NBR: Investing Question

jcwinsto

How much money do you think you need before it is feasible to let a professional take it and start investing it? $1k, $5k, $25k, more?  This is assuming you are fully funding your 401k, IRA's etc. 

jcwinsto

@tarajeanette I know that at a low dollar amount it really wouldn't make sense to move money in and out of the account but I figured after it reached a certain dollar amount it would break over to the other side, right?.  I'm pretty much of the opinion that if this money goes in to investing, it stays there until we retire and need it or it continues to grow until we die.  I'm looking at it as a long term thing and pretty much kissing that money goodbye in the meantime.

Our 401k's and Roth's are through Charles Schwab currently but if I was going to start actively getting involved with this I think I'd like to find a local agent of some company with a good reputation.  I do much better with someone explaining it to me face to face.

 

sugarland726

Investing in mutual funds is a great way to get exposure to the stock market. You can also invest in diversified funds which will keep you balanced within the fund, when you don't have a lot of money to invest in several different mutual funds. There are countless mutual fund companies. I work in finance, but don't work for a specific mutual fund company. Here is one example of the kind of fund I am talking about: https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/lifestrategy/#/ You can compare the different risk tolerances of the fund with what you are comfortable with. Typically if you are younger then you would be comfortable being aggressive because you have years to make that back in the market, if you were to lose some. Older people are usually more conservative because they can't afford to lose a lot.

As for someone in person, a lot of financial professionals have minimum account balance requirements for assets under management, but some brokers don't. Look up in the phone book and see who is close by. Give them a call and see what they say or recommend.