Are you putting extra money in the market now?

[bdubs419]

We put some money in at first and are now waiting on a huge chunk, assuming markets will go down again soon.

[brooke77]

We threw some extra into DS’s 529 a few weeks ago. I was planning on investing more but then got the news that layoffs/furloughs will be happening in the next 3-6 months at my job so I’m keeping our savings in our low interest savings account as much as it kills me.

[marie]

I just increased my 401K contribution from 10% to 12%. I think I may up it again a few more percentages. I have a pretty diverse range of funds in there, so I figure this is the best way for me to invest more in the market right now.

[pumpkin]

I'm looking at putting TSP money into various funds - I need to reallocate anyway. Anyone have advice for Feds and investing across the funds?

[hamster]

Not outside of our usual monthly retirement contributions.

There is stuff I would buy, but I don't believe we are at bottom or anywhere close. I'd much rather be wrong and miss a buying opportunity though.

[goldengirlz]

Apr 16, 2020 18:17:07 GMT -5 lolalolalola said:

Apr 16, 2020 17:29:31 GMT -5 ny96 said:

We’re in the middle of an international crisis and 22 million people have lost their jobs, but our portfolio is only down about 8%, I’m worried.

You must have done a good job picking them to begin with! Our portfolio is down a lot more than that..

The market is definitely not behaving rationally. The Dow is almost up to 24,000 again despite record unemployment claims. There have been a lot of think pieces on WHY there’s that disconnect but I do expect we’ll see more volatility as we go into earnings season.

While there are some industries with known challenges where stock prices are still depressed, there are others that are trading back at 2019 levels (mine is one of them. And while I’m not complaining about seeing my money increase, I don’t know if it’ll last.)

[farfalla2011]

We finally opened DS's 529 a few weeks ago, but aside from our normal 401k contributions, only enough to get full match, we are stock piling cash like crazy. I'm at a very high risk of a sizable salary cut (best case and most likely), if not eventually facing furlough (worst case) since I'm in the travel industry.

[farmvillelover]

Apr 17, 2020 8:50:55 GMT -5 pumpkin said:

I'm looking at putting TSP money into various funds - I need to reallocate anyway. Anyone have advice for Feds and investing across the funds?

Are you opposed to the lifecycle funds that allocates for you automatically based on age?

[steamboat185]

We put some money in a few weeks ago, but with the current uncertainty we want more in cash than we normally have just Incase of a lay-off or pay cut.

[Covergirl82]

We are not putting anything extra in the market right now. DH and I are still working full time with full pay, but we're putting any extra money in cash savings for now. DH's company just stopped employer contributions for July through the end of 2020 as a cost savings, and the top layer of execs took a voluntary pay cut, so we're a bit concerned more cuts could come that may affect his base pay at some point.

[heliocentric]

We allocated money to DH's i401K to offset owing Federal taxes. We just haven't actually invested in funds yet and will probably wait until closer to the (extended) deadline to do so.

[dr.girlfriend]

Apr 16, 2020 20:41:33 GMT -5 lolalolalola said:

Apr 16, 2020 18:31:54 GMT -5 gt7301b said:

I have some cash I want to invest, but I am waiting. I don't think we are close to the bottom. I am not in the prediction business but even if we are able to resume normal activity by mid year the year will be terrible for most publicly traded companies outside of amazon and target. That being said I hope I am wrong.

It’s so hard to time the bottom. In figure if I can keep in in for the long term then I’ll still do ok.

I am totally kicking myself for not buying my own company stock when it dropped from $11.00 to $2.20 in March. It’s now back up to $3.80. So I am better at this in theory than practice.

Lol, I'm still kicking myself for not buying Netflix stock when it was down to $12 or whatever some years ago!

[pumpkin]

Apr 17, 2020 12:34:29 GMT -5 farmvillelover said:

Apr 17, 2020 8:50:55 GMT -5 pumpkin said:

I'm looking at putting TSP money into various funds - I need to reallocate anyway. Anyone have advice for Feds and investing across the funds?

Are you opposed to the lifecycle funds that allocates for you automatically based on age?

Not at all. Just looking for ideas since I'm unfortunately awful at this. lol

[farmvillelover]

Apr 18, 2020 13:47:47 GMT -5 pumpkin said:

Apr 17, 2020 12:34:29 GMT -5 farmvillelover said:

Are you opposed to the lifecycle funds that allocates for you automatically based on age?

Not at all. Just looking for ideas since I'm unfortunately awful at this. lol

I have my dad in the lifecycle fund. He's not a trader and I don't feel comfortable tinkering too much with it so it's been great.  The expense ratio is 0.042% which is extremely low given it's a target fund.  Just know if you choose one based on retirement date, they skew very conservatively so you might want to look closely what year you choose based on your risk tolerance.
www.tsp.gov/PDF/formspubs/tsplf14.pdf 

[pumpkin]

Apr 18, 2020 15:01:48 GMT -5 farmvillelover said:

Apr 18, 2020 13:47:47 GMT -5 pumpkin said:

Not at all. Just looking for ideas since I'm unfortunately awful at this. lol

I have my dad in the lifecycle fund. He's not a trader and I don't feel comfortable tinkering too much with it so it's been great.  The expense ratio is 0.042% which is extremely low given it's a target fund.  Just know if you choose one based on retirement date, they skew very conservatively so you might want to look closely what year you choose based on your risk tolerance.
www.tsp.gov/PDF/formspubs/tsplf14.pdf 

Thanks

[ellipses84]

I wasn’t planning to. Now that I’m laid off I have several types of retirement accounts I have to decide what to do with. My 401k needs to be rolled into a different account so I’ll probably roll it over into my IRA. My other accounts can stay where they are for a small fee. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with those yet.