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      11-19-2018, 04:45 PM   #42
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Quote:
Originally Posted by XutvJet View Post
Here's my take. I'm 44 and I've been invested in the market since the late 1990s. I'm on track to retire at 52 and I could be driving something far more impressive than an M235, but that will come in due time. My house was paid off 4 years ago.

I first started out with a company 401K and have learned many things along the way. I've made some mistakes along the way, many because of me being ignorant and not doing my due diligence. I could be far wealthier if I had become more informed years ago.

IMO, for most of us common folks where the goal is to have around $1M to 2M in assets by retirement, it's MUCH better to play it safe with investments. I could make this post REALLY long-winded, but I'll keep it shorter for those younger folks that are just getting started (no particular order for the recommendations):

1) Take advantage of your company 401K and do nothing more than the match. Within those investments, choose the S&P 500 index funds like Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFIAX). S&P 500 index funds simply buy the top 500 stocks in the S&P. There's no science to it. If the market is up 10% for the year, then you'd know your S&P 500 index fund is up ~10%. Simple.

2) Open a Roth IRA and do 90% S&P 500 index funds and 10% bond funds like Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund (VBTLX).

3) Warren Buffett's 15 minute retirement plan. Simple and effective. https://www.fool.com/investing/gener...ment-plan.aspx

4) Reading materials: 1) Little Book of Common Sense Investing and the 2) The Millionaire Next-Door. Both are simple, to the point,.....and redundant.

5) For funds, understand the term "Expense Ratio". In simple terms, expense ratio is what fund managers charge their shareholders to cover the fund's total annual operating expenses. So if you have $1,000 in a fund and the expense ratio is 0.50%, the fund will charge you a fee of $50 every year. It might not seem like a lot, but as your investments grow, those fee charges adds up over time and take away growth potential. Index funds generally have really low expense ratios. Anything over 0.15% is too much for the common investor, IMO. VFIAX is 0.04%.

6) Invest yourself and don't use a retirement planner. This was probably my biggest mistake. I used a Morgan Stanley retirement planner for nearly 15 years (same one my parents used) and lost a lot of money because I was ignorant on so many things like listening to his advice, paying him 1% to manage my accounts, etc. 4 years ago I wised up, moved all my money Vanguard, readjusted my investments and bought lots of VFIAX, and started self-managing. I happened to move my money and change investments at a very opportune time in the market and have increased my portfolio in the deep six figure range.

7) Stick with it, don't panic during big market swings, and remember you're in this for the long haul. I have weathered some of the biggest market swings in history and have watched my portfolio drop by up to 40% during the last crash. I've made all that back plus a massive amount more.

8) When you get a solid financial base (say 5X time annual salary), then you can start looking at solid stand alone stocks and throw a few thousand at wild cards for fun. When it comes to wild cards, you really should have some level of research before diving in.

9) Between my brokerage account, two Roth IRAs (wife and myself), traditional IRA (converted 401K from a prior employer), and my current 401K, my portfolio is about 70% VFIAX, 15% Berkshire Hathaway Class B, 5% other stocks and wild cards, and 10% VBTLX.

10) Market timing doesn't work. Don't believe anyone that tells you they can.

11) Get rich schemes are simply that.

12) Live within your means. Don't be a cowboy with a big hat, but no cattle.

13) Put away as much as you can. Don't live solely in the now because the chances are high you'll live deep into your 70s and you could be quite miserable if you don't plan accordingly.

14) Don't count on social security. If it's there when you retire, then consider it spending money. That's the way I look at it.
That's pretty good advice. I would suggest a somewhat more globally diversified portfolio and additional diversification amongst asset classes utilizing low cost index funds may outperform just the s&p. Take a look at the Callan periodic table.
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