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9ballkid (< 20)

Year End Funding Enough or Wasting my time.................

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December 25, 2008 – Comments (4) | RELATED TICKERS: PRPX , PHB , CHY

Starting in sept. with investing this has been one heck of a wild ride to see all these ups and downs. But i have been having a intense amount of fun at this. I use folioinvesting.com for a flat fee less than 30.00 a month "1st 2 months free" (paid for with monthly bonus from work) to make unlimitied trades each and every single day of the week. I use folio's which are like baskets of stocks, like i.e. aerospace folio has in it HON,LMT,HSR,RTN, and NOC in a try to keep 5 stocks in each folio for a nice round balance. I currently have 50 folios of 5 stocks each. In sectors like forex, index etfs, independent oil, gold n silver, congos, emerging markets, closed end fund debt, commidities, chemicals, preferred shares and so on. 

So I am sure that i am diversified currently 339 total stocks in the 50 folios a few of the folios have more than 5 stocks. Each day i invest 5.00 dollars in a dollar cost average buy spread amongst all stocks in the current folio. I usually buy 10 folios at .50 cents each or 5 folios at a buck a piece. If any indiviual stock hits a loss of 35% i sell. Currently on approx. 691.00 dollars in the account and down 1.95% or 13.70 cents. I dont think this is bad. none of my stocks have much in them yet but i am diversified and dont have all my money in one basket. I buy the folios each day that have the lowest amount of money in them. 

I am 34 and feel like i need to working for awhile. Currently i am investing the max for the company match at my work PSS world medical. 6% they match 3 % that 401K account(2,316.36 total value down -722.05) at prinicpal finicial group is getting slaughtered to say the least, it is diversified as much as it can be, going somewhat agressive. My questions are does it seem I am on the right track to retirement or at least investing to generate a postive cash flow or some wealth in the long run? Am i wasting my time investing such a small amount each day? Most all my stocks except 4 or 5 pay a dividend however folio with not reinvest the dividends until they are 1.00 or more for each payment. I thought about reducing my current holdings but just seem to be happy with what i got. Havent lost much nor have i gained much. 

Currently i have been doing this for 4 full months as of tommorow. Also have 92.14 in a roth ira account with foliofn has 3 folios in it so far which is up 1.01% or .92 cents. I am not sure what the tax time with bring me i have limted partnerships, mlp's, adr's trust's lots of small dividends so far with a mess more to come. Hopefully my accountant can handle that all. So some thoughts on what i am doing it all feels right to me but sure would be nice to know what some others thought. If i do need to reduce number of holdings how do i dechpier which should or should not go? I am sure having many holdings with take much longer to build but with some time and raises at work, larger bonues and things like that the account should grow. My thoughts are it should be very healthy when it gets bigger with a diverse holdings allocation should be able to weather most any finicial storms in the future. So please some thoughts on what ya think would be greatly appreicated again thanks for your time and Merry Christmas to all and to all a happy NEW and properous New Year!

 

9ballkid in kansas

 

4 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On December 25, 2008 at 7:32 PM, awallejr (79.38) wrote:

Considering how hard the market has plunged the last few months and you are only down 13.70 on a 691 overall investment is pretty damn good.  Since you are only 34 you have quite a ways to go yet before retirement.  Nothing wrong with what you are doing, no matter how "small."  It all adds up in the long run.

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#2) On December 25, 2008 at 10:11 PM, kamuirei (84.24) wrote:

5 bucks a day x 30 days in a month...

You're paying $30 a month to invest $150.  That works out to a 20% fee.  Most (including the Fool) advise paying under a 2% fee.  You have performed well, but a lot of that is timing and dollar cost averaging.

Considering you can get a basket of a couple thousand stocks in an etf for the $10 or so a trade costs at a discount broker, I'd just save up to 1k and then you're only paying 1% in fees.  You lose a bit of dollar cost averaging, but you're essentially "saving" 19% more annually.  Should easily than make up the difference in the long run.

As for how much to save, I have no idea, I'm only 23.  I recall the Fool recommended something like 20 or 25% of your salary for your age, but really it all depends on what you want from retirement.  Another rule of thumb is to have 25x the amount you want to be your annual "salary" at retirement... but don't forget inflation.  (You also have to factor in what your spouse saves...)

Most important advice I've encountered is keep cash for anything in the next year and bonds for anything in the next 5 years.  Thank God I did.  After that, be as aggresive as you can sleep at night =p Whatever you do though, you've got plenty of time... and the sooner the better.

This is about the most diverse fund I can think of: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=3141&FundIntExt=INT

(Admittedly minimal history at the moment, but it's from Vanguard and they're respectable)

Stocks: 2115

Fee: 0.25%

Country Diversification (% of common stock) as of 11/30/2008

 Total World Stock ETFFTSE All-World Index United States—45.3% Japan—9.6% United Kingdom—8.7% France—4.6% Germany—3.4% Switzerland—3.4% Canada—3.0% Australia—2.6% Spain—1.9% Italy—1.6% Brazil—1.4% China—1.3% Hong Kong—1.3% Korea—1.3% Taiwan—1.1% Netherlands—1.0% ...(Yes it keeps going)...

Best of luck and Merry Christmas!

 P.S. This may be helpful just as a primer: http://www.fool.com/retirement.htm

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#3) On December 26, 2008 at 12:08 AM, leftfield4sure (42.12) wrote:

I also just entered the investment world this past October;I saw opportunities perhaps of my lifetime.TMF caps is foundational in my education and also in what securities I become a shareholder in.To this I also added a subscription to TMF income investor I suggest you do the same.I use Sharebuilder @ a cost of $20/MO to mantain my portfolio of 24 securities.Current rate of investment is 1500/Quater or 6000/year losses to date of 21%.These are all well researched companys that I understand and i have no plans of selling nor adding to their number.I am a value based investor and have built this investment group so that it has six segments of 4 companys each.Retail, Turnkey,Energy,Water,Industrial manufactures,and Infrastructure.Each segment has a "core" leader  which maintains 50% of the cash invested the other 3 the balance of that 50%. Industrial Manufactures looks like this:  LUFK 52% FSTR15%MSM18% BMS15% .I spend my time investigating not worrying ,a written well planned strategy is essential .Foolish thought when shared makes for good teamwork.Comments.......................? 

                                                                             

 

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#4) On December 26, 2008 at 11:53 AM, awallejr (79.38) wrote:

Surprised you don't have health as a segment in light of the Aging of America play.

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