Mailbag: Gaining lost ground on retirement, the right number of stocks to own, and more.

Motley Fool Answers

The Motley Fool

Taxes, Saving, Money, Investing, Planning, Retirement, Personalfinance, Finance, Education, Business

4.4 • 823 Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2015

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Some send letters to Santa, you send letters to us! So let’s close out the year by digging into our mailbag. We’ll talk about whether you should take matters into your own hands to get better investing returns, the tax implications of dividends, and what’s the right number of stocks to own if you’re just starting out.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Motley Fool Answers. I'm Alison Southwick, joined by Robert Brokamp, personal finance expert here at the Motley Fool and advisor on Motley Fool's Rulie Retirement Newsletter.
0:13.8	Hi, Allison. Hi, bro. How are you? I'm doing all right. How are you? Good. I'm good because we're going to close out the year with a great big mailbag episode.
0:22.1	Today, we're going to offer advice to Mike's mom to help her get back on track after being burned by some financial advisors.
0:28.3	We're going to help Don understand the tax advantages and implications of dividend-paying stocks,
0:33.0	and we'll answer Christy and Steve's questions about determining the right number of stocks to own. All that and more on this week's episode of Motley Fool Answers.
0:41.3	All right. Our first question comes to us from Dan. Dan writes, how do you budget food? Do
0:47.3	you lump everything together or do you have three categories for groceries, eating out and alcohol?
0:51.3	We feel that we spend too much in this area, but my wife and I just don't know what amount
0:55.7	we should be aiming for, and less is too ambiguous.
0:58.1	By the way, we're dual income, no kids.
1:01.2	So, trivia question here for you, Allison.
1:03.8	According to the Consumer Expenditure Survey, how much do you think the average American household
1:08.2	spends on food, What percentage of their
1:10.8	budget?
1:11.8	I should warn you that I did the same research you did before coming to the show now.
1:15.6	You are kidding me. So freaking funny. I think you're going to get the answer right.
1:19.1	Well, I don't know the percentage, but I can tell you that, according to the BLS, we spend
1:22.3	$6,759 on food a year.
1:24.9	Yes. Almost 4,000 of that is at home, and almost 3,000 of that is away from home.
1:31.2	Right.
1:31.5	So percentage-wise, it's almost 13% of expenses, and it's about a 60-40 split between what you
1:39.4	buy for at home and what you eat out.
	...

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