Retirement Planning and Poker

Everyone in my husband's family knows that I am not a gambler.  His family loves to sit around the table and play poker; it's a multi-generational thing and they have a great time. Most of the time I sit off in a corner, reading a good book.  (Pop always wins the big money, anyway! Just ask him. He'll tell you!)

When finally pressed to play, I usually go in, play a few hands, take my winnings off the table as I go along -- to the sound of a lot of teasing -- and finish up by winning a big pot.

Then I stop playing and go back to reading.  

In Las Vegas, which I don't much like, I will take a roll of nickels to the nickel slots, and I won't even spend all those nickels.

I don't like to lose money. 

Back in 2005, when I started the retirement planning process,  I started thinking about the stock market as a gamble rather than as an investment.  That change in perspective probably came about the time I saw a 401(k) statement with a huge loss in a single quarter -- tech stocks, anyone? GAH!

That spring, when we regrouped and reassessed, the first thing we did was to think for the first time about all our retirement assets as a single entity.   With that in mind, we took the largest 401(k) built up over 25 years' time, and put all current holding into 2 fixed accounts. That is, we took our investments and "winnings" off the table.

I don't recall exactly what they were, but I can tell you they were NOT stock accounts.  That comprised the fixed portion of our portfolio in that largest account. Additional contributions to that account were not added to the fixed portion but instead built up some more carefully examined mutual funds. 

In other accounts, spread far and wide until I got them under one investing umbrella (mostly) via rollovers, I worked in much the same way.  

As we stand right now, we are at a15/85 mix,  and that feels about right for us, with a careful mix of laddered CDs, a few bonds, some index funds, and a few other funds with somewhat higher expenses to accompany higher returns.  We also have about 6 stocks, just because we still like to see how they are working.  We don't have any TIPS yet, except for a small amount in a 403(b) account. I am still learning about those.

Along the way I've learned a lot, but I have more to learn. However, it's what engages me right now, and I have plenty of time!