On Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:10:59 -0500, Sandra Loosemore <sandra[at]frogsonice.com> wrote:

- quote -


If you actually have money to invest then you are following the
principles in "Millionaire Next Door", whether you know it or not.
Even though it might be possible to do without the book, I still think
it is very helpful.


- quote -

Absolutely. I agree with all the above. By far, the most important
aspect of long term investing is having the determination to stick with
it, to keep saving and investing some amount every month. That is more
important than finding the absolute "best" fund. A "good" fund will do
just fine.

On Fri, 21 Apr 2006 08:19:08 -0500, mgarnhum[at]gmail.com wrote:

- quote -

You won't find cookbook answers. Everyone's situation is unique to
some degree. You have to acquire the knowledege, then you will see
how to apply it to your situation.

In fact if someone tells you that there's an easy answer and you
don't have to do any work at all - watch out! I'm all in favor
of "simple" but just remember what Albert Einstein once said -
"You should keep things as simple as possible, but no simpler".


- quote -

Bingo! :-)

"Sandra Loosemore" <sandra[at]frogsonice.com> wrote
- quote -

Just my opinion, but there's nothing cynical in what you
say; instead, it's wisdom. It mirrors the counsel of
Benjamin Graham, who observed c. 1934 (and in subsequent
editions of his book, through the 1970s) that nothing more
than basic math skills were required for a layperson to
become an intelligent investor. With careful study and
ordinary reasoning skills, and asking good questions here
and there, investing is indeed not complicated.

asw[at]wjd.ofr (John Sheridan) writes:

- quote -

Hmmm, I've never read any of these "must reads"! I've done all my
research on financial sites on the net -- morningstar.com, money.cnn.com,
www.kiplinger.com, etc.

One piece of advice I have for beginning investors is not to make
things more complicated than they have to be. You don't have to come
up with a portfolio of 10 different mutual funds when you're starting
out; one good "core fund" is all you need at first. Some good candidates
are a target allocation fund, a balanced fund, or a large-cap value fund.
As time goes on and you have more money to invest, you can branch out and
add a few more funds.

-Sandra the cynic

<mgarnhum[at]gmail.com> wrote
- quote -

Megan, four comments:
1. Like others said, it's hard to comment without knowing
all
the details of the profit sharing plan. You've elaborated a
bit, but I don't think it's enough for anyone to comment
intelligently.

2. If you make less than $95,000 a year, you can open up a
Roth IRA and contribute the maximum allowed, currently $4000
a year. This is an excellent retirement vehicle that you
should strongly consider. The consumer information on the
web about the Roth IRA is very good. You can google for
{"Roth IRA" income} and many fine, easy to understand sites
come up. Though, as with anything, the concept behind it may
take a little while to sink in.

3. Before you see a financial advisor of any kind, consider
spending an hour or maybe more experimenting with the free
online asset allocation tools linked at
http://home.earthlink.net/~elle_navorski/id4.html . They
introduce you to the concept of investing with a view
towards diversity (to maximize gains and minimize risk)
based on age and risk tolerance. Going into a meeting with
an advisor prepared can save you time and so money.

4. Do keep lurking here. Many people ask about investing for
retirement, and the responses tend to be repetitive. Also,
remember the only stupid question is an unasked one
(assuming the person asking is willing to first do a bit of
homework to see if she or he can make sense of what's said
at the various financial advise web sites). It takes
repetition of concepts, in a variety of styles and formats,
to learn anything new, as I'm sure you are aware.

Hang in there. It gets easier. You took a big first step by
starting this thread and asking a good question.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

I have heard of Suze Orman's books - Ramit at iwillteachyoutoberich.com
referred me to her books, I have one on request at the library. I also
sat down at the bookstore with a few dummies books. I just felt like no
book really went into my situation.

As I mentioned previously, my company only offers a profit sharing
plan. Only the employer is allowed to contribute. We don't have a 401K
option, but after three years with the company I'm eligible to buy
stock. We're a private company, with a very good profit history. But I
like I said, all eggs, one basket. The profit sharing is made up of
stock and cash contributions.

I'm also going to make an appointment with an investment person who is
a friend of the family, who can hopefully make heads or tails of the
situation. I know that it's my decision to make, but it's an awfully
hard decision to make when I don't understand a great deal about
investing and all that jazz. Maybe reading the books will help out.

Thanks again!
Megan

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 10:34:43 -0500, mgarnhum[at]gmail.com wrote:

- quote -

Megan, I have to agree with what John Weeks posted - read, study,
learn. We live in a capitalist society, and when you consider that
"capital" is just another word for "money" - we live in a "money-ist"
society. Unfortunately they don't teach you anything in school about
money management, so we have to learn it on our own.

"Mutual Funds for Dummies" is a good book to start with. Don't get
put off by the "dummies" thing. Also any book by Jack Bogle is good.

Take a look at Suze Orman's books too. Maybe even check your local
TV listings so you can tune in on her TV show. Her personality is
somewhat intense, sometimes a little silly, but she's always
entertaining and informative when it comes to money management.

Two more "must reads" are Stanley's "The Millionaire Next Door",
and Clason's "The Richest Man in Babylon".

Find the time, make the time, to read and learn from these books.
The time investment you make today will pay off handsomely in the
future.

mgarnhum[at]gmail.com wrote:
- quote -

Find out how the profit sharing plan is invested. It's probably not in
your company stock, probably/hopefully some diversified fund. If that
is true, then your eggs are not all in one basket, because those funds
will still be 100% available even if your company goes down.

- quote -

Here's a place for you to start reading. In general, your first option
is to open a Roth IRA account.
http://finance.yahoo.com/education/retirement

mgarnhum[at]gmail.com wrote:
- quote -

Megan,
First thing I'd suggest is seeing exactly what your employer plan is.
How is the money invested, and who is the custodian of the assets? What
has the track record been for making contributions? Is there anything
paired to the profit sharing plan (eg a 401k), so you can make
contributions as well? (it sounds like "no" on this last one)

The "profit sharing" part is a little misleading - that's just a term in
tax law really. Your company doesn't need profits to contribute to one,
and in practice, might do it annually as part of their overall
compensation package. And the money goes into a bucket that is no longer
a company asset, so the eggs-in-basket issue may not be a problem -
depending on how the money is invested. It might be an account at
Fidelity invested in a mix of mutual funds that you're perfectly happy with.

What else you can do depends on whether you're considered covered by the
profit-sharing plan - you probably are, but confirm that with your HR
dept (or look at the check-box on your W-2 that you just had when doing
your 05 tax return). If you are "covered", any contribution to a
Traditional IRA may not be tax deductible. You might be able to make a
Roth IRA contribution, it depends on your income. Many scenarios here,
and it's all covered under the contribution sections on Traditional and
Roth IRAs:
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p590/index.html

-Tad

In article <1145542162.610984.101710[at]e56g2000cwe.googlegroups.com> ,
mgarnhum[at]gmail.com wrote:

- quote -

The only one who really cares about your money is you. As a
result, you are the one who is going to have to do some reading
and learning, and figure out what to do. Anyone else who claims
to care about your money is simply trying to scam you out of it
and make it their money.

There is a pretty good dummies book to get started with. Despite
the name, it is pretty well done. There are a zillion other
personal finance books out there. Some are written by women in
case the female point of view would speak better to you. There
are also a number of good radio shows. I don't know of anything
on TV I can suggest, nor do any of the magazines that I have seen
do a good job.

You have your marching orders. Head to your bookstore, buy a
book or two, read and learn, then post back here when you have
some more specific questions.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708 john[at]johnweeks.com
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

I work for a company who only offers a profit sharing defined
contribution plans for its employees for its only retirement option.

While the company is very profitable and it's forseeable future is very
bright, I'm not a big fan of putting all my eggs in one basket.

To this end, I'm looking to supplement my retirement plan with
something else, only I'm not completely sure what to do. IRA? But what
are my limits, what are the rules? It's all very confusing.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Many thanks!
Megan