Lux Investing

What is there safe to invest in now(within money market, bonds, stocks)? I just have lost @ 7% and am uneasy.

I am 60. I have a stock fund leaning, and I want to make up for some lost time, but seeing money disappear like the 7% is awful. Have moderate pension promised, have deferred compensation fund plan with bad choices, have IRAs over the years. No financial advisor, don't own individual stocks, no home, no long term health insurance except with job which I plan to leave in six years. I ran all this through Morningstar portfolio snapshot and it is aggressive, but said to be balanced. Today I chose a total bond market index to balance off things in the IRA department. I am maxing out in the catch up provision at work, but there is no company match, and I read in Jim Cramer's writing to let up on that and go for investments to grow wealth rather than try to get a tax break within the limits of the plan fund choices. Puzzled and need to invest in IRA for 2008, but don't know what is reasonable.

Public Comments

1. I think the only answer is you gotta get out of the market. If you can't take a big hit a rebuild a long way down the road. The biggest story out there is how bad the market really is. And cramer isn't talking about this. The rapid fall of the dollar. If you have a stock/fund that's worth 50 a share. That was at 75, 5 years ago. It doesn't take in to account that the dollar is worth a lot less. In fact oil isn't that much more expensive....its just a dollar is worth less and can't buy as much. Look at a graph for price of oil verse the price of gold. Then look at them vs. the dollar. and get scared. If you believe that inflation is at 3% i got a bridge to sell you. To answer the question move into metals....Gold is near a record high so I would go with silver, its at 20 but its all time high is around 50. Your not going to get rich and make a ton but you can be safe from inflation and collapse. Ron Paul was the only guy out there that has it right but not enough are listening. The federal reserve is the source of the problem printing too much money out of thin air, allowing bad loan and cuting interest rates and crashing the dollar and economy and then trying to pose as our savivours.
2. I'm not far behind you (in years) and yes, it is unsettling. But I wouldn't rely on Jim Cramer for retirement investing advice. Cramer knows the stock market, but he's a trader, not a long-term investor (regardless of what he says). For IRAs or 401(k), I'd consider adding a good investment-grade bond fund (Dodge & Cox, Pimco or Harbor, perhaps). Also TIPS. For asset allocation funds, I'd stick with low-cost conservative or moderate allocation funds. And for growth equities, I'm mostly in so-called "global" growth stocks/funds (U.S. companies with international markets and foreign firms).
3. NewJersey gave you some good advice but brief. First off a 7% drop is unsettling but not too bad actually. You probably should not be investing all that aggresively at your age. Almost every equity fund is down at least 12% ytd, so 7% is not bad at all. In fact pretty good. Even the bond funds are down. Goes to show you. About the only funds that are up are the commodity funds. Some of them are up a lot like 28% ytd. Now I might be all wrong, but I think right now is not too bad a time to be investing in stocks. They sure are a lot cheaper than they were in October. Some are going for 1/2 price. If you want to drop me an email we can talk about it. I am older than you by a few years.
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