So, things are looking a bit shaky with the economy obviously. I have a bit of money in my 401K from my 4 years working for GE. I've noticed a bit of a decline in the total $$ value of all my investments. Thats about all I know, Im a total idiot when it comes to this stuff.

First off, my options for investment switches:

GE Common Stock (have some money here)
Small Cap Equity Fund (have a bunch of money here)
Index Fund
Mutual Fund
International Fund (have a bit of money here)
Strategic Fund
Income Fund
Short Term Fund
Money Market Fund
U. S. Savings Bonds

GE is HUGE, I figure its safe to leave money there, or I guess stocks kinda dropped today, so I'm thinking reinvest some back into GE for when it goes back up.
The small cap equity has always done ok for me, I'd imagine its ok to leave that alone.
The international fund though... From my understanding, while the economy might be looking shitty, we should bounce back before too long, while europe, in a similar situation, may take longer. I'd be willing to pull my money out here, and reinvest it in either the GE stock, or the equity fund, or a split between the two.

Any other options from my list safe, or possibly able to make me some money?

Thanks.

I don't expect the younger crowd here to be able to help me much, but I would like to point out, that as much fun as it is blowing money on the car and such, this money I'm dealing with is whats going to support me in retirement. I'm 26, and don't think I have nearly enough invested at this point. INVEST EARLY!
I'm not a rambling old man (yet), so don't tune me out completely. ; )
I've already learned a bunch about how I'm probably screwing myself in the future with the money that I'm not, but should be investing now. If you start young, you can invest less, and make more than if you invest more later in life and try to play catch up.
I'm currently trying to restructure how I manage/spend my paychecks, so I won't have to say 'welcome to walmart' when I should be sitting on a front porch throwing hot pennies on the sidewalk for kids to try to pick up.

 

50% domestic
50% foreign
Maybe I should have done 100% foreign, hehe. No maybe WaMu.....sure!

Mid Cap
Large Cap
Bonds
Guaranteed Certs
Fixed funds

These are my options, too many sub options to list....and secrets.
Oh I almost forgot...401k is how I got my S4...hehe!

 

ahh, but aren't things like bonds a little TOO safe? I thought that was the old people option. They made their money, now they just have to make sure the market isn't gonna take it.

And again, why foreign? Europe is slow to recover from stuff like this was the impression I got.

 

in my opinion i would go with the safer route that is less volatile
market today really sucked when that 700bil baliout fell witch in my opinion was a stupid idea
if your not worried about the risk that much go with ge but on the safe side put it in the bonds or funds
stocks are dirt cheap right know witch is good for buyers but suck for alot off ppl like me that are in some individual stocks at the moment but in the long run itll be worth it
all in all it is basically how much risk you want with the stocks being high to the funds and bond being a lower risk

 

well when you invest in european stocks and you gain, the gain is more than what you would have gotten in the US with the currency exchange. i personally don't like to invest in stocks. i like to buy houses and rent or fixer upper. where i live, there are quite a bit of apartments with 10% + cap rate and prices in my area rarely drop much. what do you do at GE? maybe you can get my an internship or something for Industrial Engineering? lol

 

I have had my 401K going into an "income fund" for the past 6-8 months. It's guaranteed interest return, with the principal backed by Metlife, and a few other companies. I guess that's as safe as it gets. While the small, mid, large caps, and foreign are all down, some more than 20% now, I have still made 4-6% return where everyone else is in the negative for the year that kept it in stocks.

 

I don't invest most of my money into the stock market, mostly real estate, you can never lose in the long run with real estate and the return is often much greater. If you want to know much more about it pick yourself up the Rich Dad Poor Dad's (advanced guide to investing in real estate)
Those of you that don't really know about real estate investing i don't need your 02. cents about foreclosers, i know more about it then you do.
If you are going to invest in the stock market, definately invest in gold. Gold goes up while the dollar goes down. Another good guy to watch is Jim Cramer on CNBC, his show is MAD MONEY. I have also read his book and its very informative.

 

Robert Kiosaki has some great books. I think he even has a board game out, lol.
I'm going to re-read that book now, thanks auditech79.

I use www.investors.com Investors Business Daily to judge the market direction.
A good book by William J. O'Neil is "24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success".
It's less than $10 and teaches you the fundamentals of the markets.

 

This has all happened in the past and will happen again(statistics show it every couple decades), it is all about the long run(keep your money diverse and dont move it around)...unless you started @ an old age. Statistics show that even with the market, I'll retire 50 years from now(starting in my early 20s)a millionare. Although I do put alot into it, suffering a little now.

 

If you're < 35 and you are playing it safe with bonds, you're an idiot.
If you're > 55 and you are investing in volatile stocks, you're an idiot.

This so-called biggest point loss they are talking about in the news is not even half of what occurred in 1988 percentage wise. The market always comes back and what goes down , must come up.

Longrun +1