I was wondering that too Alexsandr lol.
[quote]Xen Nova wrote:
Put it in a CD account for 5 yrs… get the return from it, meanwhile go to barnes and nobles…
get
trading for dummies
technical analysis made easy
and pick up a few books on forex
trade forex and options.
thank me when you’re pulling down 20k a month.[/quote]
I’m not a big fan of technical trading, particularly when it comes to forex. Forex is not a good speculative play. The forex markets were established to foster international trade. The intrinsic value of Forex derivatives is for international firms to hedge their capital requirements and lock in their funding costs or gains in order to eliminate risk for planning purposes.
Forex speculative trading was real big with international banks in the '90s. Most have eliminated these desks because it was a lot easier to lose a ton than it was to make a little. Whatever forex traders they have now are strictly for funding needs and hedging. The people that make a lot of money in forex are the systems and software firms that support the trading.
My advice, tread very lightly in these areas.
DB
[quote]GetSwole wrote:
And Xen Nova, I already have some CD’s I bought a few years ago maturing. I do believe they are 5 years or I may have staggered and bought 10s and 5s, I’ll have to check on that.
But I still have money in a regular savings account and a checking account with more than enough assets. Particularly with my work lined up in school next year, I can afford to invest a couple thousand a year over the next few years. Like I said, starting at 20 can make me a hella lot more money (in the long run) than starting at 25-28.
I like the IRA because I’ll looking to invest said money in the long term, I’m not looking to try to beat the market as I know several people who have made lots of money and subsequently lost far more than they started with, simply because they were your typical, non well read investor who wanted to play on the hottest trends and do the guesswork.
Since I can afford not to have the money available, looking into a Roth and diversifying among Index funds, perhaps some staggered gov’t bonds/CD’s etc seems to be a smarter choice for providing safety nets and using investing as a long term strategy.[/quote]
For your long-term investments, max out your IRA contribution before you put the money anywhere else. A Roth makes sense for you since you don’t really need any tax savings now.
IRA accounts vary widely in their minimums, fees, etc. You have to shop around. First determine what investment you want to buy, then find the best account for that investment.
Right now is a decent time to get into the US market with index funds. I would buy shares of a low-cost index fund like Fidelity Spartan 500 (FSMKX, 0.1%). The index fund approach in Yes, You Can Time the Market by Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth is the best way to get decent returns with little effort, education, or research. You can pick up the book for a few books and follow its strategy until/unless you develop enough knowledge to rationally invest in individual stocks and other more exotic investments.
CDs and bonds are a terrible choice right now. With interest rates so low and inflation high and growing, CDs/savings accounts are losing buying power. Bond yields suck. Bonds may not see good times again for a long, long time.
[quote]Aleksandr wrote:
Xen Nova wrote:
Put it in a CD account for 5 yrs… get the return from it, meanwhile go to barnes and nobles…
get
trading for dummies
technical analysis made easy
and pick up a few books on forex
trade forex and options.
thank me when you’re pulling down 20k a month.
Do you make 20k a month?[/quote]
on my way, i made 5k a couple nights ago
[quote]Xen Nova wrote:
Aleksandr wrote:
Xen Nova wrote:
Put it in a CD account for 5 yrs… get the return from it, meanwhile go to barnes and nobles…
get
trading for dummies
technical analysis made easy
and pick up a few books on forex
trade forex and options.
thank me when you’re pulling down 20k a month.
Do you make 20k a month?
on my way, i made 5k a couple nights ago[/quote]
What’s your biggest one-day loss?
But have you lost that 5k, sell and reinvest…? Whats the story?
Yeh I know CD’s are a losing situation, 2.5% would be glorious, fortunately I picked mine up a couple years ago, so its a measly 3.8ish% lol.
Index funds seem to be a good starting place, and continue to just max out the IRA like you said. I want to open an IRA and start there, so that would mean open an IRA and invest in a good index fund and just keep investing there as much as I can based on the yearly limits? (which I think is $5000 this year)
I would definitely diversify. Putting all your eggs in one vehicle is never a good idea.
Precious metals are doing very well against the weakening dollar.
The IMF just sold about 400 tons of gold to purposely weaken it’s value to put trust back into the market.
No matter how much paper money you have, it’s worth shit once the market dives. Inflation is at record rates, and the U.S treasury note (aka the “dollar”), which used to be redeemable by gold, is not anymore. You can give a big thank you to the Federal Reserve, which is actually a private central bank charging the gov’t interest on every dollar it prints. Anyway, I’m rambling.
If I were in your shoes, I would split your money four ways.
- U.S Stocks (S&P 500)
- Foreign Stocks (EAFE Index)
- Real Estate
- Commodities
Since you don’t have a serious amount to invest, I would look into ETFS. They are exchange traded funds that trade like stocks
and mimic the behavior of assets like stocks, bonds, commodities, and indexes.
Try these.
1.Vanguard Total Stock Market VIPER(it’s like a fund that represents the entire stock market)
2.MSCI-EAFE…corresponds with stocks trading in Europe, Asia, etc
3.Lehman aggregate bond… tracks the performance of the U.S investment grade bond market.
- Dow Jones US basic materials…this includes stocks in the energy, basic materials, and precious metal areas of the market.
This example puts a little extra in U.S. and foreign stocks. That’s where most of your growth is likely to come. It also adds a fixed-income asset class, bonds, to give your portfolio extra stability in rough markets.
PM me if you want any more info.
You have a PM.
you may want to check out some OF Vanguards ETF’s.
This is for a long term investment.
Im riding high after shorting General Electric before their earnings. made around 4800 after commission fees.
Start an underground lab.
This may be painfully obvious, but given we’re covering basics: Don’t buy any tax-advantaged bonds (or any other tax-advantaged products) within your IRA/Roth IRA account. Again, sorry to belabor the obvious, but because you’re already getting the tax advantage from your IRA, you would be paying extra for something (the tax benefit) that you already have.
Also, here’s another set of recommendations on a diversified set of ETFs, from Scott Burns:
[i] The Updated Couch Potato
Total domestic stock fund: iShares Russell 3,000 (IWV), iShares S&P 1,500 (ISI), Dow Jones Total Market Index (IYY) or Vanguard Vipers Total Market Index (VTI).
Treasury inflation-protected securities fund: iShares Lehman TIPS (TIP).
The Margarita Portfolio
Add a total international stock fund: iShares Morgan Stanley EAFE (EFA).
Four Square Portfolio
Add an unhedged international bond fund. But none is available as an ETF. So go with American Century International Bond (BEGBX).
Five Fold Portfolio
Add a REIT fund: iShares Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index (IYR) or iShares Cohen and Steers Realty Majors Index (ICF) or Vanguard REIT Vipers (VNQ).
Six Ways From Sunday Portfolio:
Add an energy fund: Vanguard Energy Vipers (VDE) or iShares S&P Global Energy Index (IXC) or iShares Dow Jones U.S. Energy Index (IYE) or SPDR Energy (XLE). [/i]
Thanks, I actually just did some reading on TIPS.
Nothing is really painfully obvious to me at this point, considering I’m in the earliest of learning stages for investing.
I find that most of you recommend investing in funds and IRA’s, investments that grow over long periods of time. How would one go about learning to invest or trade to earn money quicker? Is it the same way but it takes experience and time? or do you have to study and learn how to do that type of investing?
For example Warren buffet turned $100,000 dollars in 2 years in to $7 million. Kenneth Griffin was running two funds from his dorm at Harvard, getting great returns.
I know not everyone can do what these guys do and quicker might not be the best word, but I am really interested in what they do.
[quote]xXSeraphimXx wrote:
I find that most of you recommend investing in funds and IRA’s, investments that grow over long periods of time. How would one go about learning to invest or trade to earn money quicker? Is it the same way but it takes experience and time? or do you have to study and learn how to do that type of investing?
For example Warren buffet turned $100,000 dollars in 2 years in to $7 million. Kenneth Griffin was running two funds from his dorm at Harvard, getting great returns.
I know not everyone can do what these guys do and quicker might not be the best word, but I am really interested in what they do.
[/quote]
It’s called “taking other people’s money”
Yes, you need to know what you are doing if you want other people to give you their money.
[quote]Aleksandr wrote:
xXSeraphimXx wrote:
I find that most of you recommend investing in funds and IRA’s, investments that grow over long periods of time. How would one go about learning to invest or trade to earn money quicker? Is it the same way but it takes experience and time? or do you have to study and learn how to do that type of investing?
For example Warren buffet turned $100,000 dollars in 2 years in to $7 million. Kenneth Griffin was running two funds from his dorm at Harvard, getting great returns.
I know not everyone can do what these guys do and quicker might not be the best word, but I am really interested in what they do.
It’s called “taking other people’s money”
Yes, you need to know what you are doing if you want other people to give you their money.[/quote]
But are the textbooks they read different? Differences between a stock trader and a stock investor.
How can one learn to trade at home for a living? My uncle has a subscription to trader monthly and there are a few profiles of traders that make around 250k a year at home of course some make over a 100 million but they work for hedgefunds or investment banks.
[quote]xXSeraphimXx wrote:
Aleksandr wrote:
xXSeraphimXx wrote:
I find that most of you recommend investing in funds and IRA’s, investments that grow over long periods of time. How would one go about learning to invest or trade to earn money quicker? Is it the same way but it takes experience and time? or do you have to study and learn how to do that type of investing?
For example Warren buffet turned $100,000 dollars in 2 years in to $7 million. Kenneth Griffin was running two funds from his dorm at Harvard, getting great returns.
I know not everyone can do what these guys do and quicker might not be the best word, but I am really interested in what they do.
It’s called “taking other people’s money”
Yes, you need to know what you are doing if you want other people to give you their money.
But are the textbooks they read different? Differences between a stock trader and a stock investor.[/quote]
Yes, but before you worry about that, get those intro to financial accounting, intro to finance, and intro to management accounting texts.
Read Ric Edelman’s Lies About Money if you want some info. on what’s involved with most professional money advice.
We’re recommending IRAs and 401Ks because the government gives you a huge tax break on them. Once you max out your retirement funds for the year, then look into investing elsewhere.
I know it’s more complicated than this, but this is a basic recommendation.
Or…if you wanna make millions and cheat people, try this:
Send out a thousand letters. Tell 500 people a particular stock is going to go up in the next week, the other 500 that the stock is going to go down. You’re going to be right with one of the groups. NEXT, of the 500 you were right with send out to 250 a letter explaining that another stock is going to up and the other 250 that the stock is going down. You’re going to be right with 250 people. NOW send those 250 a letter telling them you’ve proven twice now you can predict the market and they should send you money. Finally, don’t actually do this as the people that do eventually get caught and sent to jail.