Do I need investments outside of retirement accounts?
I agree 100% with gjbloom (previous reply) on this topic. At 23 it’s almost insane to have all your investment capital in retirement plans. ETFs are a good choice or individual stocks if you have the time to do a bit of research (ETFs require some research too). ETFs let you diversify as you’ve already heard, and diversifying into other countries is also possible with ETFs. I believe that the US dollar’s long-term downward spiral will resume, so if you stick with US equities you might appear to be doing well, but still be losing in global terms. You’ll find for instance that Canadian stocks have increased dramatically more than US stocks during 2005 *and* the Canadian dollar has appreciated relative to the US dollar over that year. That’s a win-win, and that trend has continued this year. That’s just one suggestion, coming from a Canadian who is profiting nicely from what I’ve mentioned. You can get ETFs on Canada, or pick individual stocks. Many Canadian stocks are listed on NYSE or N
