Your investment strategies for 2018 ?

[JHZR2]

My 2018 goal is to use robinhood to build up a second stock account with high dividend paying stocks in it. Then Ill make my own drip based upon which look to be the best value at any one time.

Its primarily for fun, but also leverages free trades and the power of compounding. Since its free, buying one share of this or that is easy and OK to do. It will only work as long as something like Robinhood is available and free. Ill ride it as long as it goes then cash or transfer out.

Everything else is going well so Ill leave as-is other than some routine balancing or some buys and sells.

 

[cjcride]

50% cash and 50% in dividend funds.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

Originally Posted By: barryh
At 63 15% cash although I wouldn't be able to resist investing some of that if the market crashes. I've made some great gains in the past by investing at the bottom. The rest is in index funds and high yield shares most of which tend to maintain dividends in a crash. I've got a small company pension and the state pension both of which will begin payment in 3 years.


If the market crashes? This is the most overbought market in history they even had an article to that effect on MSN Money last week.

 

[marine65]

Lottery tickets.

 

[miden851]

For main street a variety of investments are available, health, kids, education, food, etc

Now when we talk about the wall street, you may look in undervalued stocks, or indexes that did not perform well in 2017, retail and energy comes to my mind, or some companies of Russell 2000 index

 

[PandaBear]

Personally I think the market is over priced, and because of the new tax plan I'll pay down as much of my mortgage as possible and switch to standard deduction.

Unless if the stock or real estate (multi-family home) market crash and I can get in for cheap.

 

[Danno]

Moving out of mutual / index funds into direct investing. Each trade is $9.99.
Funds get paid first forever, then they pay you. I'll take the 0.75% to 4% fees , instead of the funds managers.
I am investing in stocks with higher dividend payouts (3% - 4%) such as large banks, utilities and large consumer goods companies.
If the shares go up, that adds to the return.
I can keep the funds in direct investments in interest free accounts and retirement accounts.

 

[Jimzz]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Personally I think the market is over priced, and because of the new tax plan I'll pay down as much of my mortgage as possible and switch to standard deduction.

Unless if the stock or real estate (multi-family home) market crash and I can get in for cheap.


I think the overall market will stay hot for another 6-12months. But once the long-term affects of the new tax plan kick in I see real estate, and the market as a whole, crashing down after that.

Right now we have most of out funds in the VFIAX - Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares and VTSAX - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares. But will probably move out after 6-10months from now depending on market/real estate concerns.

 

[JLawrence08648]

One International fund, one managed commodities account, the rest are stocks and options, buy And Sell Calls And puts, Sell Covered Calls.

 

[jimbrewer]

Funding my kid's 401k in first year of kid's first real job.

Nothing looks cheap to me. Still, I've learned the hard way that it's important to start young, diversify and keep costs low. That's not just propaganda. So I'll plop it into Vanguard Star fund which is the closest thing to a defined benefit pension plan that I know. Hope kid gets in the habit.

Or maybe I should get Bitcoin instead.

 

[Mr Nice]

I'm 100% in ETFs and some individual stocks, no bonds.

80% ETFs and 20% stocks

 

[alarmguy]

Crypto Coins, coins, coins for 2018. Short term ... its a moving target. )

 

[pandus13]

Originally Posted By: Donald
Index funds are the way to go.

Also watch out for IRA deductions that are not tax deductible. You will pay tax again on the money when you take it out.

If you make too much for IRA to be deductable or fund a Roth, then open IRA add money to it and convert to Roth on a yearly basis. That you can do even if you make too much to open a Roth.


Can you explain a bit more?

Much appreciated

 

[Mr Nice]

Donald,

I didn't know you could convert a Traditional to Roth on a yearly basis...

 

[TWG1572]

Originally Posted By: pandus13


Can you explain a bit more?

Much appreciated


It's called a "back door Roth" You contribute money to a traditional IRA, then request that the contribution be converted into a Roth. It's essentially a tax loophole.

There are a couple potential snags in the process. First, you want to leave some time (which is up for debate) between your IRA contribution and Roth conversion. This is to avoid triggering a step transaction rule, where the IRS basically says that your intention was to do a backdoor Roth because the transactions were in quick succession. Advice is to wait a month, or longer, between the two steps.

The other is the aggregation rule. I don't understand it all, but it could put a damper on your plans if you have multiple existing IRA's in place.

 

[wander2039]

Nothing major.. put some $$ in a Vanguard SP500 fund and put some of the boys $$ in a Vanguard Star account. Both are long-term. Thinking we might buy a couple shares of Telsa just for grins. 2019 we may start looking at buying rental properties.

 

[Schmoe]

TSP.....25% I, 25% C and 50% G....can't take another hit like in 2008. I'm 54 looking to retire around 62-ish.

 

[Alfred_B]

Originally Posted By: TWG1572
Originally Posted By: pandus13


Can you explain a bit more?

Much appreciated


It's called a "back door Roth" You contribute money to a traditional IRA, then request that the contribution be converted into a Roth. It's essentially a tax loophole.

There are a couple potential snags in the process. First, you want to leave some time (which is up for debate) between your IRA contribution and Roth conversion. This is to avoid triggering a step transaction rule, where the IRS basically says that your intention was to do a backdoor Roth because the transactions were in quick succession. Advice is to wait a month, or longer, between the two steps.

The other is the aggregation rule. I don't understand it all, but it could put a damper on your plans if you have multiple existing IRA's in place.


You need to explain that this is not a loophole to defer taxes. It's to go around the ROTH limits.

 

[supton]

I'll probably up my contribution to my 401k rather than split my retirement savings between a Roth and a 401k. I just don't see how RMD's will impact my taxes in retirement, and as such not sure it's worth the effort.

Right now I think I have too much in some stable money fund that was set up eons ago, and I might rebalance completely into an index fund.

Unfortunately my only investing is done on my 401k. I'm too leery to invest my HSA just yet--it's just not large enough for my risk tolerance.

 

[Gebo]

75% Stock 25% Bond

70% Index 30% Active Managed (Wellington and Wellesley).

All in Vanguard and TIAA except for the 10% in QQQ (NASDAQ Index)

When I retire at 75, I plan on having majority in Wellesley (70%) and S&P 500 (30%).