UPS Freight Diary:

You should get a sweet federal refund. I'm guessing well over 3 grand with your single/ no exemptions W4 status. Update us when you file!

 

Not telling you what to do, but you might consider getting in the 401k as soon as you can afford it. Put what you can now and every time you get a raise put half your raise towards maxing it out. Before long you will be maxing it out and on your way to a more financially secure retirement. The Roth 401K will not give you a tax deduction now, but you won't pay any taxes later on the growth. Ups has very good mutual fund choices in the 401k plan.

 

Love that advice. It doesn't take long for that money to multiply.

 

Even something small now in the 401k will go a long way. Then just increase it later as you get raises and better bids.

 

Having lost a wee bit of value in the 2008 crisis, I'm less likely to agree with letting financial people have all my money. The old saying, "finance is the art of moving money around until there's none left", certainly was true then. Far as I'm concerned, Wall Street still owes me, and I'd be stupid to let them play roulette with my money again. There are other ways to invest for retirement, do a little reading about creative ways to use a Roth, for example..

Find something you'd love to have around even if it wouldn't sell. The friends who bought up muscle cars cheap have done well without even trying. There are places with beautiful land cheap, which you could always camp out in if things went wrong, or build on when the work is done. If you take a vacation there to scout a parcel, you can even deduct your vacation. Not saying have no 401k at all, but spread it around and don't count on any one method to see you through.

2008 was the end, for a lot of people, of believing in smug guarantees from confident guys behind desks.

 

Yes we all have different ways of doing things including building wealth. I have been in a 401k for 31 years now and several of my mutual funds have been around since the 1960's with Lifetime returns of 12%. The 20-30% returns I got in the 90's and 2000's more than made up for the down times in early 2000 and 2008. Most of the people who lost money in 2008 are people who pulled it out when it was down and those people should have never been in the market to begin with. If you are at least 5 years from retirement it is great when the market goes down like 2008 because you are buying the same stock every payday but it is on sale I.E. lower share price. When it goes back up, it always has over the last 100+ years, you have more wealth than if it hadn't gone down. If you don't have at least a 5 year outlook, don't ever invest in the stock market. I agree with you there are ways besides a mutual fund to gain wealth like rental properties. I personally don't want the "hassle factor" associated with them. To each their own but I can only speak for my experiences and I have way more wealth today due to investing in good growth stock mutual funds over the last 31 years starting with $25 a week in 1985.