The market

bmo88

I have lost about $2,000 of the $50k I have in my retirement savings. Overall, I still have an 8.5% return average. It sucks to watch it go down, but when we are young, we need to think about the long term and historical trends of the market bouncing back. 

I personally see no point in pulling out now and switching to bonds. You lose the stock shares and will likely have to buy back in later at a higher rate and may not time it well. 

Financial advisers cannot "beat" the market, so I know I don't have much of a chance of trying to do that by pulling out and going back in. I am in it for the long term. They always say "buy low and sell high." So to sell now would contradict that and be too risky in my mind.

I will probably buy more shares if it continues to drop though.

vlagrl29

Since we are talking about investing- how do you determine what funds/bonds to trade? How often do you manage it?

bmo88

vlagrl29 said:

Since we are talking about investing- how do you determine what funds/bonds to trade? How often do you manage it?

To be honest, this is an area I need to focus on in the next year. I currently just invest my 401k and ROTH IRA into Target Date Retirement funds (2055). It rebalances itself and creates an automatic mix of stocks, bonds, US and international. It starts out more risky (90% stocks) and balances over time to shift toward bonds (90% around retirement). 

My plan is to do more research and start by investing 10% of my funds into other options outside of my Target Date account and continue to increase the amount as I get more comfortable with it.

vlagrl29

bmo88 said:

vlagrl29 said:

Since we are talking about investing- how do you determine what funds/bonds to trade? How often do you manage it?

To be honest, this is an area I need to focus on in the next year. I currently just invest my 401k and ROTH IRA into Target Date Retirement funds (2055). It rebalances itself and creates an automatic mix of stocks, bonds, US and international. It starts out more risky (90% stocks) and balances over time to shift toward bonds (90% around retirement). 

My plan is to do more research and start by investing 10% of my funds into other options outside of my Target Date account and continue to increase the amount as I get more comfortable with it.

Yeah I had thought about a target fund in the past but I chose to let the investment team manage half because I was kinda overwhelmed and I've slowly been learning over the last 3 years.  I have an appt with fidelity over the phone next week to talk about rebalancing the IRA I manage.  Long term I would slowly pull small amounts of money out of the managed IRA into my own possession and manage 100%.

jtmh2012

vlagrl29 said:

Since we are talking about investing- how do you determine what funds/bonds to trade? How often do you manage it?

I listen to my financial adviser.

I also have some money in a managed money fund where they pretty much do everything.

I also have a few that I've found on my own.

vlagrl29

jtmh2012 said:

vlagrl29 said:

Since we are talking about investing- how do you determine what funds/bonds to trade? How often do you manage it?

I listen to my financial adviser.

I also have some money in a managed money fund where they pretty much do everything.

I also have a few that I've found on my own.




Does your financial advisor tell you what funds to invest in based on your risk tolerance?

brij2006

Haha.  We still have $100k sitting in our savings that we want to toss into a mutual fund, but now we aren't sure how much longer we should hold onto it.  We're thinking that maybe we'll toss in $50k before the end of the month, then wait a bit longer on the rest.

brij2006

vlagrl29 said:

Since we are talking about investing- how do you determine what funds/bonds to trade? How often do you manage it?

We use one of Dave Ramsey's ELP's (Endorsed Local Providers).  We used to use someone who also balanced portfolios with whole life insurance and annuities.  Even though he was a wonderful guy, we ended our relationship with him 2 months ago.  We now use a financial planner through IPI Investment Planners.

All of our investments funnel into good growth stock mutual funds. Even DD's ESA and H's 401k funds are chosen to follow that.  I would have to look at the exact percentages and into which funds, but they're on the medium to higher risk side. However, they have tracked 40 year returns of an average of 10%.  So they're best for putting your money in and letting it sit.  Not shuffling funds around or "rebalancing" once a fund gets heavy or low. 

I will say this.  I had my Roth in a target date account.  Those years the market was doing 12-15%, my Roth only gained 6%.  It was horrible in a time where it should have had amazing returns.  I blame my financial planner.  I was the little guy, and it had been 5 years since we visited my risk tolerance.  I knew and understood the market much better then than I did when we set up the account when I was 20 and was afraid of risk. 

Now I toss the money into those higher risk funds and don't touch them.  Let them increase, decrease, tank, grow at 25%, doesn't matter.  The money is there to sit and work.  Not for me to play the guessing game of when and how to pull it out. 

vlagrl29

brij2006 said:

vlagrl29 said:

Since we are talking about investing- how do you determine what funds/bonds to trade? How often do you manage it?

We use one of Dave Ramsey's ELP's (Endorsed Local Providers).  We used to use someone who also balanced portfolios with whole life insurance and annuities.  Even though he was a wonderful guy, we ended our relationship with him 2 months ago.  We now use a financial planner through IPI Investment Planners.

All of our investments funnel into good growth stock mutual funds. Even DD's ESA and H's 401k funds are chosen to follow that.  I would have to look at the exact percentages and into which funds, but they're on the medium to higher risk side. However, they have tracked 40 year returns of an average of 10%.  So they're best for putting your money in and letting it sit.  Not shuffling funds around or "rebalancing" once a fund gets heavy or low. 

I will say this.  I had my Roth in a target date account.  Those years the market was doing 12-15%, my Roth only gained 6%.  It was horrible in a time where it should have had amazing returns.  I blame my financial planner.  I was the little guy, and it had been 5 years since we visited my risk tolerance.  I knew and understood the market much better then than I did when we set up the account when I was 20 and was afraid of risk. 

Now I toss the money into those higher risk funds and don't touch them.  Let them increase, decrease, tank, grow at 25%, doesn't matter.  The money is there to sit and work.  Not for me to play the guessing game of when and how to pull it out. 

I'm seriously considering an independent financial advisor.  How often do you meet with him and do you pay him for his time to meet with you?  Does he basically tell you what kind of funds you should look at and how to balance your portfolio better?

brij2006

vlagrl29 said:

brij2006 said:

vlagrl29 said:

Since we are talking about investing- how do you determine what funds/bonds to trade? How often do you manage it?

We use one of Dave Ramsey's ELP's (Endorsed Local Providers).  We used to use someone who also balanced portfolios with whole life insurance and annuities.  Even though he was a wonderful guy, we ended our relationship with him 2 months ago.  We now use a financial planner through IPI Investment Planners.

All of our investments funnel into good growth stock mutual funds. Even DD's ESA and H's 401k funds are chosen to follow that.  I would have to look at the exact percentages and into which funds, but they're on the medium to higher risk side. However, they have tracked 40 year returns of an average of 10%.  So they're best for putting your money in and letting it sit.  Not shuffling funds around or "rebalancing" once a fund gets heavy or low. 

I will say this.  I had my Roth in a target date account.  Those years the market was doing 12-15%, my Roth only gained 6%.  It was horrible in a time where it should have had amazing returns.  I blame my financial planner.  I was the little guy, and it had been 5 years since we visited my risk tolerance.  I knew and understood the market much better then than I did when we set up the account when I was 20 and was afraid of risk. 

Now I toss the money into those higher risk funds and don't touch them.  Let them increase, decrease, tank, grow at 25%, doesn't matter.  The money is there to sit and work.  Not for me to play the guessing game of when and how to pull it out. 

I'm seriously considering an independent financial advisor.  How often do you meet with him and do you pay him for his time to meet with you?  Does he basically tell you what kind of funds you should look at and how to balance your portfolio better?

*********************************

He asks you how often you want to meet.  So we are set up to meet once a year.  However, I love that I shot him an e-mail this morning to get his take on putting our lump sum into the mutual fund.  He will respond to me by the end of the day and is always very truthful on whether or not we should hold out longer (hence why the money is still sitting in our savings). 

He manages the funds and does all of the moving around.  I can manage that on the online portfolio, but choose not to because I don't research and know all of it to feel confident moving around that much cash and doing it at the wrong time. Which is why I have an adviser. 

However, his team does not move funds very often.  They are big about letting it sit and ride the market.  

You can always go to daveramsey.com and click on "ELPs" on the right side of the page, put in your information, and have one contact you.  We sat down and met with him 2 times before putting any money in with him.  It took us almost 4 months to make our decision on who to go with, but we loved how down to earth he was about investing.  I will admit that I do not understand some of the stuff financial advisers talk about, but I understood everything he was doing with our money and why.  There's no fancy fund changes, pushing for a whole life insurance policy, and no annuities even sold through him.  We seemed to find that someone who didn't also push those extra's, was hard to find.

short+sassy

jtmh2012 said:

CuriousKiddosMama said:

I'm not even going to look. It will come back. Also, anybody think the Walmart announcement is playing a part? That's a lot of stores to close!

While Wal-mart is closing 269 stores, 102 of them were smaller Wal-mart Express stores, they're also looking to open at least 350 stores.  So the headlines are somewhat misleading.

We have one of these in my area...and (oddly enough considering the announcement) a second one is about to open.  I don't understand what Wal-Mart is thinking with these.  They are weird and totally unappealing.  They are basically grocery stores...except higher priced than normal for a horrible selection of primarily no-name products.

vlagrl29

brij2006 said:

vlagrl29 said:

brij2006 said:

vlagrl29 said:

Since we are talking about investing- how do you determine what funds/bonds to trade? How often do you manage it?

We use one of Dave Ramsey's ELP's (Endorsed Local Providers).  We used to use someone who also balanced portfolios with whole life insurance and annuities.  Even though he was a wonderful guy, we ended our relationship with him 2 months ago.  We now use a financial planner through IPI Investment Planners.

All of our investments funnel into good growth stock mutual funds. Even DD's ESA and H's 401k funds are chosen to follow that.  I would have to look at the exact percentages and into which funds, but they're on the medium to higher risk side. However, they have tracked 40 year returns of an average of 10%.  So they're best for putting your money in and letting it sit.  Not shuffling funds around or "rebalancing" once a fund gets heavy or low. 

I will say this.  I had my Roth in a target date account.  Those years the market was doing 12-15%, my Roth only gained 6%.  It was horrible in a time where it should have had amazing returns.  I blame my financial planner.  I was the little guy, and it had been 5 years since we visited my risk tolerance.  I knew and understood the market much better then than I did when we set up the account when I was 20 and was afraid of risk. 

Now I toss the money into those higher risk funds and don't touch them.  Let them increase, decrease, tank, grow at 25%, doesn't matter.  The money is there to sit and work.  Not for me to play the guessing game of when and how to pull it out. 

I'm seriously considering an independent financial advisor.  How often do you meet with him and do you pay him for his time to meet with you?  Does he basically tell you what kind of funds you should look at and how to balance your portfolio better?

*********************************

He asks you how often you want to meet.  So we are set up to meet once a year.  However, I love that I shot him an e-mail this morning to get his take on putting our lump sum into the mutual fund.  He will respond to me by the end of the day and is always very truthful on whether or not we should hold out longer (hence why the money is still sitting in our savings). 

He manages the funds and does all of the moving around.  I can manage that on the online portfolio, but choose not to because I don't research and know all of it to feel confident moving around that much cash and doing it at the wrong time. Which is why I have an adviser. 

However, his team does not move funds very often.  They are big about letting it sit and ride the market.  

You can always go to daveramsey.com and click on "ELPs" on the right side of the page, put in your information, and have one contact you.  We sat down and met with him 2 times before putting any money in with him.  It took us almost 4 months to make our decision on who to go with, but we loved how down to earth he was about investing.  I will admit that I do not understand some of the stuff financial advisers talk about, but I understood everything he was doing with our money and why.  There's no fancy fund changes, pushing for a whole life insurance policy, and no annuities even sold through him.  We seemed to find that someone who didn't also push those extra's, was hard to find.

I'm getting a referral from one of our friends, another one from DH, and probably a 3rd from our CPA. I would like to go ahead and do the "work" part of trading but not very often.  Once a year seems like a good amount of time to meet.  I too wouldn't want all the extra "pushes" on products. Currently I have an over the phone meeting with a guy from our local fidelity branch in a couple weeks to go over things.

jtmh2012

vlagrl29 said:

vlagrl29 said:

Since we are talking about investing- how do you determine what funds/bonds to trade? How often do you manage it?

I listen to my financial adviser.

I also have some money in a managed money fund where they pretty much do everything.

I also have a few that I've found on my own.

Does your financial advisor tell you what funds to invest in based on your risk tolerance?

Pretty much.  When I started with her, we built a risk profile and then she chooses stuff to fit that profile.  Now and then we update it.  I've also been comfortable enough that I'll find stuff on my own that we add in.

jtmh2012

brij2006 said:

Now I toss the money into those higher risk funds and don't touch them.  Let them increase, decrease, tank, grow at 25%, doesn't matter.  The money is there to sit and work.  Not for me to play the guessing game of when and how to pull it out. 

This is the part that most people forget.  The market drops and they run in to pull their money out.  Usually doing so at the worst moment. Assuming you don't have bad funds, you should be tossing money in.

maple2

jtmh2012 said:

vlagrl29 said:

vlagrl29 said:

Since we are talking about investing- how do you determine what funds/bonds to trade? How often do you manage it?

I listen to my financial adviser.

I also have some money in a managed money fund where they pretty much do everything.

I also have a few that I've found on my own.

Does your financial advisor tell you what funds to invest in based on your risk tolerance?

Pretty much.  When I started with her, we built a risk profile and then she chooses stuff to fit that profile.  Now and then we update it.  I've also been comfortable enough that I'll find stuff on my own that we add in.

We meet with a financial advisor once a year to go through our portfolio pretty thoroughly. At that meeting he will make suggestions about ways to rebalance our accounts to match our investment goals and risk tolerance. He usually gives us a couple of ideas rather than a single recommended allocation plan, and we can ask him for additional suggestions if we don't like any of those ideas. We usually leave a lot of our stuff where it is, but we also try new funds to diversity our investments and/or account for stock market trends.

We can get a fairly detailed report on line about how well our current portfolio matches our risk tolerance at any time, so I usually check once per quarter and will adjust if anything seems really out of whack. During the quarterly readjustments I very rarely put money into any new places, I just move it around between funds we already own.