Francesca

39 is awfully late to START planning for retirement.

Get into your company’s 401(k) and put in as much as you possible can. Invest in a diversified portfolio of small, medium, and large cap stocks. Also put a chunk in international.

If you don’t have a 401(k), or if you have additional money to invest above what you can put in the 401(k), then I would recommend a ROTH. A ROTH allows you to put in money after taxes, but it is withdrawn TAX-FREE in retirement!!

Alannah

Probably a 401K

Zackary

Invest as much as you can, and be consistent.

If you have a 401k, contribute the maximum, if you can. Keep a balance of high and medium risk funds in your plan. As you get older, gradually reduce the risk level. At a minimum, put in enough to get the maximum company match, if there is one.

If you have a home mortgage, make sure it can be paid off before your retirement. A fully-paid house is the best investment.

If you are able, do some other automatic investments, such as Sharebuilder or others, so that they money comes out of your bank account without you having to do it manually. That way, it becomes a “normal” expense, and you forget about it and let it accrue.

Finally, don’t sweat the market ups and downs. You probably have 20 to 30 years to accumulate wealth. Just keep putting money away. Try not to look at your accounts very often. If there is a correction, and you see a drop, you’ll get depressed, and maybe give up. The market is resilient. It will come back.

And, you’re never too old to start. But start now!

Yuridia

The best plan is to get started. Do you have a 401K plan available? If so I would take advantage of the match if your employer provides a match. I like the Roth IRA. You can put away up to $4000 per year.
Where to invest the money? I recommend no load mutual funds. You may start investing with a no load mutual fund family of a big outfit like Fidelity or Vanguard.
Which funds to invest in? The best ones. I like most of the funds in Fidelity’s fund picks.
Where do I have my money? Fidelity and Gabelli. Yes I am happy with both.
You need to do some homework to see what asset allocation is right for you.
Bob Brinker has a pretty plain spoken educational center. The link is below.

Jenna

Pick a nice target maturity fund from a place like Fidelity or T. Rowe Price and let them worry about asset allocation and things.

Richard

that will depend on how much emergency funds you need which should go into short term investments such as mutual funds and cd’s. For long term, it depends on your risk tolerance level on the stock market, low, moderate or high. Invest in funds accordingly.

Luciano

One of the most common retirement plans is the 401 K. In a 401 K, some amount is deducted monthly from your pay check. The money is tax deferred and so you do not pay taxes on the amount invested. Usually there are various investment choices like mutual funds, stocks, bonds etc. In some cases, the employer will match the employee’s contribution to the account, though these instances are decreasing.

Jaquan

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