Where is your money invested? (etc)

[°Leprechaun's Rainbow]

These are the ones that I could think of. You have four votes, if more than four apply, chose the top four with the most value.

I have included social security and life insurance because they are future sources of income, and would apply is you don't have any of the other things.

If you have an IRA or 401K, and no other stocks, bonds or mutual funds vote for IRA and/or 401k instead of the stocks, bonds etc option, even though IRAs and 401Ks are stocks, bonds and mutual funds, because it is more specific.

[°Leprechaun's Rainbow]

I forgot checking, savings, and cash options so vote all others for that.

[YE]

Checkings, savings, and stocks.

[bagelman]

A checking account

[DINGO Joe]

I turn 50 this year and have lived a relatively generic white collar career.  Have just about everything but a company pension.  Most of it is passively invested with a portion of my IRA used for more active investing (which hasn't found that mythical 10 bagger yet).

[kcguy]

I calculate this every year.  Then I throw the calculations away.  If you'd asked me a couple of weeks ago, I could have given you an exact answer.

I'd guess that 401(k)'s and IRA's account for somewhere between 50% and 70% of my total wealth.  I've always felt that stocks are the best long-term investment, so my 401(k) withholdings have varied anywhere between 6% and 10%, depending on my circumstances.  Before I bought my house, I was also putting an additional $300/month into a Roth IRA.

I bought my house when I was 40, mainly because I was concerned that too much of my wealth was going into stocks.  ("Don't pull all your eggs into one basket.")  Also, I had enough savings for a 20% down payment, meaning I could avoid certain fees.  (I don't know how anyone could afford to put down a decent down payment in someplace like California, where real estate prices are insane.)

I have mixed feelings about home ownership.  At the moment, once property taxes, HOA fees, etc are added in, I'm probably paying about $500/month more than an apartment, money that could otherwise being going into my retirement.  At some point, though, my mortgage will be paid off, so then I'll be paying about $500/month less.  Right now, my house equity is probably about 15% of my total wealth.

Certificates of deposit are the next biggest segment of my total wealth.  While 401(k)'s and IRA's are virtually untouchable before age 59, CD's generally mature in relatively short time periods.  My older CD's tend to be for 24 months, but as I buy newer ones I'm leaning more toward 60 months.  I was fortunate that several matured in the runup to my house purchase; that's where I found the down payment money.

Checking accounts, savings accounts, and money market accounts make up the smallest segment.  They don't earn much interest.  (In 2017, my checking account earned a little over $1.)  All these accounts combined usually account for less than $25,000, often a lot less.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

Mostly stocks, seeing as I'm fairly young and single. I bought my first shares of Berkshire Hathaway from my job at age 15, and I still have them :-)

[Torie]

Odd that real estate did not make the list other than one's own home.