i'll take you at your word that your risk tolerance is moderately high, but keep in mind this means the $10k you have now could be $5k or less in a year. if you're not cool with that, then either re-evaluate your risk tolerance or set aside what you need for a car and stick that in a high-yield savings account while investing the rest.

i guess i don't understand your timeline. do you want this money in a year no matter what? a few years? are you looking to start saving for retirement (a really good idea! compound interest and time are your allies)?

you begin to invest by reading and learning. start with this thread and follow some links.

tl;dr: my original numbered list should have said IRA where it said roth.

sorry, i was sloppy. yes, you have a decision to make between roth ira and traditional ira. i'm in my 30s and most of the advice i give itt is to younger folks, where generally low income tax rates and other advantages strongly favor the roth. for many people, though, a traditional ira is a better choice. there are a ton of articles about the tradeoffs.

now i also understand why you were talking about the roth as a hedge against tax law changes.

edit: heh, after reading over our previous conversation, you may want to max your 401k first, then either a roth or a traditional ira. that's because your 401k, if it has any good options, is going to have the buying power of a bunch of people, hence you're going to find good expense ratios. of course, if your 401k doesn't have good options, then don't do that.

i continue to agree with fanmail.

I dont fully agree with the post you guys' quotes are commenting on either.

But I am very curious about how you feel towards silver/if you would opt against buying large amounts of silver, and why?

USA
19
No debt/bills
Two full time jobs.
Have a credit card that I use and pay off every 2weeks.
Have roughly $1100 to save every 2weeks after I use money for food and misc.
Contributing 6% to a 401k plan through one of the jobs
What would be the best thing to do with this money.

i'm against buying large amounts of anything. broad diversification is a key tenet of wise investing.

i would quit working two jobs full-time and spend that time doing something else, like furthering my education and skills or travelling.

i would set aside 8 months of expenses as an emergency fund.

then i would fully fund a roth.

then i would max out my 401k.

Ah ok so you guys disliked his advice because it lacked diversification, rather then it being bad items to invest in correct?

Im currently contemplating investing a decent amount of money in Silver and a smaller one in gold actually...

so Im very interested in what other people think about precious metals (and lifestock atm)

I might post my situation later, but at the moment im still to uneducated about my options for investing, and dont feel comfy posting info here at the moment

Yeah, this mainly. Gold/silver is a very specific play and can have strong negative consequences if your 1 investing idea fails. What makes you think you have more information that the market on these?

USA
Amount: 28k
Income: None, but actively looking
Risk Tolerance: Moderately High
Timeframe for investment: 30+ years
Debt: None
Other Info: 23 yo, B.S. in EE

Thinking of putting 10k in VT, 10k in AFK, 8k in IBM.
Or should I just put it in a vanguard target retirement fund?

I'm 23, just started working my first 'real job' a few months ago, so now I have a 401k and legitimate income for the first time in my life. On top of that, assuming the whole FTP thing plays out as we all are expecting (knock on wood...), I will soon have a fairly sizable chunk of cash (~20-25k) sitting in my checking account earning nothing.

I work for a financial services company, and they have a huge list of different funds that they allow us to allocate our 401k into. I've always been sympathetic to the 'efficient market' argument which says that Average Joe investors like myself are better off investing in index funds rather than mutual funds. Also, since I'm young and will likely not be touching this money in a very, very long time, I have no problem taking on a lot of risk if it means higher returns in the long run. My FIN101 level of finance knowledge has led me to believe that riskier index funds must offer higher expected returns. To this end, I looked through the funds being offered and tried to find what I thought would be the most volatile index fund. I settled on the Russell 2000, a small cap index. Currently, 100% of my 401k contributions are going there. Any thoughts here?

In regards to the extra cash I have, my thinking is largely the same. I have a large risk tolerance, and am financially stable enough that even I were to somehow go completely busto on it, I'd be fine. So I'm basically just figuring that I should try and find an investment with the largest long run expected return. Any thoughts on some sort of leveraged index fund? Another option would be to simply knock out a big chunk of my student loans. I guess what I'm wondering is if I would be able to find an investment with an expected return which would outweigh the interest savings on my student loans.

if you don't have an 8+ month emergency fund, quit fantasizing about investing until you have that and a job locked up. you have a degree in EE so you're clearly no dummy, but the job market is tough now for new grads (or so i hear) so i'd play it safe until you land that first gig.

please post names, not just ticker symbols. or did you expect everyone to just know that AFK = Market Vectors Africa ETF?

a TR fund is certainly not a bad idea. the main thing it provides over your plan is diversification. your current plan is a huge bet on the African market and IBM -- huge risks.

it's ok to "tilt" your portfolio towards these assets if you feel strongly that you want to invest in them, but i'd maybe do more like 85% VT 10% AFK 5% IBM if you want to go this way. this also assumes that you really understand why you're making those choices.

gl!

i agree with both of these statements.

"must" is strong, but generally yes, return is correlated with risk.

most people believe that a well-diversified portfolio is likely to have a better return in the long run than a purely riskier-but-unbalanced portfolio.

i don't know what you mean by "leveraged index fund".

you should definitely consider paying down your loan debt. it depends almost entirely on the rate you're paying on those loans. if you think you can get a higher ROI from investing than the guaranteed ROI of avoiding vig on the loans, then do that. otherwise, erase the debt.

Europe (€)
Amount: 100k
Income: Covers at least my expenses
Timeframe for investment: 10+ years
Debt: None
Other Info: 22 yo, student

Risk Tolerance: Ideally, I would like to have a mixture of long-term oriented growth and safe, "crisis-proof" (in case things get really bad) titles. I have read that gold is often criticized, but with my limited knowledge I fail to find reasonable alternatives. Real estate or bonds in countries like Norway or Switzerland (which yield close to 0%) might be another option but I find it tough to thoroughly evaluate them.

Thanks!

Van Gogh,

If you have a time frame of over 10 years, why are you so risk-adverse? You will be giving up a chunk of EV by seeking to reduce your variance

I have at least 150k invested in poker with lots of variance. I don't mind some risk but I would want a portfolio which ensures that I always have capital available, should a very proftiable opportunity comes up (starting a business etc).

FYP

worst fyp ever

?

TIPS might fit your needs.

reported

nope!

country - Jamaica
income - 10-25nl fr grinder(1-2k per month)
risk - low as its all the $ in my name
timeframe - rest of my natural life
debt - none
$ to invest- 100-120k u.s.d
age- 25

notes: the $ is from a house my mom left for me upon her death.... i live in a country where jobs are crap, currency rapidly falling, rent is low compared to housing prices & im looking to purchase a apartment cash for renting purposes to bring in foreign exchange + looking for a return on my $

p.s would be open to other suggestions other than rental property

Where the *** u playing 10/25 in Jamaica ?

^^^ online poker

risk tolerance is a very personal decision, so tell me to **** off if you like, but i think your stated risk tolerance and your timeframe are inconsistent. if this is money you intend to save for retirement in, say, 30+ years, you can afford to take a great deal of (well-diversified) risk. with time on your side, you can ride out short-term variance while taking advantage of the magic of compound interest.

owning a rental property is a substantial amount of work, more like a job than an investment. that has pluses and minuses, but might not be a good fit for your freewheelin' poker pro lifestyle. why not buy a place where you want to live? maybe have a roommate or rent the room to "foreign exchange"?

anyway, investment-wise, i recommend a target retirement fund.