FiLife

A few friends asked me how they should invest their retirement money recently. Maybe it’s that time of year. Graduations inevitably lead to new jobs, which lead to new retirement plans.

Plus, the roiling markets are making a lot of people nervous. One friend confided that she just moved all of her retirement savings into bonds. Yikes. Not a good idea.

So, in the spirit of friendship, I’ve put together some simple guidelines about how to set up a retirement plan, specifically for those who still have more than 30 years left in the work force.* (more…)

As the markets crashed last week, politicians and economists scrambled, while analysts warned investors to brace for a bumpy ride. But Northern Trust, a bank that caters to the well-heeled, reported that one group of millionaires was well-prepared: the young ones.

According to their recent survey, Generation X investors with more than $1 million to invest are more diversified than those of their older counterparts – they’re also more heavily invested in alternative investments. Gen Xers (ages 28 to 42) allocated 23% of their portfolios to alternative asset classes like hedge funds, private equity, investment real estate and commodities. That compares to 14% for baby boomers (ages 43 to 61) and 10% for the Silent Generation (ages 62 to 77).

Northern Trust also said that Gen X millionaires were more diversified when it comes to their stock holdings, with more than half of their money spread across international, mid-cap and small-cap investments.

Even more surprising, at least to me, was the fact that young millionaires hold more in cash. Gen-X investors have 17% of their portfolios allocated to cash, compared with 12% for boomers and 11% for the Silent Generation. (more…)

I like to play financial planner when it comes to investing my retirement money.

So when I started at FiLife and was presented with a brand new retirement plan, I figured I’d use it as an opportunity to do a little check-up on my two existing 401ks and bring everything up to speed.

I’m obviously no professional, though I’ve yawned my way through plenty of dry but informative conferences for real financial advisors. Presenters there drilled the importance of diversification, rebalancing, and investing overseas into my brain. I became a proponent of investing in index funds somewhere along the way and adopted some mantras of my own. (more…)