We have acquired a large sum from the sale of a home and want to invest it responsibly.  Our long term return expectation is a mere 6.8%/yr, selected by looking at the worst  of the SP500 and figuring that we can't do much worse than that.  Sure, we will likely get closer to 9% but, for the purposes of retirement planning, we use 6.8%.  And yes, we'll diversify into other stuff like REITs and Beanie Babies and NASCAR collector plates.  So, with the conservative return expectation in mind, does it make sense to push all the chips in now and just let it ride in ETrade or phase it in over a year or three?  Once it is in, it's in.  Maybe we will rebalance it from time to time but we won't take distributions.  We currently max a Roth 401(k) with a 5% match, max a non-matching Roth 457(b), and are subject to a non-trivial mandatory pension contribution that may or may not exist in when we retire in 25yrs.  We don't factor in social security at all.  We have also concluded that we have zero interest in managing a rental property.
120927
I just cleared about $65k from my bonus.  I don't want this sitting in cash, but at the same time prefer to move into stocks/bonds over time (e.g. I don't want to invest all $65k at one price, and risk doing it when the market is at a short-term high.  I'd rather spread the risk out over time - i.e. typical reasons for dollar cost averaging).  I already invest $120/day in an S&amp;P 500 fund, and $150/week in an emerging markets fund (this is factored out of my normal take home pay).  If it's relevant, I have a net worth of about $725k so the bonus amount is considerable.  How long is reasonable to spread out the investment of the $65k bonus?  And is there any intermediate place I should put the money rather than a savings account?  Some additional information:   Yes, I expect yearly bonuses like this for the foreseeable future (as long as I stay at my current job).  I'd roughly expect the bonus amount to increase at a rate of 10-15% per year.  I'm currently 33.  So retirement is a ways off, obviously.
63259
Many investment gurus state that majority of investors fail and then offer a proven "[insert fancy name] investment strategy" that will make you successful. The number usually starts at 90% and often goes up to 99%.   Intuitively, the number makes sense to me. After all this is a zero sum game. Taking into account all different kinds of middle-men the game is actually a negative sum game.   Are there any scientific reports supporting these claims? All I found was a bunch of anecdotes.  Edit: several people noted that losing/failing is a relative term. I agree. What would be interesting is to find research that resulted in a sample of distribution of returns relative to some general market index.
3971
Assuming I'm paying long term capital gains tax, what is the break even point where it is more worthwhile to switch from one fund to another?  For (a hypothetical) example, if I have a fund with an expected return of 3.5%, what would be the minimum expected return of another fund to make it worthwhile to pay the capital gains tax and switch to the other fund?  (I'm assuming the answer to this question is an equation involving investment horizon, capital gains tax rate, and my current taxable gains)
121176
My federal return was $2,800 and state was $170 last year and $4,800 and $1,200 this year which seems like I made a mistake somewhere to be that high.  Nothing else significant changed between last year and this year besides buying a house in California. With form 1098 listing $4,670 for box 1 (mortgage interest) and $4,690 for box 6 (points paid on purchase of principle residence) as well as $3,500 on property tax.  Just wanted to double check that this type of increase on tax return is normal for owning a house? I don't want to make a mistake during filing.
108750
I am of an opinion that I should decide where my money should get invested and if it should get invested at all or not.   When I looked at the investment options I have with my 401k money, I figured out that there are many Mutual Funds that I can choose from. But I couldn't find a "Pure Cash - No investment option" - what I mean by this is an option where my money is kept idle without investing in any kind of financial instrument (stocks, bonds, other MFs, currencies, forex etc etc whatever).   I wanted such kinda option because things may turn bad and I may want nothing invested in the stock markets/bond markets. I was thinking that if the market turns bearish then I would move everything to cash, but the cash option that is provided is not pure cash, it's again a fund basically which they call it as SF guaranteed. I dived in and investigated where this fund invests. Its portfolio consists of public bonds and mortgage loans and many other things. It means my money isn't getting invested as I want. There is no zero risk option! They have clearly mentioned that it has investment risk and it's not backed by any Federal fund. It's backed by the assets of the company that manages my 401k investments, duh! It's a private company. And who cares about that. I don't want any backing, I just want to keep my money in pure cash. Shouldn't I have an option to put my money into pure cash?   And if they aren't providing my an option why aren't they? What's their motive behind this?   What to do in such a scenario? My only point is I should decide where my hard earned money is invested. By giving all the options which in the end are investing in stocks/bonds/mortgage securities etc they are essentially telling me that all my 401k investment is subject to market risks! That's bad. There is no safe parking zone for turbulent times!  Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated.
96770
I purchased a home and I made an agreement with a guy who is living in that home and paying me monthly rent. Since I live with my brother I don't have to live in my purchased home.  The rent I'm getting is only 10% of total cost of home while stock fund industry (mutual fund) is paying 20% minimum i.e. I'm getting 10% loss every year and that is a big amount.  I'm not really sure if my home also increase it's value by 10% every year. But I don't think it will be.  Now I'm thinking of selling that home and investing all of my money in a growth mutual fund. Any advice?
62723
Suppose I have 50,000 in a tracker.  Because it's an aggregate of the share index, it can obviously go up or down but what it certainly does is fluctuate up or down.   What is the problem, if any, of selling when it goes up 2% and then buying back in when it goes down 2%? Every time you clear 1000 allows you to then buy more shares. Surely you could do this many times a year? Barring crashes in the market, which means you hold for recovery, I can't see a downside myself. Any older, wiser heads out there?
29706
Suppose you buy stocks from company FOOBAR at price X. After a while, the price is Y = X * 1.25, so you decide you want to collect that 25% profit. You sell the stocks, cashing out your original X plus a 25% profit. Yay! You made money. But haven't you also put yourself out of the trading business by not having stocks anymore? If you just want to take profit but also continue investing, you collect the 25% and you are back to having just X to invest. Now stocks from FOOBAR are too expensive for you (current value is Y). What do you do? Do you select another cheaper (pontentially worse) stock just to be able to buy it? You wait until FOOBAR price is X again? (losing time and also maybe the stock is not as attractive now?). Does this mean stocks are mainly for the long-term-collect-once type of investment? How do short/middle term traders make money, without falling in a diminishing returns type of situation? Thanks!
78596
I recently read through Graham's The Intelligent Investor and am looking at what index ETFs or Index Mutual Funds it makes sense for me to invest in.  As I was considering this I realized that, at least as I understand ETFs, some of the principles from value-based investing still may need to be considered.  As such I am wondering how to determine whether an ETF is trading at a good value?  As I understand it, when I contribute to a open-end mutual fund, I buy at a rate determined by the current value of the holdings of the fund, and more shares in the fund are simply created if needed, so it should accurately reflect the underlying value of the assets.  ETFs are traded like stocks and have a more fixed share count.  Thus, I imagine their price has potential to diverge from the underling value of the stock assets indexed.  The fourth point on  seems to corroborate my suspicion.  This would seem to make ETFs more risky than index funds?  Assuming the above is all correct, how do I assess whether an ETF is undervalued or overvalued?  NOTE: I do not know whether this question needs to be specific to index ETFs or whether the same advice is good for all ETFs.
77545
Being old I have/had much of my 401 K in REITS for income. I specifically avoided mall and retail.  Most imply that they are mostly residential mortgages. All are down substantially more than market averages. I am hoping they can still pay some, if not all, dividends as an offset to the capital losses. What may happen?
65811
I'm a young person with some money to start investing. I do believe in the superiority of low cost index fund over actively managed fund. But I still freeze up a bit about the timing of when to start my first buy in.  Sure, I understand that there's no way to time the market. But even if I only buy-and-hold instead of day trading, wouldn't the timing of my first investment still matter greatly? For example, a person who started to invest during the 2007 bubble only regained his net worth 6 years later in 2013.  Is this the case of something that does matter but I have no control over so I should not worry about? Or does the timing NOT matter since I'm supposed to invest part of my paycheck every month no matter the economic condition?
25862
Although it is company-specific, what are your experiences when contributing to ESPP (Employee Stock Program)?   More specifically, do you recommend contributing to ESPP in max? Or maybe it is only worth during certain times throughout the year? (stock prices are usually higher during Spring/Summer times!)  I work in a big cable company in the US. Kind of stable company. My company rules:  10% of salary with 15% discount, happening quarterly, vesting after a year from purchase
96762
I sold an investment in a standard brokerage account at a small loss because I needed the money for a down payment.  I still think it is a good investment, can I buy the same investment in a standard IRA without running into wash sale problems?  I will probably just wait the 30 days any way to avoid any headaches, but I want to know if there is a definitive answer on this.    Being as the cost basis in the traditional IRA doesn't matter, I wouldn't think there would be a problem.
89831
We are retired, I'm 62 and my husband is 58. We have $150,000 in savings, a 401K at $105,000 and another 401K of $75,000.  The home mortgage has a balance of $160,000 with 18 years left on a 20 year mortgage at 3.85%.    Should we invest in annuity or pay off the mortgage? The annuity has a 5% guaranteed with 3% fee.  I have ss 1525.00 and pension 1275.00 he has 2300.00 pension. We live in New York.  Should I use my 401. $105000 monthly or use cash saving till I reach 65. Thank You
58653
Given that hedge funds and trading firms employ scores of highly intelligent analysts, programmers, and managers to game the market, what shot does the average person have at successful investing in the stock market?  What's the best strategy for the average person who doesn't have time every day to follow in detail what's going on with specific companies, the market, etc? Would ETFs in growing industries be the way to go? Or is the best strategy to just stay out and go for more stable investments like bonds?  Any advice would be appreciated.
25301
It is a common assumption (and, as far as historical stock market data goes, also proven) that the stock market is always growing if you enlarge the time window long enough . In other words: The stock market always goes up in the long term. Is, therefore, the conclusion valid that you can totally invest as much as you want at any point in time you want and you can never go wrong, if  You diversify strong enough (invest &quot;in the world&quot;) You do not need to urgently sell your assets at any point in time  If yes, all that strategies that rely also on diversified, long-term investments (Dollar-Cost-Averaging &amp; Rebalancing, .. what others do you know?) are just to optimize the yiels, but you'd make profit even without those strategies. Is that correct?
109698
My employer allows new contributions to my 401(k) to go in as Roth (post-tax) or "regular" (pre-tax).  What should I consider when deciding how to distribute my contributions between the two?