Asset Allocation

On a scale from 1 - 10 (1 being not knowledgeable at all and 10 being you know everything there is to know about investing), how would you rank yourself?

On a scale from 1 - 10 (1 being not involved at all and 10 being you want to be involved in the daily minutia), how would you rank yourself?

Also, at your age, you should highly consider maxing out a Roth IRA before you put anything into your 401(k) since there's no match on it.

Also, when you say 10% in checking, do you mean you save 10% of your after tax income in your checking account?

Dont even bother with EE bonds. Sell those and put the money into index ETF's (SPY, DIA, QQQ, IWM)

Your overweight bonds in your mutual fund.

(We are at 30 year record low bond rates, near zero interest rates, and near 50% of your assets are in these instruments(Bond MUTF, EE, Checking), you will kick yourself in 5-10 years)

I would recommend index ETF's for the long haul, as individual companies will fail between now and your retirement, but the index will always be adjusted for best performance.

Also do not hold OIL for long term, it has 'contango', which means its value erodes constantly compared to the actual commodity.

Just my opinion, take it with a grain of salt but this would be my composition.

Various Index Fund ETF (SPY, DIA, QQQ, IWM) $30k

Mutual Funds $25k Growth & Income

$10k Gold/Silver

Checking $10k

CD $2k

EE/I Bonds: $8k

too late to sell now

sell in may and go away

Quote from cavan : too late to sell now sell in may and go away

Your kidding right? Bonds are at record high's, this is the best time to SELL any bonds/bond funds. Also, since equities are crushed makes it the best time to BUY the index's.

Maybe I shouldn't have responded to the troll...but oh well.

With your age, play the odds and go with the highest risk funds. Also I would put 10% in GLD (that is the ticker).

Without stating your risk tolerance and investment goals all advice given is just someone else's fantasy what they'd do if they had your money.

Quote from eatdirt40 : Your kidding right? Bonds are at record high's, this is the best time to SELL any bonds/bond funds. Also, since equities are crushed makes it the best time to BUY the index's.

Heard that one before. Repeatedly for the past 3 years, actually. I got $100 the yield on the 10-yr makes a sub 1% handle. 30-yr is at 2.5% and that could hit low two's. No one ever gives the central planners enough credit for their rigging of the bond market(s). It's quite the exercise in cognitive dissonance to recognize what is happening vs what *should* happen.

And equities are "crushed"? Orly? Wake me up at S&P 400 when it has revised to mean, every bull is dead and the new cycle has begun.....

http://www.macrotrends.org/1359/s...ket-cycles

I dunno how safe 401k would be to invest in if you don't get matching. From my personal experience (I'm not very advanced as far as investing goes),but when the market took another dip few months to a year back, a lot of people at my last job were complaining about their 401k losing value. Granted, this was with company matching, so the hit wasn't as bad.

So say each paycheck you put in $100, and company matches 100% up to X%, so say they match your $100, your total investment is $200 @ you putting in $100 yourself. So the $100 extra is just bonus incentive from your company. Now with the market doing well, and your 401k growing, it sounds like a great idea to invest since you are essentially getting a free $100 that can grow too.

Now if the market dips / crashes, and 401k money market being tied to the market/economy, if the market goes down/crashes, your 401k will go down too (like any investment it has risk). So if your 401k loses $50 in value, your still coming up positive because you put in $100 yourself, but your net gain is still $150. Now if you don't do matching at all, your $100 you put in may end up being $50.

I just feel like it may be safer to put that $ in your savings until you get company matching 401k. The $ in your bank account doesn't really go up or down based on the market. It's a stable amount. 401k is really a gamble unless you get matching (in my opinion) so you can cushion the loss and still come out ahead.

Quote from JL6speed : I dunno how safe 401k would be to invest in if you don't get matching. From my personal experience (I'm not very advanced as far as investing goes),but when the market took another dip few months to a year back, a lot of people at my last job were complaining about their 401k losing value. Granted, this was with company matching, so the hit wasn't as bad. So say each paycheck you put in $100, and company matches 100% up to X%, so say they match your $100, your total investment is $200 @ you putting in $100 yourself. So the $100 extra is just bonus incentive from your company. Now with the market doing well, and your 401k growing, it sounds like a great idea to invest since you are essentially getting a free $100 that can grow too. Now if the market dips / crashes, and 401k money market being tied to the market/economy, if the market goes down/crashes, your 401k will go down too (like any investment it has risk). So if your 401k loses $50 in value, your still coming up positive because you put in $100 yourself, but your net gain is still $150. Now if you don't do matching at all, your $100 you put in may end up being $50. I just feel like it may be safer to put that $ in your savings until you get company matching 401k. The $ in your bank account doesn't really go up or down based on the market. It's a stable amount. 401k is really a gamble unless you get matching (in my opinion) so you can cushion the loss and still come out ahead.

A 401K is only a retirement account. You can allocate your money into a CD for example with no risk (for simplicity sake). You can take advantage of the matching programs and not put a single penny into the stock market, and you'll be up relative to your contributions.

Now if you invest in the stock market, then you have to be aware of the risks.