a 401k is merely the "wrapper" that your investments are housed within..could be an IRA, a traditional brokerage account funded with after-tax $, a 403b, a 529 plan, etc; waiting until the market is "normal" usually means you are waiting until it rises further! A 401k is, to me, the single best way to build wealth...everything is on autopilot...we are our own worst enemies in many cases...get set up, put your 10-20% away each paycheck, select a "target date" fund that corresponds with your planned retirement date, and go live your life...you will buy more shares when the market is down, and fewer when it is higher...but over time, you will do fine...market timing is very difficult...time in the market is your greatest ally...even 5% compounded over 20 or 30 or 40 years is a magical thing...the stock market fluctuates, sure, but you want that...do you want your $ in something that is prevented from going higher? the companies that we buy from, like coke, apple, amazon, google, microsoft, proctor and gamble, mcdonalds, etc, are run by very smart people who know how to achieve profit growth year over year...that tends to dictate stock prices...study warren buffet's philosophy...own the american economy, don't bet against it....
You just got some very-very sound advice from Benelli—not investing in your 401K-out of current fear-makes no sense at all—jmo
When is the market ever normal?
I guess my reply to that is as follows: when there are fairly long periods without extreme volatility....had some of that in 2017-2018, then a pullback in Q4 2018 as the fed was raising rates... then most of 2019, into 2020....we had quite a stretch of good returns and low volatility (downward, that is!). Another way to answer that question is to look at P/E ratios... normal P/E's for the dow/S & P 500 are in the mid-teens....so if they deviate from that level appreciably, you could say the market is abnormal...we're trading at richer p/e levels now, to some degree, argument could be made it's overvalued, but with rates so low, p/e's tend to get stretched...for awhile, anyway!
As I previously said you received excellent advice from Benelli and Joel-
Excellent advise. Pick a percentage and forget about it. I'm gonna go a little further and say I will NEVER move mine out of the market and into securities, even when I retire. I feel there are more millionaire/billionaires than this world has ever seen....NO WAY they're gonna let those bargains sit there very long. I'm gonna make money til I die.a 401k is merely the "wrapper" that your investments are housed within..could be an IRA, a traditional brokerage account funded with after-tax $, a 403b, a 529 plan, etc; waiting until the market is "normal" usually means you are waiting until it rises further! A 401k is, to me, the single best way to build wealth...everything is on autopilot...we are our own worst enemies in many cases...get set up, put your 10-20% away each paycheck, select a "target date" fund that corresponds with your planned retirement date, and go live your life...you will buy more shares when the market is down, and fewer when it is higher...but over time, you will do fine...market timing is very difficult...time in the market is your greatest ally...even 5% compounded over 20 or 30 or 40 years is a magical thing...the stock market fluctuates, sure, but you want that...do you want your $ in something that is prevented from going higher? the companies that we buy from, like coke, apple, amazon, google, microsoft, proctor and gamble, mcdonalds, etc, are run by very smart people who know how to achieve profit growth year over year...that tends to dictate stock prices...study warren buffet's philosophy...own the american economy, don't bet against it....
All I know about stocks is that I know very little about them, and that is dangerous. If I had any sense at all - I wouldn't listen to me! However, if income (dividends) is a driver for you, FWIW- Chevron has been kind to me. But the energy (I mean "carbon management") sector, typically volatile, is likely to be an even bumpier ride than usual for a time - or so I suspect.
Same. I got in CVX in Oct along with a few other energy stocks. I've been betting on Uranium as I think the sector is way under-loved. CCJ is my fav play in that sector. Platinum is undervalued in my opinion as well.