About the Site

This is my personal finance journal dedicated to investing, bank deals, money management, etc.  It is always best to start investing as soon as possible and by creating a website about it, it will help me stick to my goals while helping others along the way.  I am a recent college graduate in my mid 20s living in the northeast. 

 
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The Young Investor's Guide to Building Wealth PDF Print E-mail
Written by Administrator   
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
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The Young Investor's Guide to Building Wealth
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Just out of college and not sure what to do with your new job income?

In this small guide, I've summed up what I felt are the most important ideas you'd need to know in order to have a comfortable retirement.

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Where to Park Your Hard Earned Cash

As a young investor, you're off to the right start by making decisions now about where to park your savings. Social Security will likely be non-existent by the time you retire, so it's best to start your building retirement nest egg now.

In general, since you still have 20-30+ years to retire, the recommended path is to invest in stocks long-term.  The reason for that is because the average annual return of the S&P500 Index is about 11.5% per year for the past 55 years.  You may have some bad years within those 20-30 years, but overall the gains are likely to be very good.

The types of accounts to invest stocks in are listed as follows in order from the one you should invest in first in general.  

Max out the first type of account, then work on maxing out the second type, and so on.  There are people that would argue that the 401k should be invested in first, rather than the Roth IRA, because there are exceptions to every rule of thumb. If possible, i'd definitely suggest doing both, then you don't have to worry about which one should I handle first.

1. Roth Ira

2. 401k

3. Regular Taxable Accounts (Bank or Brokerage)

4. Spend whatever is left knowing you will likely retire comfortably



Last Updated ( Tuesday, 26 June 2007 )
 
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