Magic the Gathering as a 401k alternative?

Curmudgeon wrote: A few things: collectibles will bite hard if you do not know what you are doing. Beanie Babies is a perfect example, as is the Cabbage Patch Kids. I'd stay way far away from that.

Also see "Tulipmania"

http://www.thebubblebubble.com/tulip-mania/

mtn wrote:

petegossett wrote: In reply to stuart in mn: YTD = -1.39% 1-month = -5.56% 3-month = -6.12% 1-year = -1.49%

What was it between 2012 and 2014?

We just switched to John Hancock a year ago, and I was only on the previous plan for about 1/5 years since I've only worked here ~3-years.

I had a thought last night: I had a pension from a previous job - not a ton of money, around $10k - that when the company sold out I had to open an IRA for it. I need to check it(haven't looked at the balance for a couple years), but it wasn't losing money. I'm thinking I might be better off taking the 3% pre-tax I'm putting into this 401k and contributing it to my IRA? FWIW this is not a company-match 401k, as we're an ESOP so we earn shares through it as well(and it's doing very well, fortunately). Is that a bad idea???

Do you have a target retirement date? Current markets suck pretty bad across the board, so unless you're retiring pretty soon, I'd avoid making big moves based on current performance. If you have a few years before you're thinking of retiring, I'd go with whatever option has the better long term performance.

+1 to fix your 401k.

Now is a great time to buy... a LOT of stuff is down. VTI, FSTMX, or whatever equivalent your 401k plan offers is a great long term bet.

In reply to ProDarwin:

Unfortunately I don't see either of those as options:

John Hancock Stable Value Fund R6
TCW Total Return Bond I
American Funds 2010 Trgt Date Retire R6
Federated High-Yield Svc
Templeton Global Bond Adv
American Funds Trgt Date Ret 2040 R6
Vanguard 500 Index Admiral
American Funds New Perspective R6
American Funds New World R6
John Hancock Disciplined Value Fund I
Vanguard Mid-Cap Index Fund Admiral
Vanguard Selected Value Inv
Oakmark I
Fidelity Mid-Cap Stock
Vanguard Small-Cap Index Fund Admiral
Dodge & Cox International Stock
Fidelity OTC
T. Rowe Price Real Estate
Goldman Sachs Commodity Strategy A

Are any of these better than the American Funds Trgt Date Ret 2040 R6/RFGTX I'm investing in now?

Vanguard 500 Index Admiral is the same fund as VTI. VTI is just the ETF for it. It basically tracks the market in general. You can mix in 10% bonds or real-estate to add stability at the expense of returns if you want. This is basically what retirement funds do as time goes on - stock investments go down, bonds, real estate, etc. go up. I'm a big fan of almost straight up stock. Warren Buffet recommends 90% S&P, 10% bonds for a zero-management portfolio FWIW.

Target date retirement funds will 'double' charge you in a way. You pay the expense ratios of all the funds they contain, plus the expense ratio of the target fund. You are better off managing it yourself, even if all you do is periodically (once a year or so) check what the target fund portfolio looks like and adjust your contributions to match.

You can compare funds here: https://www.google.com/finance?q=MUTF:RFGTX

Drag the slider back and you will see that despite the 'terrible' market performance lately, VTI is still crushing RFGTX

In reply to ProDarwin:

Thanks, that's definitely helpful!