This is my humble opinion, but now is the time to get back into the good ole stock market. Seems obvious but most people don't actually follow the age old axiom, Buy Low, Sell High. True, people have different time horizons and so if you heed anything I say here it is necessary to adjust the advice to your own expectations and plans.
I'm going to put myself out there and predict that this will be the last earnings season with overwhelmingly dismal results, i.e. time to buy. Why do I say this? Here are a few reasons:
- more and more economists are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and are going on the record as such.
- recent run up in the market suggests confidence by institutional investors. They may have overshot and are pulling back now (current dip during earnings season) but the message is clear - those with the most information are getting back in.
- merger activity: Oracle's purchase of SunMicrosystems yesterday.
- some banks are reporting profits: BofA, Goldman, even Citi had some good news. Yes, there is a credit situation, but Americans are quick to forget hard times and I (and others) feel that spending will pick up.
So you say: what about the dragging Retail and Real Estate sectors? These two sectors are typically the last to recover in a downturn, particularly considering how much we overbuilt. It will take real estate a long time to come around.... But the market overall will not wait for housing.
So I am buying and thinking of buying the following:
- Index funds: VERY safe and merely follows the market (Vanguard and Fidelity can help you with this)
- Large Cap Growth funds: mutual funds investing in big and hopefully sound American companies
- Banks: This is my risky investment and for those light of heart, I don't recommend it. But honestly you wont see better deals than $8 for one of the largest banks in the country (BofA).
Overall, I'm going to play it safe by dipping my foot in for now. I'm not throwing big amounts at the above, just getting in so sleep at night continues in a sound way.
Those are my thoughts for the day. And I'd like to say that I'm happy to have had time to blog again....
Showing posts with label finance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label finance. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Banter and blog posts
Has been a poor showing from me on the blog lately. Blame it on the stars, the endocrine system, the time change. Hard to say why the pause from posting much, but my once fool-proof method of thinking, "what did I do today that went well...blog about it" has failed me of late.
Actually, it's mostly because my good advice lately has to do primarily to do with work, getting to work or feeding myself at work. Since my fellow blog-girls don't work in an office, it's feel somewhat useless in this space. But, I'm wondering, is the not blogging about the pointless work-efficiencies holding up the better more useful flow?
Anyway, here's my dumb good advice du jour:
- keep granola and yogurt at work in the work fridge. you'll never regret it and will start everyday well balanced. I will post the granola recipe later from the downstairs computer.
- have a folder on the toolbar of your internet browser called "everyday". put your sites in there you like to visit to start the day. keep an eye on the clock and stay within a reasonable time period (like 15 mins). good way to warm up the brain and something do to while eating granola. I typically check my email accounts, facebook, nytimes, wsj and my horoscope. on a slow day I'll also check in with Perez.
- make a little extra dinner in the evening and then take it to work the next day (this is probably something you're already doing if you like to pack your lunch, I know. Just trying to slay the demons)
- read perez at lunch. do it on the sly. somehow gossip's better when you're sneaking around.
- IM with the hubby, very briefly everyday. better than a phone call and good way to get essential information to one another, i.e. "need milk on way home." "okay". also pretty fun to do on the sly.
- keep a stocked diaper bag in the car at all times. gives you the freedom to change plans on the fly and keeps your child tended to. keep an extra set of clothes for him/her in there, too. where I live, the beach is luckily almost never out of the question.
that's all I have today. hope it helps someone somewhere and if nothing else opens up something better tomorrow.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Aggregating Retirement Accounts
If you are a woman who joined the motherhood clan later in life like I did, you are likely to have had jobs or a career that included the gathering of multiple 401Ks and IRAs. Do you now find yourself with retirement accounts strewn across several large and fairly meaningless (at least to you) brokerage firms?
While the thought of organizing this seemingly untouchable group of accounts can be overwhelming, indeed to the point of putting it off for so many years that you’ve lost passwords and all knowledge of what is rightfully yours, I promise that taking the time to get them all under one roof and taking control of them will go miles in maintaining your sanity.
Upon my leaving the corporate world due to baby #1 and my husband’s last job change, I realized we were sitting on 6 different and totally unassociated retirement accounts (both 401Ks and IRAs). This drove me a bit crazy as I felt I had no control over the situation much less a comfort level that this money was working as hard as it can for us.
I did a lot of research and am happy to report that there are IRA’s out there that are called “age-based” retirement accounts. The fundamental principle is that the farther away from retirement you are, the more risky your positions in the account are, i.e. more risk = greater return. As you get closer to retirement, the mix of the account changes to less and less risky positions. So if you are in your 30s, the majority of your mix will be in equities while a smaller portion will be in safer instruments like bonds and index funds. As you approach your 60’s – the mix gradually becomes the inverse as you will need to start using that money in the shorter term. Two companies, Vanguard and T.Rowe Price offer these “age based” funds and they have been heralded often in a most positive way.
So, if you can stomach the bureaucratic process of calling the companies where you and your husband no longer work and filling out the paperwork (which is minimal, I might add, it just requires some following up), I would highly recommend aggregating your retirement holdings. Each age based fund invests your money across an array of funds, everything from international to large cap, mid cap and small cap, so you are secure in the diversity it offers. In fact, both Vanguard and T.Rowe Price have such a rich and wide reaching mutual fund offering, short of Fidelity it would be hard to find a company that can match the kind of diversity they offer. Not to mention, they take care of adjusting the risk “mix” as you approach retirement. It’s fabulous!!!
Good luck.
While the thought of organizing this seemingly untouchable group of accounts can be overwhelming, indeed to the point of putting it off for so many years that you’ve lost passwords and all knowledge of what is rightfully yours, I promise that taking the time to get them all under one roof and taking control of them will go miles in maintaining your sanity.
Upon my leaving the corporate world due to baby #1 and my husband’s last job change, I realized we were sitting on 6 different and totally unassociated retirement accounts (both 401Ks and IRAs). This drove me a bit crazy as I felt I had no control over the situation much less a comfort level that this money was working as hard as it can for us.
I did a lot of research and am happy to report that there are IRA’s out there that are called “age-based” retirement accounts. The fundamental principle is that the farther away from retirement you are, the more risky your positions in the account are, i.e. more risk = greater return. As you get closer to retirement, the mix of the account changes to less and less risky positions. So if you are in your 30s, the majority of your mix will be in equities while a smaller portion will be in safer instruments like bonds and index funds. As you approach your 60’s – the mix gradually becomes the inverse as you will need to start using that money in the shorter term. Two companies, Vanguard and T.Rowe Price offer these “age based” funds and they have been heralded often in a most positive way.
So, if you can stomach the bureaucratic process of calling the companies where you and your husband no longer work and filling out the paperwork (which is minimal, I might add, it just requires some following up), I would highly recommend aggregating your retirement holdings. Each age based fund invests your money across an array of funds, everything from international to large cap, mid cap and small cap, so you are secure in the diversity it offers. In fact, both Vanguard and T.Rowe Price have such a rich and wide reaching mutual fund offering, short of Fidelity it would be hard to find a company that can match the kind of diversity they offer. Not to mention, they take care of adjusting the risk “mix” as you approach retirement. It’s fabulous!!!
Good luck.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
To buy or not to buy?
For those in “expanding family” mode, the looming question of “expanding the home” seems inevitiable. Particularly for those of us who currently live in big cities or have recently moved from big cities (like the authors on this blog) and dwell in adequate spaces but perhaps not quite large enough for the newcomer.
Or is that a state of mind? In fact four people could easily fit (eat, sleep and all that) in our 1,800 square foot, bi-level apartment. In reality, its not even really “4” – but instead two big adults with all the usual space necessities, a small toddler and the smallest person of us all, the imminent infant. As Americans I think we’ve all gone a bit mad in this area. Having the perfect space for each person is a dream, perhaps a goal, but not a necessity.
That said, I do have major challenges with our current abode. It happens to be at the top of a 19th century brownstone, requiring a hefty walk up 3 flights of stairs before reaching the front door. To date, this has not been a problem. One gets accustomed to heaving a 30 lbs., squiggling child up multiple flights of stairs. Groceries can be tricky – but as long as the food requiring refrigeration is taken in during the toddler’s naptime, Daddy can always get the remaining bags as he comes in from work.
My son’s continued weight gain together with my own weight issues (pregnancy) and the physical challenges around that, those stairs are getting steeper and longer by the day. But even worse is the prospect of dragging the infant bucket (with person of course), all the accoutrements AND the toddler up the stairs…..hmmmm, doable? Perhaps if the spindles on the central stairwell weren’t 5 inches in diameter my son could walk up those stairs – damn those architects of the past and their wood carved banisters!!
It’s a shame really. We have a super apartment in a super location. More importantly, I’m still waiting on the real estate market to make it’s final corrections to an expensive urban area that seems to only be growing in popularity. The goal is to move before this baby comes, but we all do what is necessary when circumstances are out of our control. Fingers crossed for the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood at the perfect price - before June!
Or is that a state of mind? In fact four people could easily fit (eat, sleep and all that) in our 1,800 square foot, bi-level apartment. In reality, its not even really “4” – but instead two big adults with all the usual space necessities, a small toddler and the smallest person of us all, the imminent infant. As Americans I think we’ve all gone a bit mad in this area. Having the perfect space for each person is a dream, perhaps a goal, but not a necessity.
That said, I do have major challenges with our current abode. It happens to be at the top of a 19th century brownstone, requiring a hefty walk up 3 flights of stairs before reaching the front door. To date, this has not been a problem. One gets accustomed to heaving a 30 lbs., squiggling child up multiple flights of stairs. Groceries can be tricky – but as long as the food requiring refrigeration is taken in during the toddler’s naptime, Daddy can always get the remaining bags as he comes in from work.
My son’s continued weight gain together with my own weight issues (pregnancy) and the physical challenges around that, those stairs are getting steeper and longer by the day. But even worse is the prospect of dragging the infant bucket (with person of course), all the accoutrements AND the toddler up the stairs…..hmmmm, doable? Perhaps if the spindles on the central stairwell weren’t 5 inches in diameter my son could walk up those stairs – damn those architects of the past and their wood carved banisters!!
It’s a shame really. We have a super apartment in a super location. More importantly, I’m still waiting on the real estate market to make it’s final corrections to an expensive urban area that seems to only be growing in popularity. The goal is to move before this baby comes, but we all do what is necessary when circumstances are out of our control. Fingers crossed for the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood at the perfect price - before June!
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