Legal Bill

The stock market has been doing well lately. My 401 K has rebounded well from the lows of 2000-2001. What are you invested in and how is it doing? Have any tips you think are worth sharing?

Please note, you should not reveal any balances or your net assets here. Let's keep this general. I think we will all be fine if we just identify the stock, fund, property or whatever and tell us how it has performed or how you think it will perform in the future.

Oh, and remember, past results are no gaurantee of future performance.

robb

I'm pretty diversified a little bit of everything. I still have a way to go to rebound with some equities as they are in the Nasdaq. I've done well with I-Bonds I'm currently getting 6.63% and it is tax deferred.

dlq04

Bill,

You thinking about the Cayman S? If we get some good tips, I'll put one in my garage as well.

As for the market, the longer I watch it the less sense it makes. Individual stocks, at my age are definitely the exception rather than the rule. Thank goodness for Vanguard and mutual funds...... be it stocks and/or bonds.

ralper

There haven't been many exciting investments out there in the last few years (excepting real estate and that seems to be cooling), certainly nothing like in the high tech days.

For the last few years I've been buying Ginnie Mae's and Fannie Mae's. I like them, and I feel they are a nice addition to a portfolio, but they aren't overly exciting.

The return on Muni bonds, while tax free, has been rather low for the past few years. I like having some in my portfolio as well. I'm a bit spoiled, I bought New York City paper years ago when NYC was a bigger risk, and as a result got used to much higher returns. Unfortunately most of them have been called or matured. New Jersey paper just doesn't pay as much. (I used to live in NYC and now live in NJ so those are/were (also Puerto Rico) the triple tax free issues for me). Of course there is no need to, nor should you ever buy tax exempt or tax deferred issues in a retirement accout in spite of how hard the broker or salesperson pushes them.

One of the stocks that I am keeping my eyes on, even though I hate the company and think it is one of the all time mismanaged companies, is General Motors. If the stock falls a little more, say into the lower teens, I might dabble in a small way. I think there is some upside potential, and it probably is worth the risk.

All of that said, with the way the market and the economy is, the key to success is to diversify. Own a little of a lot of different issues.

PokS2k

I keep money aside to invest in things that interest me. I buy stock in companies I like or others like and in technologies that may be emerging.

Companies I like or do business with: Honda, P&G, Wells Fargo....

Emerging tech: Garmin, XM, Yahoo

dlq04

The GM situation is really poor with the uncertainties of Delphi and the GMAC sale. Knowing how most of the union people are unwilling to face the facts I can't see a quick solution to the Delphi cuts.

ralper

That is very true, but the stock market reacts to a very broad spectrum of news and not necessarily only on the actual short term health of the underlying company. For all of its problems, GM might very well be a good investment opportunity as the stock approaches the lower teens. (In a small way, and always diversify).

curiosnoo

Like Robb, I am also pretty well diversified. I have held some individual stocks over the long term that have done very well for me as a result of spinoffs, aquisitions and splits. They have been in energy, financials, chemicals and gold. I try to keep a very short term liquidity position as a safety net with ING passbook savings (3.7%) and ladder CD's as well. The only debt on the books is a loan for the S2000.

mns2k

I got into the Fidelity family of energy funds. My select is up about 79% this year and up over 43% the last 3. Just dumb luck on my part. One traded fund that I like is RMT. Its a closed end micro-cap fund. Dividend return is about 3.8%. Not great but it does have some up side as a fund that is traded more like a stock since it is closed end.

dhayner

I have some GE (perhaps a little too much - I retired from there), a diversified collection of Fidelity funds (including Contrafund, Balanced and 500 Index), some I-bonds (good right now, as robb mentioned above), and a few others.

I am a buy-and hold sort of guy, and tend towards mutual funds rather than stocks.