All Forum Posts by: Greg B.

Jeff S and @JScott I am 52 years old. I do remember the sales pitches given to me when I was in my 20's and starting the 401k participation. I was not an investor, I was an employee. I was raised by a poor family with little discretionary income. I had no financial training so how was I to know what to question?

The pitches were made, promises were made by many of my employers. Several of those businesses are no longer around. I do understand that the higher compensated employees are limited by the participation of the lower income employees. So there is more pressure, sales pitch, etc on the lower income guys to participate.

I distinctly remember that after I was enrolled and participating for about 2 years a letter came out from my employer that the fees for running the 401k were now going to be deducted in a different way. This was the first I had ever heard about 401k management fees. So they were going to take out management fees even when the fund is under performing and I do not have the option to shop around for a better deal. I did not appreciate the deception and attempted to remove myself from the fund. Nope, cannot until you resign. Lesson learned, no control over my money.

Also, in the early years, choices of investment funds were limited and information about those investments was limited. If you asked questions you were a pot stirrer and trouble maker.

Later, with a different employer, I was offered more choices of investments and it appeared this employer was more up front about information concerning the 401k. Things were good.

Years later, I left that employer and rolled it all into an IRA. To my knowledge there were no SDIRA's at that time. I was dealing with a local financial planner with a national company. The mix of funds was recommended by her and I agreed. The big word at that time was "diversify" to protect your portfolio. Ohhhh sounds great! I'm in.

2001 hits and the protected, diversified portfolio loses 40%. No calls, no emails, no postcards from her. I can't even get her to talk to me. I am working 60+ hours a week and paying fees to the pro. What was I paying her for? Lesson learned, don't fall for the polished sales pitch.

I did remove my portfolio from her and self managed my IRA with no load funds. I recovered my losses but still did not feel comfortable about the whole stock market thing. Lesson learned, I can manage my own finances. That is when I cashed out and made my changes. I have no regrets about this move.

I can still check what that portfolio would have done if left alone. I am still way ahead of it and I am far more in control of my situation than I ever have been.

Were are all different people. We all have had different levels and types of education. We have all had different opportunities in our lives. Life is not one size fits all. I am a big boy and I am making my choices in life. I consider myself more of an investor now than an employee. Life has taught me some tough lessons and more to come I am sure.

I know what has worked for me and I have given you my justifications. We each have to make our own choices and live with them.

Good luck to all.

Ryan M., plan B would be the same as if your 401k was worth 60% of its value when you retire. You will be required to work more or share expenses.

The thing is you ask your question as if the 401k is guaranteed. It's not. You have no downside protection. You cannot get out if things are going bad. You can shift investments.

With RE I can decide to sell, mortgage, 1031, rent, or occupy.

Good to know. I am registered with them but the attitude of the workers at the local HD make me not choose to go there lately. I don't have time for commercial cashiers with arrogant, lazy attitudes.

One more example: My wife has a 403b. We stopped contributing years ago. It has been invested in domestic and international growth equities for about 25 years now. In all of those years the value of the fund has grown a whopping 10% AND has still never put one dime in my pocket. 10% growth over 25 years, I know I can do better than that on my own. :-/

Yes I did do this in 2005 and never looked back. Cashing out is not for everyone and I would not do it if you don't have a viable plan.

Here is my argument about the 401k thing.... A 401k is a tax DEFERRED entity. You will pay income tax on the money at some point in time. The pitch was that you would be in a lower tax bracket upon retirement. Maybe, maybe not, but you will still pay income taxes on the money eventually. So the argument about paying the income taxes is a non issue for me.

The other part of the argument is the penalty, 10%. Agreed, it is a penalty, but it is surmountable.

My thing is, I put MY money into an account to defer MY income. The money is supposed to grow for decades. The actual growth will depend on your choice of investments. You may even break even over the decades or LOSE money. However, the managers that promote the investments(including fund managers) ALWAYS make money. Even in 2001, when my 401k funds lost 40% of value my fund manager was making money and never even picked the phone up to warn me that I need to make some adjustments.

The fund manager that you pay for is not looking out for your interests. Your finances are not something you can give to someone else to trust to manage. That was a tough lesson for me.

Now, while you are putting you income into the 401k for decades with the possibility that it may lose value, the 401k is NOT putting money into your pocket each month. You will not enhance your standard of living from a 401k.

What if I took that same money and put it into something that could pay me now AND pay me later? Hmm. It was a no brainer to me. I paid the penalty and income taxes and invested into income producing property.

Here's another point... Yes, my real estate investments may lose money occasionally. It could happen. However, I don't have to pay someone else to lose my money if it happens. I can take full responsibility and not have to rely on someone else to try and sell me something that will only benefit them.

Real estate investing has been a great choice for me.

Your mileage may vary.

Danny Day you're doing some serious thinking there. Good for you.

From what I know about Texas.... you can only install one septic system per acre. If you were going to put 20 units on 2 acres there would have to be another method of dealing with the waste.

Also, drilling a well for that much use may trigger some water usage regulation concerning the water table. Might have to contact your county commissioner.

Oh yeah, with a well, you become a water provider and have to abide by certain water quality regulations and have to provide annual reports to the users. We had a guy around here that ran afoul of those regs due to pump problems, lots of fines and bad press. He sold out and moved on.

You have a lot more research to do. Good luck.

Once a borrower becomes delinquent on his or her mortgage, that person develops a negative attitude not only about paying the mortgage and his or her general finances, but also about the whole idea of homeownership — significantly more negative than homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages, but are still current in their payments.

That’s according to a Fannie Mae study released this week.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-delinquent-borrowers-are-thinking-2012-06-15

What do you think? True or not?

Welcome to BP Sabrina Laplante

Sarah Jones is the "$600 for the land" lot rent or payment for the land?

I am not sure about LA numbers, no way I would be dealing with numbers like that for a manufactured home in my market.

Spinks beat the reigning champion under suspicious circumstances.

The rematch was September 15, 1978 and Ali won, becoming the first person to win the heavy weight championship 3 different times.

I liked Ali but haven't watched much boxing since this incident.