The "I have XX money to invest, where should I put it?" Thread

[ArturiusX]

Since there's a lot of overlapping advice going around, I've decided to create a new megathread dedicated to passive investing of a large lump sum. If you have a complicated situation, feel free to post a dedicated thread. Otherwise, all request for investing advice go in here.

PLEASE INCLUDE:

• Country you live in
• Income
• Risk Tolerance
• Timeframe for investment
• Debt
• Any other information you might have that would help us

All threads with a simple line "I have $XXXX, what should I do?" will now be deleted with no explanation given. Thank you.

[ItalianFX]

No, thank you!

[soon2begator]

ok ill start I guess.. Not sure if i should even post, b/c its not a very large amount.

I am 18, have ~10k to put into stocks. i live in the US, and currently have a little bit of $ into 2 stocks. ATW and NE.

I dont think the risk matters to much in decision making, but I will take alot of risk to try and make some quick cash. And no specific time frame, I was hoping maybe 2 years or so.

Any advice is good, and any on my current stocks.

[ArturiusX]

Any amount is fine!

[ItalianFX]

As far as the amount of money you have, 10k is pretty good to start with. When I first started learning about the stock market, I started with 5k. My first problem that I noticed was that I only bought 5 shares of a couple companies. At the time I started it was just about the start of a bull market and a couple of the stocks I bought went up over 300% each so I sometimes kick myself in the butt when I think about it. Don't be afraid to put $1-2k in a stock and get yourself a little chunk of shares. However, with that said, it's not about the amount of money that you make in each company you buy, but rather that percentage that it goes up or the return that you get.

And if you're investing, it's not about getting rich quickly. It's about buying ownership in businesses at cheap prices relative to the underlying value of the company. Just because a company is currently trading at $5 doesn't automatically make it a bargain, and a company at $115 doesn't automatically make it expensive.

[playedU2]

Im currently 20 and have invested 17.5k in the last 6 months or so that has turned into 19.5k. My portfolio snapshot is below, but my question is regarding getting in and out. I know I know very little about equities in general, and I feel if I try to take profits I'll end up just being on the wrong side of the trade most times. Should I just sit on my portfolio indefinitely or is there a decent strategy of hopping in and out that even an ignoramus can succeed at.

Currently a senior in business management starting my MBA in the fall with hopes that this will at some point become the capital for a business once I get some relevant industry experience. I'm simply trying to maximize profits and minimize the losses...

Any advice would be appreciated.

Dan

[flip for stacks?]

country: USA
income: at least 3x my expenses
risk tolerance: all-in
timeframe: now (24) till retirement (~55)
Debt: 20k, mostly student loans, and all <7.5% interest

Suppose I have 10k to invest after maxing my roth ira. I have selected one stock I believe will grow, and they are not involved in the financial or energy sector. Should I diversify my investment? Suppose I have 50k, is the answer different? Assume either investment is <20% of my cash net worth.

[ms.]

Country you live in: Austria
Income: From very low to very high. Living expenses (house, car, food etc.) are covered though.
Risk Tolerance: High
Timeframe for investment: 4-5y till I'm out of college.
Debt: None
Amount to invest: About 50k$ (= ~35k€)

I stopped playing poker so I looked into daytrading with a propfirm but unfortunately there are very few in Austria and all of them are crap (comparing to propfirms people talk about in the day trading thread here). I would really love to look into this and already got me some basic knowledge but I can't leave my city due college (studying law and economics). So the only thing left to do is getting a mixed portfolio of stocks and bonds and just invest longterm according to Graham p.e? Or is there any other way I could turn those 50k$ maybe into ~ 100-150k$ in 4-5y? I would be willing to consistently work with my capital and not just sit back and relax.

Another thing I looked into was maybe founding my own business but
1) I don't have experience in anything other than maybe webapplications/programming (so I could start a webshop) and
2) For a "real" business I don't have the time to work 60-80h /w during the first year due to college. I'm top 10% of my class right now and I want to keep it that way.
3) 50k$ aren't that much considering opening a business and I don't like loans

[ItalianFX]

Originally Posted by playedU2

Im currently 20 and have invested 17.5k in the last 6 months or so that has turned into 19.5k. My portfolio snapshot is below, but my question is regarding getting in and out. I know I know very little about equities in general, and I feel if I try to take profits I'll end up just being on the wrong side of the trade most times. Should I just sit on my portfolio indefinitely or is there a decent strategy of hopping in and out that even an ignoramus can succeed at.

Currently a senior in business management starting my MBA in the fall with hopes that this will at some point become the capital for a business once I get some relevant industry experience. I'm simply trying to maximize profits and minimize the losses...

Any advice would be appreciated.

Dan

Speculating and Investing are two different things. Speculating is basically trying to catch big moves based on current market conditions irrespective of long-term future prospects. Investing is buying businesses with good long-term prospects at attractive prices. Just looking at your holdings, you have some pretty big companies that move around a lot. Most of the time the companies are moderately-to-slightly overpriced. Don't take that as set in stone and immediately go out and sell everything. Jumping in and out is just as bad as buying a company at very overpriced prices.

The market is going to go up and down, it's all noise. In the long-run it is known for going up. Think about what it is that you want to do. There are many different strategies as you probably know, and each strategy has its own characteristics. My personality would be to buy good companies at great prices and ride it out into the future. I've tried buying big companies hoping they'd go up, I've tried trading in and out of stocks using margin and what not, but although I am willing to take some risk, I am moderately risk averse. Don't be concerned about your portfolio going up and down constantly. In reality, if you can't take the ups and downs you should probably select index funds and not check your account other than a few times a year. The market is very unstable right now with the questionable economy so although one day the market might drop like a rock, the next week it might start inching up. There was something else I was going to say, but I forgot.

[Big Bend]

Here is my situation.

* Country you live in - TEXAS is a country
* Income - 100K
* Risk Tolerance - LOW
* Timeframe for investment - 20 years
* Debt - ZERO
* Any other information you might have that would help us


My wife and I are in our 40s, zero debt, house paid for, she retired from Exxon after 20 years and has about $300,000 sitting in cash IRA at the moment.

With massive inflation coming soon thanks to Obama printing trillions of dollars.. where should be put this money to fight off inflation?

We are investment rookies, and my wife is very afraid of losing this nest egg. We need to diversify.. not sure the best way to go about any of this.

Advice appreciated thx.. BB

[GrassHopperAA]

Originally Posted by Big Bend

Here is my situation.

* Country you live in - TEXAS is a country

HAHA that's hillarious - I'm in Sugar Land

[nuclear500]

Originally Posted by Big Bend

Here is my situation.

* Country you live in - TEXAS is a country
* Income - 100K
* Risk Tolerance - LOW
* Timeframe for investment - 20 years
* Debt - ZERO
* Any other information you might have that would help us


My wife and I are in our 40s, zero debt, house paid for, she retired from Exxon after 20 years and has about $300,000 sitting in cash IRA at the moment.

With massive inflation coming soon thanks to Obama printing trillions of dollars.. where should be put this money to fight off inflation?

We are investment rookies, and my wife is very afraid of losing this nest egg. We need to diversify.. not sure the best way to go about any of this.

Advice appreciated thx.. BB

Vanguard Target Retirement 2020 - while you don't expect to retire in 10 years, you want low risk, so having some stock exposure is still good, but having higher bond exposure is what you're looking for here.

[boohaa12]

United States
23

i have an extra 30k (+3k month additions)

risk tollerance. Mediumish. If i lose ohwell, i dont mind taking some chance, however im not looking for something unusually risky. But 3-6% growth goal?

can someone recomend a Vanguard maybe

Goal: i want my monies out in 2-3 yrs if i start a business. If i take a good job instead ill jsut leave it. Anyhow i play poker for a living, i pay my taxes, but dont crontribute to roths or hha's or anything.

Basically this "30k" + additions is whats beyond my "6 months living expensses + roll"... so its somthing i havnt touched in a while. Currently sitting in HSBC online savings account.

[martin9_90]

* Country you live in - United Kingdom, England
* Income - N/A
* Risk Tolerance - N/A
* Timeframe for investment - 1-20 years
* Debt - N/A
* Any other information you might have that would help us -N/A

I have $2000 to invest where sould I put it

[Big Bend]

Originally Posted by nuclear500

Vanguard Target Retirement 2020 - while you don't expect to retire in 10 years, you want low risk, so having some stock exposure is still good, but having higher bond exposure is what you're looking for here.

Thanks for the advice! I'll check this out.. much appreciated..

take care.. BB