22 year old joining the workforce...

[humble_pie]

his reference to a car was "if needed," ie car was not among his definite goals. Plus it was far down the list.

i for one strongly uphold jumping off topic. I like chaos, myself.

but even more strongly i believe in looking respectfully at a poster's original message & attempting to deal with the needs that he has articulated there.

where this thread got derailed a bit was the now-infamous personnage upthread who keeps insisting that every 22-year-old fresh out of college should be buying a home.

there we go. Now i'm off-topic ...

[Four Pillars]

his reference to a car was "if needed," ie car was not among his definite goals. Plus it was far down the list.

It was listed as his #2 long-term goal - not that far down. Plus the term "if needed" doesn't mean it's an optional goal. I assume it will depend on his employment/location etc.

Anyway, I was just trying to help MoneyGal recover her reputation after her impertinent offtopic post.

[MoneyGal]

Thanks but according to PA it's easier to just listen to me (I am going to adopt this as my motto around the house).

(Does anyone here watch AdventureTime? My current motto is "that is why *I* am royal, and *you* are servile!")

[myk0]

Wow this thread blew up quick (in a good way of course). I can most definitely get by the next two years without a car, but I definitely don't mind hearing opinions on that subject matter since I will need it in the future.

@humble_pie, thank you for the kind comments. These next few years will definitely be exciting, and I do hope to get a lot of travel in. I've actually been browsing this forum for over a year now. I should have joined sooner!

@moneygal, i'm still going through the article, but so far it's a fantastic read! Thanks for sharing

@barwelle, seeing the world is definitely a high priority for the next few years, as my girlfriend and I plan to travel once a year. We went to New York two years ago and last year we visited Mexico. We might postpone this year and go on a bigger trip next year (either Europe or Asia), since we both just started full time jobs this year.

I'm actually going to mail in the forms for the e-series tomorrow. I'm planning on allocating 20% in canadian bond index, 30% in U.S. stock index, 25% in Canadian stock index, and 25% in international stock index. What do you think of this allocation?

[humble_pie]

i for one feel that the international allocation is too high. If one looks at the 10-year histories of int'l funds they have done mizzuble.

their proponents chant that the high canadian dollar made em mizzuble. But if one looks back at the 20-year histories - by now one would be into mutual funds, since many etfs & index funds are newish entities - the returns are still mizzuble.

no matter what, it seems to me that international funds are black holes destined to drag down portfolios like mysterious millstones.

with younger, beginning investors the portfs are not huge, i am imagining. I'd divide em something like 20% bonds, 40% each canadian & US large caps.

the senior large cap stocks are themselves multinational corporations, so therefore they are actually international funds in disguise. Some big canadian businesses - scotiabank, snc lavalin, most big drillers, most big energy, potash, agrium, valeant pharma - have the bulk of their business outside canada, for example. So there's your international exposure right there.

[Four Pillars]

I'm actually going to mail in the forms for the e-series tomorrow. I'm planning on allocating 20% in canadian bond index, 30% in U.S. stock index, 25% in Canadian stock index, and 25% in international stock index. What do you think of this allocation?

Good move.

That's pretty close to the allocation I have, except my Cdn equity is lower.