Seems like a good time to post after the other UK guy. Sorry for not following the standard format, but my situation kinda needs explaning further.

I will more than likely be quitting poker sometime later this year and taking at least a year off to travel, learn a LOT about investing and hopefully be able to figure this stuff out myself by then. Until that point, I will be gradually withdrawing my poker roll and already have a lot sitting around in cash doing not much. I just need something easy to do with it all for now. 25yo, btw.

- UK resident, unsure about how to use the markets here (john kane?)
- some 1-2mill amount, depending on how much I make this year
- moderate risk tolerance
- I really won't need access to much money for a while, so whatever timeframe
- 0 debt

- already own a house that's paid off, don't really want anything else
- I also own 100k+ gold, 2/3 purchased at 9xx and 1/3 at 11xx, seems to get a lot of hate on here? I really want to be "hedged", but have little idea about this

Thanks guys.

Amount to Invest: 150k EUR
Country: Austria
Age: 20
Risk Tolerance: Low-Medium
Timeframe: 3-5 years
Income: 50k/year net (after expenses)
Debt: none
Any other information you might have that would help us:
Before 01/01 2011 we had no taxes on stocks held longer than 1 year in Austria, now we have 25% on those too. I want to build money to be able to buy a decent apartment or house (for say 400k) in the next 3-5 years. Right now my money is in a savings account at roughly 1% because over the last year I thought I'd buy an apartment and didn't care much.

Thanks.

Country you live in: Slovenia
Income: Whatever I make from poker (I am a high variance player making from 20k/month to -10k). However I am primary a student so I do not have the time to play all year around and cannot estimate my income due to the sick variance.
Risk Tolerance: Medium to High
Timeframe for investment: Somewhere around 5-7 years.
Debt: none.

I am a 22 year old student of math & computer science. My plan is to get some scholarship and take a PhD abroad or at home so no real work/money making for a period of at least 5-7 years. I would like to invest ~20k$ in whatever seems reasonable. I would like to hear some suggestions about good investment opportunities so that I can study the subject some more.

Sorry only just saw your post.

Firstly massive congrats on your poker achievements, amazing to think you are financially independent pretty much aged 25

There are a few options available in terms of how to invest in the UK.

Buying shares and funds via a bank are generally pretty pricey, I recommend using either:

www.h-l.co.uk
or
www.iii.co.uk

Both seem to offer much lower fees than the banks would charge yet are very reputable companies, especially the former.

You can buy ETFs, shares or actively managed funds, and there are funds for practically everything.

In terms of what to buy and what allocation, I'm not the person to ask . Though I too fortunately invested a fair % of my monies into gold and gold miners, personally I'm wary at the moment as almost everything seems geared towards a pullback, I'm tempted to look to switch some of my gold miner fund into a mix of foreign currencies via http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/b...?merchant=citi but it would all be a punt really

Fwiw I think having some monies in foreign currencies, some in equities, some in gold, some in commodities, some in property funds (though as you own a house no need for this) then may some in a small business or two, means that hopefully over the long run you protect your savings and will enjoy some growth over the long run.

Hope that helps, anything more detailed about investing in the UK please do post or ask me via PM.

john

ps. before you go travelling please teach me how to play poker

any oppinions? I'd really like to get the money off my bank accounts.

I have 6000k in a 401k from an old job and want to move it....I have ~30 years until I can take it out penalty free. I was thinking Vanguard funds but I'm almost positive they require 10k to open.

Another UK resident here.

* Country- UK
* Age- 22
* Amount to Invest: £100k
* Risk & Timeframe- Medium
* No Debt

Thanks guys

-Canadian
-$1 million to invest
-high risk tolerance
-looking for growth primarily, but some income generation would be acceptable as well (say $30-50k per year)

I am well-invested in Canadian real estate at the moment (residential and commercial properties with my family) so I may not need as much exposure to RE, at least not Canadian RE.

I'm tempted to just pull off one of the many allocations listed in this thread, but I'm not sure if they'd be optimal.

I assume you mean $6k and not $6000k

The minimums for the Investor class of Vanguard shares is $3000. Admiral class is $10k

Without knowing what else you have going on with retirement funds I'd say simply roll it all over to VTSMX (Vanguard US Total Stock Market) and VBMFX (Vanguard Total Bond Market) split 50/50.

Of course going into a rollover brokerage (not sure if thats even possible actually) and using ETF class of shares instead opens more possibilites.

6000K is 6 M, so pretty sure you just mean $6,000

Vanguard is excellent, I have most of my investments there. I'm pretty sure that they have funds you can start with $6k. I'd go with a Total Market Index or an S&P500 Index

10K to invest
USA
Low risk ok with losing 20 pct at most

What does everyone think about an all ETF portfolio vs an all mutual fund portfolio ?
Looking for value vs growth as I believe value will outperform over next 5 years


My prelim portfolio looks like this

2k bond AGG
2k emerging VWO
2k europe VEU
2k dividend SDY
2k small cap IWM

Flame away friends.......

50/50 US vs World, was your intent to do that? It should be noted that many of the top companies in the S&P (and Dow for that matter) already derive a significant portion of their revenue from overseas - so in effect you're foreign exposed with them as well - they just happen to be incorporated in the US. So while the funds dictate a 50/50 - revenue generation is probably more like 35/65 US/World.

SDY is a midcap heavy and IYM is a natural resource stock. In other words, you're really missing out on small value and large value from a US perspective.

If you want to stick with the resources ETF and the 50/50 split and value tilt I would consider changing the US allocation to using the Total Stock Market or Large Value Vanguard ETFs and the Vanguard Small Value ETF.
1750 VTI or VTV - but for best diversification VTI is probably better.
750 VBR
1500 IYM

Thanks for the response, the stock was actually IWM (ishares russell 2000 Index), my thought process was to cover the mid and small cap US stocks and keep large caps in the VEU stock. Should I have some exposure to commodities instead of bonds?

It's only 6 k, hahahahaha. I'll look into these options,thank you guys.

Ugh. Dumb mistake on my part - it changes things a bit.

IWM and SDY are your only stocks for the US. VEU is the FTSE All World ex-US, so basically you'd be leaving US large cap behind and heavily tilting towards small then mid stocks in the US but large foreign. Again if thats your intent alright but remember my comments about revenue for many large companies in the US. In some market conditions small and mid will outperform large, but its not a guarantee. Large companies tend to do better during downturns and small/mid during strong economic recovery and growth.

So I'd really consider changing it up to all Vanguard with a lot less of a tilt to small and mid.

$2000 BND (instead of AGG)
$1500 VWO
$1500 VEU
$3250 VTI (instead of SDY)
$1750 VB (or VBR for small value tilt instead of IWM)

Exposure to commodities can be worthwhile but it could be volatile. If you're interested I'd not remove bonds, but consider something like Vanguards Materials ETF - VAW. Drop the allocation of VTI to $2750 and put the $500 into VAW - or if you think a strict commodity tracking ETF consider DBC (PowerShares Commodity Index) instead of the ETF that tracks companies that do business in commodities. In other words, DBC is a derivative based ETF and VAW is a fund of stocks.

If you wanted to slice even further chop VEU down to $1000 and add VSS (FTSE AW ex-US Small) at $500

Can we have a LC thread for BFI?

Country you live in: USA
Income: VARIABLE $100k+
Age: 21
Risk Tolerance: HIGH
Timeframe for investment: UNSURE, 2-3 years minimum, retirement max.
Debt: $0
Investing amount: $50k-100k


I have some investments in mutual funds and a maxed out ROTH IRA but I am looking to invest more. I am thinking about just putting it all in Vanguard but I am unsure of where exactly to put it. I have a very high tolerance for risk and I am looking for maximum gains. Is Vanguard not the right place for this?

I should probably open a SEP IRA but I am worried about waiting until retirement to take it out because it seems so far away. Is there some type of provision about taking the money out to buy your first house? This is something I am definitely considering in the next 5 years or less.

Thank you

Vanguard is a fine place to put your money. Its options you could say are limited and less risk then seeking out some active fund managers, but you can get the risk exposure you might be looking for with the right selections.

A high risk tolerance with a desire for maximum gains, but an unsure time frame with strong considerations for a home in 5 years. Those aren't terribly common to all find together, nor a good mix to suggest something to meet both objects honestly. You want both stability but high growth - not something you normally find together.

With that said, emerging markets are considered to be the highest risk as well as high yield (junk) bond funds. Small Cap and growth stocks also are considered more risky but also can produce some of the higher returns you are looking for.

Vanguard Total Stock Market - VTSMX 20%
Vanguard Growth Index - VIGRX 15%
Vanguard Small Cap - NAESX 15%
Vanguard Emerging Markets - VEIEX 10%
Vanguard High Yield - VWEHX 10%
Vanguard Total Bond Market - VBMFX 10%
Vanguard Total International - VGTSX 10%

This gives you a mix of roughly 70/30 US/World with heavy foreign tilt towards Asia and heavy tilt towards US growth stocks.

Something to consider.

Country you live in-US
Income-~70k
Risk Tolerance-low
Timeframe for investment-?

I want to open up an account for my parents for them to have some money to fall back on, they currently have no savings and a very low income. The time frame could be anywhere from 6 months to 15 years. Their age is starting to show and they live an unhealthy lifestyle, but currently don't have any health problems. There's just no way for me to know when I will need the money.

I'd like to start off by investing $100-$200/month. I've looked into starting a Vanguard account but from my understanding I need 3k to open this?

Any advice on what to do other than a basic savings account?

Sorry for the super noob question.

The Vanguard STAR fund (VGSTX) requires $1000 to open (the rest require $3000 at the investor class level) and is probably your best option. It is a moderate allocation but surprisingly a good performer over its history. A single investment for those who want extreme simplicity it is perfect.

Thanks so much for the advice.

I've spent the night trying to educate myself, and think I've learned a lot and am ready to get going on this whole "not having six figures just sitting in a bank account" thing. I know I want a diversified set of index funds (or one of the things that are like index funds) that requires low management. What I don't know are which funds given my details and also the basics of getting into it. So here's my information per OP:

USA
Amount to be invested: $125k.
Risk Tolerance: Moderate/Low. The chance of losing 25% of the investment should be 10% at the most (but I'm OK with 10% and understand variance well), the chance of losing half should be 3% or less.
Timeframe: Not really sure, something like 2-10 years, so I'd like flexibility there. I feel much more comfortable if investments are reasonably liquid and if it's not super stupid to have the money in for a short time, even though I plan on having it in for longer.

No debt, and this investment still leaves me with a healthy separate gambling/life roll. I will likely be buying a home at some point in the next decade and I suspect a good portion of this money will go to that, but it's really hard to say because I'm still young and not sure how far poker will go or what my life situation will be. As mentioned, I want this to be a "couch potato" type investment with very low management.

As for the basics, what do I do? Open a Vanguard account, or is there somewhere else? What do I need to know about that process and any portfolio management?

Thanks for all help, really appreciated. Learned a lot from this subforum/places it's linked to tonight.

I ended up opening an account at Vanguard after doing more research, still would love suggestions as to which index funds for my details Figuring it out is fun too though.

Its nearly impossible to confidently say "no, X will not lose y%" and even if it does, it has potential to recover without you doing anything. Unlike Poker where once the money is gone the only way to get it back is to actually win, you don't have to do anything with investments for it to recover.

You can never guarantee investments won't lose 12% one week but then recover it all in the next four weeks. RoR formulas really apply most aptly to traders who generally are utilizing leverage. Additionally there might be a Black Swan event that occurs and everything drops 25-30%. There would be simply no way to forecast that or predict it or prevent it, hence the name given to such an event. Al Qaeda might explode a nuke in Baghdad and markets would turnover. Or a big bank might go bellyup, sending countless CDS writers scrambling and trading desks into a selling flurry to cover margins causing markets to free-fall.

Many (most?) stock investments lost 40-60% from Oct 2007 to March 2009. Most, if not all are back to 5-10% down from an investment made in October 2007.

Having home ownership in your sights coupled with a short timeframe tilts your selections towards a strong bias of intermediate term type bonds, but not ignoring stocks entirely.

I think something along the lines of a 55/45 Stock/Bond mix would work well for you to consider until a more concrete plan on home ownership is determined - or until your cash flow and savings otherwise dictates that this lump sum isn't as critical anymore. You've expressed a low risk tolerance and people almost universally overstate their actual tolerance because you most often have no idea how you will actually react until something happens. Money is funny like that.

I would consider the following:
Vanguard Balanced - Admiral Class Shares - VBINX at 65%
Vanguard Total Bond Market - Admiral Class - VBTLX at 20%
Vanguard Total Int. Stock Market - Admiral Class - VTIAX at 10%
Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock - Investor Class - VEIEX at 5%

This allocation also splits the stock into a ~70/30 of US/World. Something to consider if you want to break apart the US balanced fund to separate bonds and stocks entirely would be to go with VITSX (Vanguard Total US Stock Admiral) at 40% and VBTLX at 45%. Some investors choose a balanced/mixed fund as the core holding and add tilt to it to move in the direction they favor.

Extreme short term (1-3 years) should see a shift out of both bonds and stocks and into straight cash in order to preserve principal in that short term. I'd consider 25-30% cash (Vanguard Prime Money Market VMMXX) if there is any chance of an extreme short term need for the money. Maybe look at some short term Certificate of Deposits if you don't want the money earning practically zero. These days large sums in CDs can still pull 1-3% APR

Thank you so much, really really helpful and definitely appreciate the time for you to go through that.

One thing I'll add: I really do mean it when I say my risk tolerance is on the moderate end of "low" and not just low. I am used to five figure swings from poker and am OK with the rare event of losing a lot of the investment. I just want that rare event to be somewhere in the 10% or less range. I wasn't asking for "X will not lose y%", just that the event will be uncommon with my portfolio.

Does this change your recommendations at all, or does the porfolio still seem about right?