Your question was more of a lifestyle choice decision question IMO. You have different kinds of freedoms compared to renting, but substantially different kinds of responsibilities compared to renting.

If anyone is flirting the line between "should I buy a house or rent and invest" they need take the 'invest' part out of the equation first and figure out the lifestyle decision and then come back to the investing part. Don't let whether you are going to invest rule your lifestyle, let your lifestyle rule your investing decisions and possibilities.

This is extremely good advice.

country: Canada
income: ~200k/year
risk tolerance: low-medium
timeframe for investment: a few years
no debt

I have about 100K USD sitting in a US chequing account in my Canadian bank. I feel urged to convert to CAD before things get any worse (everything I read lately says the CAD will just continue to appreciate vs USD), but I thought I should check here first to see if there may be a potentially better option for me.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

What do you need the USD for? Poker? If you do you might want to take the USD you don't need and turn it into CAD. This is not because I expect a USD decline but because you should keep most of your money in the currency you need.

Right, I should have clarified. I don't need the USD for anything. This is money I have cashed out from my online roll in the past month or so. It's just that the exchange rate isn't very good for me right now, and I'm wondering if there is anything better that I could do with my USD funds (as opposed to converting it all right now).

Personally I would exchange it now. You might lose on the exchange rate but do you really want to speculate in the currency market?

Hey, just posted a thread before noticing this one thoughts?


"If u had 50-100k set aside to invest in the current market, and knew little about the markets, etc, what would be the best way to go? (between stocks, real estate, just leaving it in a bank account, cd, money market, mutual funds, etc)

I have minimal knowledge of the stock market - read a few books years ago, but that's about it, and feel like I would need to do a significant amount of study before even considering doing own my trading. Correct? Good idea to just hire someone to manage ur money, or generally a ripoff? If a good idea, who would u recommend going with?

Tired of just letting my cash sit in checking account, CD, etc, so just curious what some of the more experienced investors would recommend. Would prefer to do something w/o too much risk, yet still somewhat aggressive, since I'm young.

Stocks, buy house/apartments to rent, etc, hire someone, or just leave in bank acccount...thoughts?"

hey arturius. I'm stupid and wouldn't even know how to actually do this...

US Money:

- 50% Government Bonds
- 20% Cash management intending for a delayed investment into a vanguard S&P index tracker
- 30% in a high yielding vanguard real estate fund


How would I go about actually setting up these accounts?

And would u recommend just leaving it in there for a couple years? What would a realistic expected annual return be?

goto www.vanguard.com and open an account?

Realistic expected annual return depends, bonds return a predetermined amount, for the rest you'll just have to stick with historical returns to get an idea. but variance etc changes the future return.

k, thanks. my brother's been telling me to use vanguard for awhile, too. just wasn't sure whether it was simple, etc, to allocate specifically as u mentioned.

what would u say is the average historical return if i invested as u suggested? and i assume this would be a very safe way to go, right? what would u suggest if i was cool with a bit more risk?

also, as for real estate, why are u not big on buying a house for the short term (ie several years to 5-10 yrs, etc)? I live in Los Angeles, and (while not having any significant real estate knowledge) just figure that it's pretty unlikely prices could really drop much more - so wouldn't it make sense to buy at the bottom (sometime over the next year or so)? what are the problems with this type of thinking? u just don't think average home values will increase enough over the next few yrs to overcome all the associated costs w/ buying?

If you want more risk, move from bonds to equities (shares). as for future prices, I have no idea. Anything could happen. Don't speculate if you're not an insider.

If you want historical returns, just look them up, I'm pretty sure vanguard has all the historical returns on the website.

I have been searching this topic for a day or to.

I was hoping to get some basic info from all the great minds out there.

First off, i see most of these are things that I have already went over with my t-rowe price person. Im no where close to being good at investing, but im the one that just reevaluates each situation to try and get a different outcome. Based on amount, timeline, different investments. That type, if it make sense.

First, I came across a website dealing with medical imaging investing.
A) what would be 15% APR paid monthly be, if you invested 25k?
B) has anyone heard of this kind of investing, if so any good or bad points. Please.

Second, I usually get about 5k a year that i can spend on anything.
I want to invest in something that can give me a return each month if possible. Risk can be high, cause its not something that ill be worried if i lost it. The main goal is a return, of something, each month.

country: USA
income: 50k/ year, but its about the 5k im referring to.
risk tolerance: high
timeframe for investment: year by year, unless another option will be better for my main goal.
no debt

Thanks for your time.

i have almost 200k in cash, and own a 20k car... own 6k of some stocks (negligible)

ive been a poker pro for a year now, playing livegames (10/20) ... what should i be doing with my money... i am renting now and would like to buy, but figure i should settle down with gf first incase doesn't work out with her and i wanna move or something

i don't even mean specific investments, just how much i should be investing and how much i should be putting in just a savings account

I'm brainstorming ideas for a buisness i could put 50k in and 15 hours a week that could turn a simple modest profit... but no success thus far

THAKID: Leave your money in a liquid cash management account, aka the higher interest paying accounts. It won't pay a lot but it sounds like you're not sure what to do, best to keep it where you can get it. Maybe put 30k into shares.

hey guys college student in the US here. i have had about 5k in CDs over the past 5 years... now that CD rates are terrible I was wondering what else I could do. Is now a good time for silver or gold? thanks.

With the info you provided I would say keep it in a savings account. I assume you're a student and I assume you're not earning a lot. It's nice to have a cushion as a student.

Gold and silver was great 5 years ago. Why didn't you buy it then?

Just a chase savings account?... The rate increases pretty good once ya got 100k in there

don't feel good about stocks now, think market has been artificially good last few months

Country you live in: USA
Income: 40k-50k / yr
Risk Tolerance: Moderate
Timeframe for Investment: see notes.
Debt: None
Amount to invest: ~7k

Notes: My goal is to start a business at some point in the next few years, though I will likely be financing it mainly from outside investors. This 7k I am investing I would prefer to look at as personal money, and money I can fall back on or possibly use as living expenses while I am not making much (or any) income when I start the business.

One thing I would prefer to do is sort of "set it and forget it" if at all possible. I don't want to be monitoring this every day. If I had to choose between putting in 2 hours of research a week and earning 12%, or putting in 0 and earning 10%, I would choose the latter.

because I was 17 and wasn't THAT good poker lol. I actually did buy about 7 silver bullions about that time... but even that was a lot of money for a 17 year old to be throwing around. Not to mention that CD rates then were getting like 6 percent or something pretty good compared to now.

Country you live in: USA
Risk Tolerance: High
Timeframe for Investment: Short / Mid
Debt: Only debt is mortgage
Amount to invest: 10k

I have a fairly well rounded portfolio separate from what I'm looking for advise on.

I have about 10k that is sitting around and I'd like to play around with it. I'm willing to accept risk and am looking for quick-ish returns.

"Bet on black" answers need not respond

Country you live in: New Zealand
Risk Tolerance: Moderate
Timeframe for Investment: Short / Mid
Debt: Student loan of 20k... don't have to worry about this yet though
Amount to invest: 5k

Hi, I'm 21 and about to graduate after this semester. I have 5k to spare and would like to know where to invest. Not too familiar with the stock market and such though.

Any comments are appreciated.

Country you live in : US
Income: n/a
Risk Tolerance: Medium
Timeframe for investment: 3-5 yrs
Debt: n/a

I need some assistance in setting up a fixed income portfolio. I will start it with $11.5K and expect to contribute about $10K each year for the next three years, in the process of moving a portion of my investments from equities to fixed income in preparation for the down payment for a house, which I expect to buy in 3-5 years.

I have no current fixed income investments. These fixed income holdings will be in a taxable account.

I like ETFs and low-cost MFs. I live in California. My broker charges $10 per ETF buy/sell. I am not subject to the AMT.

I've done some reading and found there are these basic classes of bond funds:

Municipal - National
Municipal - California
Emerging Markets
High Yield
Inflation-Protected
Intermediate Government
Intermediate Term
Long Government
Long Term
Short Government
Short Term
World

However, I haven't been able to find *any* references that take some input and then suggest a good asset allocation plan among these classes.

What allocation do you suggest and why?

Please provide references to some allocation examples if you know of any.

Also, what is the difference between "X Government" and "X Term"? Does "X Term" include non-government bonds?

Thanks so much for your help,
C.

Country: USA
Income: 33-38K
Risk Tolerance: Moderate
Timeframe for investment: 5 to 7 years
Debt: None
Other info: For now I only have to worry about cellphone, timeshare payments, gym membership, and credit card payments, which are all made on a timely basis. Looking to begin with anywhere with $200 to $1500 as a starting point. Interested in a couple of penny shares.

Unfortunately, if you plan to possibly use the 7k for living expenses within the next few years, you won't want to invest it in vehicles that are more likely to earn 10% (equities, currencies, etc.) because the risk is too high for so short a timeframe. Park it in a high-interest savings account. FNBO currently offers 1.5%. If you want to take on a little more risk, consider a fixed income ETF like TIP or AGG.