Investment discussion

Discussion, in general

Re: Investment discussion

Postby JamishT » Sat May 29, 2021 2:45 pm

I finally sold one of my stocks, because over the year and half-ish that I've had it it never took off like the others, but I still gained 8% (on a $15 investment) from Juniper Networks. I then took that $16, added a few bucks, and got a single stock in JetBlue because I know people are gonna be flying a lot now.
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Re: Investment discussion

Postby jbobsully11 » Wed Jun 23, 2021 2:54 am

I'm eligible for my company's 401(k) plan. There's no match, but I'm figuring out how much (if anything) I can afford to put in each week anyway (maybe 1% atm, but if/when federal student loans come due again, that could complicate things...).

On a non-investment personal finance note, I'm now attacking my car loan instead of the student loans because when I pay that off, it will free up ~$200/month (actually more if I cancel collision insurance, which they want me to have until the loan is paid off). It should take around two years, but then I'll save more money each month than if I were to pay off the student loan with the lowest balance (~$285/mo with insurance vs. ~$43), and I'll actually own my car, which would be nice. (It would take even longer to pay off any of my other student loans, so that also makes no sense.)
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Crimson847 wrote:In other words, transgender-friendly privacy laws don't molest people, people molest people.

(Presumably, the only way to stop a bad guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law is a good guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law, and thus transgender-friendly privacy law rights need to be enshrined in the Constitution as well)
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Re: Investment discussion

Postby cmsellers » Sun Jun 27, 2021 3:35 am

Paying off your car loan means you don't have to carry comprehensive and collision coverage. OTOH, I was able to get a car loan for literally .25% more than my mortgage. If rates are like that when I stop sinking money into my lemon of a Prius, I would feel stupid not to take as long a loan as possible.
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Re: Investment discussion

Postby jbobsully11 » Sun Jun 27, 2021 3:33 pm

I was going to ask how high your mortgage rate is if that's the case, but then I realized that my car loan has simple interest (I refinanced to 7.19% last August, with a credit score in the low 700s), so it's not really comparable.

My work recently gave me a thing about retirement planning through Fidelity, so I created an account a little while ago. It's entirely possible that it's right in front of me and I don't see it, but I don't think there's any actual account I can contribute to, just information about how screwed I'll be when I get old planning for future goals.
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Crimson847 wrote:In other words, transgender-friendly privacy laws don't molest people, people molest people.

(Presumably, the only way to stop a bad guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law is a good guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law, and thus transgender-friendly privacy law rights need to be enshrined in the Constitution as well)
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Re: Investment discussion

Postby cmsellers » Sun Jun 27, 2021 11:34 pm

No. To clarify; I got a very good mortgage rate for the US, anyways. Suppose it doesn't hurt to say that it's around 3%.

On Fidelity, if you've set up your main account properly (can take up to two weeks, mine took three business days), you should see something like this:

Screen Shot 2021-06-27 at 5.07.51 PM.png
Mine also shows the BrokerageLink account I've been talking about. If your employer doesn't match your contributions, you probably don't get a BrokerageLink account for free.
Screen Shot 2021-06-27 at 5.07.51 PM.png (56.18 KiB) Viewed 3076 times


If you click on the ESIP link or your equivalent, and your account is properly set up, you should see a page with something like this (I didn't want to block out all my personal information on this account, so I just screenshot the relevant part. You'll want to click "contributions" to select your contributions, and then "investments to choose how to invest those contributions. If your contributions distinguish between "before tax basic" and "before tax supplemental," (also the same options "after tax" and "Roth") then the cap on "before tax basic" is the amount of your employer match.

Screen Shot 2021-06-27 at 5.11.43 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-06-27 at 5.11.43 PM.png (47.79 KiB) Viewed 3076 times


Two things to keep in mind before investing in an employer 401k:

1. Generally, the rule of thumb for investing is always take the match if there is one, then max out your IRA(s), especially if it's a Roth IRA, and then decide if you want to put anything else in your 401k based on a number of factors. Always IRA gives your more flexibility and if your employer doesn't offer Roth contributions, also gives you that option.

2. Once you've maxed out your employer match (which could, indeed, be nothing) and your IRA, you generally want to look at two things: A. does your employer offer Roth contributions and can you afford it? and B. does your employer plan have decent investment options? If the answer to either point is yes, then it's usually worth trying to max out. But many employers offer only high-fee mutual funds (not all mutual funds are high fee, but it's common in 401ks), and/or high fees for maintaining your 401k.
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Re: Investment discussion

Postby jbobsully11 » Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:17 am

Hmm... here's a screenshot of (most of) the main page that I get, with the menu open so you can see what my options are:
Spoiler: show
Fidelity screenshot.png
Fidelity screenshot.png (135.43 KiB) Viewed 3061 times

The "investment strategy" doesn't include an account, it just gives you an idea of what your retirement situation should be and how screwed you are (fairly, in my case, as shown by the score of 56).
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Crimson847 wrote:In other words, transgender-friendly privacy laws don't molest people, people molest people.

(Presumably, the only way to stop a bad guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law is a good guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law, and thus transgender-friendly privacy law rights need to be enshrined in the Constitution as well)
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Re: Investment discussion

Postby cmsellers » Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:47 am

Weird, that looks totally different. I can see where your accounts should be though, because your HSA is there. Have you tried contacting customer support?

My landing page keeps telling me I'm not saving nearly enough by the time I'm 35, but considering I started when I was almost 32 and they don't know about my IRA, I'd say I'm doing ... at least not terribly.
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Re: Investment discussion

Postby jbobsully11 » Tue Jun 29, 2021 10:54 pm

cmsellers wrote:Weird, that looks totally different. I can see where your accounts should be though, because your HSA is there.

About that... I specifically didn't sign up for an HSA when it came time to pick an insurance policy. I have no idea why they think I have one (I was going to log in and see what it said just now, but it doesn't show up at all on my phone). But yeah, I guess I'll have to call and ask someone about this.
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Crimson847 wrote:In other words, transgender-friendly privacy laws don't molest people, people molest people.

(Presumably, the only way to stop a bad guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law is a good guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law, and thus transgender-friendly privacy law rights need to be enshrined in the Constitution as well)
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Re: Investment discussion

Postby jbobsully11 » Sat Jun 18, 2022 5:24 am

I recently got another e-mail from my work saying I was eligible to enroll in a 401(k) (which I thought the last one said, but whatever). I actually was able to enroll in it this time, though. I'm going to put 5% away for now, in one of their target-date funds. There's no match, but I'm just happy it works now.

EDIT: Apparently they're matching 60% of my contribution, which is nice. I'll see how much I have in the bank after this month, but I may have to work some OT in months when I get four paychecks.
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Crimson847 wrote:In other words, transgender-friendly privacy laws don't molest people, people molest people.

(Presumably, the only way to stop a bad guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law is a good guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law, and thus transgender-friendly privacy law rights need to be enshrined in the Constitution as well)
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Re: Investment discussion

Postby jbobsully11 » Tue Oct 31, 2023 6:36 am

I mentioned over in Looking on the Brighter Side that I got laid off last month. I finally started to roll my 401(k) over to my main bank last week. I had been putting it off because I wasn't sure how convoluted the process would be, but it was surprisingly straightforward; I had to call Fidelity on the phone, but the whole call took <10 minutes. I also had to open a new IRA account first because my other one is a Roth, but whatever. I should get the money by this coming Friday.

So I'll have >$4300 more to gamble with invest responsibly. On a serious note, I've been looking into target-date funds for the year 2060 (when I'll turn 70 years old), and TIAA-CREF and State Street seem to be doing well (symbols TVIHX and SSDYX, respectively). Does anyone have any other recommendations?

EDIT: I deposited the check in my IRA a little while ago. I figured I'd better go in person just in case something went wrong, but aside from the banker not knowing what she was doing and needing someone else to help, the whole thing was suspiciously straightforward. When I tried to invest the money just now, the two funds I mentioned aren't available for most people (just me?) to put my money into for whatever reason. I ended up going with a Vanguard fund.
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Crimson847 wrote:In other words, transgender-friendly privacy laws don't molest people, people molest people.

(Presumably, the only way to stop a bad guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law is a good guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law, and thus transgender-friendly privacy law rights need to be enshrined in the Constitution as well)
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