This was a much needed episode for me, thanks!

Anytime Thai!

Cheers.

Ethan

I was wondering, What do you think of the 120 - Age "rule" for % stock allocations?
I've generally been following that for my 401k portfolio.

By the way, great show, Keep it up!

Thanks J-Man.

I think the 120 age ruled (for those who don't know, it's where you subtract your age from 120 and that is the percentage of stocks you should hold in your portfolio), is easy and is a relatively good guidance stick. However I think money held in a money market fund should not be included in this estimation. You should always have a well funded money market fund even at age 25. Furthermore this guideline starts to get a bit risky the older you get i.e. above age 60.

I think a more important question in your case, is how many funds are you holding in that 401k?

Cheers.

Ethan

i'm kind of scared to invest my money in index funds because of the up-and-down nature of the market. I know they make money in the long run... but you also lose a lot of money every time the bubble pops. is there any safeguard against this?

Hi Axels, that is totally understandable, the majority of people are allergic to volatility; we humans are extremely emotional when it comes to our money.

However, I would like to point out that you don't actually lose money during a market downturn unless you actually sell your investments during the downturn. Having said that, it is important you are not buying broad based index funds at market heights either, and you can avoid that through a Dollar Cost Averaging program ( see here http://www.thewaytobuildwealth.org/2008/12/doll...).

Spending a lot of time and energy worrying about 'paper losses' on broad based index funds is a waste. Furthermore downturns usually create real opportunity to buy additional slices of corporations at discount prices.

I would like to share two solutions to your allergies toward 'volatility' .

(1) Put your psychology in check and adjust your temperament to handle turbulence. Understand that by owning a broad based Index Fund you own everything, so unless you've given up on capitalism there is no reason to sell. Furthermore downturns create opportunity, carpe diem!

or

(2) Invest the majority of your money in investment grade corporate and municipal debt and government bonds. Which you can also do through bond index funds (see here http://www.thewaytobuildwealth.org/ultimate-ind...)

Thanks for the great question and GOOD LUCK!

Cheers.

Ethan

The statement about the interest the second year in the tips discussion where there was 3% inflation was wrong at $13.00, it should have been $10.30. I suggest that you edit these videos for correctness..

Good information.

Many people I believe fall into the pit hole of your first 2 strategies. The thinking is what gets people to do crazy things, ruminating will only exacerbate the problem and make it bigger than it actually is. Taking change for what it actually is and embracing will fidelity 401k indeed help with coping and seeing the next logical step to take.

Ethan,

I was wondering whether you can do a video on average annual returns for mutual funds. Discussing, the differences between all the returns (e.g. AAR, Cummulative Returns) and using the returns to evaluate future performance.

That's the great article! I just pass 'n read it, two thumbs up! ;)

Great! Thank for information, I'm looking for it for a long time,