more cash flow? or pay off car...

[creekster]

Originally Posted by Detroitdad

I am all with you on this. I just think that a 6 month time horizon is not worth the piece of mind that you would get.

I envy you that you have had the luxury to wish that you had more savings younger. Shortly after I had started saving and investing for the long term a substantial portion was wiped out by the internet/tachnology bubble. And I did not even get the joy of daytrading or even owning internet stocks, but the mutual funds I owned got hammered. So, paradoxically I am one of the rare people who can say, "i wish I had not invested so much when I was young." It was a hard way to learn a valuable lesson.

Bummer. sorry to hear about your situation. Not sure if I have the luxury to wish I had saved more, becasue if it is a luxury, it is one you can buy pretty cheaply and you never lose it once you have it.

[Detroitdad]

Originally Posted by creekster

Bummer. sorry to hear about your situation. Not sure if I have the luxury to wish I had saved more, becasue if it is a luxury, it is one you can buy pretty cheaply and you never lose it once you have it.

If I could just get that market timing thing down it would be a cinch. My next investment tip? Sub prime mortgage lenders.

[BarbaraGordon]

Originally Posted by Detroitdad

Shortly after I had started saving and investing for the long term a substantial portion was wiped out by the internet/tachnology bubble. And I did not even get the joy of daytrading or even owning internet stocks, but the mutual funds I owned got hammered. So, paradoxically I am one of the rare people who can say, "i wish I had not invested so much when I was young." It was a hard way to learn a valuable lesson.

Us too. Before the kids we were able to invest quite a bit. This was pre-dot-com-bust.

We even went to our adviser in Nov 1999. Said we wanted to pull everything and reinvest because we had concerns about the sustainability of the tech/telecom industry.

He said. This is a quote: "Every indicator is that technology will continue to drive the market."

He convinced us to leave our "balanced portfolio" as it was.

Well, within months technology indeed drove the market - straight to hell. We lost a ton. We could have set fire to our money to largely the same effect, except that at least then we'd have been able to roast marshmallows.

[SteelBlue]

Originally Posted by Detroitdad

I envy you that you have had the luxury to wish that you had more savings younger. Shortly after I had started saving and investing for the long term a substantial portion was wiped out by the internet/tachnology bubble. And I did not even get the joy of daytrading or even owning internet stocks, but the mutual funds I owned got hammered. So, paradoxically I am one of the rare people who can say, "i wish I had not invested so much when I was young." It was a hard way to learn a valuable lesson.

Sounds like you and I got started around the same time. I thought I was an investing genius in early 1999 before the bubble burst. Yeah, I lost a lot of my first investments, but with 30 years to go those big dips will be times that I picked up cheap shares.

Just for kicks, what was your biggest flop in those days? Mine was Fidelity's aggressive growth fund. I owned the majority of my shares in the 60-80 dollar range. It dropped to $12.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Originally Posted by BarbaraGordon

Us too. Before the kids we were able to invest quite a bit. This was pre-dot-com-bust.

We even went to our adviser in Nov 1999. Said we wanted to pull everything and reinvest because we had concerns about the sustainability of the tech/telecom industry.

He said. This is a quote: "Every indicator is that technology will continue to drive the market."

He convinced us to leave our "balanced portfolio" as it was.

Well, within months technology indeed drove the market - straight to hell. We lost a ton. We could have set fire to our money to largely the same effect, except that at least then we'd have been able to roast marshmallows.

Sounds quite similar to my story. Well, I guess there is some solace in shared misery.

[bYuPride]

Originally Posted by creekster

THere are a lot of factors you don't explain, but I might be tempted to pay $219 a month and put the other $281 in a mutual fund, especially if you are young.

Btw, please tell me where one can live the rock star lifestyle for only $281 a month!

Being a student, and having a wife and kid, $281 would make me feel like a rock star! That's a lot of #6's at Wendy's! I don't trust myself to pay the extra $281 on my own so I have everything EFT'd from my account.

[Detroitdad]

Originally Posted by SteelBlue

Sounds like you and I got started around the same time. I thought I was an investing genius in early 1999 before the bubble burst. Yeah, I lost a lot of my first investments, but with 30 years to go those big dips will be times that I picked up cheap shares.

Just for kicks, what was your biggest flop in those days? Mine was Fidelity's aggressive growth fund. I owned the majority of my shares in the 60-80 dollar range. It dropped to $12.

I bought very small amounts of about a dozen individual stocks nothing ridiculous, but for instance I bought Cisco at 75-80$ (IIRC) and within about six months it was at 15$. My mutual funds did not fare as badly. But I did make my biggest buy of individual stocks on the day before the peak of the market in 2000. It was supposed to be a healthy start for my daughter's college fund. She will be attending for one semester I guess, at College of Eastern Utah.

[creekster]

You people are killing me. Come on now, how often do we have a high tech bubble? The basic principle of saving often and early is sound, time tested and should be followed by everyone, if at all possible. Anyone in the market in 2000 lost a boatload when the bubble burst. I lost a fair chunk too, but this does not mean that the principle isn't sound.

[SteelBlue]

Originally Posted by creekster

You people are killing me. Come on now, how often do we have a high tech bubble? The basic principle of saving often and early is sound, time tested and should be followed by everyone, if at all possible. Anyone in the market in 2000 lost a boatload when the bubble burst. I lost a fair chunk too, but this does not mean that the principle isn't sound.

I'm with you Creekster. The earlier the better and as much as you can.

[Surfah]

If you're not upside down on the car I'd keep making the minimum monthly payments. As stated you're not getting killed on the interest. You can take the other half of that $500 and make more than the 4.9% you're paying to the bank. That's what I'd do.

Personally I'd look to put it into something other than the stock market. I don't like stocks. For investing purposes you can make more money putting it into something not as speculative. I just have little faith in it. Trading is a zero sum game and I have ethical issues with that. So I am just not a fan of stocks. I'd rather deal with real property or something tangible like that.