Investor Help (NO Ihub questions)

[Gixene]

cixtrix, sorry I have been very busy with school. A few weeks ago I received a booklet full of information including rules, regulations, investment advice and the investments that are available for me. Last night I read the booklet from front to back and did some reading about saving for retirement. I was foolish to believe that I am too young to start saving for retirement. In fact I am grateful to be given this opportunity from my employer.

I want to be able to live comfortable and have financial freedom when I retire. Even more so, because I believe my generation will not have social security that I will have paid into all of my life. So I am excited to start saving for retirement. Plus my employer matches what I put in to the fund. Which is even more of a reason to take advantage of this offer.

If your company is offering stock at a discounted price, is it limited in the amount you can buy, and do those purchases have to become vested?

After giving this subject some thought. I would feel very uncomfortable investing in my employer through buying discounted stock. I might look at this option in the future, but at this time I believe it's not right for me.

Your 401k should give you a list of what funds you can invest in - do that - put them in mutual funds - don't try and trade them yourself.

The list of funds are listed inside the booklet, which I looked over last night.

If you are in mutual funds, a good deal of them are stock funds. Some are bonds, but those are the more conservative funds and you are young so I would suggest you put more in the stock funds.

I understand now. Before this post I wasn't sure what a mutual fund was. In the list of mutual funds available to me, there are conservative funds like you mention and fund that focus more on stocks.

So hopefully you can give me guidance or a point in the right direction. The bank which I will be investing through is no where near me. It's a bit confusing, I might say. The bank, uses Merrill Lynch as an investment firm. I had never heard of this bank until this offer came to the table.

The bank itself is not located anywhere near me, but Merrill Lynch is. I feel comfortable managing my retirement portfolio unless you recommend me speaking to a financial advisor. Though the financial advisor at Merrill Lynch is not required under my belief to manage or give me investment advice. If you believe I should, I can contact the financial advisors to see if they could give me advice. My concern is that I will have to pay for their service, which I would rather not.

I also must note, these funds I have been offered are not managed by Merrill Lynch. They are managed by Vanguard. There is a contact I can reach over the phone about retirement, though I would rather speak to someone in person or do it myself. I can manage these funds through the Merrill Lynch website. Other possibilities are speaking to the bank which I use checking with or the credit union which I save with. They might be able to give me insight.

I have decided that I would like to take part in Roth Salary Deferral. Meaning that I pay taxes on the money that goes into the fund. This will benefit me from having to pay higher taxes in 50 years, if we assume taxes will be much higher than today. I will also not have to pay as much taxes because I will only have to pay on taxes on what I gained over the years.

I'm unsure of weather to diversify the mutual funds I invest in. Mutual funds are diversified stocks, but is it still important? Is this recommended for retirement and what resources would you recommend me to read on how to diversify retirement funds?

As time goes on I have heard that the mutual fund I choose today, may not be good down the road. How often should I reevaluate my strategy and change the investments I make?

As I currently stand, I there are a few mutual funds that I like. Because I'm a value investor, the mutual funds that focus on value stocks don't have as high as a gain then the mutual funds that focus on growth stocks. I'm stumped on which one to choose. There are mutual funds that focus on value stocks, growth stocks, blended value and growth. There are some that focus on small cap, mid cap and large cap. Sure I could pick the one that has the most gains overall, but I want to be sure I know what I'm investing in. Any help here?

Thanks, Gulley