Good discussion and links- thanks.

age - 27
Country you live in - USA
Income - salary- 75k + bonus of 25-85k
Risk Tolerance - moderate to high
Timeframe for investment 12-18 months
Debt - $0.00
Any other information you might have that would help us

So i am trying to get into grad school next year and have some saved cash (30k) that iintend to use towards costs of school and living that is sitting liquid right now. I will also get around 50k in march of 2014. The program begins in june of 2014. I have planned to keep 25k reserves for living and use the bonus next mrch to pay for as much school as possible, i will borrow to finance the rest. Tuition will be roughly $100k over 12 months.

I have begun to think that it may be better to invest the 30k now and the bonus in march and then draw down on my investment account to pay for school as tuition payments are due.

Advice is very appreciated.

you can't take any risk with money you need in 12-18 months. all of that goes into high-yield savings.

your timeline is not clear to me but i don't see anything that looks like the 5-10+ years you'd need to invest in something with more risk and therefore more expected return.

borrowing when you have cash lying around is almost certainly a bad idea. why are you considering such a plan?

I would be very cautious about investing any money you might need for grad school in the next couple years. Keep in mind that you have a number in mind for grad school, but it is likely to be much more than that.

I think you should set grad school money aside and then have your long term money in another pile. I would put as much of that money as you can into a Roth IRA and a target date retirement fund.

I domt plan on borrowing while i have cash laying around. I have cash laying around now in a savings account and was wondering if it would be better to invest for the next 12-18 months. Hopefully i will have around 75k when school starts and estimated tuition is ~100k.

I will burn through the cash i have/will have and then borrow to finish the program.

i have a traditional IRA and a 401(k). I have been maxing out my 401(k) contributions to take advantage of the employer max (3% of comp or 5100 whichever is less). Would it be a better idea to load up on a roth IRA without the matching contribution from my employer?

No. Definitely get the free money.

Considering your circumstances, I don't think there's any better option than keeping your money liquid since you're going to need it in the very near future.

age - 26
Country you live in - USA
Income - 63k + potential 9% bonus, although last year's was 5% due to company performance. I'd probably expect 5% at best again this year. I never factor bonuses into any sort of spending/planning.
Risk Tolerance - moderate to high for a bit, although at some point, once established, I'm sure I'd dial it back a bit for safety
Timeframe for investment - 10+ years
Debt - $15.1k in student loans (a mixture of 3.4, 4.5, 5.6, and 6.8%, although over half is > 5.6%,) $10k 3.74% car loan

Any other information you might have that would help us

I currently have ~$50k sitting, doing absolutely nothing. I also have ~$12k in a company-matched 401k (I contribute 6% to this, as that's the company max-match.)

I was trying to figure out if investing the money I owe on student loans would be a better idea over paying them off, but I'm not really well-versed in what typical ROI would look like.

I suppose my questions are -

-Is it worth it to pay off all student loans, over investing the money?
-If so, I'd be left with $35k. If I keep $15-20k sitting for unforeseen living expenses (loss of job, whatever,) I'd have $15-20k to put away into investments - what should I do with this, looking for (I suppose) long-term planning? I've never liked the idea of 401k's/IRA's/other investment strategies that won't allow you to touch the money until your 60's, although I do realize that this is the general route folks seem to use.

For too long, I haven't bothered to really look at investment planning, so I'm trying to play catch-up now. Any advice is appreciated.

pay down your loans

yup, i'd start with the loans, including the car loan.

not using tax-advantaged space (401k, ira) is dumb for lots of reasons. imo you need to pay yourself first -- max out retirement savings -- before you do anything else. you would also pass up free money from the government by not taking full advantage of taxable space.

so what i would do is open and fully fund a Roth (contributions withdrawable at any time with no penalty, fwiw; not that you should be planning to do this) and max out 401k contributions through the end of the year, using the "extra" cash to compensate for the extra salary now going to the 401k.

actually let me clean this up a bit. here's how i would prioritize the money:

- emergency fund
- 401k up to company match
- Roth
- eliminate loans
- 401k up to max
- taxable investing

+1 to this. The only input I'd give is that I'd break up emergency fund into two stages.

First, keep at least 5k of the 50k for emergency fund now.

Then I'd go ahead and fund ~6 months of living expenses for a full emergency fund after you pay off loans.

Hi,
I have like $100kish sitting around in a savings account that I probably won't be spending in the foreseeable future, so I figure I should invest it somewhere. I don't think that it's such a significant amount of money that I really need to freak out about whether I can get 6% or 7% out of it or whatever.

I have an accountant who did my taxes and set up a ~$15k SEP for me. The SEP's just in some aggressive long-term John Hancock fund--which is basically entirely stocks. I could just ask him, but 1) I figure I might as well find a different fund to put this money in for diversification's sake and 2) he's annoying to work with and I don't think he actually adds value, so I'd rather just pick a fund on my own (unless that's really stupid).

USA

I'm a student right now, so my steady income is just ~$40k. I do various things in the poker world that earn me significantly more than this, but I'd rather not give a number on a poker forum.

I could imagine wanting to use this money to buy an apartment in a few years, so I think my risk tolerance is pretty low for this. Maybe that's stupid? My living expenses should be covered for the foreseeable future, though.

~5 years.

None.

5 years with low risk tolerance doesn't really offer you much flexibility. maybe do a CD ladder, or just leave it in a high yield savings account.

i'm with cohiba. you could also consider i bonds.

i'll add that i have heard only terrible, terrible things about john hancock. care to post the expense ratio you're paying on that JH fund you hold? get ready for some schadenfreude.

It's 1.45%. The fund is http://finance.yahoo.com/q;_ylt=Aj1v...button&s=JALGX .

Also, suppose my horizon were more like 8-10 years and I had medium risk. Then what would the advice be? I have no idea if I'm actually going to buy an apartment in the next few years.

1.45% is way too high for an all-in-one fund. I don't want to sound like I'm schilling for other companies but Vanguard and Fidelity have all-in-one funds that have much much cheaper expense ratio's. Disclaimer: I do buy all my mutual funds from Vanguard and Fidelity I am not making a recommendation that you utilize them, I am just stating a fact that they have all-in-one funds that have much cheaper expense ratio's.

If you upped you're horizon to 10 years and medium risk, then we can start expanding our investment options a little bit. You can build your own fund with say 60% stocks, 38% bonds and 2% short term cash reserves. Or, if you can look into an all in one fund that has like a 60/40 or stock to bond split.

Yeah. I know this fund is ****ty. I figured it wasn't worth the effort to try to do this myself because I figure the difference between a smart investment and a stupid investment of 15k is like a couple hundred dollars per year. So I just let my stupid incompetent accountant do it.

Edit: I'm confused now because this http://funds.us.reuters.com/US/funds...p?symbol=JALGX says that it has a "total expense ratio" of 0.56%

the only number that matters is the net expense ratio as listed in your account.

surely you contribute to your IRA each year, so that "couple hundred dollars per year" number is going to grow exponentially over time. this is why fees matter a great deal.

for me, 60/40 is too risky for "medium risk tolerance with a timeline of 10 years". the basic idea of using a diversified portfolio (whether target date or a 3 fund portfolio or whatever) tailored to when you need the money is correct.

Country you live in: Canada, GTA

Income: Poker, low 6 figs but had a losing year due to mtts

Risk Tolerance: Mid-High

Time frame for investment: Open

Debt: None currently

Any other information you might have that would help us

I'm currently 25 and purchased a property with my early poker winnings in 09 at preconstruction pricing, a condo about 250k. Right now I've paid 60k off and have another 150 or so just sitting around. So my questions are basically whether or not I should be paying off my condo when its ready or taking out a mortgage and using that money in some sort of investments. I will be living in my condo for a while but will probably end up selling it if the profit margin is high enough. Also its going to be ready in approx a year, is it worth doing anything with my money until then or should I just keep letting it sit. I don't know much about investing in general so any advice there is much appreciated.

Thanks

if someone asked you whether they should pay off a loan, what is the first question you would ask about that loan?

interest rate!

My first question would be how much do you owe, but he already gave us that...hmmm...I'm going to guess interest rate as the answer too!

AGE: 23 and 1 month

Just dropped $3k into VWNFX https://www.google.com/finance?q=VWN...sjtJ4PylgPCwQE

Have another 3200ish in VFFVX https://www.google.com/finance?q=MUT...vCBD5-slgOJnwE.

Is there any objections on these funds for someone my age? Im thinking i will put a monthly contribution like $100 (50/50). Any fund through vanguard that is a better bet for long term growth?

I will also be investing in a 401k either through my current job or a new job in the next month or so that will round out the portfolio and get tax benefits


I have been watching GSK https://www.google.com/finance?q=gsk...UrDyKIeUlgOuRQ to invest $1k into. I really want to get invested into some stocks with long term potential. Should i do this in a brokerage account or put it into retirement?

Whats peoples opinions on Closed ended funds for investment?

What's the purpose of the Windsor Fund? Why don't you just do the 2055 fund?