The Finance/Retirement Thread

Kraut783 said:
got back from some training, one segment was taught by Amtrak Police, spoke to one of the guys about their job, pay and such. Their retirement is 30 years, but they retire at 100%, if married it's 50% on top of that and free medical. I always knew railroad guys had a good retirement, but...get this.....if you are married and divorce, the wife gets her %50 percent, but doesn't touch your pension....no matter how many times you get divorced.
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Holy shit.
 
Kraut783 said:
Age/Service: The earliest that Railroad Retirement benefits may begin is either age 60 with 30 years of qualifying railroad service, or age 62.
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So they only thing AMTRAK police lose is mando OT pay? Not a bad gig at all.

Edit: not just for AMTRAK LEOs but all AMTRAK employees get Railroad retirement, which includes time served in military during wartime.

https://rrb.gov/sites/default/files/2018-09/2018 RR Handbook_1.pdf

Another tidbit, AMTRAK employees and their families get free train travel.
 
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BloodStripe said:
I'm all for raising the retirement age. That will help the solvency of the SS fund. As it stands right now, by 2030 there will only be enough available for 80% payout rates. Raise it now on the boomers before they all retire.
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Why? The baby boomers have paid into SS all of their adult lives. Is it their fault that the government has guided the ship off course? What money is in there, they've put there. If they change the game they should grandfather.
 
Topkick said:
Why? The baby boomers have paid into SS all of their adult lives. Is it their fault that the government has guided the ship off course? What money is in there, they've put there. If they change the game they should grandfather.
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Blame the great generation then for living longer. Theres about to be for the first time ever less money coming in versus money coming out. The program was designed for those currently paying in to pay for those currently withdrawing. SS needs to either raise the age or reduce benefits by 25% to maintain solvency.
 
I would be very for phasing social security out by age. I do not think that it would be doable for a lot of reasons but I think the sliding scale of benefits by age would be interesting. Certain ages would not pay in or receive benefits, while others who have paid into the system will still see 100% of their benefits given their pay into the system.

My opinions are also based on the belief that one day the system will no longer be able to pay out, and I don't think people will have enough lead time to mitigate that news when it is disseminated. Because that would be a decades long lead time and my guess is that all the parties look at telling people they might not get benefits is a game of hot potato. Nobody wants to get stuck with that news when it comes because they will be crucified.
 
Maybe the USG needs to reign in the payees? Collecting benefits from a divorced spouse is total bullshit.

Social Security Questions - Social Security Payments

Is Social Security just for retired workers? No. As of June 2016, 16 percent of beneficiaries were disabled workers and their dependents, and 13 percent were survivors (such as widows, widowers and children).

At what age can I start collecting Social Security benefits? Workers can begin receiving retirement benefits at age 62, but your benefit will be greater if you wait until your full retirement age (currently 66 for those born after 1942) or later. Widows, widowers, surviving children, the disabled and children of the disabled can start collecting earlier. Full retirement ages are based on the year of your birth.

Can I receive Social Security benefits based on the earnings of a former spouse? Yes, as long as you were married for 10 years and you aren't remarried. If so, you're eligible to claim Social Security benefits under your ex-spouse's earnings if they turn out to be higher than your own.
 
@Viper1 -

Hold: A hold recommendation is a rating that a financial services firm will put on a security. The normal ratings are Buy, Hold, Sell; although you might see Outperform, Market Perform, Under Perform as well as any other way of saying "I like, I am Neutral, or I don't like this stock". A hold generally means that the security in question will perform in line with the market or their peers in that space over the next year given available info at this time. Also note that most financial analysts also work at companies that have investment banks and so their ratings are always a little skewed to the positive because they want the banking business from the companies they cover.

Stop: A stop order is an order where when the price of the security in question moves past a point dictated by the investor, a buy or sell of the security is executed. It helps people get in or out of a name at a price they have picked before hand, and limits the loss or locks in a profit on exit. If the order does not hit the predetermined price, you either do not get into the position, or, you still have a live position as the position has not been closed.

There are a few retired Green Berets here in Chicago who work in the Financial Services Industry, one joined GS in the Private Wealth Group last year and another just moved to NYC, he was with AON for a long time. If you ever want to talk with them given it is always easier to talk with guys who have been down the same road, I would be happy to connect.

Goals for 2020:

Keep savings ratio above 25%.
Max out 401k
Look to increase home size due to 1st child joining us. Rent in city or buy in burbs? The debate continues.
Contribute materially again to 529plan for the little one.
Fun trip this year with the family
 
Isiah6:8 said:
Stop: A stop order is an order where when the price of the security in question moves past a point dictated by the investor, a buy or sell of the security is executed. It helps people get in or out of a name at a price they have picked before hand, and limits the loss or locks in a profit on exit. If the order does not hit the predetermined price, you either do not get into the position, or, you still have a live position as the position has not been closed.
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On a related note, all of my biggest losing trades came as a direct result of hedging with stop orders before I learned better. When a stock starts to rapidly drop, the stop order simply means "put in an immediate market buy/sell order to eliminate my position" The problem is that the very next buy order could be significantly less than the price that you set. In which case, the trade is executed at that low buy. When that happens, you personally have dropped the price of the stock below market and everyone moves in to buy at the new low price, driving the stock back up to where it was when your order executed. Had you manually set a trade price, you would have been much better, even if you have to reset the trade price manually multiple times to sell the position.

Do NOT use stops unless you absolutely have to. Make your own trades.
 
I have a brokerage account and I want to learn to invest wisely.

Index funds
No fees
Keep it simple
 
Santa brought me and the Kids a few books to get nerdy on........

INVEST.jpg


2019 was suppose to be the year to become a Millionaire....that didn't work....I came up a few ZERO's short!!!!

:ROFLMAO: 8-):zzz::ack:
 
Marine0311 said:
Index funds, No fees, Keep it simple
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This statement had me really thinking the pas few days and wanted to share a few thoughts:

This methodology and thought process has probably come into view and focus due to the 10 year bull run we are in. With compounding returns in the double digits for indexes, and their etf counterparts matching double the historical average, it makes sense to squeeze as much return as possible while you can. When that pattern extends, then people do not see the value in paying to manage money because the market is only going one way. The crowding into index funds and by proxy those names, and the EOD marking/volume that occurs daily has created a bubble so to speak. If everyone crowds to the low fee indexes, then the real value in names would be in the names outside the index where there is still meaningful price discovery because they aren't as artificially inflated by flows/crowding/EOD marks/etc. If the market always goes up why pay for anything extra, it is easy, invest and profit right?

One thing that has been troubling me is if there is a market reversal and then ensuing periods of volatility for a few years after (which a lot of the above has muted), what would be the proper way to navigate that environment. Is it worth paying fees for that active navigation? Part of me believes it is probably worth it but that would be broken down by net worth.

FWIW - right now in my 401k I am 100% ETF. In my IRA rollover I am 100% individual names. In a cash account I monetize with double tax exempt munis instead of a high interest savings/checking.
 
Playing index funds can be interesting, and we've had a great run. The likelihood of you losing big isn't too hard because it's a diversified stock. But in the same way you could be in various funds from companies like Fidelity or Charles Schwabb.

I wish I'd had a few eggs to throw around in my stock portfolio because I could have purchased a 3xWTI ETN and be rich this morning.
 
ThunderHorse said:
Playing index funds can be interesting, and we've had a great run. The likelihood of you losing big isn't too hard because it's a diversified stock.
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The index funds losing big though does carry a higher likelihood even being a diversified stock portfolio due to the reasons listed above. The other issue is that in a sharp directional move down, the majority of the ownership in those ETFs is discretionary taxable assets which would further exacerbate the losses and valuation correction across the individual which creates a chain of events that are self explanatory to the ETFs.
 

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