Do you have an emergency fund? It'd start with that. Save up about 6 months (can be more or less depending on your job security and risk appetite) of living expenses. Put this money in a liquid account you can reach at any time, if necessary.

Once that's done you can start investing. Considering your timeframe I'd buy some Vanguard ETF's with a big equity allocation. There are people here who can make a great allocation for you but Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 (VFIFX) might be enough.
Not really. Considering the relative short time frame and high risk appetite you might want to consider putting it in an index fund. And as you like metals you could take a big chunk of that money in a commodities fund.

Good fund, speculative buy right now imo, almost doubled in less than 3 quarters

It consists of about 72% (US) total stock market, 9% europe, 8% emerging and Asian markets and the rest are bonds. No wonder it doubled the last 3 quarters...

But I can't stress enough that if you're committing to a retirement investment plan to keep depositing every month/quarter/year and not stop because you think there is a bubble growing. As an average investor you shouldn't try to time the market.

I agree wholeheartedly up until the end, though I see it as accurate for a retirement fund, not the average investor all together. The value just isn't there for the fund, out of balance imo.

This topic is for people that want a place to put their money. Those people aren't market timing, or at least shouldn't be. So they have no business waiting for a down leg on the stock markets.

mrmusic, this isn't a thread to talk about opinions on XYZ, its about long term investing.

* Country you live in
* Income
* Risk Tolerance
* Timeframe for investment
* Debt
* Any other information you might have that would help us

U.S.
Income Fluctuates - I am 19yr old poker player/student (lets assume 2k/mo)
High Risk Tolerance, I want to invest aggressively for my future
Timeframe should be staggered i.e short term (10yrs) and long term (25 yrs+)
Zero Debt
Have at least 10k total to invest, right now i have like 12k in money market account, $500 in checking, and about 5k online

[*]Country you live in:Usa[*]Income:low[*]Risk Tolerance: 10% chance of failure[*]Timeframe for investment-5 years[*]Debt-232 dollars[*]Any other information you might have that would help us

I was looking to put away 20k for 5 years and have a 10 percent chance of risk of ruin. I was hoping to have it turn into like 100k after the 5 year period.

Whats best thing to do with 20k?

$20k to $100k in 5 years implies about a 50% CAGR over the 5 years.

This thread is about REALISTIC goals.

is that 10k separate from the 12k?

* country - USA
* income - Won't be playing poker anymore possibly for a few years while transitioning into something else so I'd say like $40k/yr
* Risk Tolerance - none, just am interested in putting my cash from poker somewhere to hold it's value for a few years that's more safe than keeping in USD cash
* Timeframe for investment - like 2-3 years
* Debt - none
* Any other information you might have that would help us - Situation is basically that I'm 24 and I have $500k or so in cash from poker and on poker sites but will not be playing poker for possibly a while as I am taking the time off to travel and pursue other things. I don't want my money sitting on poker sites in USD (or is that fine?) because I've heard it's not a good idea to keep money in cash. I also don't like the idea of investing it into risky investments where I don't really know what I'm doing and am gambling so I just want something that's low risk that will maintain my moneys value and if I'm lucky make a few % interest.

I do not feel any urgency to get a good return on this money because I feel like the better play would be to just put it somewhere low risk until I've educated myself better on what to do with it by studying real estate, business, or the markets on my own to make more informed moves. If this is not the best play please tell me why and give counter advice. Otherwise where should I hold this money? ING money market account? Get out of USD and into commodities?

Thanks.

What do you really want to do? Do you want to make enough money so that $500k grows by at least $40k (8%) a year or is it ok to draw down your principal too?

The first will be near impossible considering your time frame. It might be possible to get an annualized 8% return if your time frame was longer by a lot. For the second I would look into savings accounts, CD's and maybe a short term corporate bonds ETF. Not sure which.

You say that you don't want to be gambling. Don't buy commodities in that case.

* Country you live in - United States

* Income - $45k but we're extremely frugal and still save around $1.5/month

* Risk Tolerance - medium high (I used to play poker and don't mind losing the money at all; she is less risky but currently has the vanguard targeted retirement fund which is only 10-15% bonds so she's not too risk adverse)

* Timeframe for investment - 30 years

* Debt - 17k in student loan at 2% interest; 215k in mortgage in 5.25% ARM which will adjust in June (would become a lower rate if it adjusted now)

* Any other information you might have that would help us - I'm getting married in about a month so all the above information includes both her and my money. We will probably have kids in 2-5 years. I am more willing to take risks than she is and that's a conversation we need to have, but I think she's fine with letting me handle things in general.

I hope to graduate with a PhD in about 2 years which will jump my income to around 80-100k. We would also sell the house at that time which is currently valued at about $225k (so I have about 5k equity).

We currently have $45k in Roth IRA and another $55k invested. Everything is in Vanguard Index Funds (or the ETF equivalent) trying to model the Modern Portfolio. I've considered moving our money to DFA funds.

Let me know what else you need.

The fact you even mention DFA tells me you have already done a bit of homework (or have some investor savy'ish friends) as not many people know of them because of their entrance requirements - you can only access them through a fee based financial planner.

I think you'd need to decide whether you are going to manage it yourself or pay someone too.

What Vanguard funds do you currently have and what is the portfolio % weight?

Also, if you are definitely planning on kids, you should consider 529 plans for them (if you intend to assist in their higher ed). I don't know what the restrictions are on opening one (do you have to already have kids for example) but it should be heavily considered.

Well I don't really know anything about this so pardon my ignorance. Basically I guess what I'm asking is, if I'm interested in spending 2 years to travel and figure out how I want to invest this money, where's the best place to keep it and what's the best form to keep it in? I guess if it were a certainty that US dollar would be fine 3 years from now then the simple answer would just be something like a CD or money market account but since I've been talking to people and reading about how keeping your money in USD currency is going to be a good way to get burned it's making me consider other options. Essentially I just want time to learn enough about how to invest it myself either through a business or real estate or something and don't want USD to get killed and have nothing in 3 years.

If the USD gets killed you still have US dollars, you know. Your savings should be saved in wherever you'll be spending it, in your case, USDs. If you want to travel, then put aside some into the currency you feel like you'll be traveling with, probably euros.

But the moment you try and get out of USDs in favor of something else, you're speculating, you're backing your thoughts (or someone elses) to have an edge and you're gambling it up. The alternative gamble is to gamble that the country you are a citizen of, living in, and probably will in the long term is going to continue to do so. You will always have the USDs you have now, to spend in your own home country. The USD getting killed is only a concern because foreign products could become more expensive, but China seems content to peg the Yuan, so here we are.

So put aside the money you're going to use to travel and maybe put it into a Euro bank gathering interest, and leave the rest in USDs in a cash management account. Anything else is speculating.

no the 12k is part of the money im willing to invest, ill say them min im willing to invest is 10k

Well, 10 years isn't really short, but its shorter then 25+

With $10k, I'd go ahead and open a ROTH IRA and put the full amount ($5k) into a Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 for now. This would be your long term investment.

The other $5k for short term I'd buy the following 3 ETFs or something similar:
40% VTI - Vanguard US Total Stock Market
40% VEU - Vanguard FTSE All World ex-US Stock Market
30% BSV - Vanguard Short Term Bond

Now, you'll be paying taxes on those investments due to dividends, keep that in mind. Can't avoid that. The bond value is so high because like being near to retirement, you want to preserve more value but not let it stagnate.

how much amount is fine.

My portfolio is a bit out of balance right now and I am hoping to reconcile that when we combine our finances and we put money into IRAs at the beginning of next year. What I am striving for is:

17.5% VB (small cap)
17.5% VBR (small cap value)
25% VTI (Total Market)
5% VPL (Pacific)
5% VGK (Europe)
15% VWO (Emerging)
15% VTRIX (International Value)
I also own a house valued at about twice the amount that I have invested, but I only have about 5-20% equity in it (booo housing market).

Right now I have the VTRIX and some of the VBR in the Roth IRA. I would be interested in hearing what people thing of which fund I should have in the IRA in general though.

I'm okay with managing it myself, but it does take a bit of time to do. I've heard that DFA funds are good enough to overcome the 1% fee, and if that is true I could have someone else manage it without losing money by doing so.

I'll look into the college fund. That's a good idea that we had talked about but then I had forgotten.

Thanks for the advice.

Hi 2+2 Sages,

I need your advice.

My situation:
30 year old
5K to invest
70K income/year from job
30K income/year from poker
Have a 180K school loan 5% interest (paying minimum which is 1.5k/month)
Can save $500/month

I am a complete newbie and am interested in starting to learn to invest.

I like to invest for longer than a year as I don't want to pay so much tax on capital gains.

Which online trading site should I open my first account? Vanguard? ETrade?

What percent of my portfolio should be in mutual funds? bonds? individual stocks? anything else?

Thanks!

Your first goal is to save 50k and put it into an interest bearing at call account (ING offer the best online one). After that we can talk about investing, but you need a buffer.

Why do you believe it is out of balance?

Sticking this allocation into the Instant X-Ray at Morningstar shows that this allocation is pretty good. Its value tilted for sure, but theres nothing wrong with that. Its split 60/40 US/World which is fine. The only thing 'missing' is bonds.

What goes into a taxable vs tax deferred or tax free depends on tax implications. http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Princ...Fund_Placement

I would consider changing up VB and VBR and adding a long term treasury/bond. I understand why you chose the even mix to capture the small side of the US market but small blend and small growth have underperformed small value over time. Perhaps change up the mix to:
25% VBR
5% VB
5% EDV

Pushes the yield up a little and doesn't change the distribution on the 9 style box that much.

Hey guys, I'm trying to diversify my investments a bit and have no idea where to start


Country: Canada (in montreal for school, expect to move back to vancouver in about a year)
Monthly income: Currently about $800 from investments and $400 from part time employment
Risk Tolerance: medium-high
Timeframe for investment: Whatever is the best decision
Debt: about 4k in credit cards
Any other information you might have that would help us:

Basically I have all of my investments (60kish) tied up in mortgage loans right now at a return of about 11%. I decided to take a student loan out from my bank and take advantage of the low interest rates/payment plan of student loans. I'm going to take out $10k and pay off the 4k in credit cards and open up a tax-free savings account with the other $6k to begin investing with.

My housing/food is still secured by my parents while at school so I am open to fairly high-risk opportunities. That being said if there are huge advantages to starting long-term low-risk investments at my age (21) then I would like to do that too!

So basically where should I start with an initial $6k? If i plan on adding about $400 more every month?

Country: USA
Monthly Income: 36$-unpaid residency...I also moonlight occasionally for 500-1k/mo and am looking for more opportunities to do this.
Risk Tolerance: medium-high?
Timeframe for Investment: 30-40 yrs
Debt: 24k in subsidized stafford loans deferred 1 yr from now. I have 4.5 yrs left on a 38k 0.9% loan for a car.

I am 26, I have ~30k-40k in two savings and ~3k in a checking saved up from poker mainly. I have 6 mo left in a dental residency program. I have a secure job making somewhere b/w 150-300k first year out and possibly a lot more w/in a few years starting as soon as I graduate. I plan on moving back w/ parents for the first 6 mo then purchasing or renting a home. So my living expenses for the next year should be low.

I have 7k (5k this year) in a roth w/ vanguard currently in a money market. I was thinking of just doing one of their targeted retirement funds. I have no investing experience (although I read Intelligent Investor ~2 yrs ago).

Any advice?


-JP