$10k/month? Really? Wow. If thats what you're willing to 'play' with, my first suggestion would be: build your 6 month "life style" fund - in other words an emergency fund. I'm going to speculate and say thats going to be somewhere in the $40-60k range.

As for the recommendation of where to put it....you say very high risk tolerance but it bears repeating: Someones stated risk tolerance is their perceived risk acceptance. The stated risk tolerance is almost always higher then actual.

However, given a true "very high risk" tolerance, I'd look at:
18% Vanguard Growth (VIGRX)
18% Vanguard Small Cap Growth (VISGX)
18% Vanguard Small Cap Value (VISVX)
18% Vanguard Emerging Markets (VEIEX)
18% Vanguard International Growth (VWIGX)
9% Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTSMX)

It provides a basic 65/35 distribution US&Canada / Rest of World with an obvious tilt towards growth and small cap funds and emerging markets, which offer the highest risk overall. I stuck the Total Stock Market index in there as a large cap value balance to the growth fund. It could be higher risk if you dropped the TSM.

The higher amount of money you can invest, the less risk you really need to take, especially for long term investments. If you want to stick something in there for long term holdings, consider dropping everybody by ~1% and put that 6% into VBMFX and/or VIPSX and in that 5 years re-evaluate.

Remember, this is all taxable.

Please don't take offense, but it kind of sounds like you really don't know what direction or how fast you're going right now so we don't want to take much risk with the capital you do want to invest.

First thing: Pay off the debt.

I wouldn't get more involved with anything more then something like
30% Total Stock Market (Vanguard VTSMX)
20% World Stock Market ex-US (VFWIX)
30% Total Bond Market (VBMFX)
20% Inflation Protected Securities (VIPSX)

50/50 stock/'bonds', 60/40 US/World

no offense taken at all, tyvm

Bump. Anyone?

If you properly file taxes and list the income as earned income in the form of wages you can a Traditional. If you have less then $105k in earned income you can do a Roth IRA.

selection bias ftw

?

I'd say he's referring to the time period you selected being disproportional to gold's historical performance. Gold has about a 5% yearly growth rate since 1975.

Hi guys,

Country you live in: Denmark
* Income: $50k/month, from poker
* Risk Tolerance: Medium-high
* Timeframe for investment: 5-10 years
* Debt: none
* Any other information you might have that would help us:
I'll probably quit poker within a year to pursuade a civil career. I'm 23 YO. I'm looking to invest $500k and another $1M later, but I literally know nothing about investing. Right know my money is being eaten up by the inflation in the bank. I'm don't have any obligations and I'm open to all ideas.

I should get professional advice I guess, but I don't know who to trust in this business.

-Country you live in: United States

-Income ~50k/year with real job. Not including poker b/c I'm working on my MBA right now so it's no longer a source of income for the time being.

-Risk Tolerance: Moderate/High

-Timeframe for investment: Approx. Two years

-Debt: 9k in student loans. 4.75% Interest Rate

-Any other information you might have that would help us: I'm in my first semester as an MBA student so I've got about $20k in tuition ahead of me over the next 2 years. I'm at a crossroads with what to do with the 30k in capital I have. Should I:

A) Pay off current student loans. Tier the remaining 21k off into 6 month increments (ie 6 month CD, 12 month CD, etc) so that as each CD matures I can use that cash to pay upcoming semesters tuition.

B) Use the cash as a downpayment on a house (about 6 months from now is when I'd be looking to buy) in, what i consider to be, a "buyers" market.

C) Use cash on investment opportunities. I've considered staking a few horses in poker as I have a fair amount of knowledge on the staking business. Use cash flow from staking operation to fund school.

D) Some combination of the above or an alternative suggestion.

Thanks everyone for your input. It is much appreciated.

Poker is my only source of income as I dont have a job.
Since poker winnings are not a type of "earned income", I CAN'T get any type of IRA right?

Appreciate the feedback. Does the back end load fees come into play for ETFs? or is it only for purchasing through the company directly?

If this is in your future and there is no other money with which you want to appreciate in value, get a 6 month CD and put it all in there. Nothing else will have a higher yield that isn't a risk.

If you self-incorporate and pay yourself a wage it could be earned income. But otherwise you are correct.

Nice situation.

First, there's no hurry. Don't rush into anything, inflation is low. Read a couple of books first, so you'll be a bit more comfortable. Personally I prefer passive index fund investing - it's boring, but I believe it's the safest way to get good results. I'd start with Bogleheads' guide to investing and William Bernstein's Investor's manifesto. Also, learn how taxes work in Denmark.

After you've read some, decide wheather you want to handle investing yourself or leave it to an advisor.

...but it also might go to 600$.

I don't mind people buying gold, but everyone should remember that it's speculating, not investing.

If you buy the ETF through the exchange (like you would a stock) then no back end charges apply, you would simply pay trading charges. If you buy an ETF from a fund company they are wrapped up like any mutual fund and as such DSC charges apply.

Anyone with slightly more risk tolerance take a look at investing in BRK.A/BRK.B and FAIRX over the standard Index funds (VFINX/SPY/etc.).

Both have dominated the S&P500 over the past ten years (BRK even farther back, circa 1965). BRK.A/B is of course Berkshire Hataway, Warren Buffets company. It's a holding company, so it's almost like investing in a "mutual fund". FAIRX is active mutual fund managed by Bruce Berkowitz and over the past 10 years it has averaged about 14.5% annualized gain vs. -1.7% for the S&P500. Of course past returns do not guarantee future results, but these are some "easy" options if you are trying to "beat" the market. Not without risks of course. Do your DD beforehand.

Just wanted to throw that out there.

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=B...urce=undefined

http://www.fairholmefunds.com/
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=F...urce=undefined

* Country you live in - United States
* Income - Not much, 25kish/year
* Risk Tolerance - Probably a lot since I'm young... 23
* Timeframe for investment - Trying to figure out my 401k... so a lot of years
* Debt - A ton, I wasn't very smart with my money from 18-20 and got myself in over my head, defaulted CC's, collections for random stuff probably 15kish in the negatives
* Any other information you might have that would help us

The company i work for offers a 401k so I went ahead and signed up about 2 years ago. I contribute 100/month, they contribute into a second fund (not sure why its split) equal to 3% of my pay, which varies because my salary is based on commission. Right now I have about $3500 in each account. That money is basically all I have to my name but it's all sitting in the money market right now and I'd like to switch it over to a mutual fund. I have a few different options through Fidelity and I'm trying to figure out which would be best. Any advice? Any general debt advice, someday I need to figure out what to do about it... possibly bankruptcy.

These are my options:
FLCSX
FBGRX
FSMEX
FBALX
FCNTX
FDRXX
FSCOX
FISMX

Slownpainful:

To start, I would only contribute to your 401k enough to get the company match. After that, I would start by paying off your highest interest debt. If possible, fund a ROTH IRA ($5k max for 2009 until April 15, 2010 and $5k max for 2010)

Hey guys. Just opened up a brokerage account at Charles Schwab planning to buy some stock in Toyota sometime within the next 30 days. Thought I'd make a post in this here sticky before I done so.

Sorry if some of those questions didn't make any sense to me but I'm new to investing.

As a first-time investor I'm starting with $3,000. To me this is a small cautious number.

Hoping for some advice on what to do with that $3,000, along with general opinions on Charles Schwab brokerage.

I'd also like to read about investing and finance, but it's hard to find books that aren't pushing specific ideas on how to make money. I'm more interested in a neutral book about how the system works and what everything is. If there's any reading material like that I'd be interested.

Its a bad idea to buy a specific company, particularly one from a struggling country. Buy a piece of an index fund instead. Vanguard offers low fee, solid index fund options, you can buy an S&P tracker and follow the general market.

I'll definitely look into going with some kind of fund instead. I really wish I had a better understanding of what you were talking about though.

This feels like when I first started poker 7 years ago, but instead of stumbling over bankroll management I'm struggling to even find the rules of the game. I could just keep reading Wikipedia articles as I go I guess. What I'm really wishing for though is one central map of the entire financial system. Does that even exist?

"The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition)" by Benjamin Graham is arriving on Tuesday.

And I've got $3,000 already in the pipeline and landing in my Schwab account on Monday. Would you just take it out and go with Vanguard immediately while it's still early? I could look into canceling the transfer.

really?

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/30...s-news-488527/

Country you live in: Canada
* Income: $75K/Year
* Risk Tolerance: Low
* Timeframe for investment: 2-3 years
* Debt: none

I'm 24 and currently have about 15K in savings. 5K is sitting in an RRSP and the other 10K is just in a ****ty savings account.

Basically I'm trying to figure out the best place to put my money for the next 2 to 3 years. My goal is buy a house by Dec 31, 2012. The house will be anywhere from 300K to 360K. I figured that by this time I should have at least 90k ready for a down payment + whatever my money my girlfriend will have by that time.

The thing is I'm not sure what to do in the meantime with the money I'll be saving.