losing money in stocks

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Forgot about the trade costs. I should ask him if he weighed that in. He basically being a wise &*$& showed me a excel spreadsheet with weighted average based on when we contributed. I was looking it over and it seemed okay but I forgot about the transaction costs.

Since 2006 I think.

[jpg7n16]

Since 2006, the S&P500 fell from between 1200-1300, down to 1200. So if the overall market lost money (with transaction costs), why do you expect his portion to return significantly over that?

Considering that your contributions would have likely been made during 2007 and 2008 - which were then between 1400-1600, and are now 1200 - you'd expect him to have lost a little.

You must have just gotten lucky with your 401k selection - or forgot that your contributions have inflated your 401k balance.



I don't know your husbands background with investments, so I don't know a range to tell him. Since it bothers you, I think 25% would be better than 50%. But if he's very experience and knowledgable about investments, I'd have no problem with 25%.

[tan fish]

Can you suggest that he trade outside of retirement shelters all together? I also like to trade stocks, and like most people have had a fair share of nice wins and some spectacular losses, but I only trade stocks in a regular investment account. For my retirement accounts, I have it set on auto pilot with monthly deposits and purchases of mutual funds. The money I trade with is purely "play money" that I have after contributing to my retirement accounts. He should know that when it comes to retirement, its easiest and best to just play it long.

[TutoMoneta]

If a non-professional person trades stocks it's like a drug or casino.
Give him £500 monthly and send to casino (chances he will return with money back home are more or less similar).

[MonkeyMama]

You surely mean 50% of your ROTHs, or 50% of his ROTH??? Not 50% of your life savings or total retirement, right???

The 5-10% figure just applies to all savings, basically.

I think a good compromise is just to let him do what he wants with HIS ROTH. You do what you want with yours. Time will give you peace of mind, or ammunition if he is losing badly in comparison to yours.

[gambler2075]

First, I don't know the experience that he has so I can't say that trading would be a bad idea, but I can say that there are many, many pitfalls on the road to becoming a successful trader, and many (most) people will never get there.

The past 2 years have been ridiculously good for trading, as we have been in a bull market. Yet you say he has not done as well as your boring professionally managed investments? Well, that should be a wakeup call for him.

I also agree with DS that swingtrading (buying and selling, say, a month later) is not the same as daytrading. For a beginner trader, swingtrading is alot more likely to be successful, imo.

Finally, most people have no idea how hard it is to trade... especially beginning traders. And they tend to see patterns where there are none, or look at bad trades and try to rationalize how they would have done things different, where they are really looking through 20-20 hindsight. Trust me, I have been there (lol).

Ultimately, the bottom line is what matters... if he is not beating the market significantly (and I mean at least 30-40% per year returns) then IMO it is much better for him to give up trading and spend more time living and doing the things that really matter in life.

g

[disneysteve]

I think a good compromise is just to let him do what he wants with HIS ROTH. You do what you want with yours.

JMHO but I would not accept this compromise. If my wife decided she wanted to start trading stocks in her Roth, I'd have a problem with that. Our money is all joint, no matter whose name happens to be on the account. In fact, our retirement accounts are the only ones that don't have both names, since they can't or else they would. My retirement savings is part of OUR retirement plan. Her retirement savings is part of OUR retirement plan. How that money gets invested should be a joint decision. If one partner isn't comfortable with the plan, you need to change the plan.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I guess about half of our retirement. 401k is $130k and Roth/Rollover is about that much too? I haven't been watching the Roth/Rollover IRA. I am a boring buy some MF/ETFs and don't bother. I'm not exactly into stocks.

He hasn't touched our cash savings. I don't know his Roth is large because we did the rollover conversion last year.

[krantcents]

Be very careful! My wife has a friend who is a widow. She relied too much on her husband to take care of the finances. He did very bad job and left her in an almost broke condition. He earned in the low 6 figures, mortgage paid off and had a rental. He gambled most of it away. He is losing your money too.