I feel like a market crash is my only real opportunity in life to get ahead

All of that stuff is for retirement.

Relax. You could easily die before retirement age and not have to worry about those savings.

The best way to make money is to earn it yourself.

older millennial wrote:

If I could just invest some cash at the right time I could kick-start my savings and long term financial outlook.

Too bad I know only the basics of the market and investing. Guess it's back to Netflix and YouTube for me.

Go to the “Down goes the Dow” thread. Read what poster “Ghost of Igloi” recommends, then do the opposite. You’ll be wealthy in no time.

85k a year is a good salary, especially given you don't have a family. You have way less to complain about than many of our generation.

I am 33 and make 40k a year. I'm not going to fully complain because a lot of that was due to the field I decided to go into, but I graduated 2009 into the teeth of the recession and jobs in my field (natural resources) that would have been plentiful just a couple years before were all gone. For years.

So I agree with you about people our age being unduly affected by the recession, and it IS frustrating...but have some perspective. Most people would kill for an 85k a year job.

I suspect this might be a troll thread though.

Remember: It's all about perspective.

I'm 34 making $50K & just took a 10% pay cut due to COVID-19, so I'd love to be in your position financially.

Suppose I don't know what you're hoping to achieve.

Put 20k/yr into an S&P index, 90% chance you'll be at 900k or greater at age 55. For the models and bottles and crowd at Letsrun, that's nothing, but I'm confident I could retire comfortably on even less than that.

And 20k/yr on a salary of 85k is pretty straightforward. In the past I've managed that in addition to 2 big trips.

If the goal is say 10M instead of 1M, maybe you need a different approach.

Just dump your $35000 in savings each year into some stocks like Netflix, Zoom or even better in the company who gets the Covid 19 vaccination developed.

There is tons of money to me made there.

If you feel that you're only chance to get ahead is through making a killing in the markets, I think you need to look at your life, not your next investment.

Gordon Gekko wrote:

Just dump your $35000 in savings each year into some stocks like Netflix, Zoom or even better in the company who gets the Covid 19 vaccination developed.

There is tons of money to me made there.

Zoom has a P/E of just shy of 1,800. Never seen that before. LOL.

85K salary?

Pardon me if I don't cry for you. There are many, many professionals in the US peaking at quite a bit less than that. If you don't find a way to prep for retirement with that salary, well, tough $hit because that is certainly enough to live a very good quality of life and prep for retirement.

Must be a troll. 85K....

ModsRBadActors wrote:

85K salary?

Pardon me if I don't cry for you. There are many, many professionals in the US peaking at quite a bit less than that. If you don't find a way to prep for retirement with that salary, well, tough $hit because that is certainly enough to live a very good quality of life and prep for retirement.

Must be a troll. 85K....

hey man, not everyone is a prole loser living in Indiana.

In some parts of the country, 85k isn't enough

older millennial wrote:

35

Dead end job 85k/year

No inheritances to speak of

No kids to take care of me

Dead housing market (flatlined for decades)

I feel like the market is my only opportunity to creep ahead and make some aggressive earnings. My job doesn't pay much and I am forced to slowly watch my. 401k grow. I started contributing to it later in life so it's pathetic.

If I could just invest some cash at the right time I could kick-start my savings and long term financial outlook.

Too bad I know only the basics of the market and investing. Guess it's back to Netflix and YouTube for me.

The stock market tends to go up but it also has big ups and big downs. It is unpredictable. The investors who make money long term are buying month after month, year after year, and spread across the entire market (like a Russel 2000 or S&P 500 fund). Do NOT put all your money in the hot stock of the day. Just go look at the Dot Com stocks or 2009 Financial crash.

Housing and the stock market are two reasonable ways to stay ahead of inflation. Company stock valuations are supposed to be based on earnings and that is tracks inflation. Housing is good because no matter what the dollar is worth, people pay about 30% of income into housing. That is why house prices track inflation well. First you buy a house with the intent of paying it off before retirement. 2nd, you max out your retirement accounts with across the market investments. 3rd, build a reserve fund. 4th, buy rental property.

It takes a lot of years, but it starts to build on itself. It is a bit like training for a marathon. One workout won't do jack for you, but months / years of consistent workouts will.

If whatever salary you're making isn't enough in your city, you're the loser for not either trying to make more or moving to a different city. But I get that snowflakes need to live in certain regions of the country to feel important.

Well said and I agree wholeheartedly with everything except the part abut 4th step of buying rental property. If you want to, great, but that's quite discretionary.

seattle prattle wrote:

Gordon Gekko wrote:

Just dump your $35000 in savings each year into some stocks like Netflix, Zoom or even better in the company who gets the Covid 19 vaccination developed.

There is tons of money to me made there.

Zoom has a P/E of just shy of 1,800. Never seen that before. LOL.

Ummm... ever heard of Amazon.com?

Unfortunately it looks like the bottom was in mid-March. 26 million people have filed for unemployment since then, but of course, the market has gone up.

Just Another Hobby Jogger wrote:

seattle prattle wrote:

Zoom has a P/E of just shy of 1,800. Never seen that before. LOL.

Ummm... ever heard of Amazon.com?

There were only a couple of months when amazon was at that level, and it quickly returned to earth. And more to the point, Zoom is no Amazon.

older millennial wrote:

35

Dead end job 85k/year

No inheritances to speak of

No kids to take care of me

Dead housing market (flatlined for decades)

I feel like the market is my only opportunity to creep ahead and make some aggressive earnings. My job doesn't pay much and I am forced to slowly watch my. 401k grow. I started contributing to it later in life so it's pathetic.

If I could just invest some cash at the right time I could kick-start my savings and long term financial outlook.

Too bad I know only the basics of the market and investing. Guess it's back to Netflix and YouTube for me.

what are you trying to get ahead of?

To me it looks like you have all the means to a good life, what's the issue?

Trolling LRC ain't going to help.

Give all your money to Life Tabernacle in Baton Rouge.

older millennial wrote:

35

Dead end job 85k/year

No inheritances to speak of

No kids to take care of me

Dead housing market (flatlined for decades)

I feel like the market is my only opportunity to creep ahead and make some aggressive earnings. My job doesn't pay much and I am forced to slowly watch my. 401k grow. I started contributing to it later in life so it's pathetic.

If I could just invest some cash at the right time I could kick-start my savings and long term financial outlook.

Too bad I know only the basics of the market and investing. Guess it's back to Netflix and YouTube for me.

1) If you can't sock away a TON of money on $85,000 a year as a single person with no kids, then you have a big problem.

2) People should NEVER count on kids to take care of them in any way, physically or financially, so that's not an issue.

3) I like the idea of the person who said to put $35,000 into stocks, BUT it should not be individual stocks. You should put that into stocks within mutual funds. Use Vanguard AND Fidelity. If you have to go with one, choose Vanguard, but the diversity of having stuff with both is a good idea.

4) The right time to invest in the market is ALWAYS. As much as you can, automatically and without fail. ALWAYS have that set amount going in. IF the market drops a ton and then IF you happen to have extra money, go ahead and put in extra, but never wait to invest. Do it all the time.

5) You can invest in individual stocks if you want, but ONLY if you are already doing these things and you continue doing these things - 15% or more into retirement accounts, you have ZERO debt including owing a home outright.

6) Suppose you invest $35,000 per year in mutual funds that return 7% annual return (that's low). Here is what you will have at 60, 62, 65 along with the amount you could have as an annual salary if you take 4% as recommended:

60 - $2.37 million (4% is $94,800)

62 - $2.79 million (4% is $111,600)

65 - $3.54 million (4% is $141,600)

Make sure you hit retirement age owning your home and with zero debt. You can make it decently somewhere on what is laid out above. If you feel you need more, invest even more.

Good luck.