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After years of squirreling away my cash like someone who spent their entire 20's working minimum wage jobs or in school I finally bought into some index funds.
by SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
After years of squirreling away my cash like someone who spent their entire 20's working minimum wage jobs or in school I finally bought into some index funds. I too don't know what to do with my money - you can't save it (even in less crazy times it's eaten up by inflation), you can't buy bonds right now, so I said to hell with it, I'm not going to time the market, I'm just going to buy in to funds that try to match the S&P and hope that by the time I need it the market will be in a better place than it is today. I don't know what else you can do if you want to try and plan to have money 20 years out.
I'm sure others will have more nuanced options, and I look forward to hearing about them.
- bradstewart 6y agoLong term, index funds. Short term, money market (or high-yield savings accounts that do the money market stuff for you).
- SketchySeaBeast 6y agoThe money market is high risk, right? And looking at the high yield savings accounts - based upon a quick google the best option if you're American seems to be 1%?
- Armisael16 6y agoMoney markets are extremely low risk. In the 37 years before 2008 only three money market funds had ever failed to return the full investment (“broke the buck”). You may be thinking of forex trading.
- SketchySeaBeast 6y ago> You may be thinking of forex trading. Yeah, that would be it.
- svachalek 6y agoMoney market is very low (but not zero) risk which is why it’s suitable for short term savings. And yeah, 1% is about the best rate you’ll find, subject to change at any moment.
- snowwrestler 6y agoIn the long run, time in market (how long you've been investing) is more important than timing the market. This is in part because it is so hard to time the market, and in part because some stocks pay dividends, which you can compound by reinvesting them. Those count as part of your returns too.