Don't go by these old clichés that the rule of thumb is you'll need 70 percent of your income. It's a bunch of baloney. You're best served by not going by rules of thumb. Figure out what do you want and what are you goals. |
Don't try to outguess the market. |
Forget about your jewelry. You're not going to sell it. You're going to give it to your daughter. |
If it's a guru-driven fund, with a great stock picker - like if David Alger stopped running the Alger Fund -- we would expect the unknown. Whenever there is a manager change, most of the time you don't know what the hell you're going to get. |
If you can contribute to two qualified retirement plans, then do it. |
It's net worth to them. It's worth nothing to you. |
It's the more modern, more user-friendly plan. |
Just because your assets are going up doesn't mean your net worth is going up. |
Our emotions say that when something is going up, it's great and it will always go up. And when something is going down, it's bad and will always be going down. That leads people to buy high and sell low. |
People ignore inflation. They do straight-line projections. |
People should make resolutions not to go for gimmicks. |
People who save 10 percent of their income throughout their working years, from their 20s on, are usually in good shape. You want to at least put the full amount aside to get the match. |
That's a very nice, diversified, moderately-aggressive portfolio. |
The 401(k) can get you where you want to go, it's just a shame that you have to fund it yourself. |
The biggest mistake is putting it off. If people can get in the mode of saving 10 to 15 percent of their income when they're young, they'll be financially well off later on in life. |