I am 63 years old and still working.  I enjoy my job and would like to keep working until around 70, if my health and company cooperate :-)
 
I met with a wealth advisor recently and one of the things he had an issue with was my asset allocation. In my Fidelity accounts, I have been doing mostly my own investment selections.  The company 401K (also at fidelity) has a limited set of investment choices, but I am old enough, and the company plan allows me to do in service rollovers, so for the last couple of years I have been rolling the 401K into a rollover IRA account.
 
According to Fidelity, the rate of rate of return for my accounts has been:
 

YTD †
1-Year
3-Year
5-Year
10-Year
Since Inception*All Accounts
+8.57%
+18.06%
+13.35%
+14.96%
+17.11%
+14.79% 01/31/2003
S&P 500 Index
+6.47%
+16.24%
+12.52%
+13.12%
+10.67%

 
I currently only have around 3% in foreign stocks, and am underweight in bonds as well.  Any suggestions on ETFs/funds/individual stocks/ADRs to increase my foreign holdings?

Sharing a recent buy/sell with a BRIEF reason(s) has been a usefully discussion topic on another board, and could prove useful here too. The sharing is not meant to open discussion on each holding, but to let readers simply know what others are doing and why.

Today I bought small positions in the Fid free trade ETFs: ITOT, USMV, DVY, IRY, FTEC, and FHLC to be part of a balanced buy & hold portfolio (like the Lazy Man portfolio). These allow for decent coverage of major market components at low cost.

I am planning to use this investment plan in my non IRA margin account. Normally I would have done 50% bond and 50% stocks since I feel like stock market/economy may be getting closer to top.
 
But I am thinking of using only margin for stock positions and invest all the cash in bonds.
 
I want to invest 100% of my money in bonds, I am thinking about 15% in six months treasury, 25% in short term treasuries, less than 1.5 years expiry.
 
And the rest in investment grade corp bond. For corp bond, I am using LQD which is a diversified corp bond, with diverse expiry, yields around 3.5%. I am able to sell covered call against this to generate another 1.5% extra yield.
 
Then use the margin to take synthetic long positions. Say for example, synthetic covered call for apple will be something like, buy call, sell put, say strike 205, Jun 2020, and sell a covered call of strike 230.
 
this strategy can increase our yield by 2.5-3% (because bond investment is kind of free and that can yield 2.5-3%)
 
I am not planning to use 100% of the margin buying power, to take positions, I will keep around 20% balance, just in case market becomes very volatile or some of my stocks go down more than 10% (upto 10% down will be taken care by the covered call)
 
I am not able to figure out where exactly is my risk being increased due to this leveraged investment plan?

I need more information re. GRATS. Any suggestions or ideas?

Hello,
 
I am about to retire (this month or next month) and would like to listen wisdom from fellow investors/retirees.
 
First let me give you where I stand.
59 years (2month), wife (60, housewife), have 2mil in stocks (401k/Roth IRA/Rollover IRA/taxable account)
2 rentals - 1 is free and clear, I am going to sell the other one this year. so rental income is $3000/month
house - would like to downsize and move to smaller house/condo, will buy in cash
Social Security - will get it when I become 62, estimate is $2500/month (reduced by 25% due to early retirement, don't want wait till 67)
my life expectancy is 80 years. I do not wish to live longer than 80, but that's not I can control.
I think my wife lives shorter than 80. Again it is unknown.
I do not play golf or fishing. Worked hard all my life, but I am willing to learn new trick or hobby.
 
Now what would you do if you were in my situation?
I am going to meet a financial advisor sometime this year to get professional advice. but love to listen what others may offer.
 
Any idea is appreciated.

ANYONE HAVE ANY SAFE WAYS TO MAKE 5-7%   IM RETIRING IN A YEAR AND NEED TO MAKE THIS AMOUNT TO MAKE IT HAPPEN...

I am trying to convert some of my regular IRA to Roth.  Fidelity has good tool to analyze this.  But there is one thing confuses me.  There is an selection for how to pay taxes associated with conversion.  Is it from IRA (meaning keep portion of the withdrawn funds for tax) or pay it out of other savings.  The site keep saying I should pay from other funds.  But I would prefer to use funds from IRA, that would help me keep track of how effective this conversion has been.
 
I can can withdraw without any penalty -over 59.5 old.
 
Any opinions?

Hi folks. I'm looking for advice on what is probably a well-worn issue: saving for college and/or saving for retirement. I'm 52 and have been a steady-eddie saver/investor all of my working life. I have a roth ira and a sep ira, along with many real estate investments that produce income for me. I am a divorced dad, and my kids are 12 and 14. Between child support, alimony, 2 529 plans and retirement savings, things can get a little "tight", but I manage. So I will get right down to it: I currently am able to save 2000 per month between my iras and 2 529 plans. I have been simply earmarking 1000 to my retirement accounts and 1000 between 2 529 plans. This has been a decent strategy thus far, but I would like to hear from those who managed to save a chunk for their kids college and whether, in hindsight, they would have been better off saving for retirement. Thanks folks!

I've actually never done it.   I simply move some %'s around for my contributions.   eg, Right now, I'm putting a bit more in international as they are being beaten up a bit and putting a little less % in the reit's.  But i've never actually redistributed out any of my gains.
 
How often do you do it?  And did you do it in your 30's and 40s?

My plan is to live off my social security and dividends when I retire in a year, and never touch my principal. Until then I am reinvesting my dividends to grow that number. Once I stop reinvesting and take the cash dividends, I will still get some growth in my portfolio with the stocks dividend increase.
 
I don't understand the 4% rule and why you would withdrawal 4% of your principal each year. Can someone help me understand this rule?