OT. NO cashiers at Wally World

[gfretwell]

Just be careful about the fees. Some of these funds eat over half of your profit before you ever see it.

[invalid unparseable]

On Sat, 20 Jun 2020 10:51:53 -0500, Jim Joyce posted for all of us to digest...

Fiber

[gfretwell]

The way we understood it a couple years ago is it was a one time deal, the first year you filed.

[Jim Joyce]

There was a PBS program many years ago that I'm totally blanking on, where the man mentioned it's a strategy that you could do every year until you max out, but the catch was that if you forgot and went past the next anniversary date by even 1 day you'd be locked in at that rate. I was talking to a financial advisor a few years ago and he thought Congress had closed the door via legislation, so that's why I'm thinking you can't do it anymore.

[Dean Hoffman]

Consumer Reports years ago suggested index funds. S&P 500 for example. No need for a broker to make his commission guessing the market. Put money in every year until retirement.

[thekmanrocks]

Dean Hoffman:

RE: Index funds.

Are those the 'IDF's I've heard about from time to time on radio?

If so, some require thousands to initiate.

[Dean Hoffman]

A very short search turned this up.

Vanguard wants $3000 minimum. The minimum investment for a couple others is zero. I've put my money in various Vanguard index funds for whatever reason way back when. They might've been pioneers vs. the managed funds.

[Dean Hoffman]

A bit more quick searching:

If you look here there is a choice between index funds and the ETFs.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I have a Fidelity account I opened with some rollover money from a previous employer. 10 years ago it was worth $3000. With the RMD I've taken out about $1500. Today it is worth $6700. Put as much as you want into a savings account but it won't match that growth.

[rbowman]

There's the rub. I've been a minimalist all my life. I'd have to undergo a radical personality change. It's not that I scrimp and save I've just never wanted much. You can only spend just so much on outdoor gear, guitars, banjos, and motorcycles.

[Ed Pawlowski]

My income with retirement is the lowest in a few decades but I put more into savings last year than I have in decades. There is nothing I want that costs a lot of money.

My desktop computer died a few weeks ago so I bought a new one. My big splurge for the year.

[rbowman]

I bought a car a couple of months ago. That was my contribution to the economy but given the life expectancy of Toyotas and my life expectancy it'll probably be the last barring a wreck.

Luckily I avoided old age crazy which would have been a Challenger. If the thing was a hatchback like the 3rd gen Firebird I had I doubt I could overcome the temptation.

Oh, and I bought one of those smart phone thingies -- the $150 flavor not one of the ones for ten times the price. It runs the geocaching app and Jango. I've found I can track cell phone coverage by piping Jango to the car radio via bluetooth. When the music stops playing..

Other than that it's mostly food. My splurge there is $10 a pound salmon fillets and pricey cheese.

[gfretwell]

Last year, you could still do it once.

[Rod Speed]

[e-mail] wrote

That doesn’t happen, even with texting.

Nope, even with texting.

Just don’t do it in here.

[Rod Speed]

I did a hell of a lot better than that. Been involved in the stock market since I was a teenager, quite literally. Made lots of money in our mining boom in the 60s, I'm in Australia. Found someone silly enough to pay me very well for doing what I would have quite happily done for free, so not hard work at all. Made a lot more money by using it in the stockmarket than by saving it. Built my own home from scratch on a bare block of land and in those years was effectively earning more than the boss of the place I was working for at the time. And now have so much in assets that I will never be able to spend it all before I die.

[Rod Speed]

So use one of the better mutual funds instead.

[Scott Lurndal]

You don't have to spend it, just take the distribution and use it to buy an ETF (e.g. QQQ).

[rbowman]

I don't do stocks or securities. US savings bonds are as close as I ever got and they haven't been attractive in some time.

[thekmanrocks]

rbowman:

RE: stocks and securities

Thumbs up!