Investment Advice

[ksalisbury]

First I'll give you guys a little background - I'm a 20 year old guy and live in WA State. I'm getting out of the military right now and will be attending college in the fall, (that'll be paid for by the military).

This is my Roth IRA right now:
$13,000 of Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX)
$7,000 of Dodge and Cox International Fund (DODFX)

I also have $3500 in CGMFX, in a regular account

So... I have about $10,000 in cash sitting in a bank account right now that I'd like to invest.... but I'm not sure what to invest it in. I already have my $5,000 for my Roth IRA next year saved in a separate account.

Oh yeah, and I have no debt whatsoever!

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Kyle

[Broken Arrow]

Welcome, ksalisbury. Your investing habit is outstanding!

I've checked all 3 funds together on MorningStar's X-Ray, and offhand, I can't see any particular problems with it.... That is, depending on your risk tolerance and asset allocation.

I suppose I could nit-pick on CGMFX's expense ratio, but that fund has been performing like a rock star.

What about your emergency fund or perhaps a house fund? What's your overall goal?

Anyway, great job.

[noppenbd]

Make sure you have 3-6 months of expenses available in savings for emergencies, as BA said.

Beyond that, it definitely depends on your risk tolerance, but since you asked for advice, off the top of my head I would look at adding to your DODFX and FCNTX positions and maybe putting a few thousand into a good small cap US stock fund. Right now you are 50% Large Cap US stocks and 50% International (this is because CGMFX is 60% international and FCNTX is 20% international).

[ksalisbury]

Thanks guys, and yes I do already have an emergency fund. Next year I plan on adding another $3,000 to FCNTX and $2,000 DODFX in my IRA.

I do plan on trying to get a house eventually, but not until I finish up college. Hopefully I'll have a big enough savings acount by then!

This $10,000, like I said, is just sitting around and I feel I could be making a little more than the 1% its making right now. Maybe $5,000 in a CD for 12 months? What do you guys think about adding to my CGMFX?

[Broken Arrow]

Oh yeah, 10k should definitely be earning you more than 1% somewhere.

I quickly ran through X-Ray with the addition of 10k in CGMFX, and the asset allocation didn't change by much. Now, I haven't looked into it in further detail, but offhand, I'd say that's a definite option.

Edit: I started to look at the fund a little closer, because I was wondering what in the world it was doing with a 5 year average of 35%. And I just realized that this fund is ran by none other than Ken Heebner!

...

I'm definitely going to look into this fund further. Hell, maybe I should just buy it myself!

[disneysteve]

20 years old with upwards of $38,500 in savings and investments! I think folks should be asking you for investment advice, not the other way around.

[Broken Arrow]

20 years old with upwards of $38,500 in savings and investments! I think folks should be asking you for investment advice, not the other way around.

Indeed!

[Reldon]

You are doing very well for someone so young. I wish I had the same habits as you at that young age.