Love em or hate em, Trump was good for your 401k's...

[akfodysvn]

They did exactly what they should have. You don't want to be invested in risk(ier) investments when you are about to retire. I'm retiring in 2018 , I transferred my risky stuff about a week after the tax bill cleared. Its all about making 8% from here on out.
If you're not retiring for 10 years, now is the time to make money. For the average Joe, the first thing you should be putting your money in is a Roth IRA. Those are great, unless you make cho cho money and cant contribute. UNLESS your employer does a matching 401k. If they match, put your money there first. Theres tons of good advice out there. Dave Ramsey gives good advice. Listen to his show, or buy his book. Most important thing is save some freaking money. Social security aint gonna pay you jack. Its every man for himself.

LOL everyone would dream of getting 8% "from hear on out". That's a great rate of return for the life of any investment. You should be planning for 4%ish with a non aggressive portfolio on avg.

Why are you considering a Roth better than a traditional 401k? I would think the average person would have a lower income in retirement and would want to take advantage of the tax deferred earnings.

Depends on everyone's situation. Have a pension? Then some non taxable income is great with a roth IRA to supplement your income. Want to borrow against your investment penalty free... then a Roth IRA is great (you can touch anything but the earnings without a penalty). Roth's don't have a required minimum distribution. ETC, ETC. In my opinion you should balance traditional and roth. Too easy to max out a Roth. We are looking at all time low taxes currently... my bet is they will be higher in 20 years when I retire.

Too hard to generalize

[slow99]

401k? Shit, I have a brand new car and an iphone X!

[Sgt Beavis]

DAMMIT! I fell $6K short of making a quarter million this year.

It's all Trump's fault.

[fordracing19]

DAMMIT! I fell $6K short of making a quarter million this year.

It's all Trump's fault.

Solid barg

[Gasser64]

You don't want to be invested in risk(ier) investments...

Aren't you supposed to hold the 401k until you retire? If that is the case, then perhaps it falls on your retirement year, that the 401k gets its ass whooped. The word "retirement" is what I can't get over. Its like it may just go wrong, when you're at your most vulnerable.

[Ruffdaddy]

DAMMIT! I fell $6K short of making a quarter million this year.

It's all Trump's fault.

Big baller making a solid barg.

How long you been going that in?

[The King]

Aren't you supposed to hold the 401k until you retire? If that is the case, then perhaps it falls on your retirement year, that the 401k gets its ass whooped. The word "retirement" is what I can't get over. Its like it may just go wrong, when you're at your most vulnerable.

The 401K gets held until you retire (and afterward), but you can move the funds that are in it to less risky investments as you approach retirement if you so choose to possibly avoid a fall that you won't have enough time to recover from.

[Ruffdaddy]

On a ROTH, you invest after tax money on the front end, but pay no taxes on the back end on what you have earned. That can be a ton of tax free money.

Good tips here..
https://www.fool.com/retirement/iras...-benefits.aspx

I know that Roth withdrawals are not taxed, but I always figured that was only an advantage if you planned to make more in retirement. I will not make what I make now in retirement...and if I do I won't be worried about the differential in taxes.

Right now I get to put an extra 28 to 33% into a high growth market on a dollar for dollar basis by going pretax. It's not until I exceed the IRS tax free max that I need to work with a Roth as well.

But I can see how it's highly dependent on situation. I can see how low growth years make the pretax contribution less beneficial.

With 8-12% yoy growth, I want the extra tax exempt money earning higher returns.

Aren't you supposed to hold the 401k until you retire? If that is the case, then perhaps it falls on your retirement year, that the 401k gets its ass whooped. The word "retirement" is what I can't get over. Its like it may just go wrong, when you're at your most vulnerable.

That's why you switch to conservative investments that are very low risk and shouldn't see that big of a drop. One of the reasons boomers worked much longer than plan was because of the 2008 crash however so not everything is immune to it.


I'm also no investing expert so I'm happy to get better advice. I'm going on the typical advice from fidelity, vanguard...etc.

[CWO]

I thought everyone cashed in their 401k and bought Bitcoin

[Craizie]

DAMMIT! I fell $6K short of making a quarter million this year.

It's all Trump's fault.

You need a side hoe? I ain't good lookin', but there's not a whole lot I wont do for money.

[HarrisonTX]

trump was good, but the canadian pot industry was far far faaar better to me.

[Sgt Beavis]

Big baller making a solid barg.

How long you been going that in?

That's not my investments. That's my salary and commissions for 2017. I have no idea how I'm going to pull that off for a 2nd year.

[Broncojohnny]

I have a little bit of every kind of account. And Roth IRAs are great. Avoiding taxes should be a top priority for anyone who is serious about getting rich. Contribute the maximum to your 401k every year ($18k in 2017) just for the tax benefits. Also, don't forget that if you are covered by shitty insurance with a high deductible, you can contribute up to $6,900 (2018 limit if married) to a health savings account and it comes out as pretax dollars. A lot of people are using those health savings accounts as just another investment account and many of the plans allow you to invest that money in funds just like a 401k. There is very little in the way of oversight on the withdrawal side of things as well.

Also, you can avoid a whole lot of taxes in a taxable account if you buy good shares and hold them for the long term without selling. The dividends get taxed at 15% after a year (20% if you work for the railroad). I still have shares in all the banks from 2008 and most of them are up 150% or more at this point.

[sc281]

You need a side hoe? I ain't good lookin', but there's not a whole lot I wont do for money.

$20 Is $20

[Ruffdaddy]

That's not my investments. That's my salary and commissions for 2017. I have no idea how I'm going to pull that off for a 2nd year.

I figured that was your salary.

Last sentence was supposed to say "How long you been *holding that in?" As in...how long you been waiting to brag about your cowskin?