Off-Topic

[BurghFan]

re: Off-Topic

Gee, thanks guys.

[l3ulvl]

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Gee, thanks guys.

hey I said NOT willing!

[countryboy]

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Wait..wait...wait....

Who's burgh???

[TheMatrix31]

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I'm unsure how to feel about Olive Garden having "Italian Nachos".

That's a great idea. I don't think I'll use Free Day food consumption on them, but I like the idea.


EDIT: What I did eat first on Free Day? Taco Bell's fries. They're ****ing incredible.

[Watson]

re: Off-Topic

Football season is over, and my football count is final: This year, I watched 482 football games. An improvement over last year but far off the high water mark.

Notes:
-260 college football games
-201 NFL games
-21 high school games
-20 games attended
-11 games covered

[Blzer]

re: Off-Topic

Okay, so last week I talked about that awesome spike in my IRA ROTH account for the day and month overall, but now... what the ****???



I'm hiding the total dollar amounts, but every gray horizontal line represents a $5000 increment (hence the big $5500 jump at the beginning of the year from my 2018 contribution). The last several days I have just plummeted.

I don't want to pretend like I know how mutual funds work, but I hope this stabilizes soon. So much for my novemdecillion dollar amounts haha.

[countryboy]

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Super Bowl party + work the next day = me not being very productive

[Fresh Tendrils]

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What made you go with a ROTH versus a traditional?

[Blzer]

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What made you go with a ROTH versus a traditional?

Trusted my dad's word on it. We'll see how that pans out. Not really into the financing realm of things, so I just take other trustworthy people's words for what they are sometimes.

I mean the money is growing plenty fine, but all of my optimism for this year's outlook just took a U-turn on me in like five days haha.

[Fresh Tendrils]

re: Off-Topic

I would go talk to a financial advisor if you haven't already. There is an Edward Jones rep on every corner seemingly.

The primary difference is when the money is taxed. Roth distributions are typically tax free, but those distributions come at a time when most people's tax liability is significantly lower than when they were younger with much more taxable income. Traditional is taxed on the distributions later in later, but those contributions you make are pre-tax (if done through an employer) or tax deductible if done on your own thus lowering your taxable income now when you are in a higher bracket than when you reach retirement age.

Of course everyone's situation is unique.

[Blzer]

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Right, I believe I can't take this money out without being taxed until I'm 59.5 years old, and I'm fully committed to that as is. I mean I've been informed on what it is, all I needed to do was make sure it was a reliable future endeavor. Hopefully it will hold strong the next thirty years, haha.

[Speedy]

re: Off-Topic

Part of it is also going to be HOW much of a return you want to see. The more of your portfolio that is invested in stocks (vs. bonds) will result in more fluctuation like you're seeing. The more that is invested in stocks, the higher the risk and the more that you'll gain/lose.

I had a great rate of return LY, in part because my 401K is 90% stocks and I'm going to presume you're in the same camp I'm in? I don't check it but once a quarter though as I don't need to get upset if one day yields a 5% decrease because the next day could go up 7%.

[Blzer]

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Yeah I know, I can go weeks without checking and the like. As you can see, last year had a couple down days but mostly ups. All I was saying was things were looking great in the first month that I was hoping every day acted independently enough that I wouldn't see a down after an up.

[pietasterp]

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The issue w/ Roth vs regular IRA is that it is basically a bet on your tax liability now vs. when you retire. There's no real 'right' answer, because no one can see the future. No one knows where tax rates will be, what your situation is going to be, etc. at 59 years old. You take your best guess, but at the end of the day if you're saving something for retirement, that's 90% of the battle.

As far as mutual funds and stocks vs bonds, etc., it's all about risk tolerance and time horizon. High risk tolerance (which usually means longer time horizon)? Mostly in stocks/equities is probably the way to go, historically. Other way around? Want to preserve wealth, at the expense of some growth (=fixed income). These are not hard-and-fast "rules", or rules of any kind really. Just generally the general wisdom, whatever that means.

Personally, with longer time horizons and higher risk tolerance I'd be mostly in stocks and just pick the lowest-cost index fund (basically you're investing in every stock in the market) available. Then don't look at it, lest you start needing to hit the Pepto Bismol on a daily basis...

[WaitTilNextYear]

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Hmmm...opened this thread up and I find that I'm in an "ask your financial advisor" type of TV commercial. Smartly-dressed people wearing designer-framed spectacles sitting by fireplaces (or in smartly-furnished offices) wondering why their "broker" is going in dry on them...switch to so-and-so where we'll put a human face to your situation. Now back to your TV programme...

I can't offer anything new here, aside from stale humor, but if people are wondering why stuff's going down lately, the stock market has been raped over the past couple of days. Lost ~5% today alone.