I keep a Roth at max contribution. It is my preferred retirement vehicle as you can withdrawal your contributions without penalty. I'm still young and naive enough to believe that I won't actually need to have a retirement plan because I'll get rich before then, so a Roth was a good compromise of maintaining control over my money versus not having a backup plan at all.
A significant portion of my personal wealth is tied up in my tech company's stock (>50%). Since this is a large position and completely unreasonable in any money management strategy, I attempt to balance it by being extremely conservative elsewhere (note: you can never truly manage such a high-risk exposure). This has led me to invest in gold, treasuries, and/or funds composed mostly of these components.
Having a major in economics and actively trading equities and options for some years, I personally believe it is foolish to try to trade these individually for all but the professionals. Actually, I believe even if you are a professional, you probably don't know how to trade these either, but that's another story. Bottom line: don't play a game when your the sucker.
A significant portion of my personal wealth is tied up in my tech company's stock (>50%). Since this is a large position and completely unreasonable in any money management strategy, I attempt to balance it by being extremely conservative elsewhere (note: you can never truly manage such a high-risk exposure). This has led me to invest in gold, treasuries, and/or funds composed mostly of these components.
Having a major in economics and actively trading equities and options for some years, I personally believe it is foolish to try to trade these individually for all but the professionals. Actually, I believe even if you are a professional, you probably don't know how to trade these either, but that's another story. Bottom line: don't play a game when your the sucker.