Useful Links

Nords · 02-09-2011, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by samclem

I think it was sufficiently long ago that his rank is likely the same as yours and mine: Mister. (which still sounds just fine to me!)

Maybe it's my guilty conscience or old watchstander's trauma, but I still cringe whenever I hear someone call out "Mister Nords!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by SunsetSail

Thanks for pointing out the links. They were interesting reading.

I have to pass the credit on to those who had the courage to post about what they were doing and then deal with the consequences... valuable lessons.

jIMOh · 02-09-2011, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bankerwithabrain

HAHAHA

I can't believe nobody on these boards struggles with the same issue!

Or some of us post less than others

What I do is take chances with small portions of the money.

For example if an allocation is supposed to be:

75% domestic/ 25% foreign
and
45% large cap/15% mid cap/15% small cap/15% foreign large cap and 10% foreign small cap
(100% equity across the board).

How many ways can you create that allocation? It is infinite.

Some of us buy the large cap fund and put 45% in it. Find the mid cap fund, 15% there etc...

I do that with 95% of our assets- my 401k, my Roth, my rollover- each each account has the 45-15-15-15-10 allocation in it.
My wife's 401k also has same allocation.

My wife's Roth and rollover DO NOT follow above. They are 75-25 (domestic-foreign) and also 45% large and similar. But I construct it MUCH differently. I construct it with sector funds. A tech fund, a natural resources fund, a financial services fund, a health care fund etc...

My wife's IRAs are less than 25% of the money invested (it might be 5%, 10% on a really good day).

I make decisions on what to BUY, but I rebalance this account very little (I do not sell much). I can generally rebalance with a years worth of contributions ($5000). I do not have a sector allocation- if I want 50% of the account in tech, 50% will be in tech. I focus on the xray more than the fund allocation (meaning the tech fund owns some large caps and lots of mid/small caps, the financial services owns more large caps and less small caps). I just analyze by xray only and make sure the portfolio never has more than 45% large cap domestic and no more than 25% foreign, and I am coming real close to what target needs to be in that regard.

I generally buy what is down (in 2008 I was buying real estate fund and financial services fund). Now I am focusing more on health care (lagged in 2009) and technology.

If I find a sector which does bad, that is usually the one I buy because it means it is lower than the others and will recover faster (financial services for me between 2008-mid 2009 nearly doubled).

Onward · 02-09-2011, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bankerwithabrain

I can't believe nobody on these boards struggles with the same issue!

If you only knew how I struggled with it!

If you're absolutely miserable in your j*b, then you have nothing to lose by changing j*bs. If you're like me, and it's the notion of servitude that you object to, then you just have to suck it up till you can afford to jump ship. I was in that phase for some years, and what helped me most was visiting this board, reviewing my finances, and looking for (reliable) ways to increase escape velocity.

Animorph · 02-09-2011, 02:42 PM

Your best bet right now is to see how cheaply you can live. Cut expenses in half instead of doubling your portfolio. Always good practice anyway. I was on our retirement budget for a couple of years before we retired, including CPI raises.

Not sure what your investments look like now. Certainly going 100% stocks would not be too far off the beaten path. I'm still doing that. So are you looking at just one or two stocks for the entire portfolio?