Anonymous
Post 10/27/2013 08:27     Subject: DW drives me crazy with her investment decisions.
Anonymous wrote:You married for her retirement portfolio and are down on the ROI?


LOL, right?

She is risk-averse. Okay, lots of people are. Sit down together and figure out whether the combination of your savings/investment strategies is going to put you where you both need (not want) to be when you retire. Then make some changes in the form of additional strategies if necessary. If you are in this together, the only thing that matters is how it's going to work when you actually are ready to retire. If you are not in this together, this is as good a stupid reason as any to bail on your life partner.
Anonymous
Post 10/27/2013 08:26     Subject: DW drives me crazy with her investment decisions.
Anonymous wrote:My 401k money has always been invested in the index funds. Although I realize there is certain risk, I feel like I can take it given that we still have 25-30 years to retire.
DW is an extremely conservative person when it comes to financial decisions. She insists to leave only cash in her 401k accounts. Her reasoning is that she doesn't want to risk any possible loss of her 401 money and is fine with not making any returns if it means not to lose any money.
I have tried countless times to convince her we'd better to invest it at least some way or we'are losing most of the values into the inflation. But she has been very stubborn about her opinion on this.
I'm starting to feel that we have lost significant chance of accumulating our wealth due to her over conservative mentality. Sometimes I probably made a mistake marrying her....


when the market absolutley crashed in 2009 and for the next 18-24 months who did better? I''ll be she did.
Now the market has been doing better, your index funds are outperforming cash - but that may not always be the case.
You cannot predict the market. I think being nearly all cash right now is wise.
Anonymous
Post 10/27/2013 08:23     Subject: Re:DW drives me crazy with her investment decisions.
Anonymous wrote:I'm pretty sure SHE made the marriage mistake.


Spit my coffee out and narrowly missed the baby-bahaha
Anonymous
Post 10/27/2013 08:21     Subject: DW drives me crazy with her investment decisions.
You married for her retirement portfolio and are down on the ROI?
Anonymous
Post 10/27/2013 08:07     Subject: DW drives me crazy with her investment decisions.
Doesn't your employer have a firm that manages your 401K and you make investment selections? I don't understand how it's all cash, who does that? Usually there is at least a 3% guaranteed government investment option.

But you two don't sound like you'll be married very long so have your lawyer draw up some paperwork where you each keep your own retirement funds in the divorce, then you shouldn't need to worry where her money goes.
Anonymous
Post 10/27/2013 07:58     Subject: DW drives me crazy with her investment decisions.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Would she listen to a financial advisor? Someone with credentials? They can run scenarios, showing the impact of inflation, compound interest, performance of the stock market over time etc that will be very impressive. My husband and I took some short term hits over the past decade, but we have greatly benefited from professional advice and "riding out" the market over time. You just can't lose your nerve. As Warren Buffett says, "The best time to invest is when everyone else is afraid." If your wife isn't influenced by numbers, you may have to realize that she may have some deep-seated psychological issue that makes her irrationally risk-averse when it comes to money. Maybe if you talk to her about why that could be? I have family members who lived through the depression who still refuse to invest in anything but real estate. But you're right -- leaving anything more than an emergency fund in cash is crazy.


Umm, yeah, it's called being a woman. My wife is the same way. But to say you made a mistake marrying her over something like this? Cmon, it's not like she's cheating on you.


He totally should have married a guy instead of a woman.
Anonymous
Post 10/27/2013 01:23     Subject: DW drives me crazy with her investment decisions.
Anonymous wrote:Would she listen to a financial advisor? Someone with credentials? They can run scenarios, showing the impact of inflation, compound interest, performance of the stock market over time etc that will be very impressive. My husband and I took some short term hits over the past decade, but we have greatly benefited from professional advice and "riding out" the market over time. You just can't lose your nerve. As Warren Buffett says, "The best time to invest is when everyone else is afraid." If your wife isn't influenced by numbers, you may have to realize that she may have some deep-seated psychological issue that makes her irrationally risk-averse when it comes to money. Maybe if you talk to her about why that could be? I have family members who lived through the depression who still refuse to invest in anything but real estate. But you're right -- leaving anything more than an emergency fund in cash is crazy.


Umm, yeah, it's called being a woman. My wife is the same way. But to say you made a mistake marrying her over something like this? Cmon, it's not like she's cheating on you.
Anonymous
Post 10/27/2013 00:10     Subject: DW drives me crazy with her investment decisions.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Would she listen to a financial advisor? Someone with credentials? They can run scenarios, showing the impact of inflation, compound interest, performance of the stock market over time etc that will be very impressive. My husband and I took some short term hits over the past decade, but we have greatly benefited from professional advice and "riding out" the market over time. You just can't lose your nerve. As Warren Buffett says, "The best time to invest is when everyone else is afraid." If your wife isn't influenced by numbers, you may have to realize that she may have some deep-seated psychological issue that makes her irrationally risk-averse when it comes to money. Maybe if you talk to her about why that could be? I have family members who lived through the depression who still refuse to invest in anything but real estate. But you're right -- leaving anything more than an emergency fund in cash is crazy.

The craziest thing is that I AM a finance professional. My finance literacy is at least as good as those financial advisers and I've been doing well with my retirement fund investment. To make it even more crazy, she is an economics major and isn't supposed to be totally unfamiliar with the risk and return and inflation concepts.


Sometimes people are more likely to listen to a third party, but if she is an economics major, then you 're dealing either some serious, irrational, mental block (or she didn't pay ANY attention in class!)
Anonymous
Post 10/27/2013 00:05     Subject: DW drives me crazy with her investment decisions.
Anonymous wrote:Would she listen to a financial advisor? Someone with credentials? They can run scenarios, showing the impact of inflation, compound interest, performance of the stock market over time etc that will be very impressive. My husband and I took some short term hits over the past decade, but we have greatly benefited from professional advice and "riding out" the market over time. You just can't lose your nerve. As Warren Buffett says, "The best time to invest is when everyone else is afraid." If your wife isn't influenced by numbers, you may have to realize that she may have some deep-seated psychological issue that makes her irrationally risk-averse when it comes to money. Maybe if you talk to her about why that could be? I have family members who lived through the depression who still refuse to invest in anything but real estate. But you're right -- leaving anything more than an emergency fund in cash is crazy.

The craziest thing is that I AM a finance professional. My finance literacy is at least as good as those financial advisers and I've been doing well with my retirement fund investment. To make it even more crazy, she is an economics major and isn't supposed to be totally unfamiliar with the risk and return and inflation concepts.
Anonymous
Post 10/27/2013 00:00     Subject: Re:DW drives me crazy with her investment decisions.
I'm pretty sure SHE made the marriage mistake.
Anonymous
Post 10/27/2013 00:00     Subject: DW drives me crazy with her investment decisions.
Would she listen to a financial advisor? Someone with credentials? They can run scenarios, showing the impact of inflation, compound interest, performance of the stock market over time etc that will be very impressive. My husband and I took some short term hits over the past decade, but we have greatly benefited from professional advice and "riding out" the market over time. You just can't lose your nerve. As Warren Buffett says, "The best time to invest is when everyone else is afraid." If your wife isn't influenced by numbers, you may have to realize that she may have some deep-seated psychological issue that makes her irrationally risk-averse when it comes to money. Maybe if you talk to her about why that could be? I have family members who lived through the depression who still refuse to invest in anything but real estate. But you're right -- leaving anything more than an emergency fund in cash is crazy.
Anonymous
Post 10/26/2013 23:59     Subject: DW drives me crazy with her investment decisions.
OP here. This is more like philosophy difference that we didn't discover before marriage. Although I generally tolerate differences in marriage, financial decisions play too big a role in our life to just let it go like that.
Anonymous
Post 10/26/2013 23:54     Subject: DW drives me crazy with her investment decisions.
So you are investing on your own 401k and she's investing in her own? So you've got diversified investments. Sounds good to me. No, you likely won't save as much. That's true. But not worth talking about marriage regrets.
Anonymous
Post 10/26/2013 23:51     Subject: DW drives me crazy with her investment decisions.
i was with you until your last sentence...then nope.
Anonymous
Post 10/26/2013 23:49     Subject: DW drives me crazy with her investment decisions.
My 401k money has always been invested in the index funds. Although I realize there is certain risk, I feel like I can take it given that we still have 25-30 years to retire.
DW is an extremely conservative person when it comes to financial decisions. She insists to leave only cash in her 401k accounts. Her reasoning is that she doesn't want to risk any possible loss of her 401 money and is fine with not making any returns if it means not to lose any money.
I have tried countless times to convince her we'd better to invest it at least some way or we'are losing most of the values into the inflation. But she has been very stubborn about her opinion on this.
I'm starting to feel that we have lost significant chance of accumulating our wealth due to her over conservative mentality. Sometimes I probably made a mistake marrying her....