| Author |
Message |
    
Sayitaintso
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 01:08 pm: | 
|
Good point Mark...... If you can earn more than you're paying, and it is something you are going to buy anyway; why not use their money to make a little for yourself. |
Sayitaintso
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 01:16 pm: |
|
My biggest fear is someone/something changing the rules before I get to the finish line, and not having the time to adjust to the new rules.
Something like working 28 years with the promise of a pension, then poof, the pension is gone and not having enough put away. Like what happened to airline pilots a few years ago. |
Court
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 01:18 pm: |
|
>>>I've got 20 plus years to go before I will retire and I just want to limit the amount of mistakes I make between now and then.
I figure anywhere from 5 to 10 for me. I saw, when my Father retired at 52, the toll retiring early can take. My Mother, at 80 years old, is in her office every morning at 8:00am and leaves at 5:00. Like her, I love what I do . . I was always a Tonka Toy kid and getting paid to work with cranes, bulldozers and 375' tall towers continues to fascinate me more daily. I will, in the coming years, be doing less construction and more teaching, and shifting the source of current income.
To those of you in your 20's, 30's and 40's . . . I'll tell you what I told my sons (and I think I scared them) if you are doing ANYTHING, you are in the top 5% of America.
Well done.
I've found myself, in the last year, actually changing some behaviors ... some easier than others. The most salient is my truck . . I was going to replace it with a snappy SUV. I started looking at the $1,200 per month least payments and the insurance . . . I could afford them with no problem. Then I looked at my "paid cash for" 2006 pickup and worked the . . "what if, in this rapidly rising market, I took those payments and bought gold or silver?".
I love this truck. |
Wolfridgerider
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 01:38 pm: |
|
I've got 20 plus years to go before I will retire
Maybe I should reword that... before I get to do a job I like....
I can't tell you how much I look forward to teaching MSF classes every year....
I just wish it paid enough to cover ALL the bills... medical... dental... retirement..
I can dream.... but until then
HOPE TO SEE YA IN DAYTONA! |
Johnnylunchbox
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 02:02 pm: |
|
Refinanced the 30 year mortgage, with 8 years already paid off, to a 15 year, and we are trying to pay it off double and kill it in 7 years. My question is are we better off just taking those extra payments and putting it into a stock fund or a handful of stocks/bonds/and mutual funds? I too hate debt, but can't ignore the gains being made in the market right now. Am I wrong not to capitalize on this? |
Wolfridgerider
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 02:09 pm: |
|
I've never heard of a home being foreclosed on that is paid off.
that's the Dave Ramesy part of my brain talking. |
Johnnylunchbox
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 02:27 pm: |
|
Good point, and even though we are not drowning in debt things can happen and go downhill very quickly. |
Xl1200r
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 02:57 pm: |
|
Oh man, mortgages get complicated... Keep in mind that your mortgage interest is tax deductable and 401(k) contributions are pre-tax - not the same thing, so understand the difference and use those figures to make a decision. If you're doing anyother kind of saving/investing, you may get taxed on it, and you definately will if you pull the cash out, 401(k) or otherwise.
You'd have to be pretty confident that you could do better than your current APR by at least a couple of points in the markets to make it worth your while.
Now, taking both of those into consideration, note that once the house is paid off you'll have all this "free" money flying around that you were used to spending on your mortgage payments, which you did tax-free. If you had invested instead and cashed out, you'd be taxed on that income, so you made out. But wait, now that your home is paid off, you're not paying mortgage interest anymore and your taxes are going to go up. Will you still net in the black when you're all done?
What I'm getting at is there's a ton to take into account and I don't know what the right move would be and where all the moving peices would need to be to have it make sense. I do know that, if I could, I rather pay off the house and get that guarunteed return (your APR). |
Reindog
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 04:09 pm: |
|
This is a really good thread.
I abhor debt except where it is necessary for future benefits.
Examples of good debt are education loans that lead to skills that employers want or the purchase of an "affordable" house. Future benefits doesn't mean buying a boat or an RV or a whatever on credit. That is the road to ruin.
Laurie and I paid off a 30 year fixed mortgage in nine years. The mortgage financed 66% of our home. It was difficult but we found the discipline (and had the means) to make double payments. Doing this on the front end of a mortgage immediately erases years of payment and accelerated equity build up.
There were those who scoffed at us for paying down our mortgage (7.25%) so quickly but you should have seen the look on Laurie's face when I told her that I had been laid off. The first thing she said was, "Its good that we paid off the mortgage". It was about the only smile I could muster at that time.
The "buy and hold" strategy no longer works and one has to monitor what they have more carefully. Before you buy a stock, you should already have the exit strategy in mind or you will be left holding the baby. |
Sayitaintso
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 04:29 pm: |
|
The "buy and hold" strategy no longer works and one has to monitor what they have more carefully. Before you buy a stock, you should already have the exit strategy in mind or you will be left holding the baby.
Tom, if you are buying individual stock, I couldn't agree more.
Mutual funds on the other hand are managed by professionals and they should be "getting rid of the dogs before they eat you out of house and home". Thats why there is a mgt fee (or whatever they call it) for mutual funds.
Speaking of mutual funds, always check out the fees they are charging. I got into one when I first started putting money away where the fee was about 2%...... if there wasn't at least a 2% gain, I was loosing money. Once I got a little more savy and realized what they were doing to me that puppy was gone, a lesson I learned the hard way. |
Reindog
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 05:46 pm: |
|
Patience, also known as laziness, can be good too. Once upon a time, I bought Apple at $90 and sold it at $95. Ouch So much for lack of patience.
I had been buying and selling Netflix for years between $19-35. Sold most a long time ago but somehow forgot about 500 shares in an account that I rarely visit. Good thing...It went screeching up to $248 last week. With a P/E of 80, I let it go. The lazy and inattentive sometimes win too.  |
Court
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 06:14 pm: |
|
Always be mindful . . when the discussion turns to that "what could have happened" . . that there is always another underway and yet another about to occur.
The pros, as I have learned, are keen and employ sophisticated skills. I, citing the Desiderata I suppose, never seek to either compete with nor compare myself to them.
Get a plan . . . pencil it out . . know who you are . . where you are headed and generally what the path is.
I used to caucus with all my Foreman annually . . . we always had a 1, 3 and 5 year corporate plan.
The 1 was to make us a "rifle rather than a shotgun". We all needed to know what our common goal was, generally how we intended to get there and what each of us were doing.
The 3 was a bit longer game and the 1 was a stepping stone to it.
The 5 was basically akin to "naming the Sun" . . . when you talk about the center of your financial solar system . . everyone needs to be looking at the same planet when someone refers to "sun".
A •••••• plan is nearly always better than the best luck without one. |
Reindog
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 07:32 pm: |
|
Not sure if Court was referring to me but here is a lifetime lesson that I strive for and mostly achieve:
"If you made a profit, any profit, be happy".
On Apple, I made a $5/share profit (minus commissions and short term capital gains) so that is good and I taught myself to be happy. It doesn't matter that Apple is now around $350.
I used to be jealous of a former co-worker and friend, who was a damn good engineer and made a fortune by being at the right company at the right time. I wished I was him. He died in a car accident on a sunny day. I stopped wishing I was him and the old joke, "Be careful what you wish for because you might get what you want", became clear. I am now a happy guy living in an unhappy world....mostly.
(Message edited by reindog on February 22, 2011) |
Court
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 - 11:17 pm: |
|
I wasn't referring to you . . . but I like your example.
I intended to be richer.
I never intended to have this many friends, kids this healthy and happy or enjoy my life so much.
I win.
So . . . by the way . . did you.
|
Blake
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - 05:33 am: |
|
>>> Mutual funds on the other hand are managed by professionals and they should be "getting rid of the dogs before they eat you out of house and home".
Many of the most popular mutual funds are low cost index type. And why not, few of the others ever manage to beat the market indices. I don't know how they stay in business. Must be a lot of fools out there.
My parents accounts with Waddell and Reed took a beating. I suspect that most fund managers are not good for much at all. Their financial advisor did little to insulate them at age 62 retirement from a market crash. Lame. REALLY lame.
I no like. |
Sayitaintso
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - 08:19 am: |
|
Its funny you should mention Waddell and Reed....thats where I had the fund that ate me up charging the 2% fee.
I'm thinking they will never get my business again. |
Swampy
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - 08:09 pm: |
|
So the question is....Now what are you going to do with it? |
|
