What is their current tax bracket? Would they like the option of being able to withdraw money before they reach retirement?

how much money do they have saved up for retirement?

edit**
the world of preserving assets and helping a baby boomer prepare for a 30 year retirement is much wider than low-cost vanguard funds. I would really tell them to find a CFP or ChFC.

Your first statement is true. Your second statement is very dangerous.

Replace "CFP and ChFC" with "someone who makes a living helping people plan for retirement", and I'd wager statistics are mounting in my favor when it comes to who is really better off during retirement.

definitely something they considered but thought i would see what you guys had to say. ill tell them to go see someone and then i'll come back here with the feedback to make sure they don't need to find a new CFP.

actually just got off the phone with them and they are not sure on the cfp. i showed them that fund and they said it was pretty close to what they have in there 401k which is perfect. they just want to get there money out of a saving account and into anything better.

$37,001–$80,000 $4,650 plus 30c for each $1 over $37,000 tax bracket
they don't need to withdraw the money

RMD's begin @ 70.5 with traditional IRA.

no RMD's with Roth. something to consider.

they will be ready for the RMD at 70.5 or sooner so that's not an issue.
they are going to set up a traditional ira tonight at scottrade.
going to invest in https://personal.vanguard.com/us/fun...FundIntExt=INT

thanks for all the help guys, always appreciated

(probably deserves an entire thread on it's own, but) Why?

small town in midwest only one showed up on the cfp website within an hour and haven't heard anyone saying anything great about her. i don't think they are that into the whole investment thing anyways(they know they should be doing something though). i was one pushing them to get something going and out of savings account. just looking for something as quick and simple as possible.

enough said

Am I able to send someone a bank wire if I don't have a bank account? Trying to depo 10k on Merge site and don't want to leave any traces behind.

What? Generally a bank has to have your money in order to wire it. I may be wrong though.

I'm pretty sure you would lose that wager. Actually you are probably better off with a CFP than a glorified insurance and mutual fund salesman, which is what most people end up with when it comes to retirement planning. Your best bet is to spend a little time at the library, bookstore, and internet and figure this out for yourself. It's really not that hard once you take away all the fluff that the so called financial planners try to use to confuse the issue.

Begin: project research gathering!!!

Country: Canada
Income: (not sure yet, maybe 50-70k)
Timeframe: Short-Medium
Debt: 260k across two investment properties

I'm 27, made my money from poker. My house is paid off, my vehicles are paid off, I have 3 rental properties - one of which is paid off, the other two have mortgages (I have 20% equity in each). Last year was my first "losing year" due to Full Tilt going under. Decided to cash out all but 10k of my online roll and start fresh in 2012 hoping for poker to take a more part-time role (hence why I'm not sure what my income will be).

I'm currently considering options to start a business, but I'm not sure what amount it will require and when I might get that started. That being said, I need fairly good liquidity. Currently I have my money sitting in Ally high interest bank account making 2%. I have a very low risk profile, I personally hate the stock market or any derivatives of it and have no interest in studying constantly in order to manage my money. I'm just wondering if there is a better place to park 50-150k that may make slightly higher returns. I'm realistic, I'm not expecting 8%, but if there's a place where I can find 2.5% or 3% I'm fine with that.

If there were an investment option for 5-ish years that could considerably beat 2% with low risk I would also be interested for around 50k.

thanks

pual,

given your timeframe and risk tolerance, i think your money is good right where it is.

if you want easy roi, pay down your investment properties. i bet you're paying more than 2.5-3% vig on those.

at some point, you'll probably need to correct this world view:

i can't help you with the first part but you can overcome the second part by investing in broad index-based low-cost mutual funds.

oh, and one final fyp:

Country you live in: USA
Income: Currently in college with no income
Risk Tolerance:6.5 (10 being very high)
Timeframe for investment:Long term
Debt: $0

I'm currently 22, still in college and have $20k in a roth IRA with vanguard. Right now its 90% in VHGEX and 10% in TGLMX. Pretty sure this can't be optimal so how would you redistribute the money?

damn, son! well played.

please post fund names; most of us don't have every ticker symbol memorized (i know i don't!).

Vanguard Global Equity Fund (VHGEX)
TCW Total Return Bond I (TGLMX)

i'm a noob and i haven't done any real research into either of these funds but this looks pretty reasonable to me. how did you end up with these two particular funds? how did you end up with your 90/10 asset allocation? what do you mean about this being "optimal"?

i believe both of those funds are actively managed. you can get lower expense ratios by using passively managed funds instead. for example, you could hold:

Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Investor Shares (VBMFX) - 0.22% ER vs 0.44% for TGLMX. the minimum investment is $3k so you can't actually buy this with 10% of $20k, but you could bump up your bond allocation a bit or there's an ETF version (BND) with a 0.11% ER.

Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund Investor Shares (VTWSX) - 0.45% ER vs 0.54% for VHGEX. 0.25 for ETF version VT.

Country you live in: Canada
Income: 250k-350k (after tax) depending on varience
Age - 25
Risk Tolerance: Not sure, semi low, however if the EV of an investment is high I am willing to accept bigger risk (if that makes sence)
Timeframe for investment: 5+ years
Debt: 0
Amount to invest: 100k Willing to take a stab at something, depending on the results willing to invest considerably more.


Right now I have almost all of my money (7 figutes) in GIC's... which I am very unhappy with. I am looking to grow it since I never spend it, it mostly sits around (I spend like $10 a day on food, thats about it). Looking to take a small stab at something (hopefully worthwhile) and willing to go from there

I am a huge fish in this investment world, would love to learn something. Just begining to read a little here and there recently, looks very potentially promising

generally speaking, the whole point of accepting riskiness in investment is to increase your EV. how much risk you are willing to tolerate is entirely up to you. fortunately, there are bajillions of websites that will help you assess your financial risk tolerance. i haven't used any so i don't want to recommend one specifically.

desole, je suis americain -- but it looks like a GIC is similar to a CD from an american bank. do you (or anyone else) know if that's right? what kind of interest rate do you get? what are the terms? can you just take your money out at any time?

start by reading back through this thread. you'll find links to all kinds of good stuff. the 2+2 of personal investing is the bogleheads forum so that's another good place to look. ask questions and help noobs.

"but it looks like a GIC is similar to a CD from an american bank. do you (or anyone else) know if that's right? what kind of interest rate do you get? what are the terms? can you just take your money out at any time?"

No.. Im locked in for 3-5 years... It's a Market Linked GIC, so I get 40%ish of what the market they invest in eans - but if the market goes down I dont lose anything ;-0. I started in about 2009 (which was a v good year) made about 7% or so that year, been breakeven / slightly losing since. Furthermore a decent % of my money is locked in, however my 3 years is up in a few months, so I'm looking into another avenue.

I live in Toronto, our house prices are obsurd.. and getting higher every year it seems. Would it be a good idea to buy a few houses and rent them out? My largest concern would be the tennants doing stupid crap

market-linked GIC = equity-linked CD here in the states.

VFIFX would be great for the poster.

Put it in a high yield bond ETF like JNK. It yields 7.5% per year (8% with reinvestment). There will be small swings in price but the extra yield over the 2% you're getting now is well worth it.