Stock market

[eriksat1]

Paying some tax is still better than riding it to the bottom.

[QUOTE=eriksat1;6269986]Paying some tax is still better than riding it to the bottom.[/QUOTE]

Always.

You'll have to pay sooner or later. I don't see the tax rates going much lower than they are today so selling and taking some profit at today's tax rates might be a good plan.

[Shellback]

I'll be 71 at the end of the month, and I'm riding it out. This year was the first year I had to take a RMD, and I did so a few months ago while the market was up. Been retired for 9 years and we have managed to get by on SS and small pensions, so we really don't need money right now. At some point in the next year or 2 we will need a new heating system and a roof. I'm guessing around 12k for both, so nothing to break the bank. I've doubled my money since the 2008 crash.

[KATatonic]

being properly diversified is the key. I just checked my stuff. Some is up, some is down, some is flat. Overall balances are not far off from where I was at the beginning of year. With 10+ years until I retire I'm riding it out. We had some killer buying opportunities when the great recession kicked in last time. Keep your eyes open. Bank stocks were 25% of today's value, and Ford was a steal.

[Mojo-NC]

This is a very interesting thread. I rode out the 2008 crash and I watched my investment $$ essentially cut in half for quite a while (on paper). I tried not to look at it as I was still over 10 years away from retirement. It has since recovered and more than doubled with no additional funds added to the account. Now that I'm closer to retirement, I am not really sure what to do if this one goes south for an extended period of time.

Most of my retirement funds are not in a 401K because I transferred the money into a managed IRA (Edward Jones). On the flip side, my wife left all of her money in her 401K in 2008 and her account took much less of a hit than mine and recovered just as well if not better.

So my question is for those of you who closely follow the markets, which is generally better - a 401K or a managed IRA? I have a couple of other 401K accounts where I could transfer my IRA funds and I'm not 100% confident that the IRA has really been that well managed.

Thoughts and insight? I have very little interest in closely following financial markets myself, which is why I want to make sure that I use someone who does it well and at the same time is trustworthy.

[QUOTE=Mojo-NC;6269998]

Most of my retirement funds are not in a 401K because I transferred the money into a managed IRA (Edward Jones). On the flip side, my wife left all of her money in her 401K in 2008 and her account took much less of a hit than mine and recovered just as well if not better.

...


Thoughts and insight? I have very little interest in closely following financial markets myself, which is why I want to make sure that I use someone who does it well and at the same time is trustworthy.[/QUOTE]

Its not so much whether its in a 401K or an IRA; they're both tax deferred retirement accounts. What matters is who is handling the accounts, how much they charge, and the funds/stocks/ETFs chosen for the account.

On the face of it, I'd say that part of the problem is that you are using Edward Jones and she's not. EJ has a lot of fees and they love to churn, or re-balance as they call it, your account. They make a lot of money when they 'rebalance' accounts, moving you in and out of various funds, collecting fees with every change.

On an annual basis I'd bet that EJ is costing you 2-3%/year in various fees, fund loads, fund management fees, etc. after they convince you that you really need to rebalance every year.

I'd switch to Schwab into one of their various managed accounts. You can have minimal management or robo-managed, a little bit of management, or full management, any of which is MUCH cheaper than EJ. Chances are, you can invest in the same or extremely similar funds, etc. at Schwab for little or no costs to buy and sell. You can transfer everything to Schwab with one phone call and they will pick up any account closing fees that EJ will charge. In my small town of about 25,000 people there are 5 very nice EJ offices, each with a broker or two and secretary. These aren't cheap; somebody's paying for all of this nice real estate. Look in the mirror.

[Mojo-NC]

Good information and it further explains what I've suspected. Thanks mk!

[Shellback]

Vanguard has all kinds of funds and at very low costs. I'm very happy with their Wellington Admiral funds. I don't believe there are any charges for moving money between their funds, but you are time restricted if you move funds out of a fund and want to move the money back in.

[stout93]

[QUOTE=Shellback;6270150]Vanguard has all kinds of funds and at very low costs. I'm very happy with their Wellington Admiral funds. I don't believe there are any charges for moving money between their funds, but you are time restricted if you move funds out of a fund and want to move the money back in.[/QUOTE]

Vanguard has some of the lowest costs (if not the lowest) out there amongst Mutual Funds companies.

That's how the founder wanted it..

[Skywagon]

[QUOTE=mk cant log in;6270072]Its not so much whether its in a 401K or an IRA; they're both tax deferred retirement accounts. What matters is who is handling the accounts, how much they charge, and the funds/stocks/ETFs chosen for the account.

On the face of it, I'd say that part of the problem is that you are using Edward Jones and she's not. EJ has a lot of fees and they love to churn, or re-balance as they call it, your account. They make a lot of money when they 'rebalance' accounts, moving you in and out of various funds, collecting fees with every change.

On an annual basis I'd bet that EJ is costing you 2-3%/year in various fees, fund loads, fund management fees, etc. after they convince you that you really need to rebalance every year.

I'd switch to Schwab into one of their various managed accounts. You can have minimal management or robo-managed, a little bit of management, or full management, any of which is MUCH cheaper than EJ. Chances are, you can invest in the same or extremely similar funds, etc. at Schwab for little or no costs to buy and sell. You can transfer everything to Schwab with one phone call and they will pick up any account closing fees that EJ will charge. In my small town of about 25,000 people there are 5 very nice EJ offices, each with a broker or two and secretary. These aren't cheap; somebody's paying for all of this nice real estate. Look in the mirror.[/QUOTE]

This is my take also. I have some money with EJ and look after an account that my mother has there, you have to keep your eye on them, they will work you if they can get away with it. I have most everything else spread around, just checked on the main account the other day and still have a positive increase of 4.2% for the year. There does not seem to be any safe place to put money that I am aware of, precious metal, cash, stocks all have their downsides, not sure that minnows are not the best place to put my money.