Hi All,

New to this forum and individual investing so would appreciate any advice you may have given my current situation.

Country you live in: US citizen living in Hong Kong and will probably be here for another 1-2 years
Income: ~$150k USD
Savings: $150k USD
Risk Tolerance: I'm willing to take a shot..still young.
Timeframe for investment: 3-6 months
Debt:-$0
Any other information you might have that would help us - Due to my current employment, I cannot trade individual securities.

I currently have my cash split in USD, HKD, and RMB and will be buying up more RMB over the next month or so. Let me know if any other info would be useful and appreciate any advice in advance.

Country: US
Income: 100k
Savings: 40k (not including the monies i'm rolling over per below)
Risk Tolerance: high
Timeframe: retirement (20+ years, i'm currently 28)
Debt: none (mortgage doesn't count, right?)
Any other information you might have that would help us:

just started a new job. i'm going to roll about 35k worth of old 401k/IRAs into a single rollover IRA through fidelity, but i'm not sure what to invest in. also will be contributing 12% (12k/yr) in 401k and only have access to a handful of MFs (~20, + their "blended investment" programs), but i've currently allocated as follows:

Asset Class Subclass Fund Name Current %
Stock Investments LARGE CAP FID CONTRAFUND 10%
Stock Investments LARGE CAP FID GROWTH COMPANY 10%
Stock Investments LARGE CAP FID OTC PORTFOLIO 10%
Stock Investments MID-CAP AM CENT VISTA INV 10%
Stock Investments MID-CAP FIDELITY LOW PR STK 10%
Stock Investments MID-CAP PERKINS MID CP VAL T 10%
Stock Investments MID-CAP TRP MID CAP GROWTH 10%
Stock Investments SMALL CAP ROYCE OPPORTUNITY S 10%
Stock Investments SMALL CAP VANG SM CAP IDX INV 10%
Bond Investments INCOME FID HIGH INCOME 5%
Bond Investments INCOME FIDELITY US BD INDEX 5%
Total: 100%

thoughts on the 401k allocations and where to put my rollover IRA monies?

This is overly complex and in my opinion far far too heavily tilted towards Mid and Large Cap Growth due to significant overlap. Large Value is essentially absent. Now, if you are bring value back, hard, with the IRA, this allocation may not be bad (using something like Vanguards Value Index) - you have to consider the entire investment portfolio and not just the pieces individually.

Without knowing all of your available funds...I'd change allocations markedly to something like:
Stock Investments LARGE-BLEND TOTAL STOCK MARKET 35%
Stock Investments LARGE CAP FID CONTRAFUND 25%
Stock Investments SMALL CAP VANG SM CAP IDX INV 15%
Stock Investments MID-CAP PERKINS MID CP VAL T 10%
Stock Investments MID-CAP TRP MID CAP GROWTH 5%
Bond Investments INCOME FID HIGH INCOME 5%
Bond Investments INCOME FIDELITY US BD INDEX 5%

It would be rather odd to not have a total stock market type of fund, like Vanguards TSM, in your 401k considering the other options you have.

With the above allocation you keep a slight tilt towards the growth side of the spectrum (mid especially, considering how heavy it was before). You don't want to completely ignore value though as it is value that tends to do better during recessionary periods.

If you want to stick with your original 401K allocation, you need to consider something that is heavily value tilted in the IRA to balance things out, something like Vanguards Value Index as mentioned (VIVAX ticker)

Thank you very much. I'm new, so I obviously didn't know what to pick. I did find their 500 Index fund and will re-allocate closer to your suggestion.

Would you just allocate similarly in the IRA as well?

You don't need all those funds. Just get a 500 index or a large and a mid and a small if you wish. Mids and Smalls did well this year I think.

Also, check on the expense ratio.

Often times the type of allocation in one retirement account vs another comes down to what funds are available, what type of allocations you want to have in general for all accounts and how much active involvement you want in yearly rebalancing.

Some folks have unfriendly options in their 401K's so they opt to go with what best they can and do the other part of the allocation in an IRA account.

To answer your question about the IRA allocation - to KISS I would go ahead. At a later date, once the 401K has more funds in it, I would want to look at all of the available options you have and possibly shuffle things around for a better allocation that can utilize all of the available funds in both the IRA and 401K.

I have about €3K which I probably won't be using in 2-3 years but probably will be using in 4-5 years, and very minimal knowledge about economy. Is oil and agricultural commodities a good idea? I'm thinking €1K here, second €1K here and third €1K initially as a 6 month deposit with 3% per year interest. Am I ******ed? Any links which might educate me?

You must be careful when you say "I have about €3K which I probably won't be using in 2-3 years but probably will be using in 4-5 years". This is the only information we have to gauge your risk tolerance. What are you using the money for in 4-5 years? Something where you absolutely can't stomach a loss between now and then? Or more like "I have 3k and I want to grow it as much as possible so I can do more stuff with it in 5 years". They are very different statements.

I would say a mixed/balanced fund that has equities and bonds would be a good choice for you for a 5 year timeframe. If you want lower risk, then go for a pure bond fund instead of a hybrid. You risk less, but you gain less. A good example would be the Vanguard Wellington fund. It's 65% stock, and I think 35% bond.

I wouldn't mess with sector stuff like the agriculture and energy. Something bad could happen between now and then in terms of regulatory or environmental risk and all that jazz. I'd go something that is more broad.

Just my 2 cents.

Well actually the statement is more "I have €3K which I won't be using until I have gathered enough for an apartment loan", whenever that might happen. If "something bad happens", well, the only effect is I will just have to wait longer.

My thought process was, given what's going on with the world economy right now, paradoxally commodities seem perhaps the safest to me over the course of 4-5 years. Massive inflation seems like a very real risk in this timeframe so cash is not safe (otherwise I would just keep it as a weak-ass deposit), and stock and bond crashes seem like very real risks as well. What can we be certain of though? That oil and food will be consumed.

I am considering oil and agricultural commodities only because I feel like I've missed the prescious metal train and these will be the next ones. I feel my money is not safe even if I don't do anything with it, because inflation might still destroy it. Stocks and bonds? Can you really consider these safe as well right now? I don't see the security to be honest. They have been blowing up a bubble for decades and now it is finally starting to collapse. So what are we left with?

I am a complete newb and know nothing. But, the current situation really does seem unique so historic standard of cash bonds and stocks just doesn't seem so reliable anymore. The US is in such massive deficits and debt that have not been seen in the history of mankind, this is a genuinely unique situation. What if something goes bad with commodities? Well what if something goes bad with cash? What if something goes bad with bonds and stocks? These seem just as reasonable questions to me right now. I would love to be proven wrong.

I'm 100% in equities right now. I see no real reason for me to change my position, I feel good about it.

By no means does this mean you should do the same. I'm just telling you since you asked.

Yeah sure. Just I would be interested in knowing how you feel about my thought process, where you think I'm making a mistake and so on. Criticise without inhibition please.

bubble jumping ftw

4:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJn4c...eature=related

But I'm not trying to bubble jump at all On the contrary, I'm trying to avoid all bubbles altogether.

Country you live in: US

Amount to Invest: $3000

Income: N/A

Risk Tolerance: medium (willing to lose no more than half???)

Timeframe for investment: 1 year?

Debt: N/A

Any other information you might have that would help us:

Hi, I have a roughly $6k bankroll I use to play live poker a couple times a week. This is about 20 buyins.

Over a few hundred hours of play, I've never had a downswing larger than 5 buyins so I want to invest half my bankroll ($3000) so that I can use it to generate additional income rather than sitting in the bank.

I don't mind a reasonable amount of risk, but I couldn't lose it all. I could live with myself if I lost about 50% or $1500.

I put 1 year for timeframe because I don't know what the future will bring for sure, or what I will do with this money if I were to stop having time for poker.

Also, since this money is part of my bankroll, it does have to be reasonably liquid and can't be trapped in a bond.

If there was a fund I could invest in, I think that the money would be liquid enough for me. I could go on Scottrade and sell off shares or something like that if I really had to.

Any advice you can give is very much appreciated!!!!

When we talk about bonds, we rarely ever talk about buying bonds on the open market - which are resellable also (bond traders exist for a reason) you wouldn't have to buy and hold. That'd be something like a CD where you pay a penalty for selling early.

With a reasonable risk tolerance, stated with the specific purpose of income, you'd want to look at a high yield bond fund like VWEHX (Vanguard High Yield). Thing to keep in mind if you sell within a year you pay what amounts to a back load of 1% - even though Vanguard doesn't call it a load. Also Vanguards minimum is $3000 so it fits with what you've said.

You could also consider the ETF's HYG or JNK. Just keep in mind even at something like 10% yield thats "only" $300/year.

Also, your sample size is too small, you havn't experienced a big down swing so what happens when you only have 12 or 13 buyins? Will you panic and pull the money or will you wait until you have 5 BI?

All of these bond funds are plenty liquid.

When you speak of a "backload of 1%" are you simply saying that I will have spend 1% of my investment ($30) in buying and selling fees? Do you feel this is too much?

how risky is JNK? Can I put 100k there and reasonably expect to earn decent income?

1% of Assets Under Management. So if in 6 months you need to pull out everything out you pay $x * .01 regardless of how much the original investment was. It costs nothing to buy it.

I do feel its too much considering you may have to pull it out within a year - if thats a long shot, then its not a big deal.

No more then HYG or VWEHX is really - JNK a bit more due to the top 10 holdings representing I think I read 20% of its portfolio. So its a bit top heavy and would suffer principal loss more so then the others.

The three of them track closely, but during the route of 08 and early 09 JNK fell the most followed by HYG and then VWEHX, but JNK has since rebounded the most. From the amount of data available, the Vanguard fund is the most stable value wise though and would have preserved the most value through the depths of the drop - however over the past 3 years all 3 are up approximately 20%

Hey wait a second though, if we are going to see massive inflation, then I think for that to happen at some point we must still go through a phase where everything will collapse again and deflation occurs for some period of time?

what's the max % of portfolio you would recommend someone put in JNK?

country: U.S.
age: 28
risk: TAG
income: $50-60K/yr

my question is just for my retirement account, which is a 403(b) through my work. i have about $30K invested and am looking to reallocate current funds and future contributions (about 10% per paycheck). based on the morningstar "retirement manager" they recommend the following allocation:

8% American Funds EuroPacific Gr R4
38% American Funds Fundamental Investors R4
37% ING FMR Diversified Mid Cap S
5% ING Global Real Estate A
7% ING T. Rowe Price Growth Equity S
5% PIMCO Total Return A (5)

any thoughts on these?

also, i am currently contributing to a non-ROTH 403(b), but i have the option of contributing to a ROTH 403(b) or some combination of the two. thoughts on a ROTH 403(b) for my situation?

thanks

Depends on aversion to principal loss and desire for higher income really.

I'd say no more then 5-10% of the overall asset allocation for low-medium risk. Basically similar to an REIT recommended AA.

But for my situation you recommend putting my entire $3000 towards the fund since I am willing to accept risk and hungry for return, correct?

Just out of curiosity, what is it that makes these high-interest corporate bond funds superior to other types of ETFs for my situation?

I'm just trying to learn as much as I can right now and I don't really know where to start looking for info. Thanks so much.

Yes.

Diversity in the single holding plus high yield. That mix is not usual. Its usually one or the other.

Country you live in: UK
Income: 150k
Risk Tolerance: high
Timeframe for investment: 2 years+
Debt: 0

I have 70k euro to invest, would be ok with losing half, would rather stick to euro demoninated investments with little oversight on my part but could consider more active vehicles or sterling denominated. Also has anyone used http://www.currencyfair.com/?

Cheers guys