People don’t invest in the stock market because of a perceived ‘risk’- their minds immediately jump back to the Great Recession or even the Great Depression. And then from that position of fear, they decide their money is better left in a nice and familiar savings account- except this is an instance where slow and steady doesn’t win the race. It turns out that one of the biggest, actual risks to your money is not investing at all, in an attempt to avoid ‘risk’ from the stock market. Listen as we cover some popular perceived risks and then the real risks associated with investing in the stock market.
Additional links:
- Check out Andrew and his team over at Secret Hopper!
- If you don’t know where to start in what actual funds to purchase, then look no further than Vanguard’s VTSAX or Fidelity’s FZROX.
- Here’s also a list of things to do in preparing for a recession. Whether we enter a recession or not, it never hurts being prepared!
During this episode we each enjoyed a Center of the Sun IPA by Civil Society Brewing which you can find on Untappd. A special thanks to our good buddy Pat with B10 union for donating this beer to the show! And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts, Castbox, or wherever you get your podcasts- we’d love to hear from you.
Best friends out!
Enjoyed your show on stock investing and index funds. But you never addressed what to do after growing your money for several decades, for example, ready to retire. Do you continue investing in index funds? Or, do you move all your money to CDs or savings account, or something more conservative?
Hey Ben, good question- this is a pretty nuanced discussion and might make a good episode topic, but the short answer is yes- keep investing in index funds. The traditional recommendation is that your age reflects the amount of your portfolio that is made up of bonds (so if you’re 30: 70% stocks and 30% bonds, 40: 60 stocks and 40 bonds, etc.), however we feel that is much too conservative. I might only recommend bonds at a rate half your age (so if you’re 30: 85% stocks and 15% bonds, 40: 80 stocks and 20 bonds, etc.). That being said I’m over 30 and own zero bonds!
Hey guys, love the podcast! I appreciate the info you all share, and I’ve started to dig into my retirement accounts to identify those fees you suggest I get away from. I typically gravitate toward target date funds because of the ease, but I know there are typically higher fees with those funds. If I were to get away from that in my 401k, I guess your recommendation would be looking for something like an total market index fund (similar to vtsax) or S&P 500 index fund (similar to voo). Makes sense, but what about diversification? Those funds are heavy in Domestic Large Cap stocks. Sites like Bloom recommend some portion in bonds, some international, and some small/mid cap. I’ve only heard of you talk about the Index funds that mirror the US market, how do you diversify or do you not believe that it is necessary?