Not all eggs in one basket. We are in fragile times, big companies as well as small as well as big insurers are going bust. MF Global mess shows even 'garrenteed' individual accounts will disappear when the chips are down, and after 3 months no one is even close to jail with 1.6 billion dollars missing......
So, again, not all eggs in one basket!
Land, gold, silver are ok storage places, you have something, but you can't own 'paper' silver or gold certificates, you need to have the lumps of metal in your hand. (MF Global, again, shows that if you own a piece of paper that says there is a stock, pile of dollars, precious metal, retirement fund, or any other such in your name that they so nicely hold for you, you actually only own the paper, the actual asset can be used for loans by your investor company & really you own nothing.... MF Global is a big deal, it changes the game dramatically, not many are realizing this... )
The game with these assets is to get in and get out the opposite of most people, so you make money, and that is a tough game to learn. When your dentist is talking about buying land or gold, it is too late, you are at the end of the bubble, be buying the next fad.....
Employer matching accounts are a no-brainer, but if your company goes bust the funds are gone, so I'd be scared to have it my only investment. I'm self employeed so don't know anything about them, can you roll them into your own account at some point, so you control it, get it away from a company that is going down?
CDs and Mutual accounts are destined to very low returns, less than inflation. Safe, but doesn't do anything for you. But - safe. Safe can be good in troubled times.
One option not many look at or know of is Muncipal Bonds. Local governments sell bonds to build schools, etc. and if you get a city backed or well insured type of bond they can't default on they are as safe as anything around. They appear to pay low interest rates, but most are tax free, so you own no income tax on them at the end of the year. This can make them attractive esp if you get to a higher income bracket. They can be bought & sold as an asset, so if you need to get to the principle you can sell them before maturity. A pretty good deal for a portion of your assets. Safe, return a tax-free income every 6 months, and can be sold if need be with no penalty.
Long term stocks are supposed to be good, find something with low fees and put your money in and forget about it, will go up and down over 30 years but should find some big spikes up over that time. The mutual funds tend to be watered down to mediocre, might want to look to long term steady growth stuff and just leave it alone. For example, people always drink beer, times get tough and people drink even more beer, so tends to be a good long term....
Roth IRA is good to put money away for retirement. Do we trust the govt to not tax assets a second time when the govt is broke and we have a big pile of retirement Roth's sitting out there???? Not sure the 'tax free' deal will really pay off.
Regular IRA is a good place to put money away for retirement and gain a tax break the years you contribute to it. Gives you something for now, and something for retirement.
One of each type gives your tax preparer some options....
If you are the type that can lock money away for retirement & leave it alone, the IRA and employee matching stuff is good. If you are the type that 'needs' to access that money every decade to buy a house, handle a divorce, refinance your credit cards, then might as well make it easy & invest in your own non-penalty stocks and bonds and land and metals so you can cash them out & start over every 10 years.
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Today's Featured Article - Gatherin of the Orange - by Rick Nikolich. In July of 1998 I was talking to fellow Allis Chalmers collector Mike Schilling about the annual "Gathering of The Orange" AC show coming up in August of 1999. He got this wild idea that we should get a convoy of AC tractors and drive them from Charlotte, Michigan 105 miles to LaGrange, Indiana.
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