Clueless and Need Help with Investments...

Have a question about your personal investments? No matter how simple or complex, you can ask it here.
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Topic Author
TroutMD
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Dec 25, 2012 9:58 am

Clueless and Need Help with Investments...

Post by TroutMD »

I will get our information together better and repost!
Last edited by TroutMD on Sat Feb 02, 2013 9:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Default User BR
Posts: 7502
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 6:32 pm

Re: Clueless and Need Help with Investments...

Post by Default User BR »

At your age and income, you need try to achieve the following goals.

1. Keep other people's hands out of your pockets. Many will be wanting to help you by moving some of your money to their accounts. Do not engage any sort of money manager except (possibly) a fee-only manager. I would advise against even that, as it's really not that hard to do it yourself.

2. You didn't list your tax rates, but undoubtedly high. You're doing a good job of tax-deferral, so keep that up.

3. Costs matter. Vanguard funds are inexpensive. There are others from other providers that are good too, but Vanguard is often the best place to begin.

4. You need to develop a plan. This should be one that incorporates asset allocation, tax-planning, and investing. See these links:

Investment Planning
Asking Portfolio Questions

Rework your information in light of those.


Brian
livesoft
Posts: 86075
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:00 pm

Re: Clueless and Need Help with Investments...

Post by livesoft »

Here are some things to think about:

1. WellsFargo is a great place to have your investments as long as you DO NOT use their Private Bankers or advisors. Perhaps unbeknownst to you, WF has a PMA package with an associated WellsTrade discount do-it-yourself brokerage firm that gives one 100 free trades for every account per year. Yep, 100 free trades in joint account, his IRA, her IRA, his Roth IRA, her Roth IRA. The local folks in your local WF bank will not want you to know about this because you are a whale and they would lose money they could make off of you. Check it out online.

2. You gotta read some books. I suggest you read books by William Bernstein such as "The Four Pillars of Investing" or at least "The Investor's Manifesto". There is a reading list around here, too.

3. Select an asset allocation. I'm happy to give you one: 72% equities, 28% bonds. Equities divided up 4 ways evenly (18% each) into Total Stock Market Index, Total Int' Stock Market Index, Small-cap Value Index, and FTSE all-world ex-US small-cap index. You can get this at WellsFargo (use Vanguard funds at WellsFargo), at Vanguard (use Vanguard funds at Vanguard), or at Fidelity (use Fidelity Spartan funds at Fidelity). Homework for you: Why did I suggest this asset allocation to you?

4. Do not do investing at USAA. Do not use WF funds at WellsFargo, use Vanguard funds at WellsFargo (see forum posts on this).

That's probably enough work to get you going. After you read some books, then come back for more clarity. Good luck!
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