George Kamel - How My Investments Did In 2024 (My Actual Numbers)

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app!   In this episode, you’re going to get the piping-hot scoop on how and where I invested my money in 2024. That way, you can start building some serious wealth in 2025.   Next Steps:  🎥 Watch my video Why Your Net Worth Explodes at $100K.  Connect With Our Sponsors:  🔒 Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe.  💸 Learn more about opening a high-yield savings account with Laurel Road.  📱 Get $5 off Tello's Unlimited Plan and enjoy great nationwide coverage for only $20 at Tello.    Explore More From Ramsey Network:  🎙️ The Ramsey Show  🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour  💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights  🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show  💡 The Rachel Cruze Show  💼 The Ken Coleman Show  📈 EntreLeadership    Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I don't want to brag, but in 2024, my investments did pretty well. And if you want to know the secret, you're in luck. Because in today's video, I'm going to show you how and where I invested my money in 2024 so you can see just how simple it can be to build wealth and even copy my strategy yourself. But before we jump in, invest in yourself by clicking those like and subscribe buttons so you never miss out on solid financial content, dumb jokes, and mildly amusing pop culture references. This is everything I've ever wanted. For frame of reference, we're recording this towards the end of 2024.

So I have no idea what's going to happen in the last few days of the year. No spoilers, but tell me what happens with the drones. You don't want to know. But here's what's happened in the last year or so with my personal investments. First, let's look at the retirement account I have through my employer, which is a Roth 401k. And a quick refresher, a Roth account is funded with after-tax dollars. So your investments grow tax-free, and you can take the money out tax-free when you retire after 59.5. So if you have the option to go with the Roth, I highly recommend it.

But remember, a retirement account is just a shell. you have to choose and purchase investments within that account. So I'm going to show you how I have my money invested within my 401k. My money's divided up evenly into four categories, one fund for each category. And to spice things up, I'm going to use some boat analogies. The first one is growth and income funds. Think of this like a giant cruise ship. It's not going to take some serious quick turns.

It's going to be a slow burn to get that thing moving in a different direction. And that's good. Funds in this category are made up of mostly big, boring, beautiful American companies that have been around for a long time. ones that offer goods and services, regardless of the economy. And a lot of them have household names. I'm talking Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and you might hear these referred to as large value,

large cap, blue chip, dividend income, or equity income funds. Now, usually, you're not going to see a lot of extreme losses or gains with these growth and income funds. They're pretty stable, and they're about as predictable as the plot of a Hallmark Christmas movie. Oh, she's moving back to her hometown to start a bakery and a new chapter of her love life? No way. And there's a hot farmer she forgot about from her childhood named Nip.

Nicholas? That sounds awesome. Anyway, growth and income funds can create a nice stable foundation for your portfolio. So far in 2024, the rate of return for my growth and income has been 28.85%. Not bad for a predictable hallmark movie. The next category is growth funds. Think of this like a racing yacht. It's a lot more nimble, and it can move.

If you hear someone talk about mid-cap or equity funds, this is what they're referring to. These funds are made up of medium-to-large American companies that are currently experiencing growth in their market. It's usually companies that make stuff that people are really into right now. Companies like Meta, aka Facebook, Alphabet, aka Google, and Philip Morris, aka vapes and Zin Pouches. So shout out to everyone who's currently ripping a fog flute. You're only helping me build more wealth with your bad habits. Your loss is our gain. And so far this year, the rate of return for my growth fund has been 25.28%.

Not bad. All right, the next category I invest in is aggressive growth funds. Think of this one like a jet ski, much more nimble, much more unyredable, much more unpredictable. This is the wild child of your portfolio, the Rodman of your retirement accounts, the Miley of mutual funds, the Elon of ETFs. When they are up, they are up. And when they're down, they are down. And when they're only halfway up, then neither up nor down. Shout out to Camp Onawanna. Aggressive funds usually invest in small companies or startups, but size is not the only factor here. Geography can also play a role. If a large company enters an emerging market,

their stock might also end up in an aggressive growth fund. Some examples of companies in one of these funds are Kava, comfort systems, and insight enterprises. And in 2024, the rate of return for my aggressive growth fund has been 7.83%. And finally, the last category, international funds. And I call this one the globe-trotting sailboat, for obvious reasons, sailing around the world. Oh, I get it. These are great additions to your portfolio because they help spread risk beyond U.S. soil. And they also allow you to invest in multinational companies.

Funds are made up of companies like Nvidia, AstraZeneca, and of course, who could forget, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited. What are we talking about? You might see these referred to as foreign or overseas funds, but be careful not to confuse international funds with world or global funds, which have a mix of both U.S. and foreign stocks together. And so far this year, the rate of return from my international fund is 7%. And if you look at the international fund's rate of return over a long period of time, you will

see it has underperformed the U.S. stock market. But that's okay. We're hedging our bets here that if the U.S. stock market takes a tumble, the international fund will keep it afloat and maybe it'll equal each other out. That's the hope. So that's how I invest within my company retirement account. I balanced my investing dollars across these four types of mutual funds, and each of these mutual funds has hundreds of companies within it, which creates a stable and diverse portfolio that's great for long-term wealth building. So that's all I did to get a great return. I invested consistently in my employer-sponsored retirement an account month after month, year after a year. And I also meet with my financial advisor once a

year to see if there's any rebalancing that needs to be done or any tweaks to be made. Other than that, this is how simple it is to invest and build wealth. It comes straight out of my paycheck and my returns get automatically reinvested, creating more compound growth. And I'm currently going on 10 years of investing into this account, and it is now sitting pretty with six figures. Now, I know that's counter to what you're probably hearing out there. I see so many grifters pushing gold and crypto and picking single stocks and selling courses on day trading and selling permanent life insurance as a wealth-building hack or investing in, you know, fine art and rare wine and alternative investments. But the truth is, you don't need to

buy a 15th of a Thomas Kincaid or a 1947 Chateau Chaval Blanc, although I'm sure both are delightful to own. If you start investing early and consistently into your retirement account, that is literally all you need to build some serious wealth. In fact, eight out of 10 millionaires said the number one investment vehicle to become a millionaire was their company 401k plan. Now, I'm sure some of you were thinking, okay, George, categories are great, but what are the exact funds you invest in? And to that, I say, wouldn't you like to know? All right, then, keep your secrets. And here's the truth. It wouldn't make sense for me to tell you the exact funds I invest in

because these are the funds that I have access to with my specific brokerage within my work 401K. You may not have access to these specific funds without paying extra fees. So I want you to do the research for yourself to have confidence into what you're investing it. Don't just invest in something because George told you to or Dave Ramsey told you to or anyone else told you to. So the idea here is you need to be invested in a diversified portfolio, not a single company or a single stock, but a broad range of companies globally. That's what will help you win financially. But here's what I will tell you, how to choose a good fund. But before we get to that, let's talk about where to save your money for short-term purchases,

like a used car, a down payment on a house, or an original Thomas Kincaid painting. And for that, I recommend a high-yield savings account like the one offered by Laurel Road, one of the sponsors of today's video. It is much better than leaving your money in a dusty old savings account earning a minuscule amount of interest, because with Laurel Road, your account balance will earn a top-tier APY. Plus, there's no minimum balance required to open an account, your deposits are FTIC insured, and there's no hidden fees. You can learn more by going to Laurelroad.com slash George, or just click the link in the description. Now, even if your savings are in the right place, your personal info could be in the wrong place, aka all over the internet. But that's where Delete Me comes in,

another sponsor of today's show. They scrub your personal info from people search sites that collect and sell your data without your permission. Not cool. And Delete Me will keep doing this all year long, so you don't have to worry about it popping back up, like that one rogue eyebrow hair that's a good two inches longer than his colleagues. So help protect yourself from the risks of online scams and data breaches with our friends at DeleteMe. And right now, you can get 20% off any of their plans by going to join deleteme.com slash george, or just click the link in the description below. Okay, back to investments.

Here's how to choose a good fund within your retirement account or any other account. First, you want to choose funds with historic rates of return. This is the biggest factor to consider. Now, I personally don't buy funds that are under 10 years old.

I want to see a long track record of beating the S&P 500, which is the stock market average. The goal here with mutual funds that are actively managed is to beat the average, the passively managed fund. The next step in choosing

a fund is to understand the fund category. Now, we talked about this. You've got aggressive growth, growth and income, growth, and of course international. There's many more to choose from. Those are the ones that I focus on. So you want to know how the fund is made up and what the objective of the fund is. So when you hear the word growth stock mutual fund, you know that these companies' objective is growth and stocks, not bonds, for example. Find out what the objective is. Next up, research the funds management team. You can go in and search the funds team, see what they do. Here's a great example of when it matters. If you look at a fund that has a great track record of beating S&P over the last 25 years, but the entire management team turned over two years ago, well, that might

invalidate the track record because you've got new people here who might have different principles when it comes to investing. And if you want to do some research, there's a site called Morningstar that can help you with some great tools. Next up, consider the costs and fees. This is something to be aware of, but it shouldn't be the biggest factor when it comes to investing. Some mutual funds, especially those that are actively managed, will have higher costs and fees than others that are passively managed. That's not a bad thing, but you should look at the load fees and expense ratios to understand what you're actually paying for the privilege of owning this fund. And lastly, look for low turnover ratios. And this is something to consider for investments that are not in a retirement

plan. So this does not apply to your 401k or your Roth IRA. Turnover ratios matter because the accounts that you're invested in are taxed as capital gains. So you want to look for a turnover ratio of 3 to 4 percent where most of the stocks stay the same year-to-year versus a lot of change. And that's what you want to look for when you're picking funds. And yes, it's been an amazing time with the stock market, so I don't tell you this to tell you that I'm a financial prodigy who just chose the right funds. I just stayed on the roller coaster and the market did the work for me. It's not always going to be that high.

There are going to be down years. But the average over the span of decades is around 10 to 12 percent, and I'll prove it. If you look at my five-year annualized return, which includes the down year, it's still a solid 12.33%. So if you stay the course and you keep investing, it will pay off. Bottom line, don't fall for the trends. Don't overcomplicate it. and make sure that you invest in things you actually understand.

Investing is boring, and it should be that way. So here's the spark notes. Invest early, invest consistently, and don't mess with it. It is the proven way to build wealth over time. Now, that being said, there's another great way to grow your wealth, and that's by investing in real estate. But if you don't do it the right way, you could end up literally bankrupt.

And if you want to learn more about building wealth and investing in real estate, check out investing essentials. It's a virtual event that Dave Ramsey and I are hosting where we break down how to build wealth the right way, including a deep dive into real estate investing. If you want to grab your virtual seat, I will drop a link in the description below. And keep watching this next video to see why your net worth explodes once you hit $100,000 in those retirement accounts.

Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.