American Economy Going Strong ! Thank God ! (page 6)

zeroday

Does the $23k include your 2006 contributions?

The 23k is a combination of stock market appreciation and personal savings. About 50 50 each. I spend far less than I earn unlike most Americans. Therefore I am able to save a large portion of my take home pay.l

thecarpenter

Another reason to not keep all of your investments confined into one country. Which is why ~40% of my portfolio is in Euro/Pacific companies. I learned my lesson from the tech bust. Sure, it was great watching those gains multiply in the early years, but after 2000-2001, things went south pretty fast.

I'm with Jourles on this one, I also put 40% of my portfolio into a international mutual fund, did 30% this past year. the other 60% I put mainly in a large cap value fund and did about 22%. My personal stock picks are doing about 10% although I'm pretty confident they will pop by summer (I invest once a year in the summer for a one year period to reduce my capital gains tax). This year, I'm probably going to put 50~60% in international because that market is still hot. I anticipate the US market not doing as well this year because of all the debt, but there are some attractive stocks that I think I will purchase shortly such as GM. I put my portfolio where my mouth is... let's have this discussion same time next year.

I must remember to fill up the contribution box at the kingdom hall....