29 year old wants to start planning his retirement

[agueybana79]

Guys,

I came to this forum after doing some research about Missed Fortune 101. Thankfully, it seems like it's not correct in its assessment and I'm ignoring its advice. I want to be part of this forum community because I want to take smart, safe financial decisions to assure myself a comfortable retirement.

My financial background, as it stands.

1) I bought a 4-bedroom home at 6.125 interest for $127,000. The mortgage on it is about $124,000 (I put 3,000 down, no PMI, SoftSecond BankOfAmerica mortgage).

2) My expenses are below my income (this includes mortgage, car payment, car insurance, food, utilities, and cellphone bill)

3) I have ZERO credit card debt...in fact, I've never owned one. I use my Bank Debit card for Visa-style purchases.

4) My credit score is 777 (or was at the time of taking the mortgage for my first home...that was 2 months ago).

5) I have roughly 26,000 in college debt (both undergraduate and graduate added together), and I pay $210.00 or so a month to pay it off.

6) My income at the moment is somewhere in the 40,000s and I foresee that it will remain in the 40-60,000s bracket for the remainder of my working years (based on the projected incomes of my chosen profession).

My financial knowledge

I've read the Kuyosaki books, some of the Victor Hansen ones, I own the Eric Edelman "Extraordinary Wealth" book (though I haven't had the chance to read it) and some of the "The 9 secrets" books by Suze Orman. I've also received advice from my parents, who I considered to be pretty thrifty and smart with their bills and money.

What I would like to learn

I'd like to receive suggestions on books to read that help me structure a safe (is that possible in today's economy?), habitual plan of investing that will guarantee me a comfortable interest-based income that will not touch the principal. I'm 29 and want to begin investing intelligently to use the magic of compound interest to my favor. I took what I consider to be my first "smart" step by leaving the "renting" world for good and instead putting that money into a property that I will own (and whose equity stays in my possession).

So, I humbly say hello to everyone here and ask for sound, smart, conservative advice on how to maximise my savings, investments, and financial decisions. Take care all and I look forward to learning from you guys. Is there a thread for "young investors" and how they can start out?

UPDATE:

First question. I have most of my money in just a vanilla Savings Account with BankOfAmerica. Is there a better place to put money that I do NOT want to invest for retirement (say...a money market account). And, if so, what banks have good interest return on money put into their accounts? This question is more for maximizing my "non-investment" money.

[FIREdreamer]

Hello Agueybana,

welcome to the board.

I don't know if anyone can guarantee you will have a comfortable retirement, but you will find sensible and sound information on this board that will help you make the right decisions along the way.

A few good books to read:
"The four pillars of investing" by Bernstein and "The Boglehead's guide to investing" by Larimore should help point you in the right direction and get started. I also recommend a very inspiring book about retirement, "Work less, live more" by Bob Clyatt (who happens to post of this forum on occasion).

For money that you do not want to invest for retirement I would suggest an online savings account, such as ING Direct, HSBC or others I am less familiar with. They tend to pay higher interest rates (2.75% at ING right now) than traditional brick-and-mortar banks. I would also look at CDs (higher interest rate, FDIC insured, but the money is locked in for a predetermined amount of time). Right now you can find short term CDs (6 months - 1 year) that pay around 3.5-4%. Longer term CDs (up to 5 years) pay about 4-5% right now. ING direct does offer CDs with decent rates (3.5-4.25%). Wachovia also has an offer right now for a 1-year CD paying 4.25%. And somebody pointed out yesterday that Wamu is still proposing CDs paying 5%.

[bbbamI]

Take a look at this...

FIRE Recommended Reading List

....welcome to the forum.

[kyounge1956]

Originally Posted by agueybana79

Guys,

I came to this forum after doing some research about Missed Fortune 101. (snip)

I read Missed Fortune and a couple of other books by the same author earlier this year. Even though I couldn't put my finger on it then, something just didn't smell right about the plan the author advocates. There are several threads here that touch on the specifics of Missed Fortune and on the whole question of whether to direct money toward early mortgage payoff or into investments.

First question. I have most of my money in just a vanilla Savings Account with BankOfAmerica. Is there a better place to put money that I do NOT want to invest for retirement (say...a money market account). And, if so, what banks have good interest return on money put into their accounts? This question is more for maximizing my "non-investment" money.

A couple of years ago I refinanced my house with cash back in order to replace my car which had just died. I had to wait several months for my new car to arrive. I'm also a B of A customer and at that time they had a CD which paid better interest than the plain vanilla savings account. There was no penalty for withdrawal after the first 5 days. You might ask them if they are still offering these. I think it was called a "SmartCD" or something along those lines.

Hope that helps,
Karen