Bonds or stocks?

[Anonymous]

Which is your preferred method to invest and why?

[Anonymous]

85% stock, 15% bond, for diversification

[iced]

For retirement investments, 95% stocks and 5% bonds. I can let the money sit for 30 years so I'll ride out any bear markets or recessions, and the return on equities is always historically higher than bonds when the time scale is long enough. Of that 95%, I weight it toward domestic large cap, but have a sizeable spread in mid cap, international, and real estate as well. Try to balance growth and dividend stocks, though I start shifting toward dividends when I think we're nearing a short-term peak and toward growth when we're near a trough.

That said, as I get older, I'll shift more toward bonds until I'm about 60% bonds by the age of 70.

For personal investment, stocks. Same general rules as above: I won't touch small cap (high reward but higher risk), and I'm very picky about mid cap stocks. Also tend to stay 100% domestic in this area, but I do growth/dividend shifting in a similar pattern.

[Anonymous]

This is an area I am really ignorant about and I would like to learn about, any suggestions about where I can start? Where is a good place to find a financial advisor?

[iced]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
This is an area I am really ignorant about and I would like to learn about, any suggestions about where I can start? Where is a good place to find a financial advisor?

---

What I know was all self-taught. There's a lot of blogs and websites out there that have information, but I wouldn't recommend you take any of them as absolute truth. Taken together though, you can begin to see some consistently good and bad trains of thought. I try to look for sites with general market advise rather than ones that are trying to push me toward or away from specific stocks. The latter tend to have ulterior motives.

I don't have a financial advisor so I can't help there.

[wasCB14]

About 30% in international index ETFs (average holding period of many years)

About 55% in a few very stable domestic companies I follow closely* (average holding period of many years)

About 15% in a mix of speculative and shorter-term positions: riskier companies, options, and cash

Currently 0% in bonds.

I am young and don't need income from the investments yet. I expect to eventually inherit a rentable duplex, so will eventually be diversified from that.

*I should also mention that as an accountant, I'm quite comfortable reading financial reports. If I can't understand a company's finances, I pass on it (though I may end up owning a little of it through an ETF).

[Anonymous]

With multiple sources of income I favor stocks to ride out. If I only had 10 years left to work I would not count on riding out a 20-year loss. When the loss happens prices on everything else goes up faster as well, medical expenses triple approaching retirement so monthly expenses and your income loss is a double hit.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
This is an area I am really ignorant about and I would like to learn about, any suggestions about where I can start? Where is a good place to find a financial advisor?

---

William Bernstein is one of the best and most reliable writers on personal finance out there.  These are both great books:

https://www.amazon.com/If-You-Can-Millennials-Slowly/dp/098878033X/ref=la_B001H6ID14_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1477448609&sr=1-5

https://www.amazon.com/Investors-Manifesto-Prosperity-Armageddon-Everything/dp/1118073762/ref=la_B001H6ID14_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1477448609&sr=1-3

[Anonymous]

It depends. Both are better than doing nothing but basically the further you are from retirement the more stock oriented your investment mix should be.

[Anonymous]

Most common question people have is how to invest in dividend stocks, that’s where investing in high-quality stocks that provide dividends come in. There are two ways you can make money on a stock: capital appreciation and dividend yield. Capital appreciation is the increase in the share price and the dividend yield is what the company elects to pay out annually. For example, if a company’s share price increased five percent in 2015 and paid an annual dividend of five percent, the annualized return would be 10%. Adding high-quality dividend stocks to your retirement portfolio is the best way to ensure consistent growth.

Few companies i believe that are going to perform good in the 2017 are:
Target Corporation:
In addition to so many shoppers, Target.com is consistently ranked as one of the most-visited retail web sites. I also buy a lot of course from it.
Procter & Gamble Co:
Procter & Gamble provides an annual dividend of 3.03%, or $2.68 per share. The company has raised its annual dividend for the last 60 consecutive years.

These are going to be my must invest dividend stocks for 2017.