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[Zips]

After many annoyances due to TD staff apparently not knowing how their own E-series investments work, I'm finally ready to get funds invested through it.

So I am poised to have investments in:

E-series Canadian index, American index, and International index. I also still have a conservative mutual fund made up of mostly bonds, and a token $1k in RBC's Canadian index as a way to test the waters there (though I'm guessing I shouldn't bother)

I have maxed out my TFSA and will focus on primarily on contributing to that as I think I'm at just about the tax bracket I will be in at retirement. Excess beyond maxing the TFSA will go into my rrsp, at least until I hit the next higher tax bracket.

Am I doing this right?

It feels weird to have my investments and savings partly split across different banks - my TD account just being the e-series funds.

I also notice people are discussing funds that give dividends. How do those factor in? Should I have a certain percentage in one or more of those as well?

Also - I'm confused about how to transition my investments over time as I get closer to retirement. Am I supposed to sell off part of my investment in the indexes and switch it to safer things every few years, or just alter how much goes into each of my different funds?

This thread is really helping me get a better idea of how this stuff works. Thanks alot!

 

[egruntz]

So I make 40K.

6% of my income is going into 401(K) Roth.
My employer matches that by half (3%) and also offers an additional 5% profit-sharing. Those are Traditional, from what I understand.

Do I need to be contributing more than this? Less? I'm 22.

 

[Smiley90]

So I make 40K.

6% of my income is going into 401(K) Roth.
My employer matches that by half (3%) and also offers an additional 5% profit-sharing. Those are Traditional, from what I understand.

Do I need to be contributing more than this? Less? I'm 22.

What's the Max of your employer match?

 

[egruntz]

What's the Max of your employer match?

Exactly that, haha.
They'll match me to half, up to a max of 3%.

 

[GhaleonEB]

So I make 40K.

6% of my income is going into 401(K) Roth.
My employer matches that by half (3%) and also offers an additional 5% profit-sharing. Those are Traditional, from what I understand.

Do I need to be contributing more than this? Less? I'm 22.

You're 22 with 14% of your income (adding in the profit sharing) going to retirement - I wish I could time travel back and do that, myself. Best I could muster was $50 a month while I was in college. You're in great shape. If you hold to that, and perhaps open an IRA when your income goes up some years down the road to increase contributions, you will be set comfortably (depending on your goals, of course).

You can always save more, but there are other life goals to contend with, of course.

 

[Randolph Freelander]

Exactly that, haha.
They'll match me to half, up to a max of 3%.

Can you afford to do more? You're basically doing $2400 per year on your own, getting another $1200 via the employer match, and maybe $2000 in profit sharing, though I imagine the latter is not guaranteed. That's $3600-$5600 per year, which at age 22 is not a bad start but let's focus on your own part. If you can afford to do more, do more. If you can't afford it this year, commit to at least trying it next year. If you get a merit increase of 3%, for example, split it and keep maybe 1% for yourself, basically, and bump up your contributions by 2%. A lot of plans make this easy with an annual auto-increase option.

If you were able to do up to several thousand dollars more, than you might look at an outside IRA after you've met the employer match. But if it's not a significant amount, then I'd suggest for simplicity just to stick with the 401K unless the fund options in it are not good.

 

[Y2Kev]

Who wants to judge my savings? Lookin 4 tipz

 

[Randolph Freelander]

Who wants to judge my savings? Lookin 4 tipz

OK, I'm game. All opinions here are strictly non-professional.

On the one hand, it looks like your retirement accounts are on the conservative side, with one notable exception which I'll get to momentarily.

Your Roth includes the Wellesley and Wellington funds, which I had to look up. Wellesley is a fund which is 2/3 bonds, Wellington is 1/3. With that in mind, your Roth is ~32% bonds and the rest stock. Your 401K is ~19% bonds. I could be wrong, but I figure you as young, so these allocations are high in my mind. Vanguard's Target 2050 fund is at 10% bonds, just as a reference point. That's 34 years out, and my mental picture says that's in your neighborhood. I could be wrong.

The one notable exception to this conservative allocation is that you have a big chunk of your 401K in a mid cap fund, equal to the size of your large cap exposure. A strict following of a total market split would have the large cap roughly 4 times larger than a mid cap exposure, with the small cap being smaller again by half. Mid caps are a more aggressive play, but this tilt is a bit extreme. Your 28/28/7 split (retirement column) would otherwise be something like 48/11/5, as a starting point, and then you could maybe adjust percentages a couple of points to fit your risk tolerance. Still, the bond exposure would rate the overall strategy as conservative, just a bit confusingly so!

Tempering that, you have a taxable account that is almost totally stock with a tilt towards small caps. This reduces your overall conservative rating, but it also brings taxes into play on the portfolio most likely to yield higher returns (if I recall correctly, a lot of your 401K is Roth, and your IRA is obvious). If anything, I would want those returns shielded from as much taxation as possible. You also seem to not particularly value international, as it's only 6% of your holdings excluding emergency funds. I have no strong opinion on the international allocation, but speaking of emergency funds, your funds seem to be a significant percentage. Is this percentage going to remain the same going forward, or are you targeting a specific dollar value, and once met, the rest will go into investments?

Overall, I see maybe indecision on whether to be aggressive or conservative? High bonds and cash on one hand, high exposure towards small and mid caps on the other. Personally, I lean more towards an aggressive approach, and for simplification, I generally have the same strategy in my Roth as I do my 401K, though my Roth doesn't have any international holdings at the moment. I do not have any outside investments beyond those accounts, but I at least tell myself that when I do reach that point (which should be in the next year or so), I would follow the same pattern. It just seems easier to keep track of the strategy when all the vehicles are expressing the same general idea.

Edit: Eh, I don't know. Zooming out and taking in the total picture, the bonds aren't too high overall, just might need to be shifted around a bit. I'd scale back the tilts toward mid and small caps, and I wouldn't let the emergency fund grow much further (in dollar value), if at all.

 

[tokkun]

Personally, I'm not a fan of such complicated portfolios. I am skeptical that there is a benefit (either in returns or in diversification) from holding so many different funds, and it probably makes the accounts harder to rebalance and may result in paying somewhat higher fees. It would also make me more likely to tinker with allocations, which is a money loser.

I hold a grand total of 2 different funds in my 3 accounts (Total Stock and Target Date). My aggregate expense ratio is 0.05%. I will probably have to change it up to a 3-fund portfolio in Congress ever gets its act together and closes the Roth loopholes, but that's as complex as I ever want to get.

 

[Y2Kev]

Yeah, I have concentrated all of my fixed income exposure outside of my taxable accounts. Whether or not this is effective as a tax optimization strategy is a question, but I was trying to avoid larger, more stable dividend income being taxable. On balance, I don’t think I’m too conservative with my share of fixed income in my portfolio, but I also understand that I hold a larger percentage because in the event of a downturn I plan to move heavily into equities (sell out of the bonds and purchase equity funds). I started working in 2010 but wasn’t seriously saving until 2011, so I missed this opportunity in 2008/2009 and I do not want to miss out next time.

I’m a little concerned about my exposure to non-large caps, yeah. That was primarily why I was asking. It does tilt the portfolio more aggressively overall, and outside of my retirement accounts themselves I’m a bit more conservative (just holding total stock really). I think I could rebalance those. Obviously they have done well over the last five years so I’ve been happy to ride them out, but looking long term I should probably evaluate again.

On the emergency fund, I am just extremely conservative. I think my career is very stable but I have over a year of mandatory expenses (including rent) saved away. It gives me peace of mind. Could I probably draw that down and invest it? I guess. I don’t know that it would make me happier. I basically stopped contributing to it a year ago and I just let it grow at 1% per year now with interest. I also create little funds every time I know I have expenses coming up, like when I moved and had to buy new furniture or when I bought a dog.

My 401K was a Roth but I recently stopped contributing and started contributing to a traditional 401k. The taxable account is large because I’d like to buy a house soon and I need to save for other goals besides retirement. The taxable account and my retirement accounts together are about the same size. I know you are not supposed to invest money you “need,” but I would be fine waiting on a home purchase if the market took a ~3-5 year downturn. I can’t justify putting that kind of money in a savings account wasting away. Though I am a conservative individual, I am fine taking risk when the alternative is to be super boring.

International I just bought on a whim a few years ago thinking I could get a nice piece of the recovery. What a flop move that was. In reality, while “three fund theory” often says hold some international, I think you get enough international exposure in your large cap funds. It’s not like P&G or Apple are not exposed to Europe and Asia any less than Unilever is.

The portfolio is a little more complex than I’d like, but because my 401K and Roth IRA have different offerings I’d at least have variety there. When I was designing my Roth, I knew I wanted to up the bond concentration as a goal but I didn’t want to overdo it, which is why the bulk of it is in Wellington + Total Stock. Wellington and Wellesley are just two safe options to keep some stock exposure. And I like the names. I had a little more fun in the taxable, but ~76% is in plain stock funds (either domestic or international) so I don’t find it outrageous. The REIT fund was just an interesting idea. It’s done pretty well over the year I’ve held it…not that that’s justification for doing or not doing anything in the future.

 

[draetenth]

So, I was balancing my checkbook and realized that my savings account at my Credit Union only gets a paltry .15% return. Is it worth it to search for a better place to store my savings account?

I've looked at Ally (seems to be the best at 1%) and Capital One (.75%), but not sure if it's worth it.

This is my emergency savings fund. I want it to be liquid (so I can get it in an emergency...) and safe (not affected by the market - don't want my funds to go down when I need it), but feel like it should at least grow somewhat (so I have to worry about putting less money in if I take any out).

I know I've seen people recommend Ally because of the 1%. Any thoughts on it (I believe I've seen GAFers say they use it)? Are they safe, trustworthy, easier do deal with (since online only)? I'm also somewhat hesitant to open another account that i might have to manage (already have vanguard, capitol one, and my credit union).

I do have an account with Capital One (I have a reward card from them) so adding a savings account doesn't seem like it wouldn't be too much of a hassle, but I've never had an issue with them, yet so I don't know how good their customer support is...

 

[NinjaMouse]

Yeah, I have concentrated all of my fixed income exposure outside of my taxable accounts. Whether or not this is effective as a tax optimization strategy is a question, but I was trying to avoid larger, more stable dividend income being taxable. On balance, I don’t think I’m too conservative with my share of fixed income in my portfolio, but I also understand that I hold a larger percentage because in the event of a downturn I plan to move heavily into equities (sell out of the bonds and purchase equity funds). I started working in 2010 but wasn’t seriously saving until 2011, so I missed this opportunity in 2008/2009 and I do not want to miss out next time.

I’m a little concerned about my exposure to non-large caps, yeah. That was primarily why I was asking. It does tilt the portfolio more aggressively overall, and outside of my retirement accounts themselves I’m a bit more conservative (just holding total stock really). I think I could rebalance those. Obviously they have done well over the last five years so I’ve been happy to ride them out, but looking long term I should probably evaluate again.

On the emergency fund, I am just extremely conservative. I think my career is very stable but I have over a year of mandatory expenses (including rent) saved away. It gives me peace of mind. Could I probably draw that down and invest it? I guess. I don’t know that it would make me happier. I basically stopped contributing to it a year ago and I just let it grow at 1% per year now with interest. I also create little funds every time I know I have expenses coming up, like when I moved and had to buy new furniture or when I bought a dog.

My 401K was a Roth but I recently stopped contributing and started contributing to a traditional 401k. The taxable account is large because I’d like to buy a house soon and I need to save for other goals besides retirement. The taxable account and my retirement accounts together are about the same size. I know you are not supposed to invest money you “need,” but I would be fine waiting on a home purchase if the market took a ~3-5 year downturn. I can’t justify putting that kind of money in a savings account wasting away. Though I am a conservative individual, I am fine taking risk when the alternative is to be super boring.

International I just bought on a whim a few years ago thinking I could get a nice piece of the recovery. What a flop move that was. In reality, while “three fund theory” often says hold some international, I think you get enough international exposure in your large cap funds. It’s not like P&G or Apple are not exposed to Europe and Asia any less than Unilever is.

The portfolio is a little more complex than I’d like, but because my 401K and Roth IRA have different offerings I’d at least have variety there. When I was designing my Roth, I knew I wanted to up the bond concentration as a goal but I didn’t want to overdo it, which is why the bulk of it is in Wellington + Total Stock. Wellington and Wellesley are just two safe options to keep some stock exposure. And I like the names. I had a little more fun in the taxable, but ~76% is in plain stock funds (either domestic or international) so I don’t find it outrageous. The REIT fund was just an interesting idea. It’s done pretty well over the year I’ve held it…not that that’s justification for doing or not doing anything in the future.

I'm no expert by any means, but on the surface, it looks like you've got a bit of redundancy in your holdings, too. Seems like you could tackle the the stock/bond split with a split of Total Stock and Total Bond funds, instead of picking the blends. For my taxable stuff, I just have a 60/40 split of Total Stock/Total Bond. For my IRA and 401k, I have something like 12% International, 48% Total Stock, and 40% Total Bond. Basically the semi-aggressive recommendation from Solin's "The Smartest Little Investment Book".

 

[Randolph Freelander]

I'm no expert by any means, but on the surface, it looks like you've got a bit of redundancy in your holdings, too. Seems like you could tackle the the stock/bond split with a split of Total Stock and Total Bond funds, instead of picking the blends. For my taxable stuff, I just have a 60/40 split of Total Stock/Total Bond. For my IRA and 401k, I have something like 12% International, 48% Total Stock, and 40% Total Bond. Basically the semi-aggressive recommendation from Solin's "The Smartest Little Investment Book".

I'm not familiar with the book, but what is even remotely aggressive about 40% bond holdings? Assuming you're not 60.

 

[NinjaMouse]

I'm not familiar with the book, but what is even remotely aggressive about 40% bond holdings? Assuming you're not 60.

I think it's the spilt of 12% international and 48% domestic that make it "semi-aggressive". I don't remember exactly. Maybe the term was moderate-aggressive. I set it up years ago and rebalance yearly.

 

[RustyNails]

I'm riding 100% stocks. I'll probably crash at some point but I'm in it for the long run.

 

[Earthstrike]

After many annoyances due to TD staff apparently not knowing how their own E-series investments work, I'm finally ready to get funds invested through it.

So I am poised to have investments in:

E-series Canadian index, American index, and International index. I also still have a conservative mutual fund made up of mostly bonds, and a token $1k in RBC's Canadian index as a way to test the waters there (though I'm guessing I shouldn't bother)

I have maxed out my TFSA and will focus on primarily on contributing to that as I think I'm at just about the tax bracket I will be in at retirement. Excess beyond maxing the TFSA will go into my rrsp, at least until I hit the next higher tax bracket.

Am I doing this right?

It feels weird to have my investments and savings partly split across different banks - my TD account just being the e-series funds.

I also notice people are discussing funds that give dividends. How do those factor in? Should I have a certain percentage in one or more of those as well?

Also - I'm confused about how to transition my investments over time as I get closer to retirement. Am I supposed to sell off part of my investment in the indexes and switch it to safer things every few years, or just alter how much goes into each of my different funds?

This thread is really helping me get a better idea of how this stuff works. Thanks alot!

Why are you maxing TFSA before the RRSP? If you are young you should max the RRSP to maximise the tax return, which give syou more cold hard cash to invest back into the market. TFSA limits also never go away. Your rrsp limit eventually does. Unless I'm mistaken and missing some financial knowledge that may be applicable to your specific situation.

 

[grumble]

Why are you maxing TFSA before the RRSP? If you are young you should max the RRSP to maximise the tax return, which give syou more cold hard cash to invest back into the market. TFSA limits also never go away. Your rrsp limit eventually does. Unless I'm mistaken and missing some financial knowledge that may be applicable to your specific situation.

This isn't actually true. Mathematically, a tfsa and rrsp are exactly equal outcomes if beginning and ending tax brackets are equal. An rrsp is better if your tax rate is higher earlier, and a tfsa is better if your tax rate is higher later.

The tfsa is typically better for young people as tax rate will generally go up and tfsa has no withdrawal restrictions. Tfsa first, then rrsp.

 

[Makai]

I want to start a business and hire somebody. I'm still gonna max out Roth, but definitely not touching 401k this year.

 

[Raw64life]

I know nothing about investing for retirement but I set up a Roth IRA on Vanguard a little over a year ago and did the max 5500 split between VFIFX and VTWSX.

I was gonna do the max again. Someone tell me what to do with my money.

 

[embalm]

I know nothing about investing for retirement but I set up a Roth IRA on Vanguard a little over a year ago and did the max 5500 split between VFIFX and VTWSX.

I was gonna do the max again. Someone tell me what to do with my money.

Honestly this is one of the best things you can do. You have set it up, you've contributed to it, and now you just need to forget about it until it's time to retire. Great job, you're way ahead of almost everyone else!


The below isn't any kind of advice, because what you are doing is perfectly fine.
Personally I would not use the target retirement fund(VFIFX). I have my investments split between 4 different index funds. I have S&P Index, International Index, REIT index, and Small Caps index.
Here is an article describing something to what I do, but with 5 Vanguard Indexes.
http://www.kiplinger.com/article/in...1-5-vanguard-index-funds-you-need-to-own.html

Keep in mind that I am just a rando on the internet and very rarely have any idea what I'm talking about. You should really research your own risks before you move any money around.

 

[chaosblade]

I don't like total world much personally, but honestly you are fine as-is.

 

[PantherLotus]

Hey smart people, need advice. My student loan is locked in at 7.125% interest after consolidating at the worst possible time before the crash. I owe about $18k.

I can and should borrow $18k from the bank at a much lower rate and pay off the higher interest student loan, right? What nuances am I missing?

I know Nelnet has zero problem putting a 6-month forbearance and letting the interest accrue if I'm unable to pay, for example. So I'd be giving up that awful flexibility. Advice?

 

[Randolph Freelander]

New rules from the Labor Department feature the novel concept that brokers and advisers should actually put the clients' interests first.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ule-sets-new-standards-for-retirement-advice/

The Labor Department announced sweeping rules Wednesday that could transform the financial advice given to people saving for retirement by requiring brokers and advisers to put their clients’ interests first.

The long-awaited “fiduciary rule” would create a new standard for brokers and advisers that is stricter than the current regulations, which only require that brokers recommend products that are “suitable,” even if it may not be the investor’s best option.

At a time when mom-and-pop savers are increasingly being put in charge of their own retirement security, the rule is meant to add a new layer of protection to guard workers from poor or conflicted investment advice. The rule is supposed to improve disclosures and to reduce conflicts of interest, such as cases when a firm is paid by a mutual fund company or other third party for recommending a particular investment.

Much more behind the link.

 

[Randolph Freelander]

Hey smart people, need advice. My student loan is locked in at 7.125% interest after consolidating at the worst possible time before the crash. I owe about $18k.

I can and should borrow $18k from the bank at a much lower rate and pay off the higher interest student loan, right? What nuances am I missing?

I know Nelnet has zero problem putting a 6-month forbearance and letting the interest accrue if I'm unable to pay, for example. So I'd be giving up that awful flexibility. Advice?

You'll need to secure a rate low enough to offset the loss in the tax break your interest is providing. That's all I have for you on this one.

 

[Lionheart1827]

Question for you guys:

I have about 35k just sitting in a savings account, makes interest but its not much. Trying to figure out what to do with it.

Originally this money is going to be going into a downpayment when I start looking to buy a house in the near future(possibly the next 5 years). How do you think I should invest this?

 

[Chris R]

Put all 35k in VTSAX.

At least that's what I'd do.

 

[Yaboosh]

Put all 35k in VTSAX.

At least that's what I'd do.

Wouldn't be want to be more conservative than that if he is using it for a house pretty soon?

 

[TylerD]

My dad is frustrated that he is 62 and doesn't have what he calls a great nest egg for his and my mom's retirement and in trying to play catch up has invested 82K in a pink sheet (NTEK) maker of UltraFlix 4k app... He has 10,000,000 shares.

http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/NTEK/quote

He has tried to get me excited about it but I'm having none of it and flat-out told him that I think it is a really bad move.

 

[Randolph Freelander]

My dad is frustrated that he is 62 and doesn't have what he calls a great nest egg for his and my mom's retirement and in trying to play catch up has invested 82K in a pink sheet (NTEK) maker of UltraFlix 4k app... He has 10,000,000 shares.

http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/NTEK/quote

He has tried to get me excited about it but I'm having none of it and flat-out told him that I think it is a really bad move.

ABANDON SHIP! WOMEN AND MOGS FIRST!

Tell him to get that money into proper funds and get used to the idea of working longer. It sucks, but he could lose everything with his current play.

 

[ty_hot]

Hey people, I'd like to invest around 1k euros to start, but I know nothing about investing in Europe as I'm from Brazil. I currently live in Spain, can I invest it in other country of the eurozone? What would be a good per year proft margin in here?

 

[TylerD]

ABANDON SHIP! WOMEN AND MOGS FIRST!

Tell him to get that money into proper funds and get used to the idea of working longer. It sucks, but he could lose everything with his current play.

Oh, I've tried... i've tried...It's not the whole thing by any stretch. They have Zacks managing the rest of their portfolio with assuredly high fees which I'm also not cool with. He is really stubborn and isn't one for taking suggestions from me. Especially not on money matters.

---
I on the other hand, got a bonus through company profit sharing and immediately invested it in my Vanguard IRA funds. That bonus should grow to be many times bigger in the next 30 years!

800 left on student loans, little less than 5K on my car and when my girlfriend\soon to be fiance starts working in her field I'll be able to max out my 401k and IRA contributions yearly.

 

[Fragamemnon]

My dad is frustrated that he is 62 and doesn't have what he calls a great nest egg for his and my mom's retirement and in trying to play catch up has invested 82K in a pink sheet (NTEK) maker of UltraFlix 4k app... He has 10,000,000 shares.

http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/NTEK/quote

He has tried to get me excited about it but I'm having none of it and flat-out told him that I think it is a really bad move.

You have to get him out of that ASAP. Stage an intervention if you have to. Does your mom know he's doing this?

 

[johnny956]

My dad is frustrated that he is 62 and doesn't have what he calls a great nest egg for his and my mom's retirement and in trying to play catch up has invested 82K in a pink sheet (NTEK) maker of UltraFlix 4k app... He has 10,000,000 shares.

http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/NTEK/quote

He has tried to get me excited about it but I'm having none of it and flat-out told him that I think it is a really bad move.

Man that's rough, it's hard to convince your parents about financial advice. My parents are the same way and I'm so far ahead of where they were at my age yet they don't care.

 

[TylerD]

You have to get him out of that ASAP. Stage an intervention if you have to. Does your mom know he's doing this?

Yeah she does, but she's leaving it up to him. I don't know how much they have for retirement right now but the NTEK "investment" is basically from an extra account that was just kind of there. My dad assures me they will be OK but this is a definite "swing for the fences" move.

 

[GhaleonEB]

My dad is frustrated that he is 62 and doesn't have what he calls a great nest egg for his and my mom's retirement and in trying to play catch up has invested 82K in a pink sheet (NTEK) maker of UltraFlix 4k app... He has 10,000,000 shares.

http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/NTEK/quote

He has tried to get me excited about it but I'm having none of it and flat-out told him that I think it is a really bad move.

It's a sad situation. He doesn't have the nest egg he wants, so he's taken to gambling it away on a single stock hoping to get lucky. It's a desperation move, and not at all rational. Odds are good he's going to lose, big time.

Edit: he bought a stock that started at $0.33 six years ago and is now worth less than one cent. It lost 8% today. Betting on penny stocks is literally gambling. Hope you can talk some sense into him.

 

[Yaboosh]

When you have a large amount of shares like that, is it easy to sell it all off? When you sell stocks, does that mean somebody has to be buying them? So there could be times if the company is failing where simply nobody will buy the stocks from you?

 

[ClosingADoor]

Hey people, I'd like to invest around 1k euros to start, but I know nothing about investing in Europe as I'm from Brazil. I currently live in Spain, can I invest it in other country of the eurozone? What would be a good per year proft margin in here?

Yes, you can invest in other countries easily. Depends on the broker which you have access to exactly, but most will offer the large exchanges in Europe.

Keep in mind some countries have added costs, for example France and I think the UK will have a transaction tax. Also keep an eye on exchange rates and added costs if trading in a foreign currency.

When you have a large amount of shares like that, is it easy to sell it all off? When you sell stocks, does that mean somebody has to be buying them? So there could be times if the company is failing where simply nobody will buy the stocks from you?

There always needs to be a buyer. So it is possible nobody will buy it from you if you are trading individual stocks.

 

[ArgentPixel]

My dad is frustrated that he is 62 and doesn't have what he calls a great nest egg for his and my mom's retirement and in trying to play catch up has invested 82K in a pink sheet (NTEK) maker of UltraFlix 4k app... He has 10,000,000 shares.

http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/NTEK/quote

He has tried to get me excited about it but I'm having none of it and flat-out told him that I think it is a really bad move.

If you're going to YOLO, at least YOLO $TVIX

Question for you guys:

I have about 35k just sitting in a savings account, makes interest but its not much. Trying to figure out what to do with it.

Originally this money is going to be going into a downpayment when I start looking to buy a house in the near future(possibly the next 5 years). How do you think I should invest this?

Depending on your risk tolerance, you could put it into a lower-risk mutual fund, but many people think even that is too risky for short-term investments.

Your other option is to start a CD ladder or just open one long term CD like Ally's 2% 5 year CD. You'll mitigate inflation, but your capital won't really appreciate much, if at all.

 

[PflargBlarg]

Yeahh...your dad has just thrown away almost 100k. That looks like a garbage stock to invest in.

 

[hollomat]

My dad is frustrated that he is 62 and doesn't have what he calls a great nest egg for his and my mom's retirement and in trying to play catch up has invested 82K in a pink sheet (NTEK) maker of UltraFlix 4k app... He has 10,000,000 shares.

http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/NTEK/quote

He has tried to get me excited about it but I'm having none of it and flat-out told him that I think it is a really bad move.

The market cap is $128,000. Your dad literally owns 66% of this company. Not good

 

[Randolph Freelander]

The market cap is $128,000. Your dad literally owns 66% of this company. Not good

Google says there are 1.38b shares available for the company, for a market cap of 10.45 million. 10 million shares equates to 0.72% of the company. Still, it's an absurdly high percentage to hold.

 

[PantherLotus]

You'll need to secure a rate low enough to offset the loss in the tax break your interest is providing. That's all I have for you on this one.

Whoa thanks, hadn't considered that. Will have to do the math, but the tax benefit on the interest seems super low. Thanks RF.

 

[Wellington]

Oh, I've tried... i've tried...It's not the whole thing by any stretch. They have Zacks managing the rest of their portfolio with assuredly high fees which I'm also not cool with. He is really stubborn and isn't one for taking suggestions from me. Especially not on money matters.

---
I on the other hand, got a bonus through company profit sharing and immediately invested it in my Vanguard IRA funds. That bonus should grow to be many times bigger in the next 30 years!

800 left on student loans, little less than 5K on my car and when my girlfriend\soon to be fiance starts working in her field I'll be able to max out my 401k and IRA contributions yearly.

Ho boy. I would follow RFs advice at that point, just have to keep working.

At that point I think the move I would make is try and go with high dividend paying stocks/funds and just keep investing. You can prob find something that has a 3-4% yield but it's only $100k. Hopefully he has a lot of money in his other accounts and lives well below his means.

 

[slow-twitch]

When you have a large amount of shares like that, is it easy to sell it all off? When you sell stocks, does that mean somebody has to be buying them? So there could be times if the company is failing where simply nobody will buy the stocks from you?

There are always buyers for anything but not necessarily for the bid price and bid size you want, even more so if you sell a lot of shares of a small company.

The current price of a stock is the last price it was sold at, it does not mean it is what you will get currently. If you have more stock to sell than the current bid size you'll have to lower your ask price for the rest to meet the next offers in the list.

It follows the supply and demand principle.

Smaller stocks usually have much bigger ask-bid spread, they are not very liquid (lower demand and other reasons). It means you can lose a lot on each transaction if you use market orders. And if you don't use market orders, you might not be able to sell (or buy) very fast.

 

[TylerD]

Ho boy. I would follow RFs advice at that point, just have to keep working.

At that point I think the move I would make is try and go with high dividend paying stocks/funds and just keep investing. You can prob find something that has a 3-4% yield but it's only $100k. Hopefully he has a lot of money in his other accounts and lives well below his means.

He is going to continue to work as a manager with Halliburton if he doesn't get laid off. He was thinking that this might finally be his time to get the ax. Been with them for 33 years now. They closed his shop in my hometown in a consolidation move and now he commutes 100 miles round trip instead of 10.

I talked to him about my concerns, he said they have well over a million in other accounts, they own their house outright and are paying on one car. This makes me feel better but it doesn't change the fact that investing 80K into a fucking pink sheet is such a huge gamble.

 

[Wellington]

He is going to continue to work as a manager with Halliburton if he doesn't get laid off. He was thinking that this might finally be his time to get the ax. Been with them for 33 years now. They closed his shop in my hometown in a consolidation move and now he commutes 100 miles round trip instead of 10.

I talked to him about my concerns, he said they have well over a million in other accounts, they own their house outright and are paying on one car. This makes me feel better but it doesn't change the fact that investing 80K into a fucking pink sheet is such a huge gamble.

Well over a million and paid off housing... How much do they spend?

 

[SyNapSe]

My dad is frustrated that he is 62 and doesn't have what he calls a great nest egg for his and my mom's retirement and in trying to play catch up has invested 82K in a pink sheet (NTEK) maker of UltraFlix 4k app... He has 10,000,000 shares.

http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/NTEK/quote

He has tried to get me excited about it but I'm having none of it and flat-out told him that I think it is a really bad move.

Yikes. It looks like it went through a big run-up as it's up 130% on 1 month. Hopefully he bought at the front of that and rode it up cuz the last 5 days don't look great. It's trading 33% down so far today.

Reading your last post: It doesn't look like a terrible nest egg they have..

 

[TylerD]

Well over a million and paid off housing... How much do they spend?

I don't know but they have recently taken steps to reduce monthly expenses in case he loses his job. They have a rent house they are trying to sell and my mom and her sister have listed my late granddad's house as well. He's obviously looking for a much more comfy or early retirement but the way he is going about it is stupid.

Anyway, this is a great example of how NOT to invest for retirement.

 

[Fallen_Hero]

Anyone have any experience with JP Morgan 401ks?

SmartMix Conservative Fund
SmartMix Moderate Fund
SmartMix Aggressive Fund
Stable Value Fund
US Bond Fund
High Yield Bond Fund
Emerging Market Bond Fund
Stock Index Fund
Large Cap Stock Fund
Mid Cap Stock Fund
Small Cap Stock Fund
International Stock Fund
Emerging Market Stock Fund
Company Stock Fund

I'm 100% in SmartMix Aggressive Fund but I'm not sure if the Stock Index Fund is a mutual fund? I would like to do that since the expense ratio is lower (and mutual funds, as this thread has stated, is the way to go). Any thoughts?

 

[chaosblade]

Index funds are mutual funds. If the expense ratio is lower I'd probably make the switch.

The SmartMix fund is probably the equivalent of a target date fund though, which isn't necessarily bad unless the fees are particularly high.