I have a 402k through my employer (along with some kind of stock

>>2502210
er, 401k, typo

please? I have no idea where to even begin

>>2503302
Jesus christ. read the goddamn threads. Get yourself a coinbase or kraken account. Start putting every cent you earn into crypto. Live on Ramen for the next two years. Do your research. Understand the derivatives of moon/lambos x shillfactors.

>>2503359
I'm not talking about cryptocurrencies, I'm talking about stocks and this retirement account thing
I know the stereotype is already well established that /biz/ only cares about muh crypto but that can't be entirely true, right?

>>2502210
>>2503697
It's not entirely true, please completely ignore any crypto shills spamming your thread

Here are some basic definitions:

Savings account = account where the bank holds your cash and gives you a tiny little bit of interest, at most 1% at good banks

Brokerage account = account where a brokerage firm lets you store cash with no interest, but you can purchase stocks, bonds, anything really, and hold them in this account.

Any profit made on stocks or bonds etc. is taxed at either the long-term or short-term capital gains rate in the US, depending on how long you hold the asset before selling it again

401k = brokerage account that is tax-free if you withdraw from it after the age of either 55 or 59.5, I don't remember. But basically you invest in it long-term and then once you retire you get lots of tax-free gains. Also employers sometimes do a "contribution match" for instance mine does 50%, if I put 10% of my paycheck into the 401k every pay period, my employer will also put in a free 5% of my paycheck in there for me - it's literally free extra money if they do a match like this

So basically you HAVE to use your fucking 401k, it's stupid not to. Please ignore crypto shills telling you not to, 401ks are very stable long-term investment vehicles and you can customize them any way you want, some day we may even be able to invest in crypto within our 401ks. I wouldn't suggest it, this is meant to be stable long-term gains to last you into your old age, not massive gains

Put as much as you can afford into your 401k and depending on the options the brokerage firm your company uses and their options they set up, you can either use a "target date" fund which is based on for instance retiring in 2040, 2050, or 2060 etc. These automatically rebalance your portfolio

You should be investing your age% in bonds, and the rest into stocks via no-load low-fee index funds such as the S&P500

The target date fund just automatically does this for you

gl

>>2504349
Also for people whose employers do not offer 401ks, you can do almost the same thing with an IRA or ROTH IRA

You can contribute $5,500 per year and your gains are tax free if you don't withdraw until retirement age, everyone should do this

Most importantly though pay off high interest loans first

>>2502210
Also anon this "stock plan thing" I just noticed you mention is most likely an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)

These are also basically free money, depending on the discount they give you. I get a 10% discount on company stock, for instance

They withhold x% of my wages for 4 months, and in the end they sell me their stock for 90% of its price which I can immediately just sell and take as cash if I want. It's basically free 10% returns over a 4 month period, that is excellent returns since it's guaranteed even during market downturns. Even if the company stock is crashing bigly, you get it at a 90% discount and immediately sell it, as long as you don't hold it you're still making 10% returns

Note these gains are subject to capital gains taxes as well

>>2504349
thank you, I'll be reading this