I've been meaning to jump into investing for a long time but never really got around to it. I decided to change this once and for all this year and finally get the wheels rolling. With stock prices so low now is the best time to start, right?

I'm 21 and have a semi-consistent income (I play an average of 80k hands of 1/2-2/4NL a month) so risk is not an issue for me. I plan on taking out $1000 every month and put it straight into investment. This amount is fairly trivial for me and I am willing to take up to a 25% risk of ruin. So high risk high returns adventures is what I am looking for. After three of doing this and getting my feet wet I plan on increasing the amount of money I put into investment up to $2000, and hope to reach $3000 by the end of the year. Again, risk is not a real issue to me and although I am not as comfortable investing $3000 with 25% risk of ruin, I am more than willing to go broke 1 out of 5 times for a chance of high return.

I am probably not going to touch this money for the next 5-10 years but I might liquidate everything within that time so I don't want to lock up all my money completely.

With these parameters, what is the best way of investing? Should I look into stocks or ETFs? What books/sites would suit me the most? Currently I am looking to invest in the following companies:

Activision-Blizzard: I have always been a fan of Blizzard and their games. I have noticed that every time they released a new game (ie. WOW and each subsequent expansion), their stock prices rose considerably. With upcoming juggernauts such as Starcraft 2 and Diablo III, I don't see this company going down anytime soon. Oh, and guitar heroes.

Chevron: Everyone needs gas right? As long as there isn't an contending alternative fuel ready to be mass produced and consumed, this stock should continue to rise no?

Hopefully, I'll be sippin on my whiskey sitting on my front porch of my beach house when I'm 60 and look back at 2009 as the year that started it all.

No.

With the economy in turmoil, it's impossible to predict future earnings, or even whether certain companies will survive. Add to that a new political team in power that's untested and the future couldn't be cloudier.

I play in a cash game with a lot of the WEALTHY they brag about there money sometime but not in a loudish way but I will say they all agree and say the same, "Buy Land" so there you go,, or find a niche and invest, stay away from stock and other BS

Don't look into individual stocks.

You can get a free lunch by diversifying, keeping the same expectation but reducing your variance. Look at index funds or ETFs. They are suitable for individual investors.

Meh. You don't keep the same expectation when you diversify.

All the index funds and ETFs have Finance and Consumer Discretionary as big components, which is not good news. You would be much better off imo owning individual stocks in those sectors than having broad exposure. Or if you can't pick the winners and losers, avoid those entirely.

Now if only my 401K offered a "Large Cap Value minus Finance and Consumer Discretionary" fund, I would be a happier man.

You are 21? You have wasted your life. It is too late to start now.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/30...ng/azc-183161/

Is there some reason why you are looking only at stock market investing? You can invest in a lot of other stuff that has WAY less risk and less variance for much higher returns with an equal amount of passivity. Real estate is one example. Tax liens are another. Hard money lending is a third.

Stocks are what most people invest in. But I consider myself wealthy and I have very little of my net worth in stocks. Most of my money is in real estate and small businesses (that I bankrolled for other entrepreneurs).

Something to consider.

Hard to do with just 1000 per month and also very hard to liquidate. I say at the start put it into an all world ETF. Either way investing in stocks are +EV and now is a great time to invest. It's a tough time to pick individual stocks, but I would definitely go diversified ETF.


When doing this just remember- you are taking a large risk when investing and you may lose a decent amount of money.

Meh, I disagree. $1k per month is fine. Stick it in a savings account. After 20 months, you can afford to get started. In the mean time, learn. You'll have to learn either way.

Any mediocre RE investor can get 20%+ returns. A mediocre stock investor can barely get 10% returns. Plus the stock investor is taking on a much larger amount of risk.

Its true that RE is harder to liquidate compared to stocks. But OP said he is looking at a 10 year time line, so who cares?

On the downside, RE investing can be a lot more work when one is getting started. Still though, I'd guess that on average you'd spend less time managing $20k invested in RE than you likely would $20k invested in stocks.

One thing no one sees to have mentioned, open a Roth IRA. Take five thousand, and dollar cost average(like $1250 every 3 months)into some kind of equity account. You can use an ETF or Vanguard Index fund. These returns will be tax free upon when you are sipping your whiskey at 60. This will help keep Uncle Sam out of your pockets. Take the remaining money and use it for other investments.

Active investment takes a lot of time. Whether you buy stocks or real estate. As an active stock investor, the most important thing for me is knowing what price the market has proven me wrong before I buy. My portfolio had 200+ trades this year, and having an uncle point has kept me solvent.

mused01,

Assuming you are leaning towards investing in the stock market, I would consider Vanguard Index Funds. They offer wide diversification and extremely low expenses when compared to other investment vehicles like mutual funds and hedge funds.

If you are going this route, a good introduction book to read would be "The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing." I've never read it, but it seems appropriate.
http://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Gui...1010010&sr=8-1


Here are some of the funds I would consider:

World Exposure
Vanguard Total World (VTWSX): Seeks to track the price and yield performance the FTSE All-World index. The fund will normally hold 2,800–2,900 stocks in its target index and a representative sample of the remaining stocks. The index is designed to measure the market performance of large- and mid-capitalization stocks of companies located around the world.
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AVTWSX

US Exposure
Vanguard Total Stock Market (VITSX): Seeks to track the performance of a benchmark index that measures the investment return of the overall stock market. The fund employs a passive management strategy designed to track the performance of the MSCI US Broad Market index, which consists of all the U.S. common stocks traded regularly on the NYSE, AMEX, or OTC markets.
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AVITSX

Real Estate Exposure
Vanguard REIT Index (VGSIX ): The investment seeks to provide a high level of income and moderate long-term capital appreciation. The fund normally invests approximately 98% of assets in stocks issued by equity real estate investment trusts (REITs) in an attempt to track the investment performance of the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) US REIT Index.

Disclaimer: The REIT index is a very different type of real estate investment than spex x was referring to. If you want to learn more about the real estate investing route, look for spex x's thread in BFI. According to spex, real estate offers higher returns with lower risks, but it's less liquid and requires a lot more work than just throwing it in an index fund. It's up to you which route you want to pursue.

Hm, real estate does sound very interesting. But I think putting my money in some vanguard ETFs people mentioned here would be a better place to put than in my savings account. Sure, the risk is greater but like I said, risk is not a main priority right now. The idea I'm getting from here is I can just park my money in a world ETF or index fund and I should see a increase in my returns.

I just need to start investing because I want to get in the habit of it and just jump in the pool already. If I decide to put it off one more year and gear myself toward real estate I risk never following all the way through and lose more precious time that my money could have used to make more money. So I think my plan for now is diversifying my income into some World ETFs and a few individual stocks in sectors I'm at least somewhat knowledgeable in (video game industries) while reading up on real estate and how to make returns on that.

That seems like a reasonable plan to me. I'll point out though that your gains over one year on any investment probably aren't going to be that much. So saving acct vs. EFT vs. whatever is probably a moot point if that is your time line. If you are interested, I've got a very large thread going about RE investing. Good luck.

You've said this kind of thing a couple of times in this thread and there is one thing you should be absolutely clear on - the process of saving, investing, and accumulating wealth is not just a matter of "jumping in the pool". People don't just wake up one day and say "well, it's time to be wealthy now, where do I get a 5 step guide to being wealthy?". Wealth accumulation is a necessarily involved process that requires a lot of thinking and learning. It's not a matter of figuring out where to park $1,000 per month, it's a matter of analyzing your expenditures and eliminating waste, understanding tax issues, understanding asset allocation, understanding political risk, having a long-term plan, and having a short-term plan for when your long-term plan gets off track.