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RICHARD BACHMANN: 63, retired, Palm Harbor
By Times Staff Writer
Published March 20, 2005
How did you get started in investing?
After I retired, and still living in Maryland, I opened an online trading account. I invested in stocks.
What is your best investment so far?
USEC - United States Enrichment Corp.
What is your worst investment so far?
There have been a (few): PSI.net, Liquid Metal, Applied Digital. I managed to sell all of them before they got delisted.
What have you learned about investing that you think all investors should know?
Understand the company and what it does.
How would you describe your approach to investing?
Probably a little bit less conservative than I should be at my age. I have a government 401(k) fund and I'm entirely into S&P 500 Index stocks.
What do you the find most difficult about investing?
I look at investing kind of like picking a horse in a race, in terms of individual stocks. Use your own experience. Find good information about companies.
How are you invested now?
(The) vast majority of my particular investments are in government 401(k) - 80 percent. I have an inordinate amount in U.S. Savings Bonds, and I have a certain amount in a municipal bond fund and I have my account for online trading.
Have you made any changes in your investment strategy in the past year?
No. We're kind of waiting to see where we're sitting in terms of taxes.
Do you think now is a good time to invest?
Yeah. I wouldn't say every time is a good time to invest. Like many people, I got burned when the market when south in 2000. I think it's a reasonable time to invest.
What is your goal for your investments?
Just to build up our capital so that, since we don't have children, we can just run off to Paris for a couple of weeks . . . and not feel we're going to cut our standard of living.
What is your greatest money concern right now?
We don't have any. Both getting pensions from the federal government.
Where do you get your investment advice?
We get local newspapers and the Sunday New York Times. We get BusinessWeek. The online brokerage Ameritrade. You can go in and pull up a stock symbol and research that.
[Last modified March 20, 2005, 01:06:08]
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