Do you invest?

[William2]

We make a sizable salary and the benefits while not physician benefit packages are still nice at least in my location. Where do you put your extra income besides bills and the obvious past tuition loans that made you a nurse?

Do you invest? Where? How did you choose?

I put 5% in an employer based Roth IRA and 1% in traditional 401k for 6% employer match. I was told to put more in Roth for now until I start seeing a need for the tax benefits of 401k which would be at a time when I am filing jointly with someone. But I'd thought I see what 1% does in that category for now.

But more importantly and towards the purpose of my question, where else do you invest? Money market? CD's? Mutual funds? ETF's?

I made over a 3rd of my annual salary in overtime and extra shift incentives. I checked my tax liability and risk and I won't be paying taxes. In fact I will still see a return. I'm young and would like to continue this trend for now. I'm interested to see what other members do.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I am a single female in my mid-30s. I contribute 12 percent of my salary into an employer-sponsored 401k program. The employer matches the first 6 percent of contributions.

I also invest $100 monthly into a traditional IRA that I opened during the financial meltdown of 2008. If I ever separate from any employer, I can simply roll the 401k funds over into this IRA.

I also purchase stocks via Scottrade on occasion. One time I purchased American Airlines stock at $0.49 per share during their bankruptcy proceedings and sold at $6.00 a share. The profit was pretty.

In addition, I have a money market account with enough money saved to live on for several years if I were to become unemployed today. I think it is important to have liquid assets.

Moreover, I have lived in my house for 11 years and have substantial equity due to the gradual increase in real estate prices around here.

[ArtClassRN, ADN, RN]

I put as much into tax-deferred as I can. There isn't anything else left to put anywhere else.

What do you mean when you say "I made over a 3rd of my annual salary in overtime and extra shift incentives. I checked my tax liability and risk and I won't be paying taxes" ?

Overtime and incentives are taxed the same as regular income.

[Jules A, MSN]

Great thread! I'm big on planning for my own future rather than counting on social security and having to forgo my coveted cabana boy. When I was eligible for Roth IRAs I maxed them out every year. I contribute to the 401B or whatever employer program is available by whatever percentage they will match. Real estate is where I have made most of my money. My houses have all been the ugliest house on the nicest block so after living in them and renovating the profits have been very good. I pay off my primary homes as quickly as possible and have not had a mortgage on a personal residence in over 10 years. I also have several rental properties which do not make me money on a monthly basis but build equity way faster than any savings account in a bank or CD can. The major caveat with real estate is that it isn't liquid. Basically we live simply, keep our cars until they die and don't get a bunch of fancy stuff that we don't need so we will be able to retire at a respectable 62 years old, hopefully before I'm full blown senile or incontinent. :)

[William2]

I put as much into tax-deferred as I can. There isn't anything else left to put anywhere else.

What do you mean when you say "I made over a 3rd of my annual salary in overtime and extra shift incentives. I checked my tax liability and risk and I won't be paying taxes" ?

Overtime and incentives are taxed the same as regular income.

My annual income is a third larger this year because of how much I worked extra. Many people I work with often remarked how I would be paying extra in taxes because come April 15 I would have made too much as a single individual. I checked to make sure and I wont be. I'm not privy to tax laws and all that. But I was concerned for a moment I would be paying in this tax year.

I bet that was a lucrative pay off! For me I'm more inclined to put money away for 1-5 or even 10 years just to watch it grow. But I do not know where to start. A part of me would like to contribute say monthly to add to it. But I don't know.

[LovingLife123]

I've invested in real estate over the years. I have several IRAs and invest in my 401k. I don't have enough to retire on, but a decent start.

[RegularNurse]

I am a single female in my mid-30s. I contribute 12 percent of my salary into an employer-sponsored 401k program. The employer matches the first 6 percent of contributions.

I also invest $100 monthly into a traditional IRA that I opened during the financial meltdown of 2008. If I ever separate from any employer, I can simply roll the 401k funds over into this IRA.

I also purchase stocks via Scottrade on occasion. One time I purchased American Airlines stock at $0.49 per share during their bankruptcy proceedings and sold at $6.00 a share. The profit was pretty.

In addition, I have a money market account with enough money saved to live on for several years if I were to become unemployed today. I think it is important to have liquid assets.

Moreover, I have lived in my house for 11 years and have substantial equity due to the gradual increase in real estate prices around here.

Nice!

[RegularNurse]

10% 403B

250 month Roth IRA

500 month savings

[Meeshie]

I have 15% in my 403B in a mix that's maximized for my age and retirement plans. That's high enough to drop my tax bracket, bringing me into a lower bracket and thus my check is pretty similar to what it would be if I didn't invest at all (sounds strange but it usually works).

I also have DRIP accounts, several of them. Every time the stock dividends it gets reinvested commission free. This lets my portfolio grow over time. I also contribute to them monthly via auto debit and with that there are also no fees. I'd say I put in about 500 a month between 7 accounts (Pepsi, J&J, PG, Colgate, AEP, Intel, and GE). It does about 15% a year.

I also invest through Scotttrade and have a pretty diverse portfolio these days.

[sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN]

Cattle

berkshire Hathaway

[NedRN]

I'm presuming you are just at the beginning of a long career? It makes a lot more sense to contribute as much as possible to your employer 401 (not Roth) for maximum deferred taxes. That allows the money you would have paid in taxes (if you had contributed to a Roth) grow for the next 30 or so years. That is pretty huge, and should be more than the Roth benefit of less gain (lower deposit amount), but no taxes owed on any investment gain.

Roth 401s are great too, but for you, really only after you have maxed out your regular 401 and your regular IRA. You are making really good money and the more you put into regular retirement accounts also increase your net income because it will drop you into a lower bracket (I agree that if you become married and have two incomes, the benefit may be even greater).

I will say that it does behoove you to put aside already taxed income in an ordinary investment account for a lot of reasons: rainy day (illness perhaps), wedding, and house downpayment. You can take out up to $10,000 out of a retirement account without penalty for a first home (or remodel) - after that there is a 10% penalty before taxes are taken out (no taxes on Roth withdrawals). Another way to free up retirement money is a loan of up to $50,000 against a 401. But if you can be really disciplined every year, you will certainly end up as one of the "millionaires next door" and will be far better off than perhaps 98% of the country's retirees.

As you know, you have numerous choices on where to invest. Before you go nuts with investing choices in your 401, check your employer's retirement account carefully. If it is managed by an insurance company, you will be paying extra fees which really add up over 30 years (big money). Insurance company plans will be contained in an annuity shell, which nets them 1 percent a year by itself. Look at ticker (stock) symbols. The name may be similar and mirror a large well known fund, but carry a different ticker symbol. That means extra hidden fees, often hard for even financial specialists to see. These odd fund names will be there to mimic "load" funds to give the person who sold the retirement plan to the hospital to earn a commission.

If this is the case, talk to your benefits person about your ability to "rollover" your plan into your own self directed IRA. Most plans allow this while you are still working - the most common time rollovers occur is changing jobs. As a nurse traveler who has worked for many agencies, I've done this a lot. I contribute the max the plan allows, put it into a money market fund (in the 401) to preserve my equity, and as soon as my assignment is over, I roll it over into my own IRA (no limits to rollovers and they don't impact your annual IRA contribution). In your case, perhaps once a year would be enough. Doing this has always brought me more benefit than any employer match (which you may be foregoing if you roll your account over), but you will have to do the math in your case and reflect also on how long you will stay at this employer. That vesting period is there to get you to stay, and you will always leave money on the table when you leave this employer (if their plan does have a vesting period).

After that, I recommend Vanguard mutual funds. Fidelity mutual funds carefully chosen are OK (I have retirement accounts with both companies and confusingly, with either you can choose to buy their competitors funds), but Vanguard is effectively a shareholder owned company or non-profit versus for-profit Fidelity. Think member owned credit union versus for-profit banks. Thus Vanguard is always the low fee winner (and again, those fees will add up to tens of thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars over 30 years). Choose an "index" funds for both the lowest management fees and the cost of operating the fund (administration and the fees from stock churning of an actively managed fund) - there are ETF mirrors of the big index mutual funds that have similar low fees that are OK too. Index funds always beat the actively managed funds over time. Since you are (I think) just starting your career, I'd stick to stock funds. In 15 or 20 years, you can start to add bond funds.

Don't buy individual stocks as a practice as you cannot diversify enough to be safe. But buying small amounts of a couple companies for fun is OK. Perhaps a company you like personally like Apple or Amazon. Try companies you believe have a long future. Changing your stock picks annually is costly.

[ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP]

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/psa-dont-forget-1071123.html

I wrote an article about investing and just maxed out my Roth for 2017 (though it won't be processed until tomorrow!).

I work two jobs, one of them being in the government (my PRN job).

From my FT job, I just upped my contribution from 25 to 27% for my 403b.

For my government job, 10% of that check is automatically taken out and put into a government pension program. Then I have an additional 150 dollars/paycheck placed into my 457b.

All of my investments are Vanguard, the gold standard. Index/Target Retirement funds (comprised of Index funds that regularly adjust allocation over time) and one low-expense Vanguard mutual fund.

I don't purchase single company stocks. To me, that is pure gambling.

I hope to be able to retire in 25 years, at age 50. Maybe 45, if I can swing it!