Investing for Retirement

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IMADreamer
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by IMADreamer »

Michael wrote:Awesome stuff, GB.

edit
IMADreamer wrote:I'm just asking the pros here so bear with me. I've heard of lost decades before as far as returns go, but is it just possible that our markets could stagnate for ever basically? Or just slow fall? Let's say we just don't figure it out here in America. Like the our govt just screws us essentially long term and returns are basically nothing. What do you do? I assume looking to over seas markets would be the way to go to get returns.

Back to the lost decade thing, If our market does basically stagnate at no real return long term, 10 years lets say, the smart play there is to just keep buying shares right? Then if things were to get going again you'd get back to accumulating returns pretty quickly?

Yeah I'm stupid I know.
Anything can happen, but I think it's much more likely in the long term (30 yrs+) the markets will grow. The best you can do is have a good plan and dollar cost average over time instead of timing the market.
Alright thanks. I'm pretty set then because I basically use Vangaurd Targeted Retirement funds because I'm lazy and I just auto contribute as the year goes on because I'm also forgetful.

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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by Michael »

401k and IRA limits are increasing in 2019:
After six years stuck at $5,500, the amount you can contribute to an Individual Retirement Account is being bumped up to $6,000 for 2019. The amount you can contribute to your 401(k) or similar workplace retirement plan goes up from $18,500 in 2018 to $19,000 in 2019. Catch-up contribution limits if you’re 50 or older in 2019 remain unchanged at $6,000 for workplace plans and $1,000 for IRAs.
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Michael
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by Michael »

Michael wrote:401k and IRA limits are increasing in 2019:
After six years stuck at $5,500, the amount you can contribute to an Individual Retirement Account is being bumped up to $6,000 for 2019. The amount you can contribute to your 401(k) or similar workplace retirement plan goes up from $18,500 in 2018 to $19,000 in 2019. Catch-up contribution limits if you’re 50 or older in 2019 remain unchanged at $6,000 for workplace plans and $1,000 for IRAs.
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Now that its 2019 it's a good time to refresh your 401k/IRA.

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stlouie_lipp
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by stlouie_lipp »

I invested a little into a cannabis/marijuana/hemp fund today.

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Swirls
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Re: Investing for Retirement

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Michael wrote:
Michael wrote:401k and IRA limits are increasing in 2019:
After six years stuck at $5,500, the amount you can contribute to an Individual Retirement Account is being bumped up to $6,000 for 2019. The amount you can contribute to your 401(k) or similar workplace retirement plan goes up from $18,500 in 2018 to $19,000 in 2019. Catch-up contribution limits if you’re 50 or older in 2019 remain unchanged at $6,000 for workplace plans and $1,000 for IRAs.
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Now that its 2019 it's a good time to refresh your 401k/IRA.
It's also a good practice to re-run through your W-4 at the beginning of every year to make sure you're having enough tax withheld every paycheck so that you won't owe anything come April 15.

Ideally you should owe ~$50 each year when you do your taxes, as that would mean you got the maximum possible each paycheck. If you routinely get $2k or $3k or more back each year on your tax return, you're having too much money withheld each paycheck. Likewise, if you routinely owe money each year on your tax return, consider paying more each pay period so that you won't owe any money come tax season.

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Felix The Cat
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by Felix The Cat »

Swirls wrote:
Michael wrote:
Michael wrote:401k and IRA limits are increasing in 2019:
After six years stuck at $5,500, the amount you can contribute to an Individual Retirement Account is being bumped up to $6,000 for 2019. The amount you can contribute to your 401(k) or similar workplace retirement plan goes up from $18,500 in 2018 to $19,000 in 2019. Catch-up contribution limits if you’re 50 or older in 2019 remain unchanged at $6,000 for workplace plans and $1,000 for IRAs.
Full Details
Now that its 2019 it's a good time to refresh your 401k/IRA.
It's also a good practice to re-run through your W-4 at the beginning of every year to make sure you're having enough tax withheld every paycheck so that you won't owe anything come April 15.

Ideally you should owe ~$50 each year when you do your taxes, as that would mean you got the maximum possible each paycheck. If you routinely get $2k or $3k or more back each year on your tax return, you're having too much money withheld each paycheck. Likewise, if you routinely owe money each year on your tax return, consider paying more each pay period so that you won't owe any money come tax season.
Is there a way to change the withholding rate for overtime pay? I'm guesstimating my return to be about $2k this year but that's probably because they withhold so much with overtime...

Arthur Dent
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by Arthur Dent »

If your pay doesn’t come in predictable equal payments, fine tuning withholding is a pain because the withholding formula basically assumes you have vanilla taxes and that what you got paid this period is what you’ll be pad in every period. If you want to mess with it, you have to use the goofy system of claiming extra allowances, but you’ll need to do some math to compute how much these will change your withholding and be careful unpredicted changes in your hours, etc don’t accidentally result in under withholding. Proceed if you enjoy projections and spreadsheets.

I think the IRS is supposed to update the W4 to make it less goofy at some point.

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Swirls
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by Swirls »

Yeah, I typically just estimate my earnings for the year and include $XXX of it as overtime.

So if my salary is $50k/year and I estimate I'll earn $10k in overtime over the course of that year, I'll use $60k as my income estimate.

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Smith Corks One
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by Smith Corks One »

Looking for some advice...I've been thinking lately about my parents' financial situation, which isn't great. Well, it's okay for now, because my dad has a pension, but when he dies, that ends. My mom will have no income except for a tiny amount of social security. They don't have much in savings, maybe low to mid 5-figures. They own their house outright, and another house they are renting, but that's about it for assets.

He's 68 and she's 65, and given their family histories, I expect her to outlive him by quite a bit. I mean, his health isn't bad, and I think 10-15 more years isn't a stretch for him, but most people in my mom's family live into their late-80's or even early 90's. Bottom line is I think she'll be around for a number of years after he's gone, with virtually no income. He does have a term life insurance policy, but it ends when he's like 72 or 73.

So what I was thinking about was talking to my 3 siblings and seeing if they would be interested in opening some kind of investment account now for my mom to have once my dad is gone. It would be best if it was something we all could add money into instead of having to go through one person. And I would want it to be something we could add to at any time as opposed to a set amount being put in each month. I guess a savings account would be one option, but there's really no interest with that. I'm just wondering if there's something that could earn a decent amount of interest over say 10-15 years. Maybe one of those Vanguard target retirement accounts, and set it for 10 or 15 years? Would that meet the parameters I've outlined?

Really a dunce when it comes to investing...it's something I've only recently started looking into even for myself, so any suggestions would be appreciated!

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go birds
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by go birds »

stlouie_lipp wrote:I invested a little into a cannabis/marijuana/hemp fund today.
can i ask which one?

I've been eyeing ACB for the past couple weeks and doing a bit of reading on the industry as a whole and i'm definitely intrigued.

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