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To: SteveH

Been in the market since 1994.

Started with $35k. Now have $800k.

Work hard. Keep a budget. Watch your spending. And invest at least 10% of your before tax income. Mutual funds are best.
Stick with the big companies:Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab.

And,for the love of God, don’t try to “time” the market or panic and cash out when it heads south. I did that once and lost $10k I never got back. But maybe that was money well spendt because I learned to hang in there over the long haul.

I stayed in the market during the Dot Com bubble and throughout the Great Recession...all the way down to 6300 from 9300 and now the market is flirting with 25,000.

Just be disciplined and keep a cool head. It does pay off but it takes time.


6 posted on 12/04/2017 2:52:26 AM PST by Catmom (We're all gonna get the punishment only some of us deserve.)
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To: Catmom; SteveH
Steve - the advice from Catmom above is as good as any you will get from a professional investment adviser, especially "Watch your spending." Realize that you are buying in near the peak of the market, and don't panic when it eventually drops by a large amount, as it always does. People lose more from panic than from bad investments, selling when it drops, forgetting that it ALWAYS comes back.

Two other points to make - always be investing, every chance you get. It's called Dollar Cost Averaging. That way you're buying in when the market's up, and when it's down, so you never have to try to time the market (it can't be done, no matter what the @$$ wipes on talk radio who are trying to sell you investments or advice tell you). And pay attention to your allocation (stocks versus bonds). Look up the recommended ratios for your age on the internet.

Finally, direct answer to your question - put the money into a mutual fund that is a stock market index (owns stocks from the Fortune 500 / 1000) with any of the major investment companies, and make SURE you buy No Load funds, with the lowest percent of fees you can find. Good Luck

21 posted on 12/04/2017 3:28:02 AM PST by Hardastarboard (Three most annoying words on the internet - "Watch the Video")
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To: Catmom

yah

760000 = 35000 * (1 + i) ** 23

i = 0.143 (nice!)

so far i have been sticking with fidelity which seems to have some nice tools over some of the others...


22 posted on 12/04/2017 3:29:36 AM PST by SteveH
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To: Catmom

Very good advice - a lot better than my previous snarky comment.


52 posted on 12/04/2017 4:50:52 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones.)
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