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<blockquote data-quote="sbillini" data-source="post: 1687357" data-attributes="member: 10496"><p>The fact that you graduated from a great university and are asking these questions means you’re already on the right track. Great job!</p><p></p><p>I work for as an investor for a asset manager. I’m not a financial planner/advisor, so please don’t take this as formal advice. But I’ll share some general guidelines that I’ve learned over the years and hopefully will help you. This is in what I would consider in order of importance.</p><p></p><p>- it’s been said already, but is very true - live below your means. I’ll add to that - invest the difference (discussed more below). It’s important to not think about “what can I afford” and think more like “what do I need and what do I truly value.” Usually that results in most professionals living below their means. If it doesn’t for you, then you’d need to reevaluate what you truly value. What the exact $ value is for what your means are is specific to your situation. U can use online calculators to get an approximation and make sure you’re below that.</p><p></p><p>- focus on maximizing your value generating opportunity. For most of us, that means our jobs. Spend less time on worrying about when you’re going to retire and more on maximizing you’re earnings power (ie - kick a** in your career). The more you maximize that, the earlier you’ll be able to retire</p><p></p><p>- don’t leave free $ on the table.This is mostly true for retirement savings programs and taxes. Specifically, maximize your contributions to retirement accounts to the extent you can. Take the $ you have left over from living below your means and invest in products such as 401k’s/IRA’s. A lot of employers have 401k mataches - make sure you contribute at least enough to max out the March. Free $!! But I’d say you should contribute more than just the match amount. On the tax side, make sure you minimize that. This includes leveraging aforementioned retirement accounts. If you’re on a high deductible health plan, make sure you have an HSA and max out the contribution (HSAs are really some of the most tax advantaged investment vehicles). There’s other examples that u can google but these are a couple of examples of maximize value of your hard earned money.</p><p></p><p>- in terms of how to invest, for 90% of people, it’s buy SPY (or some similar broad market ETF) and forget it. This includes the retirement accounts and normal ones. If you really want to try your hand at individual stocks, take a piece of your portfolio and do so. But, as sounds like in your case, you don’t have much knowledge around it OR don’t have time to spend on it, make sure it’s a minority of your portfolio. I typically keep a small portion in Cash for rainy day and the rest is invested at all times. Don’t try to time the market. If your horizon is more than 10 years, you’ll very likely be just fine and the value of trying to time is most likely very negative.</p><p></p><p>Just some high level advice. Hopefully it’s helpful. Let me know if you have any questions.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="sbillini, post: 1687357, member: 10496"] The fact that you graduated from a great university and are asking these questions means you’re already on the right track. Great job! I work for as an investor for a asset manager. I’m not a financial planner/advisor, so please don’t take this as formal advice. But I’ll share some general guidelines that I’ve learned over the years and hopefully will help you. This is in what I would consider in order of importance. - it’s been said already, but is very true - live below your means. I’ll add to that - invest the difference (discussed more below). It’s important to not think about “what can I afford” and think more like “what do I need and what do I truly value.” Usually that results in most professionals living below their means. If it doesn’t for you, then you’d need to reevaluate what you truly value. What the exact $ value is for what your means are is specific to your situation. U can use online calculators to get an approximation and make sure you’re below that. - focus on maximizing your value generating opportunity. For most of us, that means our jobs. Spend less time on worrying about when you’re going to retire and more on maximizing you’re earnings power (ie - kick a** in your career). The more you maximize that, the earlier you’ll be able to retire - don’t leave free $ on the table.This is mostly true for retirement savings programs and taxes. Specifically, maximize your contributions to retirement accounts to the extent you can. Take the $ you have left over from living below your means and invest in products such as 401k’s/IRA’s. A lot of employers have 401k mataches - make sure you contribute at least enough to max out the March. Free $!! But I’d say you should contribute more than just the match amount. On the tax side, make sure you minimize that. This includes leveraging aforementioned retirement accounts. If you’re on a high deductible health plan, make sure you have an HSA and max out the contribution (HSAs are really some of the most tax advantaged investment vehicles). There’s other examples that u can google but these are a couple of examples of maximize value of your hard earned money. - in terms of how to invest, for 90% of people, it’s buy SPY (or some similar broad market ETF) and forget it. This includes the retirement accounts and normal ones. If you really want to try your hand at individual stocks, take a piece of your portfolio and do so. But, as sounds like in your case, you don’t have much knowledge around it OR don’t have time to spend on it, make sure it’s a minority of your portfolio. I typically keep a small portion in Cash for rainy day and the rest is invested at all times. Don’t try to time the market. If your horizon is more than 10 years, you’ll very likely be just fine and the value of trying to time is most likely very negative. Just some high level advice. Hopefully it’s helpful. Let me know if you have any questions. [/QUOTE]
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