Grosek_ Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 I've got a problem. I've accumulated a pretty wad of money over the past 3 1/2 years in the army, but its just rotting in my bank account, and I don't want that to continue over the next 2 1/2 years I have in service. I'm looking into investing, but alot of what I'm finding on the web is a bit over my head. I was wondering if anyone had suggestions, maybe some websites that I could do some reading on, finacial advisors that I could get in contact with. Anything would be helpful. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-D&Der Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 I like TIAA-CREF. It's very conservative, but then that can be a good thing. They don't try to bull**** you into gambling your money away. Basically urge you to diversify across asset categories. Also their mutual funds are low-fee. You also might try Vanguard.com. They have the absolute lowest fees. I'm kind of a junkie for thestreet.com, but they fall more into the latter category of bull****ting you to get you to gamble all your money away. I also hear very good things about Investors Business Daily, although I've never been a reader, and of course The Wall Street Journal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Greased Weasel Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 Invest in Weasel Mutual Funds, together we will mutualy fund me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizz Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 Pick a handful of stocks in various areas. Track them for a month and see how they perform. Invest in the safest looking one. Also, you can get stock history from a lot of financial web sites. http://quotes.nasdaq.com/quote.dll?chart=10&page=charting&mode=basics&symbol=COHU%60&selected=COHU%60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warpnow Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 I wouldn't take the very dangerous risk of stocks. Average return on the stock market is around 11%. Cds can pay up to 6%, and are entirely risk free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chayesh Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 Average return on the stock market is higher, around 20%. Also, CDs give you no flexibility. Mutual funds are far and away a better option with the ability to move money from fund to fund. Also, you really don't care if the market fluctuates up and down as dollar cost averaging still makes you money over time. I would advise speaking to someone about investing in an IRA. Your contributions will serve you well down the road toward retirement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warpnow Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 http://www.evanomics.com/intro/introtsld002.shtml http://stocks.about.com/od/understandingstocks/a/stckmyth042405.htm Recently done a school report on the best way to make money with financial institutions. CDs yield a considerible amount of money, while being 100% risk free. Some, you can even cash in early and not lose a penny. While the stock market has greater potential, I am not much of a risk taker when it comes to life savings. If it were me, I would look into Money Market Accounts, CDs, Savings and Bonds, and retirement accounts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chayesh Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 Investing over time, mutual funds can't be beaten. Proven fact and any financial advisor will tell you the same. Yields far higher returns than a CD with as much or as little risk as you can tolerate. And again, since it's over time, dollar cost averaging protects you from losses and the stock does nothing but go up over time. Even while it's temporarily down, this actually helps you make more money in the long run as your money buys more shares while the stocks are lower then increases exponentially when the market goes back up. No offense to anyone else, but Grosek, you might want to ignore the forum and just talk to a professional since the average age of the "advice column" here is about 19 with little to no investment experience whatsoever. But I'm still right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goomf Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 First, decide how risky you are. If you want to take a lot of risk, which would generate a higher expected return, go stocks. If it's a lot of money, I would suggest diversifying them in many different types of ventures. Stocks, CDs, and Bonds. If you have an exhorbitant amount of money, I would suggest Stocks. For small amounts, and if you are willing to let the money stew without taking much care of them, CDs and Bonds. No matter what, be careful. I'm working for an attorney who specializes in investing fraud and some brokers/brokerage companies can be very crafty. Before actually investing, get some background information on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-D&Der Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 Average return on the stock market is higher' date=' around 20%.[/quote'] Warpnow's right. It's a little less than 11 percent for the S&P 500 historically, although there's no guarantee that that will be true in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chayesh Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 Mixed risk mutual funds can easily manage any risk. You simply invest percentages of your total nest egg in funds of varying risk (example: 65% higher yield, higher risk, 20% moderate yield, moderate risk, 15% lower yield cash funds, with little to no risk) and that will manage or negate losses. Risk tolerance is key and any financial advisor will tell you that the younger you are, the more risk you take since over time, you will come out on top even if the market takes a hit because of dollar cost averaging. Whatever financial planner you speak with will quiz you to find what your risk tolerance is and plan accordingly. I've had moderate risk funds that at time have hit 40%+ in returns and gone as low as 8%. The point is that even when stocks are bad, you still make money in the long run with a mutual fund as your $10000 (example) buys a heck of a lot more shares when the stocks in the fund average $20 per share than when they average $40 per share. More shares equals more profits when the market comes back up, thus, exponential growth potential. And ExDnder, that's the S&P 500, not the market as a whole. And anyone investing for a 10-year plan is not in for the long term. Long term averages, the stock market and related mutual funds outperform everything by managing risk appropriately and still averaging positive gains. Also, mix your funds. Go to an independent broker like Allstate (who I deal with...they rock) or American Express or John Hancock/Manulife. They have a TON of funds from different providers to pick and choose from. That way you can have a mix as some funds companies perform better with high risk funds than with low risk, etc. But as I said earlier Grosek, unless any of us here on the forum have Certified Financial Planner on our resumes, our advice doesn't mean squat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-D&Der Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 And ExDnder' date=' that's the S&P 500, not the market as a whole.[/quote'] The S&P 500 is a pretty good index of the market as whole. It's what academic papers and policymakers usually use when measuring historical stock market performance. Other indexes designed to measure the overall market haven't shown significantly different returns as far as I know. (You need some sort of index to measure the market.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chayesh Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/charts/chartdl.asp?Symbol=%24INX 10 year price history of the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones indexes. At times, a jump of greater than 100% since 1996. You can't judge long term gains looking a 3 or even sometimes a 10 year trend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-D&Der Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 The Dow Jones Industrial Average at times deviates sigificantly from the S&P 500. It's an index of only 30 stocks, all of them large capitalization, and it over-represents old-line industrial stocks. It's also price-weighted, rather than market-capitalization weighted, so higher priced stocks (in dollar terms) will have a greater impact on the index for the same percentage change in their market value. Generally it is not as good an index of the overall stock market as the S&P 500. A better comparison would be between the S&P and the Russell 3000, or the Wilshire 5000 (also published by Dow Jones and Co., and specifically designed to measure the overall stock market). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chayesh Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 The red line, showing at times 140% price gain since 1996, IS the S&P 500. The losses recorded have been from that high. I'm not saying they are the same, except that they are both over 75% higher than they were 10 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-D&Der Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 Ah--misunderstood you. Yes money invested in either of those baskets of stocks over the last 10 years would have done well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister E Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 Wanna predict stock market behaviors eh? Anyone seen the movie Pi? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarriorCleric Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 Don't listen to any of the financial advice given on the forum, that's my advice. No offense to those offering, but historically, the real life advice given out on the forum has been faulty. If you want some real help, go talk to one of those guys that make this their career. Only thing I can think off is: Vanguard WC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chayesh Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 My point exactly, WC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Designated_Driver Posted March 11, 2006 Report Share Posted March 11, 2006 My advice is buy as much Enron stock as you can. As far as I can tell, they can only go up from here! Bwahahahaha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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