Investors come in every shape and size, as well as risk tolerance. That last quality can really vary depending on whom you’re discussing the subject of investing. So let’s approach today’s rant in a way that should appeal to you whether you’re ultra-conservative or a daredevil risk taker.
One of the things to do during this holiday season after you’ve completed your shopping, should be to plan out your finances for next year. Most people I know put more thought and time into planning for their vacation than they do for their retirement. I’m guessing the majority of IG readers hold down a job somewhere so the first place to look at planning are your company’s offering of retirement plans. And I’m also guessing that most of us will not be able to say we spent a larger portion of our life taking vacations vs. being in retirement.
Retirement Plans Are Not Built Equally!
Complaints about one’s own retirement plan from disgruntled friends and family are common. My reaction is to ask them how much time they spent studying the features of their company’s offering? Too many people have the misconception that all plans are built equally. Throw that out right now! Ask for your company’s retirement plan prospectus and scrutinize it. Don’t say it’s boring, because you’re just giving yourself an excuse to fail. And if you can’t accomplish such a simple task, you really have no one but YOURSELF to blame for your future.
Bellow are some screwy screenshots from my E*TRADE account (you’ll also get to see what my E*TRADE portfolio looks like). Early this week, I setup a trade in Lucent Technologies (LU). It was a complete chart play. I haven’t been monitoring the stock fundamentally lately, but I recall my last analysis of it was something like “undervalued because people are still scared of the name.” Feel free to ask me more about my rationale behind the trade (or any of the others), but this post will focus on the odd things that were happening with my account as the merger between Lucent and Alcatel (ALA) played out today.
Wiley is trying to turn their hit Little Book that Beats the Market (discussion, Amazon.com) into a series: Little Book Big Profits. The second book in the series, The Little Book of Value Investing, is written by Christopher H. Browne and focused on value investing.