All things STOCKS

#2,026
#2,026
BigOrangeMojo said:
A lot of answers depend on marital status, # of kids, type and amount of debt. Before you get crazy investing, do the following 4 things. This is my thoughts without knowing any specifics (Me and wife are both 40 so not much older than you)

1. Save up a bit of cash for an emergency. Amount depends on your risk tolerance/,occupation, etc.
2. Contribute to 401k at your employer up to the Company match. I'd lean towards an index fund (Vanguard or Fidelity is good). Beware, there's a lot of bad funds in 401ks so a Target Date fund there might be crap. Dont give up the free money with Company match. Morningstar is a decent site to analyze mutual funds within a 401k.
3. Knock out your non-mortgage debt. This may involve extra shifts, side hustle, selling stuff, detailed budget. This part will be painful.
4. If married/kids, make sure you have enough life insurance (term life) in case you die.

Once you have done those 4 things, I'd open up a Roth IRA. You (and spouse, if applicable) can each contribute 6,000 per year. That's $500 a month. Just have it taken out each month. Fidelity, Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, and Schwab all have low cost index or target date funds. If you cant do $500, you can do smaller amounts. All 4 are really good.
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This is solid advice. Would recommend saving 6 months of your salary after paying off consumer debt before maxing our your retirement contributions.
 
#2,027
#2,027
BigOrangeMojo said:
A lot of answers depend on marital status, # of kids, type and amount of debt. Before you get crazy investing, do the following 4 things. This is my thoughts without knowing any specifics (Me and wife are both 40 so not much older than you)

1. Save up a bit of cash for an emergency. Amount depends on your risk tolerance/,occupation, etc.
2. Contribute to 401k at your employer up to the Company match. I'd lean towards an index fund (Vanguard or Fidelity is good). Beware, there's a lot of bad funds in 401ks so a Target Date fund there might be crap. Dont give up the free money with Company match. Morningstar is a decent site to analyze mutual funds within a 401k.
3. Knock out your non-mortgage debt. This may involve extra shifts, side hustle, selling stuff, detailed budget. This part will be painful.
4. If married/kids, make sure you have enough life insurance (term life) in case you die.

Once you have done those 4 things, I'd open up a Roth IRA. You (and spouse, if applicable) can each contribute 6,000 per year. That's $500 a month. Just have it taken out each month. Fidelity, Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, and Schwab all have low cost index or target date funds. If you cant do $500, you can do smaller amounts. All 4 are really good.
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If there are children and. College is in the future a 529 plan.
If high deductible health insurance a HSA.
But BIG ORANGE Mojo advice is excellent .

2050 is a good plan date (you'll be 67)if you dont understand investing, diversification, etc.
 
#2,032
#2,032
Willy P said:
Yeah I bailed after it stalled at .26. Took my 2 pennies and went home.
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Looks like they are going to the Eddie Lampert Sears playbook and try to sale anything of value to stave off BK.

It may buy them a few weeks or months but in the end, they are putting a Ch 7 liquidation in play instead of a reorg...
 
#2,033
#2,033
BigOrangeMojo said:
Looks like they are going to the Eddie Lampert Sears playbook and try to sale anything of value to stave off BK.

It may buy them a few weeks or months but in the end, they are putting a Ch 7 liquidation in play instead of a reorg...
Click to expand...
You want to know what scared me off from JCP? When I google searched the newish CEO, Jill something, almost everything she’s ever touched went BK. JCP may be good for quick 10% flips, but that is absolutely it.
 
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#2,034
#2,034
Tried to buy yesterday but the dang market closed for CCL, so I got in at 12.65....well I don't need that for a bit
 
#2,037
#2,037
Yea 12’s are fine for CCL. Im holding 1500 at 12.40. Worst case, you’ll lose half. Best case, you’ll make 5x.
 
#2,038
#2,038
Go aeiou said:
If you don't like that price why buy.?
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I didn't hate the price, I just missed the opening jump. If you do a 5 year analysis of CCL, the average price is somewhere around 46-48. If we are looking at a new ceiling of 24; I would still make double the money but as a greedy American like every other investor, you always want to make the most money.
 
#2,040
#2,040
I bet this is a frequently asked question.. For a first time investor, what would be a good place I can use to invest? I see these apps like acorn, stash etc.. I appreciate your advice!
 
#2,041
#2,041
FïreBall said:
I bet this is a frequently asked question.. For a first time investor, what would be a good place I can use to invest? I see these apps like acorn, stash etc.. I appreciate your advice!
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Get a Schwab account (Free, zero minimum, great app, great research and education for new investors), invest in index funds regularly. Swppx, swtsx, to name a few low cost great options.

Watch out for fees (Expense ratios), don’t get sucked into day trading (easy come, easy go), don’t try and buy individual stocks starting out as the average investor starting out won’t have enough cash to invest to be well diversified.

#1 wealth building tool is your income. Make regular contributions and stay with it for the long haul and you’ll do well.

Investopedia is a wealth of knowledge. If you do open a Schwab account let me know and I can give you a referral code and it may give you a small amount of cash starting out depending on how much you invest starting out.
 
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#2,042
#2,042
RollinVol said:
Ok. Maybe this is the right thread to get some help. I am 37. the only "retirement" I have is social security. I am looking into getting into a target date fund for retirement. so like a 2050 target date fund. I clear about 50k a year. Thoughts on how much I should invest or who I should go with. I will be debt free in 4 years, so I have some debt.
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I am not a financial analyst but my recommendations would be. 1. Look at what Vanguard offers in regards to target date retirement funds; their expense ratios tend to be very low. I’d look at a fund that starts very heavily weighted for stocks for the first 5 years at least. Now is a good time to dollar cost average into stocks. 2. I’d target putting in 6k per year to start. That’s 12% of what you clear. Try and increase that as quickly as possible. 3. Reassess your situation in 5 years when you are debt free to see where you are and what you should change. Good luck.
 
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#2,044
#2,044
FïreBall said:
I bet this is a frequently asked question.. For a first time investor, what would be a good place I can use to invest? I see these apps like acorn, stash etc.. I appreciate your advice!
Click to expand...

Before you invest, make sure you have a solid financial foundation (small emergency fund, no/little non-mortgage debt, life insurance, etc). Without a solid foundation, there's no need to start heavy investing.

Here is the order I suggest investing (this is fact dependent but can be used as general guide). If not applicable, skip to next step

1. 401k up to Company match. Roth 401k > Traditional 401k. I tend to stay index funds here unless 401k has good funds. Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard are all good. Use morningstar as guide on the choices in your 401k.

2. If you have HSA at your work and you are relatively healthy, I'd invest here. Much like 401k, watch your fund choices since there can be crap in here. If you can handle it, try to pay any medical expenses out of pocket so these funds can grow tax free.

3. Roth IRA next. Watch income limits. I tend to go more actively managed there. T Rowe Price and Schwab have lots of good no load, low fee actively managed funds. Morningstar is good guide here as well.

4. The next is personal choice. I think you can do any of the following. Here is how I chose to order mine but your ordering may be different. If you are to this stage, you can do more than 1 at a time since you've shown the discipline to get here.

Fully funded emergency fund based on your risk tolerance (Mine is annual out of pocket medical plus 3 months of bare bone expenses)
529 Plan for kids
Employee stock purchase
Pay off mortgage
Max out 401k
Invest in non retirement mutual funds or individual equities.
 
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#2,045
#2,045
Thank you all! Great information. I'm finally financially able to do some small investments. I am honestly scared off doing so because of my lack of knowledge. I started reading the later part of this thread and trying to learn from your conversations. Thank you all for the advice!
 
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#2,046
#2,046
FïreBall said:
Thank you all! Great information. I'm finally financially able to do some small investments. I am honestly scared off doing so because of my lack of knowledge. I started reading the later part of this thread and trying to learn from your conversations. Thank you all for the advice!
Click to expand...
I took the non traditional path haha...I took a $20k advance on one of my credit cards at 0% for 12 months. Turned $20k into $40k in 6 months, then paid off the loan. Now, my $20k is house money. Over the last year, I’ve grown that to almost $40k. The more impressive part that I’ve skipped over is that initially my $20k balance dropped to as low as $11k and I rebounded and saved the account. I played reckless at first, but pulled back, came up with a strategy, and fought my way back to green. Patience really is key. I’m hoping now that I can turn my $20k CCL investment into $40k by years end.
 
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#2,047
#2,047
VolAllen said:
You want to know what scared me off from JCP? When I google searched the newish CEO, Jill something, almost everything she’s ever touched went BK. JCP may be good for quick 10% flips, but that is absolutely it.
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She's an awful CEO but she's in a long line of them they've had. I made my single largest individual stock purchase ever during this downturn (200 shares of HD at $145ish and another 50 at $152Ish). One of the reasons I bought HD is the Lowes CEO is the same guy who helped run JCP into the ground.
 
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#2,048
#2,048
I think that Dentsply will pop soon. I scanned through a lot of health care names and many are near their all time highs. XRAY has lagged which I believe is because dental procedures are still considered non-essential. Once restrictions are lifted it should catch up to the other healthcare equities assuming there's not another underlying issue. 50% return to get back to the pre-crash levels.
 
#2,049
#2,049
Another possible short to medium term trade is DPST. They're having a 1:10 reverse split next week. It's off 90%. Triple leveraged regional bank fund.
 
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