Smart Saving and Investing

At the bottom of this post is an example of an aggressive asset allocation for the current economic environment.

My aggressive scale is 1 to 5 with this example landing on a 4 or 4.5 of that scale.  This example could be applied to your 401(k), 403(b), as well as Roth type of retirement plans.  This asset allocation example also can apply to folks in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s who have the time to recover multiple times from financial failures during those decades in their lives.

The current economic environment includes wild up and down swings in the stock market, home foreclosure worldwide, job loss worldwide, and banks collapsing are just a few realities of the current global financial melt-down.

However, since we can only count on history to tell us a bit about the future and you have the where-with-all to imagine an economic turnaround eventually, now is the time to look at what you should be investing in for the future.

Massive Withdrawal

Never before have so many people withdrawn money from their mutual funds as in September 2008.  This also happened in 2002.  In other words, people feel so bad about the market falling that they lost/lose money and then took their money out at a time when you should be putting money into the market, when it’s time to get in because there are rock bottom prices and great buys.

When there’s a 20% sale on sweaters, what do you do? Check out the sale.

This tells us what people can and cannot stomach.  In other words, your risk tolerance is challenged in times like these.  That also should tell you how to invest.  In what asset allocations should your money be proportioned.  What makes you sleep at night? This will drive your investment asset allocation.

With that said, there will be plenty of people who will NOT ride the market up but get in when the market is close to a top because everything will feel good and not risky.

Again, this is just an example and you can compare it to other funds in your retirement plan.

Balanced Funds - 5%

Good picks are:

• PIMCO Total Return Admin - Symbol PTRAX

Large Value Stocks - 23%

Good picks are:

• Columbia Value & Restructuring - Symbol UMBIX

Large Growth Aggressive Stocks - 30%

Good picks are:

• Fidelity Contrafund - Symbol FCNTX - is a good example of a Large Growth Aggressive Stock fund

Small Value Stocks - 20%

Good picks are:

• Fidelity Leveraged Company Stock - Symbol FLVCX
• or Royce Value Plus - Symbol RYVPX
• or Heartland Value Plus - Symbol HRVIX

Small Growth Stocks - 22%

Good picks are:

• Brandywine - Symbol BRWIX

For a grand total of 100% allocation.

I use Morningstar.com to research these funds.  Pick one fund for each asset class if your total investment is under $500,000.

written by Bill \\ tags: 401(k), 403(b), Asset Allocation, economic crisis, home foreclosure, job loss, Mutual Funds

Here’s a chance to attend a free seminar if you’re in the Omaha, NE area on August 8, 2008.  If not, you can call in on the a conference line that will be available at 1-866-285-7780 code 4425358. Since this is a Credit Advisors event, look for it to possibly be showing up in your area as well.

I have not taken this seminar so I don’t know what it entails and I can’t imagine there being any kind of sales pitch since this is being presented by Credit Advisors, a non-profit organization.

One final note on any financial seminar, beware of a sales pitch. If you’re really in dire straights financially, you don’t want to be getting involved in another financial commitment.  Always leave a seminar without committing to anything.  Take the information back home and discuss with trusted family, friends and advisors who are looking out for your own best financial interests.

written by Bill \\ tags: credit advisors, financial strategies, free seminar

Here’s a link that you can subscribe to and get new financial and investment words delivered to you by email.  Browse to InvesterWords.com and subscribe to their daily email.  You’ll receive one word a day to your inbox and you’ll start learning the lingo slowly over the long haul.

written by Bill \\ tags: financial glossary, financial terms, financial words, investment glossary, investment terms, investment words

This expired 2/14/08 and is no longer available

Listen Up!! There is a free eBook over at Oprah Winfrey’s site. Suze Orman was on today and everyone can download her book Women & Money - Owning The Power To Control Your Destiny. Here is the link to the free eBook. You have now until tomorrow, 2/14 at 7:00PM Central Time to download it for FREE!!

And here are some links to Suze’s advice at Oprah.

written by Bill

Brush - Floss - Brush - Floss - Brush - Floss!! That is the way you save money on your dental bill.

Recently I’ve been in conversations with some younger folks who have been hit with some big dental bills because of the whole flossing thing.

I’m talkin’ into the thousands of dollars to clean their teeth because they didn’t floss. Well, I hate to sound like a dentist but that’s what you have to do. I did the same thing when I was young, I didn’t floss and I was told to floss regularly. It’s the last thing you want to do when you’re young and invincible. You think you need to do it, and you know you should do it, and ultimate - you have to do it.

Now, I don’t know what all dentists are doing now a days but I know they seem to push more stuff to be done to you than ever before. I could be wrong but it just seems like that.

A Quick Story

When I was a youngster (around10 years old) my family dentist was working on my brother and I. My brother was a few years older than me. I remember my brother accidentally bit the dentist’s hand or finger and the dentist slapped him. DANG!!

That was the way it was done. You know, when teachers could spank kids and the parents sided with the teachers to correct kids behavior. I’m certainly not advocating going back to that day, I’m just tellin’ ya’, that was my experience. End of story.

So that’s how you save money on your dental bill. You floss. And I can’t believe I’m writing a blog article about flossing. But dental bills can get expensive because some folks might not have it covered very well under their health insurance plans.

If you haven’t flossed in a long time, I suggest starting slowly. Maybe once or twice a week - every Wednesday and Saturday would be good. When you first start, don’t dig in with the floss creating a painful, barbed-wire experience. Start slowly and lightly. I also suggest mint-flavored floss so you make it a tasty experience.

I try to floss daily. I still struggle to do it some times and I don’t always do it daily, but if you slow down now and implement some of the necessary tasks in life, you’ll save money in the long run. Just like saving and investing.

Now all you have to worry about is how to save money on the floss.

written by Bill