How do you invest your money?

[OldOld]

No strategy more like dumb luck.

In 1973 went from a low paying job, no benefits & a lot of part time work to a job that had promise of good wages & benefits. My 1st. introduction to investing I was able to enroll in a payroll plan to buy company stock at a discounted price. That & start a matched 401k up to about 8% retirement account. In the 401k I had to chose from options I knew nothing about so I chose without a clue. Luck was with me my choices were good ones.

Early 1980 my wife started with a major corporation, luck again in the picture. Because we had rough years she helped with DIY projects that saved us money. She applied for the highest paying blue collar job, plant maintenance. A rare thing in the 1980's a lady mechanic. Same deal after her 401k deductions all but $25.00 of her weekly pay went to buy stock in the company she worked for thru payroll at a discounted price.

For both of us the 401k's were converted into Traditional IRA's & self directed IRA's.
Luck again in 1992 our oldest son was working in Las Vegas living in an apartment. He agreed to live in a home we wanted to buy for our planned early retirement. The mortgage amount was about $150.00 a month less than his apartment. He was able to save & invest. We had paid off the mortgage on the 5 bedroom home we had that sat on 8 acres of land. Money was accumulating nicely. More luck. In 1995 I was offered retirement at age 54 with a great management "go away" package. In 1995 the housing market was a sellers market. We sold for 3 times what we bought for.

LUCK LUCK LUCK sums up our investing.

1. Did you convert your traditional IRA to Roth IRA later on? I guess not.
2. You sold your home in 1995 for 3 times what you bought for. Where did you live after 1995? From 2010 to 2022, the real estate value grew 4 times in may areas in the U.S, did you also capture that luck? I guess not.

 

[mathjak107]

They all said they are fiduciary and don't get commission from the product, meanwhile, try to sell me annuities.
Welcome to the real world.

i doubt it .

there is no decent financial guy that would ever go thru the expense of licensing and training and not get paid for selling a plan.

that just makes zero sense .

unless they work for a house like fidelity they are going to use that to make big dollars selling plans.

annuities being sold are within the range of being a fiduciary

 

[mathjak107]

before i retired we saw a professional team of advisors.

it consisted of a financial advisor, an estate attorney , and a tax specialist..

i didn’t see them for investing advice.

when we went , we learned a lot .despite the fact i thought i knew all i needed to know

we learned that at the time new york had a very low estate tax exclusion.

if you went over by just 5% you didn’t pay on the overage , you lost the entire exemption and the estate paid from dollar one .

the estate attorney set us up with special disclaimer trusts that allowed us to pass 2x our state limit .

so it was well worth going to see these pros

 

[DaveA]

No portfolio. Money and gold saved in banks and hidden in places. One of my kids knows what's going on. I won't need to spend it and I want my children to get a nice little payout when I croak.

We've done somewhat the same thing. We've never spent our life-time as "money grubbers". For some folks, "chasing the buck" IS their way of life.

We've enjoyed a wonderful life, now reaching our 90's. Close to our kids, grands, and great grands. Have a decent amount put aside for them, but to chase the almighty dollar to get to some ?? magical amount has never been what life's about, at least in our case.

 

[Knight]

1. Did you convert your traditional IRA to Roth IRA later on? I guess not.
2. You sold your home in 1995 for 3 times what you bought for. Where did you live after 1995? From 2010 to 2022, the real estate value grew 4 times in may areas in the U.S, did you also capture that luck? I guess not.

After 1995 we lived in Las Vegas in the home we bought in 1992. We planned for early retirement so when I was offered a retirement package in 1995 to retire at age 54 it was a no brainer. As posted my son lived in & paid the mortgage until we moved & paid the balance of the mortgage. Our son wanted to move out so with the money he saved & 20k for a down payment on a condo he was happy we are happy. We don't hoard money we enjoy life. We plan on leaving our sons a substantial amount but when our sons "need" not "want" something we'd rather help them now.

No change in the IRA's & no reason to use the money building in those until we were forced to begin the MRD disbursements. Even now those put back close to what is taken out for MRD's. I don't know how long that will last but I'm guessing both my wife & me will be dead for quite a few years so our sons will have lots to piss away.

The years between my retirement age of 54 & early draw on Soc. Sec. we had money left over from the sale of that home & the money spent to pay off the mortgage. Really helpful was the sale of several thousand shares of Kraft stock.

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