Investing/Stocks

[TheBigCountry]

With all the threads about retiring, the bug to start investing/playing the stock market has its teeth in me.

I’m in my lower 30’s, and want to start something of a nest egg so one day I can retire and not worry about things. This is one area I know nothing.

The wife has us on a Dave Ramsey plan to be debt free in so many years, but I also think investments are a big part of it.

So where do I start, and how the hell do you play stocks? Baby steps for now.

 

[atepointer]

This is a great place to start if you don't have any notion about where to dig in first. Many great resources out there to choose from. This link takes you to their education portal with a ton of great material to chew on.

Stock Picks, Stock Market Investing

seekingalpha.com

Many ways to skin the cat and you will have to find what speaks to you. I'm a value dividend investor, but this is just one approach not the only one. Tons of free material and if you find something you like you can follow authors and even subscribe to a pay wall service tailored to your goals which is what I do. Enjoy the journey, read lots and stay consistent. It's not magic it's just discipline and consistency. I paid advisors for about 15 years and then I figured out they really don't outperform simple indexing the vast majority of the time. If you can self manage you will save a fortune over your investing career. Reading a fantastic book right now by Ray Dalio called 'The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail'. Might not be your cup of tea and time might be better served getting your feet underneath, but regardless the more you read and digest the more comfortable you will become. Enjoy the journey.

 

[alamo5000]

There are a gazillion things to consider. I don't know if you want to share all this information publicly so I am writing it in a rhetorical sense.

How much debt do you really have? What is that debt for? IE if you have $50,000 in credit card debt vs owing $100,000 on a house those are two different animals.

How much money can you set aside each week/month? IE What is your disposable income? How stable is your job (or wife's job)?

Do you have any savings this includes 401K type stuff as well as non 401K. If so how much do you have set aside outside of a retirement account for a rainy day?

Those are just a few of the key questions that need to be answered before giving out actual advice.

 

[sled_mack]

If you don’t have a 401k, start today. At least put in enough to get the full company match. Depending on the company program, you can’t out-earn that match on the market.

Do research. If you invest in direct stocks it is a part time job. You need to monitor your stocks and the market constantly. If you invest in mutual funds it is more of a buy and check once a quarter.

You can do better with stocks IF you really stay on top of them and don’t get greedy. My buddy was worth way more than me two different times. Each time he tried to hold out for a little bit more. Right now my mutual funds are worth much more than his stocks. Think about your personal risk tolerance.

 

[kenny1773]

agree with starting point of if your company does a 401k with matching funds, open one and do at LEAST full match.

If full match is less than 10% and you can afford to add 10%, doooo eeeeet, add 10% to 401k NOW!!

Past that, if you want to invest and don't want to overthink it, google something called the Coffee House Portfolio
There are different flavors of this for someone that does not want to think about it

The Coffee House style followers all get into battles over which is better and how they can win with using only 2 funds or 3 funds, my advice would be not to get caught up in the min # of funds. I would say if you are in 6 of the broad area funds, you are doing well, I think 3 is too low, but you can research the different funds these coffee house type investors talk about and pretty easy to figure out 6 or 8 to jump into. Check for fund minimums before diving in.

Others simply buy directly into some of the big names and hope, Coke, P&G, Mobil, Pfizer (yeah I said it), Verizon, Visa, Walmart, Costco, etc, etc solid companies that hopefully will still be here when you are 65

 

[Vodoun daVinci]

The Stock Market is no place to "play" or you'll get screwed. I'm a big fan of Mutual Funds and I do not buy single stocks, try to "time"/"Play" the market, nor invest in risky stuff. I buy all my stuff at Vanguard - I do not use investment advisors as in the past they have all directed me to doom. Stuff like Vanguard's VTSAX Total Stock Market Fund earned me 25% last year - VWELX is Vanguard’s oldest mutual fund and the nation’s oldest balanced fund. Made me like 19% last year.

My Dad was a self taught investor and did very, very well so I used his direction and ideas in my own investing. The basics are simple according to him - it's not a game. You don't play with the stock market. You buy time tested and solid stuff and you hold it *forever!*. Buy good stuff that is well diversified - only buy funds that pay Dividends. when the shit hits the fan, like it has the whole month of January 2022, BUY MORE. Never sell things. It might take a year or two or 5 to come back. In 2008 my Brother lost half his retirement because he sold when things looked rough and took the loss. My Dad held everything and in 2 years had all of it back and a decent amount of extra.

One more piece of advice - don't take the advice you see on the Internet. Make a Plan and do your own thing. Be Conservative and don't buy risky stuff trying to time or fool the market. There is no way to get rich quick and easy but solid investments held long term will always pay off if you have done your homework.

VooDoo

 

[FWoo45]

The pit probably ain’t the place to learn about retirement investing. I’m sure there are some here who have done very well but still. As others have said, extra, tax free money from the boss is always nice.

 

[HousePlant]

I prioritize as follows:
1) Work 401K -- max it out (and, this is just me, I put enough in to reach the stupid gov limit by about July so my paycheck jumps and then I get a period where (if shit happens) I have extra to pay down debt and (if no shit happens) invest what would have gone in the 401K into IRA. I also tend to opt to put after-tax money into the 401K (because it tends to perform well) and because I have that set up to backdoor to Roth.
2) Traditional IRA to Roth IRA Backdoor -- I make too much to deduct Traditional IRA (don't get me started...) and so I do this. Trad IRA has little value to me as a result. This country's retirement schemes are fucking stupid and setting us up for a disaster.
3) Brokerage -- these days, I'm pretty limited in what I invest to ETFs. I made good money on stocks pre-pandemic, but during the Biden administration, my portfolio has suffered. It is my ETFs that have been the most stable. I have to completely change my individual stock game now.

The government is eventually going to take away the ability to backdoor into a Roth IRA which is both understandable and at the same time infureating because, again, a Traditional IRA has no tangible tax benefit to anyone that surpasses the stupid income threshold. Why people who make more money are punished for saving for retirement baffles me. Dumbest shit ever.

And please don't follow Motley Fool. They get to taut themselves as gods because they buy stock, wait until their algorithm says is 80% to the top, then send a ton of emails out to recommend you buy it "long term". Then the stock achieves its max, they make mad money, and you gave it to them. I was given Motley as a gift and EVERY SINGLE RECOMMENDATION is a stock near its peak... then it tanks like a shot deer soon after.

And if you are going to invest in individual stocks - not recommended for beginners - you will need to begin to pay attention to global trends. For example, I bought a ton of Ericsson stock... but then they were outlawed from selling to China by The Party because western countries denied them selling their Chinese 5G products (which was a good decision). Unfortunately, that tanked the Ericsson stock. I was paying attention... I sold before. I could have waited a while but I saw a great gain from the anticipation of selling to China, took it, paid the taxes, and walked away. I had to be reading business news and industry news to stay ahead of it. It took a shit ton of time. With an ETF, you just pay a small % for someone to do that.

I don't invest in anything from Reddit.

I won't invest in anything weed related until there is forward progress to legalize it at the federal level.

I am buying airlines. I believe they will go back up after the tolerance for dealing with COVID restrictions ends (hopefully in 2022).

This is not investment advice.

 

[Hobo Hilton]

You opened the door to getting lots of opinions... LOL

I'll keep mine very short:
Buy some Coca Cola (Symbol KO) stock using a DRIP (Dividend ReInvestment Plan). You can buy more stock, without a brokers fee, once you are in the plan. At your age you will see some lean years ahead. During the years you have no money to buy stock, the plan will take your dividends and buy more stock with that money.

Coca Cola (KO) DRIP - Dividend Reinvestment Plan Advice

Advice and analysis of Coca Cola (KO) DRIP dividend reinvestment plan and direct investment plan to determine if its a good investment vehicle. | DRIP Plan Highlights Purchases Minimum purchase $50 Maximum purchase $250,000 Fees Account Setup Fee $10 Automatic investment...

www.dripadvice.com

 

[Hobo Hilton]

The pit probably ain’t the place to learn about retirement investing. I’m sure there are some here who have done very well but still. As others have said, extra, tax free money from the boss is always nice.

The Pit is a better place to get financial advice than hiring a Financial Advisor who will lose your money while he still makes his commission.
Open for discussion.

 

[KeithR41]

The Pit is a better place to get financial advice than hiring a Financial Advisor who will lose your money while he still makes his commission.
Open for discussion.

Hire a fiduciary.

 

[bigdaddydmd]

The Pit is a better place to get financial advice than hiring a Financial Advisor who will lose your money while he still makes his commission.
Open for discussion.

Shockingly, this has been very true. Bunch of Boomer Fudds with questionable tastes in hair, shoes, obese women, and pigeons who are actually very world savvy, experienced, and educated in just about every field out there. I suppose feeding our addictions for high end glass, rifles, and precision shooting is a driving factor in learning how to make and manage finances.

 

[Franko]

I am an index investor because it is my belief that Wall Street is too smart, too well financed, and too corrupt for any individual investor to be able to compete with. I would like to suggest that you read the following two books to help you get your journey started.

1. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle
2. A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel

Good luck!

 

[502Chevelle]

1. Stick with the Ramsey plan, no matter what your investment guy tells you! Do the whole thing! You can NOT just do it part way or part of it. Do it ALL! Being debt free is absolutely incredible!
2. The 401k advice is strong. Invest, and max out your employer match at the minimum! Do more if you can. Every time I get a raise I bump up my investment percentage and then you never feel the pain of money coming out of your pocket. Roth is good!
3. manage those credit cards. I use mine to buy gun shit, but I already have the money to pay off whatever I’m buying. Paying interest on credit cards will eat your financial ass!
I will be retiring in about 18 months. We are debt free, have a shit ton of money in our retirement accounts, and will be getting a good retirement from a large company. Not everyone has that and I feel blessed. I do have friends that started the same time I did, never put money back, always drove new premium cars and spent every dime that they made. I’m retiring at 61 and they can’t figure it out. One of my best friends at work asks me every week how I can afford to retire so young when he is basically broke and will have to work a lot longer.

 

[Adam B]

The Stock Market is no place to "play" or you'll get screwed. I'm a big fan of Mutual Funds and I do not buy single stocks, try to "time"/"Play" the market, nor invest in risky stuff. I buy all my stuff at Vanguard - I do not use investment advisors as in the past they have all directed me to doom. Stuff like Vanguard's VTSAX Total Stock Market Fund earned me 25% last year - VWELX is Vanguard’s oldest mutual fund and the nation’s oldest balanced fund. Made me like 19% last year.

My Dad was a self taught investor and did very, very well so I used his direction and ideas in my own investing. The basics are simple according to him - it's not a game. You don't play with the stock market. You buy time tested and solid stuff and you hold it *forever!*. Buy good stuff that is well diversified - only buy funds that pay Dividends. when the shit hits the fan, like it has the whole month of January 2022, BUY MORE. Never sell things. It might take a year or two or 5 to come back. In 2008 my Brother lost half his retirement because he sold when things looked rough and took the loss. My Dad held everything and in 2 years had all of it back and a decent amount of extra.

One more piece of advice - don't take the advice you see on the Internet. Make a Plan and do your own thing. Be Conservative and don't buy risky stuff trying to time or fool the market. There is no way to get rich quick and easy but solid investments held long term will always pay off if you have done your homework.

VooDoo

Exactly, buy VUG and call it a day

 

[Vodoun daVinci]

The Pit is a better place to get financial advice than hiring a Financial Advisor who will lose your money while he still makes his commission.
Open for discussion.

This has been my experience - literally *every* guy who advised me would say over and over "I just do what you tell me" and my response always was "What the fuck am I paying you for if I'm making all the decisions?"
Literally they churned my holdings because every time I bought/sold, even at a loss, *they* got paid. I never started making money until I ignored the professionals and did my own investments. Been making 20%+ for over 10 years and have turned Meh savings in to 1/2 a million $ in 10 years just by being Conservative in my spending, paying off all debt, and saving like a Bandit. When I went on Medicare I took the money I was paying for health insurance and pounded it into the 401K at work. Saved almost $14000 in a year...now paying me over $200 a month. Keeps me in cheap whisky in retirement.

VooDoo

 

[Hobo Hilton]

Hire a fiduciary.

LOL.... Yea, Uh Uh.... No one, and I mean NO ONE..... Places the value on a man's money like the man himself.... Funds I lost on limited partnership oil and gas was with the fiduciary. Callon Petroleum for one.... When a person makes a bad choice in the market, that lesson stays with them for life. I sat with several friends in offices of people like fiduciaries after the Savings and Loan melt downs.
______________________

A fiduciary is a person or organization that acts on behalf of another person or persons, putting their clients' interests ahead of their own, with a duty to preserve good faith and trust. Being a fiduciary thus requires being bound both legally and ethically to act in the other's best interests.

• curator.
• depositary.
• guardian.
• trustee.

 

[Hobo Hilton]

Exactly, buy VUG and call it a day

VUG was a good one..... For me Costco (COST) bought on the dip in 2009 was a good ride.... Knew nothing but buying groceries there and all the employees were hard worker's with a big smile... A good indicator of where to invest...

 

[Bigfatcock]

Buy quality and hold. S&P 500 beats the majority of fund managers year over year.

Dividends

Diversity

Don’t buy shit.

Buy every pay day and DCA.

Markets a little high right now, even after dropping significantly in the last month. We’ve been in a stealth bear market for a couple months now with the indexes carrying the market while individual stocks get beat down.

FAANGT finally coming down.

If you can’t afford full shares, find a reputable broker that allows fractional shares (not Robin Hood).

Never margin until you understand it.

90% of day traders fail.

 

[Hobo Hilton]

Buy quality and hold. S&P 500 beats the majority of fund managers year over year.

Dividends

Diversity

Don’t buy shit.

Buy every pay day and DCA.

Markets a little high right now, even after dropping significantly in the last month. We’ve been in a stealth bear market for a couple months now with the indexes carrying the market while individual stocks get beat down.

FAANGT finally coming down.

If you can’t afford full shares, find a reputable broker that allows fractional shares (not Robin Hood).

Never margin until you understand it.

90% of day traders fail.

I'm with you... What a young / new investor must understand is that stocks in the Dow, SP500, Russell 200, etc are routinely dropped or added to make the index "look good"... Stocks making up the DOW now are a great example... Some stocks that were recently dropped are Walgreens, Exxon-Mobil, Pfizer and Raytheon. When charting the DJIA it looks great because the dogs were dropped and high fliers replaced them. One day, long ago, those dogs were the quality, buy and hold stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was created in 1896 by Charles Dow and originally consisted of 12 companies: American Cotton Oil, American Sugar, American Tobacco, Chicago Gas, Distilling & Cattle Feeding, General Electric, Laclede Gas, National Lead, North American, Tennessee Coal and Iron, U.S. Leather, and U.S. Rubber.

 

[Hobo Hilton]

Bigfatcock​

Buy quality and hold. S&P 500 beats the majority of fund managers year over year.

Dividends

Diversity

Don’t buy shit.

Buy every pay day and DCA.

Markets a little high right now, even after dropping significantly in the last month. We’ve been in a stealth bear market for a couple months now with the indexes carrying the market while individual stocks get beat down.

FAANGT finally coming down.

If you can’t afford full shares, find a reputable broker that allows fractional shares (not Robin Hood).

Never margin until you understand it.

90% of day traders fail.

Bigfatcock Never margin until you understand it.​

Awwww, come on now... In my case that is where I got the majority of my education ..... That message "MARGIN CALL" still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.... LOL

 

[Waorani]

Thirty or so years ago I was in your shoes. I did a lot of reading and came to the conclusion the best place for my $ was in S&P 500. It's simple with mutual funds from places like Vanguard/Fidelity/etc. You'll beat the pros and you won't have to pay them to not beat the market. What ever you do, don't walk into an Edward Jones/similar shop and hand over your future to some clown that was selling used cars just a few weeks ago. Not only will they take some up front, they take all along and when you pull out.

And very important - get out of debt and stay that way. It set's you free and changes how you think about money. Unfortunately it took me a while to appreciate it.

 

[Bigfatcock]

Bigfatcock Never margin until you understand it.​

Awwww, come on now... In my case that is where I got the majority of my education ..... That message "MARGIN CALL" still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.... LOL

Getting margin called is a great teacher, lol. Always have stops in place if on margin.

Can’t ghost that call.

You can get called for going below the maintenance, but still have funds.

You can also blow your account the fuck up and be screwed for the rest of your life.

 

[Bourbon_and_Bullets]

Great advice above.

pay yourself first. pay off debt

Work 401k with match and try to max it out each year. (18-9k iirc)

roth ira or backdoor roth if you make too much.

i put a good bit more each month into a vanguard mutual fund and watch it grow 20%+ YoY.

any and all other money should be used to live your life enjoyably.

 

[Bigfatcock]

Hookers and blow should also be factored into your retirement planning.

 

[Bourbon_and_Bullets]

For those guys who are truly debt free, so you own your homes? If so, how long did it take you to pay off?

wife and I are 30.

we have zero debt apart from the house. We put an extra few hundo on top of the mortgage every month. Could also rent this house out for significantly more than the mortgage too. have thought about buying another and going that route.

 

[Bigfatcock]

For those guys who are truly debt free, so you own your homes? If so, how long did it take you to pay off?

wife and I are 30.

we have zero debt apart from the house. We put an extra few hundo on top of the mortgage every month. Could also rent this house out for significantly more than the mortgage too. have thought about buying another and going that route.

I heart real estate.

Pay your house off as fast as you can. How fast I did it is irrelevant. Just do what makes you comfortable and works for you.

 

[vinniedelpino]

Any decent financial plan is personalized and measurements are made in terms of opportunity cost. A single guy with no kids that plans to retire on a yacht in Ibiza at 50 is going to benefit from a totally different strategy than a family man with four kids looking to build multigenerational wealth, even if they have the same investing budget. Figure out when you want to retire, the income you'll need to support your desired standard of living and your expected life span and work backwards from there to figure out the most efficient way to reach your goals. As your net worth increases, tax and estate planning become increasingly important.

What works well for a random guy on the internet may be a crappy fit for you. Some value liquidity more than others, and for those people traditional retirement plans may be less attractive. If you're in the top tax bracket, anywhere from 40.8% to 54.1% of your investment income could end getting eaten up in taxes. In that case, maybe investments in limited partnership interests in capital intensive businesses or rental real estate are a better option.

So yeah... don't take advice from random dudes on the hide. That's not to say there aren't knowledgeable guys on these forums, because there are. It's just that blanket investment advice is generally worth jack shit as a rule unless we're talking about play money in a brokerage account. If you're taking investment advice from someone, they should be asking YOU a shit ton of questions... not the other way around.

 

[Hobo Hilton]

For those guys who are truly debt free, so you own your homes? If so, how long did it take you to pay off?

wife and I are 30.

we have zero debt apart from the house. We put an extra few hundo on top of the mortgage every month. Could also rent this house out for significantly more than the mortgage too. have thought about buying another and going that route.

That is a great question...

 

[Sean the Nailer]

You opened the door to getting lots of opinions... LOL

I'll keep mine very short:
Buy some Coca Cola (Symbol KO) stock using a DRIP (Dividend ReInvestment Plan). You can buy more stock, without a brokers fee, once you are in the plan. At your age you will see some lean years ahead. During the years you have no money to buy stock, the plan will take your dividends and buy more stock with that money.

Coca Cola (KO) DRIP - Dividend Reinvestment Plan Advice

Advice and analysis of Coca Cola (KO) DRIP dividend reinvestment plan and direct investment plan to determine if its a good investment vehicle. | DRIP Plan Highlights Purchases Minimum purchase $50 Maximum purchase $250,000 Fees Account Setup Fee $10 Automatic investment...

www.dripadvice.com

I gotta ask,,, why is it on that link that each individual stock I click on there, they themselves say it is "Direct Stock Investment Plan offers a poor holding vehicle for your.."

I may be missing something here, and I'm not asking you for specific stock advice.... it's just that this is a new thing to me and the premise of it sounds fantastic. Yet they say 'poor'..... so is it a shell game or.....?

Feel free to hit me with a PM, but believe me when I say, I'm HUGELY interested in this. As-Is My Lady.

 

[Vodoun daVinci]

Live simple. Live small and to the point. Pay yerself first - work and save as much as possible. Do you need expensive cars and $20K vacations? Make sure your income/resources cover that with saving like a bandit. My whole deal is I live in an 800 foot square house and drive little cars that are cheap. I don't go to the movies once a month, I don't pay for fancy Cable options - we don't eat out. We don't buy fancy expensive stuff because that stuff never made us happy. I do have some nice guns. We do eat well and it's all cooked at home. We do dress well and wear good shoes. We do not buy shit that makes us compete. We buy stuff we need. We have a budget and never deviate from it. We have never missed nor made a late house/car payment and both of out credit ratings are >800.

My advice is to live simply and well. Buy good tools and good food and live simply without fancy expensive bullshit. Bank the difference/savings and invest it conservatively for the duration. Unless yer made of money and then go for it - Me/us? We worked multiple jobs and saved/invested like bandits and now we are old and comfy and secure in out paid for house and big ass investment/savings. We worked hard for it. I'm a happy retired camper.

VooDoo

 

[Bourbon_and_Bullets]

Live simple. Live small and to the point. Pay yerself first - work and save as much as possible. Do you need expensive cars and $20K vacations? Make sure your income/resources cover that with saving like a bandit. My whole deal is I live in an 800 foot square house and drive little cars that are cheap. I don't go to the movies once a month, I don't pay for fancy Cable options - we don't eat out. We don't buy fancy expensive stuff because that stuff never made us happy. I do have some nice guns. We do eat well and it's all cooked at home. We do dress well and wear good shoes. We do not buy shit that makes us compete. We buy stuff we need. We have a budget and never deviate from it. We have never missed nor made a late house/car payment and both of out credit ratings are >800.

My advice is to live simply and well. Buy good tools and good food and live simply without fancy expensive bullshit. Bank the difference/savings and invest it conservatively for the duration. Unless yer made of money and then go for it - Me/us? We worked multiple jobs and saved/invested like bandits and now we are old and comfy and secure in out paid for house and big ass investment/savings. We worked hard for it. I'm a happy retired camper.

VooDoo

This is the way.
everything else is a cherry on top.

most millionaire’s don’t look like they do on TV.

 

[bornhunter04]

Do the entire ramsey plan and get to baby step 4 asap. Don't do it, ish. I picked up his newest book. The data in the back is interesting, but the real moral is invest at the proper amount and don't stop, month over month, year over year. Working on my plan to retire at 55 and have land/custom house 100% paid for 12 years from now.

 

[458win]

For those guys who are truly debt free, so you own your homes? If so, how long did it take you to pay off?

wife and I are 30.

we have zero debt apart from the house. We put an extra few hundo on top of the mortgage every month. Could also rent this house out for significantly more than the mortgage too. have thought about buying another and going that route.

Paid cash for mine at 34. Debt free has been quite nice. Still surprising though how much it still cost to just live. Finally bought a new truck this year but payment is insignificant.
With a house just wait and find the right deal. Rent until then… it’s a lot cheaper.

 

[sled_mack]

For those guys who are truly debt free, so you own your homes? If so, how long did it take you to pay off?

wife and I are 30.

we have zero debt apart from the house. We put an extra few hundo on top of the mortgage every month. Could also rent this house out for significantly more than the mortgage too. have thought about buying another and going that route.

Look at the amortization table for your loan. A lot of people think they can beat that with investments. I’m not in that camp, but interest rates are low right now. Do the math.

Also remember that if your taxes and insurance are escrowed in your payment, that’s probably half of your monthly bill. That part doesn’t go away after the mortgage is paid off.

The taxes and insurance should be motivation to only buy as much house as you need. The upkeep costs could kill your retirement plans if you have too much house.

 

[Bourbon_and_Bullets]

Look at the amortization table for your loan. A lot of people think they can beat that with investments. I’m not in that camp, but interest rates are low right now. Do the math.

Also remember that if your taxes and insurance are escrowed in your payment, that’s probably half of your monthly bill. That part doesn’t go away after the mortgage is paid off.

The taxes and insurance should be motivation to only buy as much house as you need. The upkeep costs could kill your retirement plans if you have too much house.

Yea, i tend to agree on all points.
Got a solid rate last year fortunately. Sub 3%

I’ve also heard being a landlord isn’t all it‘s cracked up to be. But real estate is a tempting wealth tool. Like i mentioned, our current house could be rented at like 2.3-2.5k / month. Mortgage is half that.

 

[sled_mack]

Look into Roth IRA early. Depending where you expect your income to be during retirement, it could be a huge advantage.

Again, you need to run the numbers. If regular 401k/ira keeps you from jumping a tax bracket now then you have to compare the difference to having tax free income later. And the best answer might be a split between each of those.

 

[TheBigCountry]

Thanks for all the replies so far everyone.

I think the biggest thing to start the plan is getting out of debt. The debt snowball by Ramsey seems to be the first big step, and looking into the 401K as well.

 

[n2ishun]

I'll try to fill in the other angles no one has hit yet

Do not invest into stocks anything you cannot afford to lose.....and I mean it could just vanish overnight, be fully prepared for that.
The stock market is buggy as hell right now, that can work for you, or it can work against you.
Diversify, don't put all your eggs in one basket, it's a very old cliche but it needs repeated over and over.
Use credit cards as little as possible. Why would anyone want to spend money in order to spend your own money ?
It's perfectly fine to have 1 or 2....no more than that, and use them as little as you can.

Try to spot the new shit that is going to explode, like Tesla. (example only)
Drop in a small amount say no more than 5k and then pull it as soon as it looks to be plateauing.
Put it into something else, and so on.
Yes you will get stung here or there but you are essentially gambling, keep that in mind.

Tired of typing....someone else keep er going ?

 

[bornhunter04]

Thanks for all the replies so far everyone.

I think the biggest thing to start the plan is getting out of debt. The debt snowball by Ramsey seems to be the first big step, and looking into the 401K as well.

Tried ish for a couple years. Didn't work. Got laid off last year but lucked into a better job and more money. Running the plan as described. The freedom and security from following the plan is great. I paused investing to stockpile cash when the twins were born and to finish the debt snowball. Without the burden of payments I can invest at a much, much higher rate.

 

[NotByWorks]

I highly recommend the logic and approach from Jack Bogle, founder of Vanguard.

Open and account with Fidelity (my choice) or Vanguard and invest in market index funds. Individual stocks are too risky.

Best advice on the web and you don't pay an advisor 1/2 - 1% of your funds. I had an advisor but fired him after finding the Bogleheads website.

Do yourself a favor and check it out.

Bogleheads.org - Index page

 

[UNRL Ghandi]

I hear people say to diversify but when they do it they only diversify in one asset class. Me, I'm in precious metals, crypto, 401k, and real estate.

I'm a big fan of no debt but when it's at near 0% interest, I don't necessarily see the benefit of paying it off early.

 

[sled_mack]

Flip side of saving is earning. Don’t get stuck in a job where your earnings aren’t growing. Especially in this job market. Stretch a little bit. Take a job that you are qualified for but might be a little uncomfortable to start. After a few weeks or months, it won’t feel uncomfortable.

I’m not saying take a job you’ll hate just for more money. Plenty of guys on here can tell you about working a miserable job. But it’s ok to step outside your comfort zone to do something you are qualified to do and you think you will like.

I’ve made the jump 3 times. I was lucky and enjoyed each new job. Each one with a significant salary increase. My wife is afraid to make that jump. She’s barely keeping up with inflation with her salary increases.

Just food for thought.

 

[NoDopes]

Rabbit hole is deep here, but may have useful info for some.

What Everybody Is Getting Wrong About FIRE

In case you hadn’t already noticed it in the news, it seems we are hitting a turning point in how the rest of the world perceives this lifestyle that you and I have been enjoying. First, we …

www.mrmoneymustache.com

 

[GoatLD259]

Lots of good stuff said here. But to add my own 2 cents, do this.
1. If your company has a 401k match, or no match, still take advantage of it. Look into a Total stock market index or S&P 500 index.
2. Roth IRA. Check out Vanguard as they have very cheap fees on their mutual funds.
- In the words of Jack Bogle, don't buy the needle, buy the haystack (Total stock market index, S&P 500 index)
3. As for your debt, follow the Ramsey plan, pay it off.

Goat

 

[gamboolman]

TheBigCountry,

Well done for thinking about this at your age and stage.

Please see link to another post that would be a good one for you to read. I detailed out what/how my wife and I saved and built up our portfolio.

Investments, where to put your money.

Curious for some of you who have made good investments and are smarter when it comes to this stuff. If someone had enough capital they felt okay with parting with it a bit to invest, what would yall recommend. While ill accept answers like more food water ect ect im more talking about more...

www.snipershide.com

All the best in your endeavors !

 

[RGStory]

Oil and Gas

 

[XikoPlavi]

Hope you never get divorced. Make sure you have a good skill where you will keep a job for life. Hope the libtards don’t ever succeed in taxing you 50% or more.

And yes if you can I’d get another property and house and rent the other

Enjoy life while your young. All this don’t really matter in the end.

Always remember it can all be taken from you and nothing is really yours.

 

[Hobo Hilton]

Oil and Gas

LOL.... I am laughing with you, not at you.... Even the peripheral industrial's, housing for the oil patch worker's, transportation (hot oil vacuum trucks), pipe / valves / fittings, chemicals and labor..... Similar to being in a sinking life boat. That simple minded guy with the bailing bucket is worth his weight in gold, priceless....

The only thing standing in the way is the politicians and this administration. The resources are at hand.

 

[earthquake]

Here's my first go at stocks.

LGB!