savage

so i graduated last spring and i am trying to reevaluate how i am saving and spending my money...

i am currently living at home and trying to save up for a condo or townhouse but i would like to know if i have any better options other than putting the money into my savings account... i would ideally like to put down at least 20% down, more if i can put it together...

i am not too familiar with mutual funds or other investment options... I am currently putting some money into my 401k but i dont know whether i should increase that so i may borrow against it when purchasing a home in the next 2 years or to put the money somewhere else... my company does not do any matching but i do get some profit sharing from them each year...

basically i have a few ideas, but i thought i would see what type of advice you guys have to offer... i was fairly annoyed that i could not claim much on my taxes this year and would like to be able to save more money next year...

thanks again in advance...

Mike 350Z

Considering you live in Boston, good luck coming up with 20% for a DP. But still, save what you can while you can, but don't borrow against your 401k for a house. That's for retirement.

How long do you plan on staying at home? If it's for a few years I'd say mutual funds are a good bet (unless the market crashes). You don't really wanna use a MF as a short term investment. That's all i got.

ric

Mutual funds are a scary world, and there are now so many choices. If you expect to wait for a few years to buy, I would do the educational cycle to learn something about MF's and find one that meets your needs - you could do worse than to look at some index funds, for example, which will at least represent what is going on in the stockmarket. Set it up for automatic reinvestment, which helps accrue the value, and look carefully at the cost of acquisition and/or sale. And yup, I wouldn't borrow against my 401K for a downpayment, either. That fund should be sacrosanct. It's great that you're starting a 401K now, most people don't think about it at your age.

Some funds have an automatic investment program, in which a preset sum is deducted from your checking account on a monthly basis and invested for you. Might consider that as a way to enforce a savings/investment protocol.