Thanks for visiting Ultimate Money Blog! If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Almost six years ago I opened a Roth IRA in a brokerage account.  I started the account with just $500, and I did it as more of a favor to the financial adviser that worked for the bank.  Needless to say, I haven’t made any contributions to it since I actively contribute to my 401k offered through my employer.  Every year there is a $15 annual fee, and each year the Roth IRA automatically sells some of my mutual funds to pay for that annual fee.  In addition to losing money with the annual fee for the brokerage account, the value has gone down due to the stock market fluctuations. I’ve been contemplating closing out my Roth IRA.  It doesn’t make sense to have an account that costs me money each year that I’m not going to make contributions to.  I talked with my financial adviser and she agrees that we should just close it out.  It doesn’t make sense financially.  [...]

I logged in to check my 401k performance the other day and realized that about 35% of my 401k portfolio was in company stock.  I personally don’t allocate my contributions to company stock, so it was all from the company match.  While I am thankful for the 401k match, I also don’t like having that much of my 401k tied up in company stock.  I don’t know much about investing, but I do know that it’s not good to have your eggs in one basket, especially in your company stock. I am reminded of a couple years ago when the bank I work for was not doing so well.  At one point our stock was $45 a share.  Before we were bought out, our stock was down around $2.  Many people, including the branch manager and licensed investment adviser, had their entire 401k in company stock.  To say they lost money would be an understatement.  Unfortunately, I know this happened to many others as well, and not just those who worked at the bank. I sold all the stock and [...]

photo credit: Ponzi_Unit This post is from wifeish, who believes “More money = better wine.” Check out her blog at Wifeish Money. Let’s talk about the stock market. Don’t worry! I have GOOD news! First bit of good news? Investing in the stock market can be very simple. In fact, for the average Jane or Joe there are only a few types of funds your money should be parked in. Where to start? If your company offers a 401k contribution program sign up! You can choose an amount to be deducted from every paycheck which is then placed into an investment fund. How much to put in? If your employer offers a match, put in the minimum amount to get that free money. My company matches my contributions up to four percent. Since we are trying to build up our emergency cash fund, we only contribute that four percent. Once we have a big fat piggy bank full of emergency money we will probably up that amount. Did I mention that your 401k money is taken out before taxes? Bonus! [...]