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Working together by separating control of our investments

April 2nd, 2008 at 12:20 am

I'm happy to report another item checked off the TO DO list! DH has invested his IRA rollover money!

Between us, DH and I have worked for 9 different companies in the last 5 years -- that's a lot even considering the high-tech field we're in! I've been pretty good about making sure our 401k's were rolled over into IRA's but not so good about investing the money afterward. Part of the problem was that for a long time DH and I couldn't seem to talk about investing strategy without getting into an argument.

Finally I came to my senses and proposed to DH that he invest his IRA as he saw fit. With the stock market tanking the last few months it seemed a really good time to move money out of cash and into some mutual funds. Things got rolling when I proposed we sit down side by side one Saturday afternoon, separately researching mutual funds on our individual laptops.

I was mainly going through the exercise of using Morningstar to analyze and actually pick a fund on my own. (I think I detailed what a miserable failure that was in an earlier post.) DH, on the other hand, successfully managed to pick out 5 funds he wanted to invest in. He had about $75k to work with, and put about $15k into each.

He's gone a lot more aggressive and international than I would have -- Vanguard International Value, T. Rowe Price funds for Latin American, Southeast Asia, and Africa & Middle East, and Fidelity Southeast Asia. It's a lot of foreign exposure, but should be balanced out by the large amount of American large-cap and balanced funds that I hold in my accounts. Although my portfolio is 50% international, I've been told it's primarily made up of multi-national companies that are really American in nature.

We still have about $15k in my accounts that need investing. I'm considering waiting for the subprime mess to be straightened out, then buying a REIT that specializes in commercial property. I like the idea of having a stake in another asset class. The downside is that I don't know much about REIT's and so will need to get some education on them.

I also gave DH the green light to invest $10k in a stock he thought was a good buy. The purchase was made from his taxable stock account, which has been doubling as our emergency fund. He sold it a couple of weeks later and made a $1k profit. He also sold his employee stock-purchase shares for another $1k profit.

So all in all we're making good progress.

2 Responses to “Working together by separating control of our investments”

  1. Broken Arrow Says:
    1207110572

    Much discussion has been had regarding how a couple should manage their finances, but to me, it always seem to come down to this one thing:

    The best way to manage is whatever works best for you two!

    The more time goes by, the more I am convinced that personal finances is very personal indeed.

    In any case, I am glad that you and your hubby have found your happy compromise.... In a way, between his aggressiveness and your conservativeness, perhaps it balances out the entire portfolio, when examined as a whole? That's a good thing then.

    Finally, can I ask what stock did he buy?

  2. zetta Says:
    1207432090

    The stock was Broadcomm. Unfortunately they went up another 6% after he sold, so he's wishing he had ridden it a little longer. I told him I'd heard it's always wise to leave a little in for the next guy. Wink

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