@skh12 said in 401K Contributions Limit Increases for 2018...But...:

@david-scubadiver
please define "rich"
to call someone “rich” is pretty vague.
just because i’m financially responsible, and i have a nest egg and emergency funds, am i rich?
on the same token, if i were a financial idiot, overextended and living paycheck to paycheck, is that any less “rich”?
people shouldn’t lose sight of personal responsibility, give a dummy a winning lottery ticket and see what happens.

If you have to ask, you aren’t rich.
But, yes, if you are a financial idiot, overextended and living paycheck to paycheck, you aren’t rich.

@padma said in Individual Stocks/Investments:

Any thoughts on AT&T;s big drop. I added some more to my existing position at 34.5 and it dropped further. Just wonder when the free fall will stop. The dividend certainly looks attractive.

A couple of months ago, someone suggested that investing in AT&T because of the dividend was a safe bet. I said that I saw plenty of room for the stock to drop more than 5%. I have not been following the stock and have no idea if it has dropped more than 5%, but the fact of the matter is that any stock you own can drop 50% easily and that should be a barometer for how much you can invest. No stock should represent more than 5% of your holdings, but regardless, if you can’t comfortably lose 50% of your investment in an individual stock you should cut the amount invested down to an amount where 50% won’t make your uncomfortable.

If you believe the stock is beaten down unfairly, then buy more. But don’t believe for a second that it “has to move” in any particular direction. It doesn’t. You can’t even say “probably.” That is why the smart money owns the market through low cost ETFs and why you should only have 5-20% of your assets invested elsewhere.

The easiest way to own individual stocks is to own a lot of them to diversify risk, and the easiest way to do that is where you can buy fractional shares and take your 5-20% money and pour it into 15-20 stocks of your choosing and see how it all goes. I am currently doing that with M1 Finance, and find it very helpful.

The important thing is that the rich will continue to get richer, so that means it is as important as ever to either be rich or get rich. If you can’t afford to make non-deductible contributions that means you aren’t rich and you need to change that. Preferably sooner, rather than later, so you can continue to benefit from non-deductible contributions should they limit the deductible portions.

Believe me when I tell you that you will be better off financially, if you can be rich and do this.

@deplorable-1 said in Individual Stocks/Investments:

My best investment currently is MORL at a $15 cost basis I’m earning 20% plus monthly dividend yield. The dividends are paid out monthly but vary from month. Some months are very high and some months are low but over the year average out to 20% or so plus stock appreciation. My overall return is like 40% for the year. I only invest in stocks that pay dividends anything else is just gambling IMO.

2x leveraged funds aren’t a “stock” in the traditional sense. And they can’t be held long term safely. So be car full with that one. It can mov, and fast, in the other direction. If it is a major part of your portfolio consider selling it and counting your blessings.

@ritholtz said in Individual Stocks/Investments:

@david-scubadiver
We have invested in fixed assets in another place which are very difficult to liquidate. No stock investments. We have little bit in 401k, bank accounts and in Home equity. Is it too late to start investing in stock market in terms of age (40’s). We were too cautions. Though With good income and savings we could not make much out of our savings by being over cautions. That is kinda very disappointing when I look back.

Thanks

If you consider that even those who are retired need to be invested in the market, and that people saving for retirement are in the market at age 30, 40 and 50, it is certainly not too late to be invested. A conservative approach is to own your age in bonds meanings at 40 you should own 40% bonds and 60% stocks. You can do that simply with two ETFs: BND and VTI. U

I’d make sure to contribute to Roth IRA every year if you don’t already have a traditional IRA, and add to the 401(k), especially if your employer matches.

Tell me a little about what you have (i.e., how large a portfolio you are looking to invest, and how much is in an IRA vs. taxable account), either here or in a private message, and I will give you some input based on what I know. The other big player in the space is Betterment, and while I did not open an account with them, I could see using them over wealthfront if only because they were first to the market and haven’t gone through so many changes as Wealthfront. [I didn’t know that when I was picking one to try, but learned about it since].

@mikk1 said in Individual Stocks/Investments:

@David-Scubadiver Please do! I’d definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts/experiences.

I’ve finally funded at Schwab Intelligent Portfolio, Wisebanyan and Wealthfront. Wisebanyan is the least expensive and generates a portfolio that is pretty close to where I’d come out on. My only hesitancy with them is their longevity as well as the fact that they use e-mail to communicate rather than requiring you to log in and view/respond to a “secure message” like very other financial account I’ve had for the past ten years.

With a 68/32 split of stocks/fixed income, Wisebanyan invested me as follows, at an expense ratio of .09%

VTI 40.5%
VEA 21.9%
VWO 5.1%

LQD 8.5%
VCSH 3.2%
SJNK 3.1%
VGIT 7.6%
TIP 6.1%
VNQ 3%

Wealthfront invested me in the following at an expense ratio of 0.08%
VTI 35% (US Stocks)
VEA 26% (Foreign Stocks)
VWO 22% (Emerging Markets)
VIG 7% (Dividend Growth)
VTEB 5% (Municipal Bonds)
XLE 5% (Natural Resources)
But you have to tag on their .25% management fee, bringing it up to 0.33%

Schwab invested me in a plethora of funds at an expense ratio of 0.21%

Stocks (77.42%)
FNDX : SCHWAB FUNDAMENTAL US LARGE CO ETF 15.02%
SCHX : SCHWAB US LARGE CAP ETF 11.33%
FNDF : SCHWAB FUNDAMENTAL INL LARGE COM ETF 10.05%
FNDA : SCHWAB FUNDAMENTAL US SMALL COM ETF 7.76%
SCHF : SCHWAB INTERNATIONAL EQUITY ETF 7.11%
SCHA : SCHWAB US SMALL CAP ETF 5.10%
FNDE : SCHWAB FUNDA EMG MKTS LARGE COM ETF 5.07%
FNDC : SCHWAB FUNDAMENTAL INTL SMAL COM ETF 4.78%
SCHC : SCHWAB INTERNATNAL SMALLCAP EQY ETF 3.14%
SCHH : CHARLES SCHWAB US REIT ETF 3.09%
SCHE : SCHWAB EMERGING MARKETS EQUITY ETF 2.73%
VNQI : VANGUARD GLBAL EX US REAL ESTATE ETF 2.24%
Fixed Income (10.7%)
EMLC : VANECK VECTORS J P MORGAN EMERGING MKTS LOCCURRENCY BD ETF 5.95%
SHYG : ISHARES HIGH YIELD CORPORAT BOND ETF 4.75%
Commodities (4.74%)
IAU : ISHARES GOLD ETF 4.74%
Cash (7.14%)

@fivetalents said in Best Nationally Available High APY Liquid Accounts:

Scuba

No pride of ownership here. I don’t care if someone copies a thread I started and hosts it over here as their own. The only thread I remained active in was the Individual Stocks thread, and someone already started that here.

So, I am taking a stab at using a roboadvisor. Actually, trying out several. The two that seem most promising to me are Schwab Intelligent Porfolio and Wisebanyan. The main drivers for my potential move are that I want an inexpensive way for my spouse to manage the money (allocate investments) should I decide to die before I kill her and also to take advantage of automatic tax loss harvesting.

If I like the service it might just encourage me to sell my individual stocks. I’ll likely start a new thread on this if I have anything useful to say after my experiment.