"ps56k" <pschuman_no_spam_me[at]interserv.com> wrote in message
news:ZFbyl.24624$yr3.16229[at]nlpi068.nbdc.sbc.com...

- quote -

It's still good -- you just have to be patient. :-)

More seriously, there are two subtle risks in spreading funds between
companies that you might not be aware of:

1) Fees matter. If you expect a fund to earn 10%/year over the long term,
and its expense ratio is 1.5%, that means it's taking away 15% of your
expected earnings, and that 15% compounds. That can cost you a lot over the
long term.

2) If you have two or more funds in the same asset category, and one or more
of them is actively managed, you may be overweight in a small number of
stocks without knowing it. That means that you're more exposed to risks in
a small number of companies than you should be.

It might be worthwhile to review your portfolio looking for these two risks.

On 2009-03-25 14:29:51 -0700, Chip <chip.a.wood[at]gmail.com> said:

- quote -


Some day I would love to go back into the USENET archives and read once
again what experts recommended in those days when the stock market was
rising ever upward and people were watching their savings grow nicely
and looking for ways of making still better returns.

In those times, most experts realized that things would not always be
fine and dandy and that large and small declines, blips, and bumps and
stagnant periods in the market were sure to come. Wisely, they said:
Stay the course. Don't think about the next year or two; think about
the next ten or twenty years. Save regularly, put the money into a good
mutual fund, and keep it there. Historically, the market has always had
ups and downs. Historically it has always risen to ever new heights in
the long run. No matter how bad it looks temporarily, it always bounces
back! Think long term.

To me it is amazing how little of that kind of wisdom is being
expressed at present. One would suspect that if it was good advice five
years ago, it should still apply. And yet today I am finding more and
more concern about safe places to put money, people looking at bonds
and CD's, whether x is safer than y, and so on. I have even come across
talk of taking money out of retirement plans and putting it somewhere
else! And I havent encountered the phrase "dollar cost averaging" in a
newsgroup in a long, long time.

dapperdobbs wrote:

- quote -

tour around the Islands in the SUVs? Does it for me.

Actually considering the latest financial cesspool, I'd been better off
and happier doing that than scrimping and investing "safely" all these
years.

Chip

On Mar 24, 3:48 pm, "ps56k" <pschuman_no_spam...[at]interserv.com> wrote:

- quote -

In a general sense, I would suggest working the cash into the
allocation you had prior to receiving it. Make it fungible, and
integrate it, rather than segregating it. That said, you might use it
as a nice fluffy blanket to shelter your allocation a bit towards the
conservative side. Or in less colorful terms, consider it an
advancement of your planning goals. Just guessing, but it seems you
might use the cash to bolster the college funds, first. That would be
on the assumption that three years from now the financial crisis will
be history, its causes outlawed, the portfolio of college funds
recovers and you use it for your retirement. I.e. try to not sell
depreciated stocks to pay for college costs.

For the present, cash is king, as the saying goes. A number of asset
classes have crashed - stocks, houses, commodities. It sounds like you
have a decent allocation and planning mind in place, and working
towards that is always the best recommendation to anyone. Most media
and funds, and private managers, and hence market prices, are focused
of short-term moves with under a year time horizon. An intelligent
planner should focus on outlooks for five and ten years or more.

But the financial and asset world has changed, and what to make of it
is beyond me at the moment. Cash is king has a converse to it: it can
buy more investment value, now. The big question is whether it will
buy less, or even more, in the future. I'm thinking of buying a house,
now - part personal, but also a proxy for gold if inflation comes
around two years from now. My preference is buying producing assets -
good, solid, companies with expanding markets. The days of doing one's
homework carefully are back (if they in fact ever left).

What NOT to do with it is easy. Do not: a) buy a big boat, b) an
extravagant vacation to Hawaii, c) his/hers big SUVs, d) more house
than you can possibly afford, e) five plasma screen TVs, (etc.):-)

On 2009-03-24 10:31:00 -0700, Douglas Johnson <post[at]classtech.com> said:

- quote -

I have been there, done that too. It is not simple, but it is not
back-breaking either. And I have found it to be considerably more
profitable than my adventures in stocks and bonds.

On Mar 24, 1:48*pm, "ps56k" <pschuman_no_spam...[at]interserv.com> wrote:
- quote -

Well then, put the extra cash in CD's and attend a couple of investing
seminars put on by either Schwab or Fidelity.

ps56k wrote:

- quote -

With $60K owed, do you even have enough interest to itemize? If not,
paying it off is 6% (or whatever) tax free return. And not a bad feeling
to kill it off. 50ish is not too soon to use this money to properly
diversify. If your portfolio is heavily stock weighted, this may be the
perfect opportunity to use the cash to balance closer to what makes
sense for you. Spreading around is good, but a retirement mix is closer
to 50/50 60/40, so that this last crash would only have had a 20-25% hit
on your portfolio if that much.

Depending on your income, this is also a good time to make use of the
Roth account, or pretax 401(k0 /IRA if you're not maxing those out.

Joe

"PeterL" <po.ning[at]gmail.com> wrote in message
news:fab7ba91-fd9d-4a95-b192-131894186266[at]n7g2000prc.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

yeah - forgot the profile.....50-ish - with a college bound kid -
Unlike most, we don't really have any debt, just $60k on the house,
and were not expecting or counting on the $230k -
The college funds were pretty much ear marked, but the downturn certainly
crunched that.

Most of our current portfolio is split between stocks [at] Schwab,
and then funds via Fidelity, TRowe, & Vanguard.
Thought spreading would be good - small, large, domestic, foreign, etc -
until everything was trashed...
Have been just putting current cash into some ladder CD's to keep my hands
from messing around.

On Mar 24, 7:23 am, "ps56k" <pschuman_no_spam...[at]interserv.com> wrote:
- quote -

Are you acquainted with asset allocation concepts? If not, spend a
weekend experimenting with those linked at http://ellessite.googlepages.com/assetallocation
Note how the tools tend to allocate a person more towards (investment
grade) bonds as a person ages and/or s/he wants less risk.

Igor Chudov <ichudov[at]algebra.com> wrote:


- quote -

You think buying and renting a condo is simple? Been there, done that. It ain't
simple.

In many ways, it is far more complex than stocks and bonds, especially if you
go with a no brainer mutual fund like Vanguard Balanced Index.

-- Doug

On 2009-03-24, ps56k <pschuman_no_spam_me[at]interserv.com> wrote:
- quote -

As another poster mentioned, it depends on things such as your age,
income, other assets etc.

But it also depends on your level of familiarity with finances.

Besides "stocks and bonds", do not shun simple investments like buying
a condo and renting it out, as long as the relationship of rent to
price is reasonable.

i

PeterL wrote:

- quote -

Peter is absolutely right.
You'll find this group to have great advice, but only with those missing
details. My answer for a 60 year old ready to retire is probably very
different that that for a 30 year old.

The one answer few (?) will argue is if you have any outstanding credit
card debt you carry month to month (aside from a 0-3% teaser rate) pay
that off. That's a no-brainer.

Let us know some more details and you'll get more advice to consider.
Joe

www.blog.joetaxpayer.com

ps56k wrote:

- quote -

There's far too little information in your post. What is your age? How
much do you already have in savings? How is your retirement set up? Do
you have a family? House?





Brian

--
Day 49 of the "no grouchy usenet posts" project

On Mar 24, 7:23*am, "ps56k" <pschuman_no_spam...[at]interserv.com> wrote:
- quote -


It's tough for anyone to say without knowing a whole lot more about
you. Your age, your income, your family (children, college), your
other investments, your debt, your risk tolerance, etc. etc. Put the
money in a safe place for 6 mos to 1 year for now. Some banks are
paying a decent interest rate at this time. Citi for example has a
one year CD paying 3+%. To be safe put it in two different banks.

Then spend some time reading up on personal financial management, and
talk to several fee only financial managers and get some ideas before
you plunge into anything.

BTW, anyone telling you he knows this guy from his country club that
can make you 15% a year every year, run run away from him like the
wind.

We are about to receive a $230k payout from an life insurnace trust...
Suggestions on where to place it in this economy ?

--
-- "If everything seems to be going well,
you have obviously overlooked something." - Steven Wright