Beginning investing, who what where...

Originally Posted by darkapollo

Nothing else has interested me. I would honesty take $25/ hr. That is more then double my current wage. After my lay off the only thing I could find was a crummy unskilled labor warehouse job, which is where I am now.

If you have any particular area of focus you are interested in, I would be happy to offer some advice.

Thanks. I havent really decided on a focus. Its been 10 years since I have been in college, so I need to do more work before I can set an exact direction.

Also, I have relatives who are architects and AE's. I can talk to them about internships, and such.

One more point about school.........

I hope your school is free, or scholarships, or something to that effect. If you are paying for school, then you need not be concerned with saving any money. You need to find a way to pay cash for schooling first.

Along those lines, do not incur any more debt before investing. There is no point in investing at 5% to take loans for debt at 5%. It is a wash.

As weird as it sounds, my mother has agreed to pay for school. All that is required of me is to pay for the first semester.

Nothing wrong with having a sugar momma.

I started Roth 401k investing last week. Just did 10% until all consumer debt (everything but mortgage) is paid for. Once the debt is paid for, I'll jack it up to 15%. I told the company to do their default "aggressive growth" plan. I am 26 (yes I know its late, save the ball busting for later please) so I think I'm young enough for more risky investments.

Thoughts?

At your age the agressive is fine as long as you have the personal risk tolerance to stomach that allocation. I would look and see what they have within the aggressive allocation. Look at the performance of the funds. And the expenses.

Will do... Thanks for the pointers.

Honestly, I'm good with the sways as long as in 15 years or so I can dial it back with some gain over 10%.

I definitely plan to visit a professional when all consumer debt is paid for.

Originally Posted by 330CiJohn

I started Roth 401k investing last week. Just did 10% until all consumer debt (everything but mortgage) is paid for. Once the debt is paid for, I'll jack it up to 15%. I told the company to do their default "aggressive growth" plan. I am 26 (yes I know its late, save the ball busting for later please) so I think I'm young enough for more risky investments.

Thoughts?

did you see my thread. I'm deciding between roth and trad 401k. I'm leaning towards roth though.

So what is a good investment calculator to use? Do you guys think they are accurate overall?

What are you calculating?

The only one I used just calculated what you invested and the theoretical return on your dollars. It gave me the option to choose monthly compounding or yearly. My finance knowledge isn't too strong in this arena, so I wasn't sure which one to choose.

I honestly would love to project all the important results with my current investment level if possible (in other words, if there is a critical ratio I should know, I'd like to know it).