It is very much something we needed to know. No one responsible is going to let you put money into the market that is your cash reserve for emergencies and living expenses.

This is an allocation I'm currently toying around with with pure Vanguard ETF's in the range of dollars you're talking about. Anyone is free to comment please.

VEU 17.5%
VEA 10%
VWO 22.5%
VTI 30%
VBK 10%
VNQ 10%

Per Morningstars Instant X-Ray the division is about:
US Canada 50.82%
Europe 15.47%
Japan 5.43%
Latin America 5.85%
Asia / Australia 17.60%
Other 4.98%

I would like to modify that if you have confidence in the stability of your household income you do not need to wait until you have the cash reserve built up before you start investing. Split it up. Favor the cash reserve though. Something like 60/40.

* US
* Student- roughly 1-2k per month from poker
* med-high risk with little effort needed in maintaining investment
* long-term
* 0-no debt, including student loans

I have about 5k in an alger small cap fund that has been with my families financial advisor. this money I do not plan on using. I also have about 5k to invest now, with additional much smaller investments added in monthly

my expenses are essentially nothing with the exception of food. I want to put this money away for either a large purchase in the far out future, or use is for initial funding for starting a company in ~5 years..

I currently have a scottrade account. is this the best broker to go through? any initial steps to get started would be good.

ideally i would like to buy an index fund, and then leave about ~20% to invest in stocks that I choose through research

any reason you're not "investing" by paying off your student loans? doesn't seem to make much sense to invest in the stock market (with a ???? and volatile expected return) while you're paying 5%+ in interest on the loans.

Country you live in: New Zealand
Income: 15k/year NZD = 10KUSD~ (student)
Risk Tolerance: medium, risk neutral
Timeframe for investment: 1year
Debt: Nill
Any other information you might have that would help us: I have 20k USD sitting in an account, the exchange rate has gone against me since the start of the year, yet I feel like I should be getting interest on the account somewhere, as its currently getting nil...

Pay off debt isn't the one and only answer. Especially if they're low interest rate student loans. Obviously <7,5% can mean anything so it's hard to say anything about the specific case but if he has 2% student loans I'd pay them off as slowly as I can.

<7.5% means that he has at least some right around 7.5%. i have 4 student loans myself, one at 6%, two at 6.8%, and one at a low ~3%. i understand it's pretty easy to do better than 2% in lots of investment vehicles, but 6%+? especially when the returns of the stock market are volatile whereas the interest on the loans is accruing day by day at a certain rate. in your opinion, what is the cutoff? i plan on paying off the higher interest loans asap (before investing a dollar), then switching to a mix of paying off the low interest loan and investing.

Hi great thread idea, thanks in advance for any responses I get.

I'm 24, I play poker full time and I live in Ireland. My net worth is approx. €130k and I'm on track to clear approx. €150k this year (in total). My risk tolerance is very high and I plan on putting some money away for a long time (>20yrs). I have no debt at all.

I've been researching investment possibilities for a while now. What I want to do I think is invest a lump sum right now (say €5k) and then dollar cost average into my investment account month by month (say €1k or €500 per month).

Initially I looked at getting index funds and also put a % in a bond fund but I think the only way I can do that in Ireland is with ETF's. I can get them through a stockbroker here in Ireland but if I want to dollar cost average into the account I'm gonna get raped on fees. I think the cheapest I can find has a €25 minimum charge per trade.

So I think a better idea is to just put my money in some mutual fund with low management fees. Best I can find is a 'dynamic' fund with a 1%/year management fee and no exit and entry charges or restrictions. The fund is described as

Sorry I don't want to link to it in case this is taken as spam. Their fact sheet tells me that the fund has returned 10% annualised over the last 20 years. (It also warns that 'returns are based on offer/offer performance and do not represent the return achieved by individual policies linked to the fund' but I don't understand what that means??)

Will this setup be suitable for my needs? Sorry for the length of this post.

Firstly, thanks!

You're one of the few people with advice in this thread.

Unfortunately I'm a super n00b with money and have no idea what the above says.

Can you put in layman's terms?

It was just a generic asset allocation using the Vanguard ETFs I identified as well as then what that foreign allocation exposure was using Morningstars Instant X-Ray.

The funds names and tickers are.
VEU - FTSE All World Stock Index excluding US
VEA - Europe Pacific Index - weighted towards Europe
VWO - Emerging Markets - Asia (China, India etc) weighted
VTI - Total Stock Market index for the US
VBK - US Smallcap Growth Fund
VNQ - Real Estate Investment Trust

I chose Vanguard ETF's vs Vanguard Mutual Funds due to the high barrier of entry for most investors starting out. Its easier to plunk down a few hundred or thousand vs 10's of thousands to start a decent Vanguard Mutual Fund allocation.

Even if the advice someone gives on any forum happens to be good and you decide that their percentage allocations seem reasonable, you should still do your own due diligence so you understand the tickers you're buying in to if you choose to do it on your own and not through a licensed financial advisor/broker.

Good thread!

I'm Canadian, 24yr old and this portfolio is for 10+ yrs.

Thinking of investing 100k, what do you guys think of this asset allocation?

XIU 0.25 iShares CDN LargeCap 60 Index Fund
XIN 0.20 iShares CDN MSCI EAFE 100% Hedged to CAD Dollars Index Fund
XSP 0.20 iShares CDN S&P 500 Hedged to Canadian Dollars Index Fund
XSU 0.10 iShares CDN Russell 2000 Index - Canadian Dollar Hedged Index Fund
CBQ 0.20 Claymore BRIC fund
XSB 0.05 iShares CDN Short Bond Index Fund
1.00

These numbers aren't really thought out. I know I want something relatively aggressive, but is 5% in bonds too little? I'm hedging to C$ b/c I already have enough US$ risk with my poker income.

Thx for your help.

Live in New Jersey with the parents until my brother gets married, then off to Thailand for a few months and Europe for a year

Income: 200-500k/year

Risk Tolerance: Medium

Timeframe for investment: forever

Debt: None

Amount to invest: $115k sitting right now

Have $9k in car payments still, returns are low, prob smart to pay this off, just bought 5% of a new franchise MuscleMaker Grill with brothers that I think will take off, can buy another one or part of one, Franchise price is $200k. Money markets and cd's are not yielding high returns right now, I think stock market would be a good option.

Thanks,
Reese

-Im 22 years old and live in Sweden

-Income: $400 (student-aid) (dont know if i will continue poker)

-Expenses: $2000 per month

-Debt: $4000

-Time-frame: 4years-long time

-I got about $400k to my name which I could invest like 80% off.

What about putting $300k into an index-fund and hope for the best?

Yeah that's what I did. I'm a 21 year old student in Sweden too

I split my money in different % between the cheapest index funds that are available in sweden Avanza Zero, Spp europe index fund, spp usa index fund, swedbank robur asian index fund.

Total TER of 0.2%.

You can find spp funds at www.spp.se

just "hit it big" on a poker trip

Leaving tomorrow and I have 75kkkkk

wtf am i supposed to do... go to the bank tomorrow i guess?

dunno about going on a plane with that cash... gonna go put it in a 4 month CD i think?

is the fbi gonna come to the bank or something, i feel like it will be incredibally sketchy

Put money in bank account.
Report ALL your money to IRS.
Do not travel with it on your person.
Properly fill out all forms that they give on plane and at the airport.

rinse repeat

When did u get into the market? Do you think this is the right time to do it?

Ya this is what I and will continue to do

Don't be a fool, pay your taxes boys n girls
Anyway now what should I do with the money ... I'm 22 and am properly rolled for poker and life without it

With your time frame I wouldn't get into the market. 4 years is way too little.

Location: United States
Info: FT student @ UNLV, going into Junior Year
Income: 1000-1200 per month from work
Risk tolerance: Medium to High
Time frame for investment: 5+
Debt:Nothing
Savings: $15,000
Expenses: Gas, Food (this KILLS you in Las Vegas)...no rent..phone and insurance are covered by the parents

I make steady money with my job presently, around 1200 a month. I'll be turning 21 in 8 months and will finally be able to freely play poker around Las Vegas. I feel like I can make steady money at the 1/2 game, so let's speculate can make 2000 a month around then. I really have no knowledge of investing in the stock market or other funds. I would like to get into it but really don't know where to start and am timid when it comes to risking a large amount of money within something I don't feel control over. What are some investment options that aren't tied to stocks? Where are some good places to learn?

lets say i kept some cash in a deposit box for my roll and life expenses if things go bad, or i buy a house or something and my bank accounts become zero(unlikely in the near future, more possible the house part in a few years)

should i be purchasing some gold coins to fight inflation... someone very rich but not so logical told me this, and i really have no clue if it's good advice or not

first just start playing 1/2.... if you realize and are confident (very confident) you are beating this game good, like 2k a month good then use your money to step up to 2/5

You're speculating on the price of gold if you do this. You'll also have to pay transactions fees at both the buy and sell. If you're worried about inflation, TIPS are the way to go.

Location: Canada
Income: $1000/month from poker
Risk Tolerance: Medium
Timeframe for investment: 4+ years
Debt: nothing

I'm 20 years old and am looking to invest 10-15k. It is all currently sitting in a savings account right now and i have no clue where to start.

Any help would be appreciated thanks.

Read up on index investing and asset allocation. You can try completing a risk assessment to determine your appropriate level of risk, which in turn helps you decide about your asset allocation.

Once you have some ideas about what you want your portfolio to look like, come back here and ask some specific questions.