what would you guys rec for a person who believes the USD will lose significant value, especially compared to asian currencies over the next 5-10 years? I'll have about $1k/month to invest, and I don't give a **** about volatility. But I'm not going to get into Forex trading or anything, I'm looking for buy/hold investments.

Age: 25
Country: Canada
Risk Tolerance: Medium-High
Timeframe: 3-5 years
Debt: Zero
Money to invest ~700k

atm im only trading with commodities.

how much of your portfolio is currently in asian & pacific rim equities?

At this point, I would strongly advise considering the help of an institutional or third party money manager.

I just started investing like a week ago and I bought CTEL. So 100%.

Amount to Invest: $10k (+ approx 1.5k per month going forward)
Country you live in: Canada
Income: $100k
Risk Tolerance: High.
Timeframe for investment: 1-3 Years
Debt: 0

Other: UK citizen living in Canada for approx another 1-2 years. We are looking for some shortish term investments and are prepared to go for some (moderately) high risk investments. Would like to learn a bit more about investment and trading so keen to try something a bit more hands on then just sticking it all in a high interest account (shares maybe?).

But I would like to hear what you guys think would invest in.

Okay. Keep building assets, stock in companies/markets outside the US.
Also, know what a weak dollar will translate into for US companies. While the majority of your portfolio will be in global equities, a weak dollar will actually strengthen heavy US-based exporters.
And by that measure, the oppposite will be true of US importers/global exporters. (Or, at least, there will be opposite pressure)

for 3-5 years, you'll still be getting returns from debt/options/commodities/alternate strategies to properly hedge your equity exposure, along with some stop/loss-type strategy to make sure you're in cash should the portfolio drop to a certain amount. TPM's will also do a good job harvesting your losses while maintaining the same exposure during wash-sale periods.

that's my input for the information you've given me, without knowing profession, assets (outside of the 700k investable), liabilities, family, goals, etc. You can accomplish a lot with 700k, but in the format here I see 3-5 years, 700k, med-high risk tolerance. I think TPM's will give you the right attention you need.

thanks. What's a good way to screen stocks for companies that do a lot of exporting?

Good question. I'm not really sure as to a quick way to screen, but a company's annual report (10k) usually includes the geographic source of revenue. For example, Caterpillar shows that 68% of their revenue in 2010 came from outside the US.
http://www.caterpillar.com/cda/files...7/2010+10K.pdf

(That doesn't mean CAT is your best hedge against a depreciating dollar, though. They have a pretty substantial global presence, and changes in the US$ might not have any kind of significant impact on the company/stock. I apologize for always giving you something new to consider after answering your question. That is kind of the way it works until you have your own system for analyzing stocks.)

Where would I start in order to find a good, trustworthy financial adviser? I know its a broad question but I am 21 and have a 6 figure sum to invest and would like a solid opinion on atleast where to start shopping for one. What kind of questions should I ask him or her before I hire them? Thanks!

A good advisor will be able to explain exactly why they're recommending something to you. If they don't do a good job with that, I wouldn't take their advise. You should get a feeling that while the advisor obviously needs to make a living, your best interests are the top priority AINEC.
So whether your advisor is wirehouse, independent, or proprietary, make sure everything fits. Too often, I see people that were squeezed into a certain product that didn't make sense. A good doctor doesn't make up symptoms in order to prescribe a medication. They diagnose and treat the real problem!

Good luck in your search. You don't have to do anything at once, and you can always look here for opinions on what your financial advisor recommended.
I also happen to be an independent advisor in southern california. You are free to PM me.

I'll keep my answer at that. This response took way too long.

Honestly, the best thing to do is to educate yourself. Most financial advisers, even the ones who cater to the very wealthy, are not very good. Most just push their clients into whatever their company tells them to. I would just figure out your desired asset allocation based upon your risk profile and goals and use passive index funds. You should read this forum: http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/index.php Read some of the books recommended there. Maybe post questions here. Post on Bogleheads, etc.

Graduate student, age 23.

Country you live in : USA
Income : 20k, will be 30k in about 8 months.
Risk Tolerance : moderate to high
Timeframe for investment : not sure what this means, i want to invest for my retirement.
Debt : ~30k in student loans
15k : 0% interest until year 2017
11k : 5.5% interest accruing now
5k : 3% interest accruing now

I'm thinking about opening a Roth IRA, because I made over 5k in 2011. I looked around on Vanguard and saw their target retirement funds. Can I get some advice on whether I should pay off my loans or invest in the Roth IRA? And if I should do the Roth IRA w/ Vanguard, what should I pick, target 2055 fund? I saw that it has 90% in stocks and was reading that it might be a bit risky... but I plan to put 5k/year in until I retire.

Ughh nevermind... looks like I can't count my fellowship as income towards my Roth IRA contributions... that's so lame.

"for my retirement" is a good answer to the timeframe question.

very impressive that you can afford to save $5k on $20k income. nice work!

i think there's some psychological value in establishing a retirement account. you also have the benefit of a long time for the magic of compound interest to work. if you don't earn enough to contribute to a roth, i think there are other IRA options for you (traditional and/or sep?).

a vanguard TR fund would be entirely appropriate for you. if the 2055 fund is too risky for you, pick a fund that matches your desired stock exposure better. the year in the name is just a concise way of indicating how much risk the different funds seek.

that said, i would probably pay down the 11k @ 5.5%. a guaranteed 5.5% return is tough to beat in this market. once you're making $30k, you should have more money available for saving and can establish a retirement account next year.

If you don't pay federal income tax on the fellowship income, it can't go to Roth.

You can still open a non-qualified account. Think of it as a long-term secondary savings account. Tap into it when you start seeing some real return or in an emergency. No penalties on non-qualified accounts.

agree with tyler. You should be making good payments on the 11k loan. The other two; minimum payments or whatever is required.

Good to have assets along with your debt, though. Open vanguard account and pay off loan.

Fellowship money is subject to income tax. It's just not considered earned income.

I actually don't owe any payments on any of the loans until 2017 or when I graduate. Yeah, my fellowship money is subject to tax but it just isn't earned income I think because I don't get a W-2 for it and don't have to pay social security taxes on it.

So you are suggesting I should go with the vanguard but look into a "non-qualified" account?

This year of school is unique in that I have a 25% RA-ship and rest fellowship. The RAship does count as earned income though it is a small portion of my earnings. This year I got about $1800 earned income from it and next year I will have it for about 7 months which will be approximately $3300 earned income. Maybe I should put the max I can ($1800ish) into Roth this year and the max (3.3k) next year, and then just not put anything in for the next 2-3 years after that because I will be under 100% fellowship (unearned income)? Does that make sense? And then use extra $$ to pay off my 11k loan that is accruing interest...

What % interest can I expect to get on the "non-qualified" account? Would that be better than 3% ROI typically, or do you recommend I pay off the 5k loan at 3% interest in that case, after paying off the 11k at 5.5% obviously.

Stocks unlike common belief, are based on public opinion which is usually more valuable that the value of the stock itself. That is why you see so many stocks overpriced. Ben Graham, the mentor of Warren Buffett, however taught him that stocks will eventually reach their actual value on the stock market. Depends on what you believe. If you want to anticipate it, the quarter results for apple, mcdonalds, and DHT are going to be released on the 24th. Based on being the holiday season, Apple will have post a good quarter and after these are released, the stock will increase. Along with that I suggest arbitrage books.
-2birds2stones

i like this plan as long as the vig isn't running on your 11k loan.

it's impossible to say since no one can predict the future, but i've seen people quote numbers of 7-9% for a well-diversified portfolio. however those numbers are for the long term and include significant risk due to significant exposure to the stock market. this is one reason why paying off the 5.5% loan immediately makes more sense than investing that money.

when you get to the 3% loan, re-evaluate. your life/salary situation will undoubtedly be different, the economy will be different, tax law may be different, etc. one strategy i've seen is to treat the 3% loan like a "reverse bond", so that instead of, say, 20% of your portfolio in bonds, you'd allocate 20% of your portfolio towards paying down this loan. i don't know enough about this strategy to actually recommend it, but it's something you might investigate in time.

hth.

Country you live in: USA
Risk Tolerance: Moderate. I won't mind be 40% underdog all-in preflop.
Timeframe for investment: 3-5 years
Debt: None

I'm in my late 20s. I'm looking to invest $2,000 in a few companies that are under $10/share. I'm not looking to do any active trading very frequently. I will be more on the passive side. 50% of my investment will go into one company. I need some advice on which online brokerage (Etrade, Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, etc ) would fit my situation and my style of investing. I am new to this, I will keep doing more research. Thanks.

i would describe investing in <$10/share companies for 3-5 years as very high risk. moderate risk would be more like a Target Retirement fund, which is waaaaaaaaay more diversified and less risky than stocks in a small handful of companies.

i think most of the online brokerages are largely the same. you'll want to look at transaction fees, account fees, balance minimums, and the like. i opened an account at Fidelity but moved it to Vanguard this year as i got more serious about low-cost, passive, index-based investing (where Vanguard is king of the mountain). i liked fido's website -- much more than vg's website -- but didn't try any of the others you named.

Wanted to triple check before I open the Roth IRA... I'm afraid I'm going to put too much money in and get in trouble. As long as I put what's in box "1" on my W-2 form am I ok?

Just don't put over 5k in it per year?