thanks for replying, I will look into some options tomorrow and hopefully get going. Will either burn or blaze!

is a "future fund" like a trust fund? how much money are we talking about there -- are you set for life, is it a down payment on a house, what?

oof gave you some good places to gamble, and gambling is fine if that's what you want, but i'd like to suggest that you put at least a little of that cash towards your retirement. sock something away and let the magic of compound interest do its work.

Bought VOO.

__________

Tyler,

Would BND encompass a total bond etf?

BND is a total bond fund.

Canada, 23 y/o
Income: ($50,000 p/t job and ~$100,000 poker) = $150,000 with obvious variance
Risk Tolerance: medium-high
Timeframe for investment: 5-10 years
Debt: none

Looking to invest a lump sum of about $40,000. My p/t job is as a mortgage advisor/underwriter. I currently have 100% of my savings invested in individual private mortgages at about 11.5% return (5 different ones). Obviously with some knowledge of the industry and specifically underwriting individual mortgages my risk is somewhat lower than would be typical of this investment.

I would like to diversify into some longer-term investments. I would also like to begin trading. Lets say 25k longer term and 15k trading/higher risk. I have a background in Economics and Real Estate but not specifically in finance. thoughts?

i can't speak to the trading aspect, but $25k is enough to deploy into a 3- to 5-fund portfolio.

you'll start by determining your asset allocation, a ratio of stocks:bonds. then you'd fill those in with appropriate indexes (total bond, total us stock, total intl stock, perhaps some tilts). i started with some Lazy Portfolios, then modified them to suit my tastes.

http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_Portfolios

not sure how well this advice applies to canadia.

need some simple advice.

I have about 3600 in credit card debt, on a 4k limit.

I'll have 4k to my name at the end of this month, I purchased a vehicle a year ago, i have about 8k left to pay for it.

my min monthly payments amount to $300.

My rent is 600 flat - I take home about 2,800 ~ 3k a month.

I want to structure my payments to my credit card so that I have plenty of wiggle room to pay off my bike this year.

I'm thinking about paying off about 2k and leaving $1500 on the card, and the rest i throw towards the bike. I have the feeling this isn't optimal, but I don't really have any necessity for GREAT credit right now. I'm 22, and I can pay everything off in two years, but in terms of being able to keep more capital in my pocket, i'd want to get rid of this debt as quickly as possible.

sometime this year I'm going to be transferring to another position in my company which the pay grade increases by about 20k, which is another thing to factor in.

Thanks

how much vig are you paying on the cc debt? the bike loan? this question probably answers itself after that.

Canada
Income:Low 20-30K I'm a student should be done in about 1 year and salary will jump to 45K-50K
Debt: Paying off car $400 per month
Risk Tolerance: Medium-Low
Cash to invest:$2000-$5000
Timeframe: 3-5 years
Any advice is appreciated cheers!

if you like, i can ask "how much interest are you paying on the car and student loans?" and you can tell me and then i can answer, or we can skip all that and i'll just tell you: pay off your debts before you try to do anything more advanced. especially for a 3-5 year window at medium-low risk.

Kurd,
Be aggressive with the credit card debt (i.e. way more than minimum payments), but still stash away a little for yourself as well. Better to have shrinking liabilities AND growing assets.
That way, while you're paying everything down, you'll have cash in case of an emergency. And, once you're done, you don't have to reach for more credit if you want to buy something.
Pay the card completely off. There is NO good reason for stopping @ $1500.

I'm not paying any interest on my car the financing was preset and there is no incentive to pay it off earlier. I have no student loans either I have a $500 credit since pokerstars only always me to withdraw to my Visa. I'm just going to make the minimum $400 payment for my car since it's easy and there is no incentive to pay it off sooner. I think I'll be working at a bank soon part-time for my last year of school.

i would prioritize thusly:

- emergency fund (6+ months of expenses) in savings

- CDs (maybe build a ladder for the next 3-5 years) *or* a 2015 or 2020 target retirement fund (quite a bit riskier than CDs).

- once you have a steady job, go after your 401k and/or roth ira

hth!

have ~£10k (~$15k) that i'd like to invest.

i live in the uk. i don't mind some risk, as long as there's significant payoff. timeframe is anything <3-4 years. i don't have any responsibilities.

i kind of like the idea of investing in an IOS app (games in particular), but my heart's not set on that (does anyone know how to go about doing this btw?). i think i just like the idea of having some fun sweating the investment and having a chance at a big score.

i'm really new to the whole idea of investing, haven't read up on it at all yet, so any beginner articles etc. would be great too.

thanks for any help.

Cheers tyler, what are CDs?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_of_deposit

not sure what the canadian equivalent is.

friend of mine who is in mid 50s
married with 401k

have some cash in savings account they are looking to invest

low risk

my advice was traditional ira each of them put in 6k a year
and all in on VTTVX

anything better?

It depends what you mean by "low risk." 2025 is 75% in stocks.

ya figured 2025 target would have been more bonds didn't even look which fund would be best then for low risk? is the traditional ira the best way to go?

Again, it depends on what they mean by low risk. It wasn't a rhetorical question. The 2010 fund is 46% stocks, so that would be moderate risk.

You say they have cash in a savings account that they want to invest. Is this money that they want to invest for retirement or money they want to access sooner than that? If for retirement, then sure an IRA would be a good idea. Whether to use a Roth or Traditional would depend on their current tax bracket along with other things.

Way too little information for me to make a good recommendation.

Location: California, Bay Area
Income: whatever i can get from the casino
Risk Tolerance: Very high
Debt: 0
cash to invest: 15-25k

Hi, I am a student living at home with one more year till I graduate with a degree in Econ so I won't have a real solid income till then. I have about 30k sitting in my bank account after withdrawing all my money from black friday and looking to invest about 15-25k in anything with very high potential growth rate. The money isn't super important to me right now and I decided that I want to invest something with very high returns. I am young and the money probably won't be a huge deal if things do not go well. I have a lot of time and wouldn't mind not seeing the money for a while or at least until I buy a home. Any input would be great and appreciated. Thanks.

by low risk, the most important thing would be to not lose money with very little variance over the course of ~15 years. i was thinking a fund that is like 35 stocks 65 bonds This is for retirement. i would guess there combined income would be 70k. what other questions should i ask them?
usa
completely debt free

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/fun...FundIntExt=INT

This is 28% US total market, 12% internationa total market, and 60% total bond market. Seems about right.

traditional or roth?