Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 18:19:26 CST
From: "Elle" 
Newsgroups: misc.invest.financial-plan
Subject: Re: As many before me, I seek advice
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Just to get the ball rolling, some queries from a do-it-yourselfer who reads
a lot:

How much of your contribution to your 401k does your employer match?

Have you considered contributing to a Roth IRA in addition to your 401k?

So you have about $47k in savings right now. If you lose your job again, how
long do you think you'll be unemployed, and so how much money will you need
to support yourself? Create your rainy-day fund built around this figure.
Typically sites say to stash away 3-months to a year's worth of expenses,
but it really should depend on one's own knowledge of one's own job
stability. Laddered one-year CDs, like you described, are probably as good
an idea as any.

Do you plan to buy a house or condo in which to live? Plan to marry and have
kids?

Answer these questions, then maybe start learning about portfolio
allocation, which most likely will tell you that a person your age should
put more into stocks than CDs. A couple of free, nice, easy sites that will
give you quick and dirty suggested portfolio allocations:

http://www.smartmoney.com/oneasset/ (scroll over many of the words to get
explanations, or experiment with different figures until you understand what
the site is doing)

http://www.fincalc.com/ , click on "How should I allocate my assets?" on the
lower right.

You can then use a financial planner, if you wish, and you'll go in
prepared. Or keep asking questions here, and do some combination of DIY-er
with some help from a planner.

Good for you for saving so carefully!

 wrote
> 25 years old. Have about $6k in a 401k (with the money distributed
> wholly among "high risk" items, and from here on I'm contributing 12%
> of my income to the 401k.)  Then I have about $41k sitting in various
> savings and checking accounts.