Author Topic: What is your preferred way to invest?  (Read 6748 times)

MickeyMoustache

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What is your preferred way to invest?
« on: March 08, 2016, 07:16:21 AM »
This is a pretty straight forward question, but I'm curious how people around here handle it.  I've currently only invested into taxable by dropping decent sized lump sums ($5-$10k) at a time vs. an auto withdrawal of say $100-$500/mo.  I feel like the lump sums drive me to look at total value differently than if I just did an auto withdrawal, but it made sense to start things off so I could get into admiral funds for lower expense ratios.  How are you set up?  Additionally, we've decided to stack $2k of cash/mo through the year and then decide to either use for moving, invest in the market, or dump into the mortgage at the end of the year.  Would you stack the cash or invest it somehow in a stable or short-term vehicle that may end up never getting used anyway?

2nd part - what does your taxable breakout look like?  Right now I'm all VTSAX and at some point I want to diversify a bit more than that.  I have foreign stocks, bonds, and REITs in my 401k/IRAs but nothing diverse in my taxable.

dycker1978

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2016, 08:01:35 AM »
I have an auto deduction off of my check as maxed as I can into an investment.  I also have a set amount out of my account auto deposit into another investment.  Then I forget about it, except quarterly when I get my statement and see what I have invested.

This gets me the best dollar cost average.

MickeyMoustache

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2016, 08:05:55 AM »
I have an auto deduction off of my check as maxed as I can into an investment.  I also have a set amount out of my account auto deposit into another investment.  Then I forget about it, except quarterly when I get my statement and see what I have invested.

This gets me the best dollar cost average.
Do you have the deposits split the month?  i.e. 1 check mid month, 1 check end of month?

Retire-Canada

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2016, 08:10:07 AM »
Every month I pay my bills and whatever is left I transfer to my investment accounts and buy ETFs. Typically ~$2.5K - $3K.

I buy based on my investment plan and my asset allocation so whether I had $20K or $500 my investment decision process would be the same.

dycker1978

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2016, 08:14:34 AM »
I have an auto deduction off of my check as maxed as I can into an investment.  I also have a set amount out of my account auto deposit into another investment.  Then I forget about it, except quarterly when I get my statement and see what I have invested.

This gets me the best dollar cost average.
Do you have the deposits split the month?  i.e. 1 check mid month, 1 check end of month?

Yup I get paid the 15th and the end of the month.  There are some lump sums.  When I get my income tax free loan to the government back, or with the bonus I get at work etc.

TheOldestYoungMan

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2016, 08:25:26 AM »
I get paid 26 times per year (every 2 weeks) but my job is weird in that they will only deduct for contributions to retirement accounts out of 24 of those paychecks.  So I have $1500 deducted from each paycheck (2 accounts at 18k each over 24).

Then there's more into an IRA, I have that happen the week after I get paid, $211.50 (5500/26).  This represents a huge portion of what would otherwise be takehome pay just into retirement accounts.

Any leftover goes into "taxable" as I figure out that it isn't needed, 500 to 1000 at a time.  I put it into VTSAX, although I am also playing around a bit with building my own index fun slowly over time.  As the amount I'm putting into retirement accounts is dropping my AGI so much, I actually don't have to pay taxes on the dividends or capital gains on the taxable account this year, or any year thereafter unless it gets changed back.

http://beginnersinvest.about.com/od/capitalgainstax/fl/How-to-Pay-No-Taxes-on-Your-Dividends-or-Capital-Gains.htm

I don't know how long this is going to last, so I'm going to make sure to churn anything with a latent capital gain, increasing my basis while the gettin' is good.


SpareChange

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2016, 09:05:52 AM »
 I get paid every two weeks. I have an equal amount taken out of every paycheck and put into my 403b (enough to hit the max 18,000 by the end of the year). Each pay day, I take roughly any monies over 2k in my cash management account and invest them in VT. My HSA and IRA are handled in a lumpier fashion as my income tax situation becomes clearer.

onlykelsey

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2016, 09:22:11 AM »
I historically did it haphazardly when my savings account looked high, which meant in 2015 I invested about 9K.

This year I have 1K coming out of every paycheck until my 401K matches in June or July, then I plan to up it to ~1500/paycheck.  Definitely getting more invested this way.

Heckler

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2016, 09:43:09 AM »
30% pretax straight off my pay to RSP every two weeks, plus $3000 per month to TFSA as soon as the budget says I can afford it (it used to go to mortgage, but we've killed that!).  The work RSPs get transferred to self directed ETFs once a year.  Annual bonus (if any), straight to RSPs pretax


Plus $700 cash per month to HIS to cover annual costs (insurance, property taxes etc)
« Last Edit: March 08, 2016, 09:50:39 AM by Heckler »

GrowingTheGreen

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #9 on: March 08, 2016, 09:53:33 AM »
Everything is automated on a biweekly basis.

401k - Low cost index funds. I put the components of a target retirement together on my own. Saves 0.2% every year on expenses. On auto rebalance.

Roth IRA - low cost index funds

Taxable accounts - low cost index funds.

I guess you could say I like low-cost index funds.

steveo

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #10 on: March 08, 2016, 02:06:28 PM »
I'm paid fortnightly.

A low percentage goes into a tax advantage account every pay. This is about 10% of my salary.
Other savings go into a pool of money and when we reach $10k we invest in ETF's.

Mattzlaff

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #11 on: March 08, 2016, 07:44:37 PM »
This reply is a little off topic(or not I'm not sure), I've recently started my own investing into ETFS I have ~10k already and I will be moving ~12k over from my company RRSPs and with my bonus ~10k and my normal savings ~5k

I'll be coming up on a 1/4ly deposit into my RRSPs/TFSA depending on my contribution room after I get my Tax notice of assessment.

I want to add VUN (Us total stock market) to my allocation. Currently I have  VAB 15% (VCN)   25%  (VXC) 60% I was thinking about reallocating to VAB 15 VCN 25 VXC 30 VUN 30

Get some more exposure to US stocks.

Should I go straight out and buy to these or wait for my yearly redistribution?

P0IS0N

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #12 on: March 08, 2016, 10:05:36 PM »
Same amount every month. I get paid once per month, I transfer the amount I want to invest to my Interactive Brokers account and then I buy into my portfolio, rebalancing every month.

mrpercentage

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #13 on: March 09, 2016, 01:55:06 AM »
I auto deduct for my 457 every check.

I also auto invest into my hand picked direct stock purchases.

But I prefer large investments at once into securities that are screaming for me to do it. This might not make sense you most because I am heavily right brain. The right creative side is just as smart as your math. I have 60% in two days to show it.

steveo

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #14 on: March 09, 2016, 02:08:08 AM »
I have 60% in two days to show it.

Good on you. This seems to come up a lot but your investment style might sound great now but will it hold up over 20-50 years. That is the real question. I don't have an answer but it's good to get some perspective on your 2 day result.

mrpercentage

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #15 on: March 09, 2016, 04:34:10 AM »
I have 60% in two days to show it.

Good on you. This seems to come up a lot but your investment style might sound great now but will it hold up over 20-50 years. That is the real question. I don't have an answer but it's good to get some perspective on your 2 day result.

Oh come on! It's like my team just won the Super Bowl Mr. Dude. I get a minimum month of bragging rights.

My trading is like the rug that ties the room together man. Don't take my rug man. It's my zen.

Nancy

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #16 on: March 09, 2016, 04:34:46 AM »
401(k) automatically deducted from paycheck
Taxable and IRA automatically deducted from checking account each week
At the end of the month, I manually invest the leftover money in my checking account into taxable

Mmm_Donuts

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #17 on: March 09, 2016, 06:34:10 AM »
I'm a freelancer so my pay is irregular. When my emergency fund is healthy, I invest 50% of every paycheque. i just started doing this this year, and so far it's been really motivating. I'm motivated to earn more so I can see my investment accounts go up, vs before when I was just staying afloat.

I now have a defined asset allocation and invest in ETFs. Each month, if I get paid that month, I put the 50% into my rrsp. My TFSA was maxed in January.

Heckler

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #18 on: March 09, 2016, 07:53:09 AM »

I want to add VUN (Us total stock market) to my allocation. Currently I have  VAB 15% (VCN)   25%  (VXC) 60% I was thinking about reallocating to VAB 15 VCN 25 VXC 30 VUN 30

Should I go straight out and buy to these or wait for my yearly redistribution?

If you just recently started, and have chosen 15/25/60 for a good reason, then I implore you to stick with the plan.  A annual rebalancing is not a annual reshuffling of your asset allocation.   You're talking about going from 30% of your total to US to 45% US.  Isn't the next big US market crash coming in 2017 after Trump gets voted in?  Adding another asset will simply increase your trading fees by 33%, a win for your brokerage.
« Last Edit: March 09, 2016, 08:41:41 AM by Heckler »

merlin7676

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #19 on: March 09, 2016, 08:19:51 AM »
I am only just now getting out of debt and ready to build a emergency fund so my investments are quite low now but what I'm currently doing is 1% pre-tax from paycheck for 401K and 1% ESPP and 6%  after tax into tradition IRA after getting paid plus 2% into savings.

My plan for the rest of the year and forward is max IRA first, then bump up 401K to 15% (can't max out totally don't make enough) and save a few % to invest in taxable ETF.

MickeyMoustache

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #20 on: March 09, 2016, 08:46:42 AM »
I am only just now getting out of debt and ready to build a emergency fund so my investments are quite low now but what I'm currently doing is 1% pre-tax from paycheck for 401K and 1% ESPP and 6%  after tax into tradition IRA after getting paid plus 2% into savings.

My plan for the rest of the year and forward is max IRA first, then bump up 401K to 15% (can't max out totally don't make enough) and save a few % to invest in taxable ETF.

Do you have any company match with your 401k?  If so, you should try to max the match first (free money!!) before most of the other stuff you had listed.

TheOldestYoungMan

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Re: What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #21 on: March 09, 2016, 10:09:12 AM »
Also try and find out when your company matches.  I worked for one that matched in June of every year, so you needed to have contributed enough by June to get the full match.

Seppia

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What is your preferred way to invest?
« Reply #22 on: March 09, 2016, 08:23:22 PM »
I am in Italy so I get pod once a month.
A ton of taxes get taken out, among these some sort of social security too.
No way to invest pre tax anything but a small amount (5000 euros per year).
So most of it just goes monthly into vanguard ETFs (Europe and emerging markets, with this valuation and this weak euro I'm not touching the us market)
It sucks that I have to buy them through a broker and pay fees though :(

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!