Dumb stock market questions...

[eradicator]

As much as anything I was curious about the basis for thinking the market is about to sell off. Then again, even if it does, I'd say a majority of investors are better off buying in too early and riding out a correction than sitting on the sidelines altogether. I get a lot of questions like this from my clients. I can say through personal experience that (all else equal) the ones who want to time the markets long term performance suffers relative to those that don't.

I don't disagree necessarily. I'm not sitting on the sideline, just being more cautious right now.

[JeffJ]

I must be in the wrong Vanguard fund, it is dragging bad.
While my stock picks are doing good.
I have always had a high opion of Vangaurd and John Bogle, but now I am not so sure.

Jack Bogle

[Neuse]

Whoops

[JeffJ]

Poor play potentially for a short term investment,but not for long term. Problem is no one knows what will happen with the market and no one can time it. If we could, we all would and would invest at the same time.
Time in the market beats timing the market

Here's a quick article where Warren Buffet list what he thinks are the top 3 mistakes people make. Take a look at #1

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...dvice/3188499/

While I respect Warren Buffett for his prowess it does strike me that he points out that management fees are a problem. Currently Berkshire is a large holder in many companies that make money giving advice and running funds that make money off of the management fees. He doesn't have a problem with them on that level. A few of them are:

American Express
BNY
Goldman Sachs
M&T Bank
US Bank
Wells Fargo

[twobittxn]

You can learn on your own.

www.fool.com is a great website for learning how the market works and how to invest.

If you read books, anything by Peter Lynch is easy to read and explains his philosophies on investing.

Gains and losses are only on paper until you sell.

[TKK]

best advice is to not ask for investment advice on a hunting forum -

[Kdog]

best advice is to not ask for investment advice on a hunting forum -

I would modify that a touch, don't let it be the only place you ask for advice. Never hurts to hear what other people have to say.

[Tower43]

I don't know, I am not a financial adviser and this is a bow hunting forum. Seems like there are a lot of other topics that get discussed, I don't see why this one should be off limits. Plus the market has gone up a lot in the last 5 weeks. I guess my question is what is different? The only thing I can see is Trump got elected. However, Trump is not in office yet so what happens when things start not working out as expected?

There are several factors why it is up since trump, I will do my best to explain two reasons why the market is up. Trump wants to ease banking regulations so that gets priced into the future earnings of the bank stocks. What happens when trump doesn't get his way?, then the earnings get adjusted and price goes down. The federal reserve raised interest rates yesterday which is good for banks to that drove prices up.

OPEC decided to cut production reducing the oil supply so that brought oil up and several companies with it. Two big industries can bring the market up a lot among several other factors. You have to really pay attention to the business news, not the fluff crap they put out for the lemmings. Sometimes the market goes down because people are just scared and selling, ignore these dips.

Also saying that we are primed for a correction or downturn means nothing. No one knows when the market is going down, if you could predict what the stock market is going to do you would be a billionaire

[Big H]

Tagged

[MIHunter]

In

[Marlin45]

2 cents. DCA every month same day. Find out total amount you can reasonably invest every year and come up with your dollar amount per month. Subtract some and constantly save it through the year in cash for when the market does have a big correction like at the beginning of this year and then lump sum invest. You do not need to pay anyone two percent to manage your money. To start go to any institution Charles Schwab for instance open an account and invest in index funds. Large cap, mid cap, and small cap percentages should be based off your age, and investment timeline. I like vanguard. VOO, VTI, and VTWO are not a bad way to start. Always reinvest your dividends until you get to the age where you use them for cash flow. Once you get the hang of it if you need something more fancy buy some blue ship stocks that are gonna be core holdings and keep them your whole life. If you need extra motivation to save money learn about the rule of 72 , and play with a compounding interest calculator ( off set for inflation). Don't watch mad money or CNBC they have to preach doom and gloom or the market in going to the moon you need to buy this stock fast speculation or there show would suck. Remember if Crammer just said invest your dca amount every month in the S&P he would have bad ratings and be off the air in six months. Lastly buy four or five books on Amazon about investing from different authors and educate yourself. Good luck

[TKK]

I would modify that a touch, don't let it be the only place you ask for advice. Never hurts to hear what other people have to say.

you are correct.

Budgeting, saving, emergency fund, insurance, etc. are the first topics to address. Once the basics are in place then actually investing money for a newbie typically requires some professional help. And anyone, professional or not, who claims to know what the market is going to do and that they can time it is full of it.

and I will add this. Return on your money and tax treatment are important but more important than anything is the habit of systematically putting money away and then leaving it alone. This is best done IMO by saving a percentage of your income religiously.

This is not investment advice - it is behavioral advice - good luck to you

[bcdawg1]

Once you do a little homework it's really not that difficult. Years ago I went with Edward Jones and just had them take care of it. When I finally got smart and started to learn just a little more (seriously just a little) I realized I was losing a lot of money just in fees and such. Last year switched over my ROTH to vanguard using a low cost index fund and handle it myself. Wish I did it years ago. Couldn't be much easier.

I truly believe index funds are the way to go and you don't need but 2 or 3. I'd suggest a total stock market fund for starts. lot's of great info here:

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started

another bogle and index fund fan. invest for the long term (unless you are needing the money for retirement now in which case putting in the market is probably not the best option) ride the ups and downs.

in addition to the bogle head books you can start with the coffee house investor to cover a lot of the basics.

also look into www.betterment.com and VPAS.

very low fees, low minimum in.

[TheHammer]

What is the average roi on what y'all are investing on retirement? I'm only 23, so I just started all this. Seeing mostly between 7-10%

[Nado]

interested