reading what i wrote again, i didn't make it super clear but it isn't simply "hold investment > 1 year, everything taxed at capital gains rate". again, make sure you research this issue before you proceed.

i would definitely have 6 months of expenses earmarked solely as an emergency fund. given your low risk tolerance, i would not follow decon's suggestion of putting some of this fund into other investments at this time. you can probably find a better rate than 0.2% with a "high-yield" internet savings account (mine is currently getting ~0.75%), but i would not treat it as an investment.

Can anyone recommend some good blogs that talk about UK investing and trading? So far I have only found US based ones.

Ty

They normally pay five cents per year in dividend:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=TGS&...=28&f=2012&g=m

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

I am an investing noob and would appreciate any help! I have sunk $62k total over the past 2 years into a sep ira with franklin templeton investments along with $5k into a trad ira. After doing some investing skimming over the past few days I see the fees I am paying are ridiculously high compared to vanguard/fidelity type investments. Both of these accounts had a 4-5% initial sales charge along with 1.2-1.3% yearly fees. Is there an actual advantage to using FT over vanguard? If I were to switch to vanguard do I have to pay huge fees to get out and make the switch? Does switching change anything for tax purposes? Did I just get completely owned by my financial advisor? The funds I am currently in with franklin templeton are asset allocation funds. Thanks for any help! Need some clarity.

Probably not.

Probably not.

Probably not.

Yes.

So, I am logging on to Vanguard to do my yearly contribution to my SEP-IRA, and it is telling me that the maximum I can contribute for 2011 and 2012 is $5k? Wikipedia claims it should be $49k? I'm trying to buy the same target retirement fund I have in the past - did they lower the limits on it or something?

Limits haven't changed. If your income level permits it, you should be able to do the full contribution. Contact Vanguard.
If your income level does not permit it, open an indy(k). You won't be able to do anything for 2011, but it will help for 2012.

Yeah, thanks. You have to select "Employer" from the drop down instead of "Individual" which is the default just in case anyone else has this question.

classic. "did you plug it in?"

Question regarding short interest percent:

Are there any generally perceived ranges that hold significant meaning? For example, if you see stock XYZ with a short interest of 10%, would you immediately think that is a lot, little, or something else? Obviously the extremes hold meaning, such as lower than, say 2%. But, when comparing two stocks that have a short interest of 10% and 18%, I don't know if there is any other meaning behind the numbers.

Hope that made sense, and thanks for any answers.

What website is the best one to invest in on your own? Or do people usually just go to their banks or investment companies?

Answering here cause you PM-ed me, and I'm not the biggest expert on this, but I *am* also Canadian:

Speaking for myself, I just use my bank's online broker thing (one of the big 5 banks). I pay 9.95/trade but I believe if you have less than 50k in your account, they charge $29.95. I actually have accounts with 2 of the big 5 banks, and I believe both have this fee structure on their online brokerages.

If you have less than 50k, there are probably places to do trades cheaper, but I am not familiar with them, which is why I'm replying here, maybe someone else knows better. I think Questrade is cheaper, but their site isn't loading right this second for me so I can't check. There may well be lots of great alternatives, I personally was just like ehh, I don't do many trades, $10/trade is fine.

I have only ever used two online brokers. Vanguard and Ameritrade.

Ameritrade has a simple, elegant interface that is easy to use and understand and THAT to me is a key selling point for the casual trader and important for the investor.

I would never recommend using Vanguard Brokerage Service. Their website and interface just sucks. But unfortunately I opened the account like a month before Ameritrade announced its free ETF trading that included basically all of Vanguards ETFs, which is why I opened an account with VBS - to get free trades on their ETFs.

Cheers thanks for the advice. I currently don't have an account at any of the big 5 in Canada but I'm planning on opening one up soon. I'll try to minimize my trades because I much less than 50K available for investing.

After a long search, I think I found a good link:

http://www.nofeebanking.ca/forum/con...line-investing

No a question but a crazy fact I read today in "Millionaire Teacher"


If you bought $1 worth of gold in 1800 today it would be worth $80. If you invested $1 in the US stock market in 1800 today it would be worth $10.5 million.


Moral. Gold is a suckers bet.

* past performance does not guarantee future results

Ya that's only a 200 year sample size.

Apples and oranges. Stocks, bonds, and commodities don't have a fixed expected value. 1800-1900 was a vastly different period compared to 1900-2000, and 2000-2100 will be a vastly different period compared to 1900-2000.

I really wish it was that simple, but it's not.

I would like to buy some physical gold and silver. I don't know how to do this, or everything it involves. I do not want to buy GLD or SLV or the like. Can someone point me to some more information on this. I'm American living in Mexico currently if that matters at all.

stock market since 1800 suffers from a lot of survivor bias (and replacement of bust companies with new ones)

gold doesn't.

would a treasury backtest work better?

why?

only reasons i can see for physical are if you think its pretty or if you think modern civilization is going to end soon.

People interested in gold are usually distrusting of "the system" and/or quite old, which lends itself to physical rather than a "scam" or "new-fangled fund".

I have a client who sells PM's, and he says the average age of their customers is 67(!).

People who stockpile gold are the same ones who think 9/11 was an inside job.

or if you need to hide money for a while.

edit**
bit of a disclaimer - I'm not saying that these are the only 3 reasons to have physical gold, nor am I implying that the person interested in purchasing is a criminal.