Where are you investing?

[mae0111]

I'd been keeping a lot of cash liquid in preparation of DH's equity purchase for his company.  Since that has fallen through, I'm now investing the cash to try to make up for lost time (I'm so pissed about that... it's been liquid for almost a year as the owner dragged his feet...).

So, where are you investing?  I'm sticking with ETFs, but trying to figure out which sectors or market caps to focus on.  I'm too chicken to try any hedged or inverse strategies, but would get into some smart beta.  

Any thoughts?  Thanks!

[saraml13]

Our 401k accounts are invested in target date retirement funds based on our ages. They are basically diversified funds that will keep adjusting the equity/bond mix of the portfolio to be appropriate for the risk level for our planned retirement dates. Other investment savings we have mostly in low cost S&P500 index funds. DH has a little bit of "fun money" for picking specific stocks in the market, but that's a small amount of our portfolio.

I'm a fan of dollar cost averaging. I'd gradually put money into the market over time, versus making a big lump sum investment right away.

[sdlaura]

We dollar cost average into index funds. We also keep a lot in cash since market valuations are high. We'll invest more in the event of a market correction.

[2chatter]

I am useless here - I work for a financial services firm but other than 401k, have found it impossible to open another account internally and am prohibited from external accounts so....

Just wanted to say I am so sorry about the situation with your DH - miserable.

[mae0111]

I've considered waiting, but I feel like we've missed such a huge run-up that I shouldn't wait anymore. I put a bit in over the last couple of days, but I still have a lot more to go. sdlaura, you're probably right about holding out for a correction. Maybe I'll slow down a bit.

I put some in XLF - since I left my job in the financial services sector and liquidated almost all of my company stock at an all-time high, I wanted a bit of exposure to the sector. Also invested in XLH for some healthcare exposure.

I've stuck mostly to market cap ETFs (ishares, SPDRs, and Wisdomtree), and tend to lean more toward value than growth. I'm heavily weighted domestically, too, so I bought a bit more IEFA and IOO.

I'm shying away from consumer sectors but I don't really know why. Also staying away from energy and real estate - if DH's new plan comes to fruition, we'll have exposure there.

Any other ideas???

[traveltheworld]

We have 4 portfolios:

Portfolio A (approximately 20% of our investments): 401Ks through DH's work and my 401K - we get to pick from about 12 different diversified managed funds, so we do 4 funds: roughly 30% US equity, 30% international (European) equity, 20% Emerging markets equity; and 20% high-yield US products (corporate bonds, pref shares, etc.). This gets adjusted once a year.

Portfolio B (approximately 50% of our investments): our own investment accounts, further split into about 15 diversified blue-chip stocks (half of which are dividend-paying) which make up about 80% of the portfolio value, 10% in a diversified infrastructure fund, and 10% in a diversified high-yield corporate bond fund. Of the 15 blue-chip stocks, we have a few stocks that track the private equity market (e.g. Blackrock) so we have good diversification from both a sector and geography perspective. This gets adjusted a few times a year.

Portfolio C (approximately 10% of our investments): kids' college fund, equally split between 6 blue-chip stocks (3 tech, 2 consumer goods and 1 financial), 1 general US index fund and 1 international index fund. The only adjustments we've done in this is to pick a different stock every time we add new money in. The plan is to keep approximately the same ratio: 75% individual stocks, 25% index

Portfolio D (approximately 20% of our investments): our active trading account - approximately 5 - 10 individual, high-volatility stocks at any one time. This gets adjusted a lot.

We don't hold any fixed income products other than some high-yield corporate bonds through a fund. I feel like we have a long enough investment horizon that we can take the risk, and we have 2 rental properties, which to me, is considered fixed income already. So we like the public equity exposure.

Both DH and I actively monitor and trade. I'm the type that spends my free time reading analyst reports and financial statements, so if that's not something you want to do, I'd just go a pick a few quality, dividend-paying stocks, and/or buy into some index funds and have a good mix between US, Europe and Emerging Market. If you go that route, there really isn't that much difference between the different fund managers, so any of the popular ones would be fine in my opinion.

It also comes down to what you want in terms of returns, your risk tolerance, and how much time you want to spend on this. In the beginning, we did mostly index funds because I didn't have the time/risk-tolerance, and that worked out fine. We have such an active portfolio now because I have more time and genuinely enjoy managing this. It's almost like a hobby

[mae0111]

2chatter, thanks. Owner literally waited until one day after I finished my job (he knew the dates, etc.) to drop it on us. I don't know how DH is supposed to be civil to him in their tiny office.

[traveltheworld]

Jul 6, 2017 12:55:21 GMT -5 mae0111 said:

I've considered waiting, but I feel like we've missed such a huge run-up that I shouldn't wait anymore. I put a bit in over the last couple of days, but I still have a lot more to go. sdlaura , you're probably right about holding out for a correction. Maybe I'll slow down a bit.

I put some in XLF - since I left my job in the financial services sector and liquidated almost all of my company stock at an all-time high, I wanted a bit of exposure to the sector. Also invested in XLH for some healthcare exposure.

I've stuck mostly to market cap ETFs (ishares, SPDRs, and Wisdomtree), and tend to lean more toward value than growth. I'm heavily weighted domestically, too, so I bought a bit more IEFA and IOO.

I'm shying away from consumer sectors but I don't really know why. Also staying away from energy and real estate - if DH's new plan comes to fruition, we'll have exposure there.

Any other ideas???

I think you have a good mix already, other than maybe a bit more international and emerging market exposure. If you don't want to add real estate exposure, maybe consider infrastructure? Especially in Europe and emerging markets. I feel like there's still value to be added in the next decade in that sector.



I actually like the consumer sector stocks and they've done well in my portfolio. My definition of consumer sector stocks may be different than your's though - e.g. I consider Apple and Johnson & Johnson to be consumer stocks.  I think if you have a long enough investment horizon, the correction shouldn't matter as much.





Read more: pandce.proboards.com/thread/580363/where-investing?page=1&scrollTo=12726790#ixzz4m4ndXk22

[rere]

I feel like a novice compared to you guys.

I don't have the % breakdown. We do a 401k through Dh. I have opened up a Roth Ira due to the fact that most of my retirement is tied up in my pension system. That sounds like a good thing, but my state has screwed us and not funded adequately for years and now are acting like sate workers are a bunch of moochers by actually expecting the benefits we have worked towards for 18+ years in my case. Anywho, the rest of our investments are in the kids 529 plans.

We also have some invested in land that I plan on selling in a few years and either putting back into retirement or paying of the house if not done before.

[k3am]

We follow whatever advice a friend gives us - he's a wealth advisor at Wells, has 108 licenses, etc. Not just some schmuck. It's done pretty well so far.

This was his most recent recommendation:

% Ticker Description
25% IVV iShares Core S&P 500 ETF
15% HDV iShares High Dividend ETF
10% IJH iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF
10% IJR iShares Core S&P Small-Cap Equity
10% EFA iShares Developed Market Equity ETF
5% EEM iShares Emerging Market Equity ETF
10% VNQ Vanguard REIT Index ETF
5% MLPI UBS E-TRACS Alerian MLP Infrastructure ETN
5% HYG iShares High Yield Corp FI
5% PWZ CA Muni Bond Fund
100%

[sdlaura]

I agree on adding emerging markets. It's the most undervalued asset class now. Make sure you look at fees for ETFs vs index funds. DH and I both work in investing (his job is picking stocks) and for personal investing outside of the funds he manages, we favor just a couple broadly diversified index funds over a highly specific mix of sector funds or individual stocks.

[ilovelucyvv]

Our 401k is all over the place but our rainy day money is mostly in utilities which we have found to be fairly stable and provide stable dividends

[mae0111]

k3am, that's very similar to my full allocation. In fact, I own many of the same funds. Maybe I just need to buy more of everything.

Thanks all - this is really helpful!