Mutual funds, probably about 20 years ago. We got started with IRAs.
Q. What is your best investment so far?
Back when everybody was making money, Sun Microsystems was very good to us.
Q. What is your worst investment so far?
AT&T, after the breakup. It went south.
Q. What have you learned about investing that you think other investors should know?
If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Be very conservative. When you have a profit, have a stop-loss order in.
Q. How would you describe your approach to investing?
We're conservative. Most of our portfolio is conservative. Then you have a certain portion you're going to take a risk on, like at a casino.
Q. How are you invested now?
Mostly fixed income and a small percentage of stocks. Stocks are for young people.
Q. What do you find the most difficult about investing?
Finding good advice and finding good sources of information.
Q. Do you think now is a good time to invest?
Very risky now. Everything has gone down. Stocks have gone down. Preferreds have gone down. Bonds have gone down. Just in the last three months, all the income-producing investments have gone down.
Q. What is your goal for investing?
Right now, our goal is to just get income and try and preserve our principal.
Q. What is your biggest money concern right now?
Basically, it's concern over the discretionary income that will be affected by the economy. We want to have fun before we're too old to have fun any more.
Q. Where do you get your investment tips?
My husband follows the newspaper, Barron's and the Internet. We'll print out a list of all the REITs and then look at what's being said about them and their ratings. Right now, we're doing all our own research. We're retired so we have time to do it.
