<p>If you invest in index funds you don’t need to understand much.</p>
<p>Index funds are also normally low fee, which is good over the long run.</p>
<p>If you have any student loans, try paying them down before putting all your money into retirement plans and investments.</p>
<p>OP - Excellent advice on priorities has been provided by prior posters. (My list is identical to Mathmom’s.) </p>
<p>Cash gives you additional life choices, which is why it’s valuable to put some money away when you’re young. But that cash needs to be available. Yes you can raid your 401K and IRAs, but there are penalties for doing so. Once you have the basics covered, it’s OK to build a taxable investment account … i.e., an account intended for easing your working years, rather than your retirement years. That option may be a few years off, as I think you’ve underestimated the costs of being a working citizen. (Your 32% tax withholding wouldn’t cover Federal and State Income tax in my state, never mind Sales Taxes, Property Taxes, Social Security and Medicare Levys, etc.)</p>
<p>So, would you be looking for a significant other? Not sure of your gender, but I’ve got singles of both male and female variety. Just kidding, but you are off to a great start just by thinking of all this stuff, way ahead of your peers.</p>
<p>Here’s an interesting idea… this happened years ago when older d was in nursery school. I took her to play with a little boy in her class and when I was there with her I noticed lots of baseball memorabilia, primarily for the NY METS. Trying to make conversation with the mom, I said something about she and husband must be major METS fans… her reply was that they were not really interested in baseball at all, but they decided that memorabilia was a good investment (not disputing that) but they took all their assets and invested in memorabilia, all of which was in the living room of their two family house…</p>
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<p>The worry is that I won’t know the fair price for it or know how to select the correct stuff that will yield gains. Though I was just thinking this about the Breaking Bad props (they just went on sale). I figure at least there I can try to gauge it’s intrinsic value, and determine an exposure value based on how often it was shown in the show. Could also be a conversation starter. </p>
<p>Anyway, I’m looking at the insurance now. There are 4 kinds I can get, 3 are HMO and 1 is POS. Apparently the difference is that POS gives me more options to go to other medical providers while HMO is cheaper. Likely going to go with the HMO, but what do you guys think?</p>
<p>Each of the HMO plans cost $50.10/month. Also apparently the insurance is free after I pay for it for 5 years (let me know if that makes any sense - it sounds weird to me). </p>
<p>This is the comparison. I think I removed all identifying information but please, if you know where this is, don’t say. <a href=“http://oi40.■■■■■■■.com/2h3mplh.jpg[/url]”>http://oi40.■■■■■■■.com/2h3mplh.jpg</a> Which do you guys recommend?</p>
![http://oi40.■■■■■■■.com/2h3mplh.jpg[/url]](http://oi40.tinypic.com/2h3mplh.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
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<p>Do you know how to estimate it? I did an internship at the same company and I know during the internship 32% was being withheld. I might expect it to be a slightly higher percentage since I’ll be making about 50% more going in full time, but I don’t know how to estimate it really. Is there an all inclusive tax estimator anywhere?</p>
<p>Looks like the three HMOs have similar cost for individuals (though A is cheaper if you end up with a family) and similar benefit levels.</p>
<p>What you may want to do is look to see how the list of providers actually compares (if you already have a primary care physician, see if that physician is in each HMO’s list), and how out-of-area emergency or urgent care is handled, and which emergency or urgent care providers in your area are in each HMO’s list. Also ask other employees how well each company handles coverage and billing (i.e. do they make errors?).</p>
<p>You may also want to ask your employer if the employer-paid portion of the premium is the same for each one. This could become relevant if you later separate from the employer but want to continue on the plan through COBRA.</p>
<p>I got kind of excited when I saw the title of this thread, and I had a really good suggestion … but everyone offered such great ideas that I find it difficult to share mine. But I will: I will be happy to take it off your hands (I’m remodeling my kitchen). ;)</p>
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<p>Although the OP probably can change plans once a year during open enrollment, so could switch later if that was on the horizon. Although you do get used to doctors within a network. But I have switched a few times in my life and gotten over it each time. 
You can ask about the COBRA, but I think in most cases if the cost to the employee is the same for each plan, likely the cost of COBRA will be as well (just dealing with that myself, actually, and it is true for me).</p>
<p>We actually often use which hospital the plans admit to as a criteria for picking a plan… there is some quality difference, location difference, and a University hospital in our town. So we have considered where care for serious illnesses was likely to take place when thinking about what plan to pick when the price was all the same.</p>
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<p>Hmmm… Sounds like good criteria there. I think I may have been misunderstanding the “Range of providers” section. Does that mean that they’ll assign me to someone in that range, because the range for HMO B and HMO C includes areas 100 miles out, which would be extremely inconvenient if I get unlucky? Or was I thinking correctly when I thought it meant I can pick a doctor anywhere in the range of providers?</p>
<p>As for specific hospitals, I didn’t notice any mentioned. How can I tell? I guessing I’m supposed to avoid teaching hospitals, right?</p>
<p>UCB, I’ll ask around about those things, but when do I usually have to select a plan?</p>
<p>For most employer sponsored medical insurance plans, you select your plan at or soon after starting employment, then late in every year for the following calendar year.</p>
<p>For providers and hospitals, go to each HMO’s web site and look up nearby hospitals in your area to see if they are in network. Also do a provider search for physicians within some distance of your home and work to see if the lists differ significantly between HMOs. If you have specific physicians or hospitals you prefer, look specifically for them in the HMOs’ lists.</p>
<p>You can pick any physician within the list of your HMO for in-network coverage. However, be aware that many primary care physicians may be “full” and are not accepting new patients (you can check the physicians’ web sites, or the web sites of their medical groups if they are part of large medical groups).</p>
<p>^^ I did not read the whole thread, I suppose all the good advises for how to save money have been given.</p>
<p>Regarding medical insurance, you may have a choice of PPO or HMO, each has its plus and minus. If you are in CA or where Kaiser Permanente operates, you can have an all inclusive coverage with minimum out of pocket. However, you have to be in their facility to get treatments.</p>
<p>Our family has been under that insurance for several years and so far so good.</p>
<p>You have to start by working back from what your goal is. </p>
<p>Maxing out your retirement savings while taking the bus back and forth from your job to your 28% living cost apartment means you wont be meeting anyone and getting married and will die from a tooth abscess with a lot of savings. Whats the point of that?</p>
<p>Right now you dont know what you dont know. Going from the poverty of being a college student to actually employment makes you feel pretty flush. And you will be. However there are more than enough things out there to suck up your available cash- car leases, cell phone plans, cable bills, electrical bills, jam of the month club. </p>
<p>The key is going to be to get financial planning help now before you have a lot of fixed costs. Those guys can help you because they see peoples’ personal financial budgets every day, so they are going to what demands on that 36% are out there that you are probably not thinking of. Did you really want charity to be an afterthought with whatever is left over? Beyond that do you even know what you are going to put your 401K money into? Does your company match take the form of company stock (bad)? </p>
<p>If you start with a goal in mind now you can come up with a reasonable budget that shouldnt cause you much pain and you avoid the twin traps of being a penny pinch or being the dude with a leased BMW and expensive clothes in the bars every night.</p>
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<p>With Kaiser, it is also easier to determine whether a given provider is covered, since the covered providers are in Kaiser facilities. Network HMOs are less obvious, and you have to check everything carefully. An in-network provider might give you a referral to an out-of-network provider, for example. There are some horror stories of people scheduling surgeries with in-network surgeons at in-network hospitals, but they brought in an out-of-network anesthesiologist, resulting in non-covered large anesthesia bills.</p>
<p>I’d like to make a couple of points - apologies if they’ve been covered since I didn’t read the whole thread in detail.</p>
<p>Roth conversions - If your income is too high for a Roth (one of whose main benefit is that you wouldn’t have to pay taxes in the future on neither the principal or earnings), there is a “backdoor” way of doing this. Google backdoor Roth or bogleheads roth for details.</p>
<p>If you have money left over to put in regular taxable accounts, and if you’re leaning towards a buy-and-hold strategy with mutual funds, also look at ETFs that have the same objective. eg. there are many companies that have an s&P 500 mutual fund and ETFs such as Vanguard VFINX and VOO. In many cases the mutual fund will hit you with taxable capital gain distributions every year end even if you didn’t sell anything to incur this, and it’s less of a factor with ETFs.</p>
<p>Kaiser isn’t in the area.</p>
<p>Argbargy, I guess I’m looking for financial planning help here. I don’t think their match is company equity, but I wouldn’t be terribly upset if it was (the company is doing well, expanding quickly). But what to put the 401K into, I don’t actually know. Probably some collection of stocks, whatever my dad thinks is best (he follows the stock market some). </p>
<p>Who should I meet with and how much does that sort of thing usually cost?</p>
<p>Go to the library and start reading the various personal finance and investment books to get the basic ideas down. Read several different authors because their opinions do vary somewhat.</p>
<p>Be careful selecting a financial planner; many recommend using a fee-only financial planner because those who get income from commissions on products sold may steer you to higher commission products. However, being fee-only does not guarantee that the financial planner is good.</p>
<p>We generally use market index funds, which allows considerable diversification even if you don’t start out with that much money. Individual stocks are much harder to pick and would make it much tougher for you to diversify, especially when you’re starting out.</p>
<p>I have not been impressed with either of the financial planners we’ve consulted with so far. If you do your own reading and thinking and planning, you can do as well or better. Most use computer programs but require you to provide the assumptions about interest rates, you income, your spending, your needs, inflation, etc. When you have LOTS of unknowns, it is tough for them and you to make very accurate plans or predictions.</p>
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<p>Company stock is bad because it really exposes you to financial buffeting. Say your company runs into hard times- your job could be in danger at the same time the stock you hold just went to hell. That a double whammy on you for one event. If they make their match in stock make sure you now when it vests and when you can sell it and reinvest in another position. </p>
<p>Its unlikely that you and your father have the same investing goals. Right now you have a huge planning horizon since you are starting young. Stay away from individual stock. Stay away from anything that even smells sexy. I’d go for a blend of a blend- one fund that is US mid-cap, another US large cap, maybe 10% in a Europe fund, and 25 in an emerging market. Don be an active trader in your retirement accounts. </p>
<p>A lot of investment companies (like for instance Fidelity) will give you free financial planning sessions if your 401K is with them. Many times banks do this as well. You do have to be aware that they help to sell you more of their services as a result of their advice. A fee-only financial planner will either be hourly or flat rate, and should be able to set up a whole budget and plan for you (eg 5% of income for clothes, 10% for entertainment etc…). Since you dont have complicated finances yet, they would probably be somewhere on the low end of $500-$1000.</p>
<p>Your employer might also offer a financial planning benefit.</p>