ok I'm way confused by why people think that was a spam...the question was about investment and not retirement. If you're looking for the most +ev investment its long term been the market. Thus a bulk of your exposure should be there if you are asking about where you should invest you obviously don't have much market knowledge. So what would be the point of getting into individual stocks. Further more almost all traders would agree with a lump sum buying in over a period of time.

Regards to precious metals almost all long term investors would agree you need some sort of precious metals in your portfolio.

Now I can see if people want to flame out having 10% in speculation I don't presume people are going to know nothing about their investment. There's a lot of other investment mediums and I'm sure people looking thru this have had some wild ideas. I don't think they should discredit those ideas they should just not put a large % of their wealth into it

"the market" is a pretty vague term, but assuming you mean equities or "the stock market" then i agree.

there is none.

agreed.

lol

speculating is by definition not investing, the whole premise of your response was people who "know nothing" about investing, and the onus is on "wild ideas" to prove their value.

I said almost all...clearly you don't want to own any precious metals...and speculation just means taking +ev long shots. I find it hard to believe people come into any sort of money with out one idea on how to spend it. Having said all that they should only spend a small amount on that idea.

So a 68 year old who is set to begin withdrawing from her retirement fund in two years should have the same asset allocation as a 26 year old dentist, assuming neither possesses "any insight or real knowledge about something to provide an extra edge"?

Yikes.

assuming she's trying to invest her money yea...money you're investing shouldn't be needed to spent in the near future

Hey Tyler,

Why do you recommend Target Date Retirement over Life Strategy funds? Is it because they are simpler for beginners as they change allocation as they approach dday?

yes.

vanguard's LS funds are also excellent ofc.

Thx. I had originally invested in LS growth... was influenced by a now defunct blog called longtermreturns and was curious.

Vanguard LifeStrategy Growth Fund (VASGX)

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares 56.4%
Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Investor Shares 23.8%
Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index Fund Investor Shares* 15.9%
Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund Investor Shares 3.9%

Acquired fund fees and expenses
as of 08/12/2013 0.17%

(https://personal.vanguard.com/us/fun...tExt=INT#tab=2)


simple, diversified, and cheap!

When i started working 2.5 years ago I just told Prudential I had a high risk tolerance and they allocated for me. It looks like I'm at:

19% large cap value Invesco Diversified Dividend Y .67 ER
19% large cap growth SAT Rowe Price .89 ER
14% mid cap value Victory Established A 1.06 ER
13% small cap growth SA Invesco 1.23 ER
35% international blend Thornburg (just got a letter saying this is being replaced in Feb)

Im just beginning to look at this a little myself and read back a few pages in this thread.

Should there be some kind of bonds in there?
Why do ER make such a big difference if for example the higher expense fund is outperforming the lower?
Is there a difference between value and growth?

Vanguard seems to be recommended the most in here and I have access to VSISX, VIFSX, and VMISX. Should I be looking at including these in place of the others.

Thanks for any and all help.

How old are you? There is a valid difference of opinion on this topic, and you could legitimately hold anywhere from 0 to 40% bonds and not be wrong.

Performance comes and goes with managed funds, but expenses are forever.

http://www.leonlevy.com/Growth-Stock...TOKEN=33093105

I would use those funds to replace the comparable ones in your current portfolio.

Just because Fund A outperformed Fund B in the past doesn't mean it will continue to do so in the future.

in fact, many studies have shown that in the long run no individual, mutual fund, or strategem beats owning the market. expenses are the only thing you can control, so control them!

Country you live in: USA
Income: 35K now, 60-70K within a year
Risk Tolerance: Med-High
Timeframe for investment: Retirement
Debt: 125K Mortgage, 7K Car
Any other information you might have that would help us:
I'm 28 yrs old.
I recently started working for small company that has a simple IRA match of 3% which everyone in my office has setup with Ameriprise. I met with the Ameriprise advisor today. He recommended I start funnelling money into SMGIX. This fund has a front-end load fee of 5.75%, a management fee of 1.14%, and a custodial fee of $50/yr. Dem fees.

Basically, I have experience with IRAs and no experience with mutual funds, just a little bit of experience with individual stocks. I am generally wary of salepeople (and I include financial advisors in this category), so I will take any sort of advice.

ameriprise is terrible. run.

also i've never heard of an "ira match". do you mean 401k?

The money is deducted from my paycheck into the SIMPLE IRA, and my company matches that up to 3%.

ah, that makes more sense.

we need to know what options are available in your SIMPLE IRA. are you stuck with ameriprise?

Well, we share an office building with Ameriprise reps, so my bosses and them know each other pretty well. I would probably have to talk with my boss.

If I were stuck with Ameriprise, I was thinking that the employer match up to 3% would be too much EV to pass up. The rep showed me some mutual funds, all of which were Columbia Mutual Funds. I don't know how they're compensated or if they have some sort of agreement to only deal in certain MF's, but he only showed me different Columbia MF's.

I found this on the Ameriprise web site:
Ameriprise has agreements with nearly 300 mutual fund firms, which allows us to offer clients a broad range of more than 3,500 mutual funds. The financial advisors' goal is to select suitable investments that help clients achieve their financial goals. The following sections describe important information relating to the availability of mutual funds offered through Ameriprise and factors that may influence the mutual funds financial advisors recommend.

Payments from product companies
Ameriprise receives a variety of payments for selling the products of proprietary and non-proprietary product companies. These include payments for marketing support, recordkeeping and other client account services, startup costs, technology and related expenses, conferences and client events. The most significant payments are marketing support payments.

Financial advisors may offer, and clients are free to choose, mutual funds from nearly 300 firms. However, certain aspects of the Mutual Fund Program ("Program") may create a conflict of interest or incentive if Ameriprise promotes, or financial advisors recommend, the mutual funds offered by a firm participating in the Program vs. mutual funds offered by nonparticipating firms. In addition, among firms participating in the Program, financial advisors generally have a greater incentive to offer mutual funds from Full Participation firms than mutual funds from Limited Participation firms. As further described below, these conflicts and incentives may arise from the marketing and sales support provided to our financial advisors by, as well as the payments Ameriprise receives from, firms participating in the Program, and with other relationships with firms, including our affiliation with Columbia Management Investment Advisers and the Columbia-branded mutual funds, in addition to other fund brands (the "Affiliated Columbia Funds") – see the section titled "Columbia and other affiliated mutual funds" below



Just show this to him and tell him you know whats up, and to show you the low cost index funds. They may not have any, but there are bound to be cheaper options than the Columbia Kick Back fund he is trying to get you in.

Found this also:
Exchange Traded Products (ETPs)
ETPs include various investment structures that track an underlying benchmark, index or portfolio of securities. There are two types of ETPs available at Ameriprise:

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)
Like mutual funds, ETFs are securities that allow investors to pool their money in a fund that invests in assets such as stocks, bonds and other assets. However, ETFs have key differences compared to mutual funds:

Shares are able to trade intra-day on a national exchange at market prices that may vary from net asset value instead of being issued and redeemed at the end of the day at the net asset value.
Most ETFs are index-based which seek to track a securities index. Index-based ETFs may often have lower expense ratios.


I was going to suggest going to ETFs, but of course those are better suited to more of a lump sum purchase than a paycheck by paycheck purchase. On the other hand you could let money build up for 6 months and just make a couple of trades per year.

Look at the paperwork you filled out and see if the SIMPLE IRA form is a 5304-SIMPLE or 5305-SIMPLE plan (it will say at the very top of the form).

If it's a 5304 plan then you can use any financial institution you please and do not have to use Ameriprise. If you are stuck with Ameriprise one option would be to just hold the funds in a money market account (to avoid the front load fees) and then do a tax-free trustee-to-trustee transfer to a regular IRA plan (with lower fees and no loads) after the expiration of the 2 year waiting period.

Also, since they say he is a financial advisor, ask him if he is acting as a fidicuary?
http://www.investopedia.com/articles...-standards.asp

He should put your best interests above his own, if he is. Or is he acting only as a broker / dealer?

* Country you live in : Canada
* Amount to invest: max out TFSA (31k)
* Risk Tolerance : medium-high
* Timeframe for investment : to retirement (30-40 years)
* Debt: none

At this point, I know next to nothing about investing but I don't want my money to just sit there. I'm ordering books so that later I'll be able to make more informed decisions with money my money around. In the meantime, how should I invest in my TFSA? And for any proposed investment, can you give me an estimate on what you think its average yearly growth would be? (can be a rough range just so I know what's sort of standard for minimal oversight)

Low expense stock funds. Maybe a bond fund. Whatever is available to you. Expect around 7% growth per year +/- 30%.

As far as "oversight" goes if it drops, buy more hand over fist. You will have years when it drops like a stone. No point in selling after it has dropped.

Country you live in: USA
Income: 125k/yr - After taxes and living costs, I am putting ~$10k per year towards my car loan, leaving me with around $50k to invest per year.
Risk Tolerance: Med-High
Time frame for investment: I want to save up for a down payment for a house over the next 2-3 years. Thinking I would like to have about $100k for this. However if stocks take a hit and it ends up taking me another year or two it wouldn't be a huge deal, just figure owning house > renting, and making the transition sooner would be better. Other goal is to save for retirement / use the power of compounding interest to grow my portfolio.
Debt: $23k left on my car loan - paying this off $800/month for 2.5 more years. My interest rate is 2.24% APR - I figure this interest rate is low enough it's fine to just pay it off over the next three years, no need to pay it off ASAP
age: 22


Right now I am putting $6k/yr into my 401k to max out my company 50% match. The rest of my money ~40k/year is being invested at ~15% bonds and ~85% mutual funds(are there specific types I should be looking for? right now I have most of it in a general S&P500 fund).

Is not maxing out my 401k / IRA at this point a huge mistake at this age? Any investment at this point that can grow for the next 40 years would be huge. However my logic is I want to have the money available in the next few years to buy a house, so it doesn't make sense to lock it up in retirement accounts. After a few years I can reevaluate and start shifting some of my money into retirement accounts.

Putting the other $11.5k to max out the 401k only reduces your "rest of money" amount by $8k so it's almost certainly a good idea. At your salary and current level of expenses a liquid $100k will accumulate relatively quickly anyways. Would also recommend maxing out a Roth for $5.5k, but again that would set back your particular goal of having $100k liquid. (There are some complicated exceptions allowing you to take money out of the Roth for a home purchase, but I wouldn't worry about it.) It probably is a huge mistake, but with a high salary and low expenses you have a huge margin of error, you'll be fine if you keep your income regardless.

Some of this comes to personal preference, but I disagree in most cases. Even with the shorter 15-year mortgage, you're sinking a lot of your money into one tiny property, and even with various tax advantages it's not some big money maker. By renting you have way more flexibility in case you get obnoxious neighbors or your family gets bigger or you decide you want a shorter commute or you get a new job. While at the same time you're worrying about not having access to $8k/year, you're looking to make a commitment for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Not saying it's never right to buy a house, but I think most people, especially young not rich people, do it way too often and early.