STOCK MARKET: Let's talk stocks and investing

I thought for sure there would be a thread on this, and glad there is.

So I'm in my mid 20's and have been meaning for 2 years or so start investing for my retirement. I don't want to be someone in my late 30's, early 40's who have nothing saved up, essentially screwing myself bad. Right now I have about $750-$1,000 in disposable income every month. In time that money should go up, and should never go below $600 unless something drastic happens.

So where do I go and what should I buy? I'd much rather do it all online so I can see everything. I have roughly 40 years until I'll be needing the money so I don't need short term.

 

if it's not then it just means more of a discount.:grin:

 

You are asking a nontrivial question.

First of all, you need to make a prioritized list of your financial goals and their time frames, e.g.

• Emergency fund (9 month of living expenses) in like yesterday
• Down payment for a car in two years
• Down payment for a house in five years
• Retirement when I am 65

The time frame for each goal will dictate the type of investments you can chose, e.g. your emergency fund should be in some highly liquid investment like saving account, money market mutual fund, bank CD, etc.

For retirement, I should strongly suggest a target date retirement mutual fund with low expenses, like those found at Vanguard.

You make the investment in a taxable brokerage account, a traditional IRA, a Roth IRA, or a 401K profit sharing plan at work. The usual suggestion is that you invest in your 401K until you max out your match. Then you invest to the max in your Roth IRA (or your nondeductible traditional IRA if you are over the AGI limits). If you still have monies left to invest, you then can back into your 401K.

 

lol is this thread being bumped the bottom?

 

DAMN BANK OF AMERICA

 

All the key technical support levels on the major indices were taken out. We have entered a bear market.

 

Not that you may not be right, but this thread is a graveyard of TA predictions (on both bullish/bearish ends):

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/search.php?searchid=219852&pp=25

 

The S&P closed 4.78% down. My net worth took a similar hit I hate when that happens.

 

There is no savings through work, so 401k's and whatnot are as understandable as reading Mandarin. I simply don't have a clue. Bought a new car last November, which is paid for. I could not work for a year and not be homeless, hopefully that will never happen, great job and within 15 hours of getting my teaching degree, which I'm getting anyway, but I'm not in the position where I need it today.

 

Naturally everyone should do their own research. Just calling it like I see it. Should be a bear trending market for sometime.


http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=6236809&postcount=4294

 

Well this is the only the 9th worst day in the history of Dow Jones.

 

Some people save to just save. They don't know for what or when they are going to spend their savings, right or wrong. If this is you, you might want to considered saving in taxable brokerage account, with a conservative mix of investments. Your investments will get taxed, but your access will be unrestricted. You could invest in a Roth/IRA/401K, but only those monies which you know you will not need until retirement.

 

Percentage wise or points wise?

10 Worst days in Dow Jones History.
<tt>Rank Date % Chg
1 12/12/1914 -24.39
2 10/19/1987 -22.61
3 10/28/1929 -12.82
4 10/29/1929 -11.73
5 11/6/1929 -9.92
6 12/18/1899 -8.72
7 08/12/1932 -8.4
8 03/14/1907 -8.29
9 10/26/1987 -8.04
10 7/21/1933 -7.84</tt>

 

Points wise.

 

While I understand that fear (of various things) is the driving force behind the last two weeks, I just find it tiring how every corrections period has a justification. Two weeks ago, all we heard was that investors were gripped by the deadlock in Washington....now that it's been resolved, that fear was immediately renewed because a recession was in our midst? And then on top of that, the selling is then justified even further by the fact that the European Union is going to need to bail out countries again? It's not one thing, followed by another, followed by another. Everything is working in conjunction. Also, people were selling off like mad men because the unemployment report is coming out.

 

Percentage-wise, I don't think today comes close. We were only at 4.3% I believe.

 

I'm no expert wrt the public markets. I know my corporate finance, even done two levels of the CFA (and just haven't had time to do the third, which is stupid, since I'm almost done, but such is life), but I'm more of a private markets guy.

So the curious part I find is that corporate earnings continue to do well.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...-s-p-500-earnings-snapshot-as-of-july-28.html

I understand much of the earning suprises continue to be expense saving driven, and the future earning potential concerns that eventually, given continued high unemployed, low consumer spending will inevitably lead to profit deterioration, or inflation (or super-inflation), or both...

But I just find it interesting. As with last year, when we had the same concerns, the same high unemployment, the same expense driven corporate profit improvement, etc., most companies continue to beat the street, and eps continues to rise.

 

You or your friend are either incredibly lucky, or this could be one of the most significant posts I've ever read on the bbs. Either way, keep us in touch with what your friend's up to. And thanks.

 

Asia getting hit hard again... it's still early, but futures are pointing to the DOW opening over 250 points down. Let the pain continue ...

 

Oil down to 76, almost tempting