Financial Planning, Retirement Plan, 401k, Investment Blog

Financial Planning, Retirement Plan, 401k, Investment Blog

Posts Tagged ‘index funds’

Is This the Market of a Lifetime?

Posted March 25, 2009 by Bernz

It’s difficult for even the best prognosticators to get a handle on the stock market these days. The massive recession-that-might-be-a-depression that has gripped much of the industrialized world has brutalized stock markets in the US and abroad. Pension funds, college funds and savings accounts have all been hard hit. Recently, CNBC’s Jim Cramer took a verbal beating from Jon Stewart about his inability to predict the crash.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped to its lowest level in 12 years recently and continues to test that limit. But even with all of the warnings about the dangers of the market right now, some wise investors are in collection mode.

So, is there opportunity in the stock market right now or only grief and despair? Optimists point to the fact that all stocks are getting punished regardless of their fundamentals. That means that there are stocks that are currently undervalued lurking out there. The tricky part is finding the ones that will both weather the remainder of the recession and also do well when the markets turn around.

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Posted in Financial Education, Financial Goals, Index Funds, Investing Basics, Investing Strategies, Stock Market Investing, Stock Watch | 1 Comment »

Cleaning Up Your 401(k)

Posted February 25, 2009 by Bernz

If you are like most employees who have a company-sponsored 401(k) plan, you filled out all the paperwork when you first signed up, chose your investment funds from the list provided, and proceeded to forget it from then on. In the last 12 months, it is likely that every time you take a peek at your plan, it has gone down in value yet again. Best to just not look at it and hope for a miracle, right? Wrong!

While there is not much that you can do about the global recession or the sorry state of the stock market, you can take charge of your retirement funds, especially your 401(k). Every 401(k) has an option to buy and sell the underlying investment funds every so often. You may be able to make changes to your plan every three months or even every day. Find out when you will be able to change out your investments and then take some time to know what’s going on with your existing choices.

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Posted in 401k, Index Funds, IRA, Retirement Planning, Roth IRA, Simple IRA, Traditional IRA | No Comments »

Index Funds: What They Are And How They Perform

Posted February 15, 2009 by Bernz

Index funds are a type of mutual fund that combines a number of different stocks into a single stock market investment vehicle.  Instead of buying the individual stocks, you can buy shares of the fund.  That way you own a portion of many stocks instead of owning many shares of just one stock.

This type of ownership appeals to many investors who prefer to spread their risk over a number of stocks, but may not have the investment money that it  takes to buy a lot of stocks across a wide section of the market.

Of course, some people are critical of mutual funds since they typically yield less than individual stock portfolios.  This is largely due to the fees charged by most mutual funds.

Mutual Fund profits are decreased by the management fees.  Since the stocks in the funds are personally selected by the managers, the managers are well paid for their research and expertise.  But you can minimize those management fees by investing in index funds.

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Posted in Financial Education, Investing Strategies, Mutual Funds, Stock Market Investing | No Comments »

Making the Right 401(k) Choices

Posted February 3, 2009 by Bernz

Knowing which investment choices are right for you in your 401(k) plan has never been easy, but in the current economic environment, it can be downright torturous. Most funds that are available to choose from in your plan are declining in value and producing negative returns. This is also the case of the stock market as a whole. That means that your job is to select investment funds not to make the biggest return but to lose the least amount of money. Preservation of capital is tantamount during this extended recession.

Many investors make the unfortunate choice of trying to beat the stock market. However, it has been proven time and time again that, over time, managed funds rarely outperform the stock market as a whole, regardless of how talented and well-compensated the fund manager is. If seasoned experts cannot beat the market, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to. The best many investors can do is to match the performance of the stock market.  How can you choose investments in your 401(k) that will follow the stock market and preserve your retirement funds? Index funds.

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Posted in 401k, Financial Education, Financial Goals, Investing Strategies, IRA, Tax Reduction | No Comments »

Don’t push the panic button (yet!)

Posted November 3, 2008 by Bernz

By Carrythebanner

Listen, I know all the news lately has you worried. We’re facing a global economic recession and that is very scary. But in spite of all the latest happenings, life should go on. So, in spite of the paper’s headline and what your co-workers are chatting about around the water cooler here are some tips that assure you panicking (just yet) is not the right move.

As I mentioned in my post, Bargain stocks, a good deal, one of the things you can do right now is to take care of new money coming in. This gives you an opportunity to put funds in those areas where contributions are low.

Another thing I strongly suggest is that you look at how your old money is invested and who it is invested with. Call your money manager and get help with this. What you’ll likely learn is that your money is safe but you’ll also learn about where your assets are and what you can do to make sure they are protected. Word of caution you’re stripping money from your retirement savings and future gains because compound interest wipes away that opportunity as does annual fees that are more than 3% a year.

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Posted in Financial Education | 2 Comments »