The "I have XX money to invest, where should I put it?" Thread - Page 9

krmont22 · 09-03-2009, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nuclear500

Not sure thats a question we can answer as its really more about you then about whats best for the money.

Huh? Isn't what's best for the money what's best for me?

Brons · 09-04-2009, 04:41 AM

These kind of questions are really hard to answer because they're very complicated. It depends on several factors. Including if you pay income tax, what kind of house (price) you're looking for, how long you're going to stay there, etc etc.

Now for a generic answer: you said your risk tolerance is high so you might want to invest the 100k in equities and take out a mortgage to buy the house.

But this answer is most likely too generic for you. If you give more info we might be able to give you a better answer but these things are very complicated so no guarantees.

ArturiusX · 09-04-2009, 05:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by krmont22

Huh? Isn't what's best for the money what's best for me?

To make money, renting is unequivocally the best way, factoring in added flexibility. If you're looking for a house to be a home for you, you'll be hard pressed to find really solid real estate deals (real +EV deals are hard enough to find). Not only that, if you have to move for whatever reason, selling is a huge expense that kills your bottom line.

There might be exceptions, like if you're planning on owning the home for 20+ years because you have a family and you can use the tax-related benefits and you know you're buying in a strong market, etc.

ArturiusX · 09-04-2009, 05:25 AM

Also you guys should check out my latest podcast, I go through passive investing in a nutshell, good food for thought and aimed at newbies:

http://www.colindocherty.com/2009/09...ast-episode-3/

thylacine · 09-05-2009, 02:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by krmont22

Huh? Isn't what's best for the money what's best for me?

life insurance

nuclear500 · 09-07-2009, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by krmont22

Huh? Isn't what's best for the money what's best for me?

Your question was more of a lifestyle choice decision question IMO. You have different kinds of freedoms compared to renting, but substantially different kinds of responsibilities compared to renting.

If anyone is flirting the line between "should I buy a house or rent and invest" they need take the 'invest' part out of the equation first and figure out the lifestyle decision and then come back to the investing part. Don't let whether you are going to invest rule your lifestyle, let your lifestyle rule your investing decisions and possibilities.

durkadurka33 · 09-10-2009, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nuclear500

Don't let whether you are going to invest rule your lifestyle, let your lifestyle rule your investing decisions and possibilities.

This is extremely good advice.

JackalMegalomaniac · 09-10-2009, 11:39 AM

country: Canada
income: ~200k/year
risk tolerance: low-medium
timeframe for investment: a few years
no debt

I have about 100K USD sitting in a US chequing account in my Canadian bank. I feel urged to convert to CAD before things get any worse (everything I read lately says the CAD will just continue to appreciate vs USD), but I thought I should check here first to see if there may be a potentially better option for me.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Brons · 09-10-2009, 02:20 PM

What do you need the USD for? Poker? If you do you might want to take the USD you don't need and turn it into CAD. This is not because I expect a USD decline but because you should keep most of your money in the currency you need.

Mossberg · 09-10-2009, 02:35 PM

Right, I should have clarified. I don't need the USD for anything. This is money I have cashed out from my online roll in the past month or so. It's just that the exchange rate isn't very good for me right now, and I'm wondering if there is anything better that I could do with my USD funds (as opposed to converting it all right now).

Brons · 09-11-2009, 07:27 AM

Personally I would exchange it now. You might lose on the exchange rate but do you really want to speculate in the currency market?

ihearthawrilenko · 09-12-2009, 02:25 AM

Hey, just posted a thread before noticing this one

thoughts?

"If u had 50-100k set aside to invest in the current market, and knew little about the markets, etc, what would be the best way to go? (between stocks, real estate, just leaving it in a bank account, cd, money market, mutual funds, etc)

I have minimal knowledge of the stock market - read a few books years ago, but that's about it, and feel like I would need to do a significant amount of study before even considering doing own my trading. Correct? Good idea to just hire someone to manage ur money, or generally a ripoff? If a good idea, who would u recommend going with?

Tired of just letting my cash sit in checking account, CD, etc, so just curious what some of the more experienced investors would recommend. Would prefer to do something w/o too much risk, yet still somewhat aggressive, since I'm young.

Stocks, buy house/apartments to rent, etc, hire someone, or just leave in bank acccount...thoughts?"

ihearthawrilenko · 09-12-2009, 02:30 AM

hey arturius. I'm stupid and wouldn't even know how to actually do this...

US Money:

- 50% Government Bonds
- 20% Cash management intending for a delayed investment into a vanguard S&P index tracker
- 30% in a high yielding vanguard real estate fund

How would I go about actually setting up these accounts?

And would u recommend just leaving it in there for a couple years? What would a realistic expected annual return be?

ArturiusX · 09-12-2009, 07:12 PM

goto www.vanguard.com and open an account?

Realistic expected annual return depends, bonds return a predetermined amount, for the rest you'll just have to stick with historical returns to get an idea. but variance etc changes the future return.

ihearthawrilenko · 09-13-2009, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArturiusX

goto www.vanguard.com and open an account?

Realistic expected annual return depends, bonds return a predetermined amount, for the rest you'll just have to stick with historical returns to get an idea. but variance etc changes the future return.

k, thanks. my brother's been telling me to use vanguard for awhile, too. just wasn't sure whether it was simple, etc, to allocate specifically as u mentioned.

what would u say is the average historical return if i invested as u suggested? and i assume this would be a very safe way to go, right? what would u suggest if i was cool with a bit more risk?

also, as for real estate, why are u not big on buying a house for the short term (ie several years to 5-10 yrs, etc)? I live in Los Angeles, and (while not having any significant real estate knowledge) just figure that it's pretty unlikely prices could really drop much more - so wouldn't it make sense to buy at the bottom (sometime over the next year or so)? what are the problems with this type of thinking? u just don't think average home values will increase enough over the next few yrs to overcome all the associated costs w/ buying?