick to ETF’s or mutual funds. If you do want to
start with individual stocks I was suggest putting aside a small portion of
money and use it almost as play money. The reason I say this is you probably
will make some big mistakes when you 1st start picking stocks and
this will minimize your downside and give you the knowledge you need when you
actually start playing with big money. I like to think of as a cheap education
and picking and choosing stocks.
For research, I like to use Seeking Alpha, guru focus, and I
have a subscription to www.fastgraphs.net. These sites help me find new individual
stocks and ETF’s. Then I start doing due diligence. You need to go through
their financial statements, recent annual report, investor presentations, and I
would also suggest listening to the conference call of any company you want to
invest in or are invested in already.
Hope this helps.
My company only matches half of up to 4% so I've just been contributing that much so far. They give me RSU's annually as well and some finally vested a couple months ago so I have that to start out with.
Quote Originally Posted by soothsayer13:
I have a few investing strategies that may help you going
forward. These are my strategies I’ve come up with and have had good results.
In your 401(k), check the expense ratios of the funds you
are invested in. Hopefully your employer offers Vanguard funds which have the
lowest expense ratios. Expense ratios will eat away at your returns much more
than you think as you continue to add to your 401(k). Just do some due
diligence for 30 minutes and Google expense ratios. It will be very clear after
30 minutes how much in your lifetime you could lose by paying high expense
ratios. Just my opinion but at your age I would have most of your 401(k) in an
S&P tracking fund with maybe 15 to 25% in an emerging market fund. FYI I’m
only a few years older than you so this is what my strategy is.
I personally only put into my 401(k) the amount my company
matches. So if your company matches 5% only put 5% into your 401(k). If you
have additional funds you would like to save for retirement I would suggest
putting the rest in a Roth IRA or a brokerage account. This will give you the
ability to invest in stocks, ETF’s, and mutual funds. You’re pretty hamstrung
in your 401(k) on what you can invest in so that’s why I don’t like putting
anything above the match in that account.
My major strategy since starting to invest in 2007 has been to
triple or quadruple your normal monthly percentage you save in your retirement
account when the market drops at least 10%. At our age I believe you have to
take advantage of all corrections. I don’t know exactly how much more I have
made by using this strategy in 2008/2009, the 2011 Greek debacle, last summer,
and this past January February but I know my returns have exceeded the market.
I stop tripling and quadrupling down when the market reestablishes the previous
high before the correction.
I would say if you are not well versed in finance or don’t
want to do due diligence stick to ETF’s or mutual funds. If you do want to
start with individual stocks I was suggest putting aside a small portion of
money and use it almost as play money. The reason I say this is you probably
will make some big mistakes when you 1st start picking stocks and
this will minimize your downside and give you the knowledge you need when you
actually start playing with big money. I like to think of as a cheap education
and picking and choosing stocks.
For research, I like to use Seeking Alpha, guru focus, and I
have a subscription to www.fastgraphs.net. These sites help me find new individual
stocks and ETF’s. Then I start doing due diligence. You need to go through
their financial statements, recent annual report, investor presentations, and I
would also suggest listening to the conference call of any company you want to
invest in or are invested in already.
Hope this helps.
My company only matches half of up to 4% so I've just been contributing that much so far. They give me RSU's annually as well and some finally vested a couple months ago so I have that to start out with.
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