I wish that somebody would just invest for me. I don’t have much money. I started it off with a simple Vanguard cash plus account and I also have an IRA account. Yesterday I decided to try $5000 and invest in some – I watched a video and for my age was recommended to try VXUS 30%, VOO 25% VTV 33% SCHG 22% and VGT 10%. I’m 55 and I am so worried that I will have not enough money to exist on post retirement. I thought if I just play with $5000, maybe I’ll get less conservative and try another 10,000 but I don’t know where and I know the stock market is not looking good right now.
Stock Market / savings newbie
byu/AltruisticCoat7618 inpersonalfinance
Posted by AltruisticCoat7618
4 Comments
This is the most inflated the stock market has ever been in recent history. Absolute bubble territory and there is a good chance if you get in here you wont break even for a decade. I would wait. We have had insane years for like the past 4 years.
Thats too many funds. You don’t need all that. Just go with VT, its the entire world stock market. Only need 1 fund.
Do you have other retirement accounts? Or just the IRA?
You’re at quite a late start at 55. And thats close enough to retiring its not a great idea to take on more risk.
Investing is for the longterm, you can’t just put $5000 in and expect huge returns in a week. The current economy is meaningless, you’re investing for a couple decades.
But at your age, you may want to put money into bonds and/or treasuries for security, not just stocks.
Maybe start somewhere like 60% VT, 40% SGOV
But you really need to keep saving and use catchup contributions.
You might be overthinking things a bit.
VOO: Covers the “big” US companies
VXUS: Covers everything outside of the US
VGT, VTV and SCHG have a lot of overlap with VOO… you could simplify and just shift those there and probably not even notice.
Or you can just pick out an appropriate target date fund based on when you expect to retire and call it a day.
“I’m 55 and I am so worried that I will have not enough money to exist on post retirement.”
you’d need to include a lot more info for anyone to help you here — besides this $5k, what do you have for retirement (or ‘excess’ savings) and where is it?
at 55, keep it simple and balanced. mix stocks with some bonds, don’t go too aggressive. focus on consistency and protecting what you’ve built