Do you have money invested in the stock market?

[PhysicsGente]

Just wondering ;).

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

No, I'm just focusing on saving and safe investments. I used to play the stocks, but got burned in the 08 tumble. Still a bit nervous to get back in.

 

[Evo]

Just wondering ;).

Why? In which country? Active trader, passive holder, has options? I would say that most people that work for a large company or have a retirement account or investment portfolio would own some stock in something, even if they may not be aware of what stock it is, or how much.

 

[OmCheeto]

Just wondering ;).

Less now than what I've put in, and I started playing the market at the depths of the latest crash...

 

[Gale]

Why? In which country? Active trader, passive holder, has options? I would say that most people that work for a large company or have a retirement account or investment portfolio would own some stock in something, even if they may not be aware of what stock it is, or how much.

That's the case with me. My retirement acct through work is in stocks, but I only have a vague notion what sorts. I also have a general idea how much is in there, but I try not to check often since it'll be a loooong time before I'll use that money.

I keep telling myself I'm going to invest in some mutual funds, but I haven't yet.

 

[lisab]

My 401(k). It's well balanced (supposedly ).

I've done pretty well the last 3 years or so. Lost my hindquarters 4 years ago, though.

 

[russ_watters]

My 401k is mostly stocks, relatively aggressive. My IRA is all in an S&P500 index fund. And I own a small handful of stocks in a few other companies, partly for play.

 

[Drakkith]

Does my retirement fund count? (Kind of like a 401k)

 

[Mentalist]

Only thing I am putting any money in, in relation to "stocks", is my food supply.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Are you talking about my 201k? I think I still have one share of that penny stock I bought at the height of the market boom.

 

[turbo]

I'm in stocks, but only indirectly, though some mutual funds. Unfortunately, I managed to roll all my 401K accounts into an IRA just when the Fed decided to keep money "free" for the banks, so I earn a pittance in interest. I can't live on that, and don't want to deplete my savings in the (probably) vain hope that the Fed will find some balance.

 

[jtbell]

Overall, about half of my retirement money is in stocks, but only via mutual funds. I've never invested in individual companies' stocks.

About 2/3 is in a 403(b) tax-deferred retirement plan with TIAA-CREF, which is commonly offered at colleges, universities, etc. in the USA, and funded by deductions from salary and employer contributions. It's like the 401(k) plans that most companies offer. Ever since I started teaching, after graduate school, I've contributed to TIAA-CREF, split 50/50 between their TIAA variable annuity plan which is mostly invested in bonds, and their CREF stock fund which is a broadly-based mutual stock fund. Here are the results so far. (The vertical scale unit is not a nice round number. ) The gains include ongoing contributions which I've increased over the years, and are now at the maximum for 403(b) plans.

I also have some money saved up that is not in TIAA-CREF. This is also split about 50/50, between stock and bond mutual funds. This year I became a convert to the "Boglehead" philosophy, and have shifted most of that money to mutual funds that track broad market indexes at low cost (low expense ratios): US total stock market, international (non US) total stock market, and US intermediate-term bond market. They'll never "beat the market," but few "actively managed" mutual funds do so for long periods of time, and it's kind of hard to predict in advance which ones will so in the future. So I'll settle for the "average."

 

[russ_watters]

Are you talking about my 201k? I think I still have one share of that penny stock I bought at the height of the market boom.

I still have 100 shares of 3Dfx (TDFXQ) that show up on my brokerage statement (value: 0) despite having been crushed and sold off for scrap like 8 years ago.

 

[Pythagorean]

I go through a broker for the majority of it that keeps me in safe stocks and mutual funds and bonds. I also have a little bit in my own choice stocks for playing. So far I've lost 25% of my play money, but I'm just going to sit on it and wait. I think some of them will recover in 10-15 years.

 

[jtbell]

I go through a broker for the majority of it

What kind of fees are you paying? From what I've been reading lately most retail financial advisor / broker types seem to charge 1% to 1.25% of your portfolio per year. Doesn't sound like much, but when you compare it to a long-term 6-7% annual gain...

With me, it's strictly a DIY operation for the non-TIAA-CREF stuff, using an online account at a major mutual fund house. No explicit fees for their mutual funds. Instead they have an "expense ratio" built into the funds' returns which varies from 0.3% to 0.6% per year for the funds that I own. I also have a brokerage account with them that I use for Vanguard mutual fund ETF shares which have expense ratios of 0.06% to 0.10%. I have to pay a $10 commission per trade for those, which is OK since I buy those shares in largeish chunks and plan to keep them for a long time. I could avoid the commissions by opening an account at Vanguard, but I prefer to keep everything together on one website and statement.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I have 47% of my investing in large cap stocks, 22% in small cap stocks and 21% in international stocks. 90% of this is in index funds and 10% in three individual stocks.

More importantly, though, is that I have no debt and a cash cushion to live on in case of emergencies. In almost all cases you can get a better "return" from paying down debt than investing.

 

[Pythagorean]

What kind of fees are you paying? From what I've been reading lately most retail financial advisor / broker types seem to charge 1% to 1.25% of your portfolio per year. Doesn't sound like much, but when you compare it to a long-term 6-7% annual gain...

With me, it's strictly a DIY operation for the non-TIAA-CREF stuff, using an online account at a major mutual fund house. No explicit fees for their mutual funds. Instead they have an "expense ratio" built into the funds' returns which varies from 0.3% to 0.6% per year for the funds that I own. I also have a brokerage account with them that I use for Vanguard mutual fund ETF shares which have expense ratios of 0.06% to 0.10%. I have to pay a $10 commission per trade for those, which is OK since I buy those shares in largeish chunks and plan to keep them for a long time. I could avoid the commissions by opening an account at Vanguard, but I prefer to keep everything together on one website and statement.

1.3-1.5% + trading fees (can't remember exactly how they work, it's been almost decade since I opened it). The DIY I use is $9 a trade, but my broker's consistently made better decisions than I have.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I still have 100 shares of 3Dfx (TDFXQ) that show up on my brokerage statement (value: 0) despite having been crushed and sold off for scrap like 8 years ago.

Thanks for making my day Russ. We all like to feel that we make smarter investment decisions than others. My one share of XDSL is worth $0.0011 today. When I bought it in Feb. '06, it cost me $0.37 so I'm not doing that well. But still, on a percentage basis, it's infinitely better than yours. And when you're as rich as I am, 37 cents means nothing.

 

[JonDE]

Yes, and I love it, although it is a bit addicting. So far, each of the last five years I have returned between 10-20% each year, including '08.