Recommendation ? Investment strategies.

[POLLO]

Let's say that every month you stash away in a sock $1000 - $1500.00 every month after you cover the rest of your living, and entertainment expenses and currently you keep pumping that amount of cash in a savings account.

Where else would you recommend you stash this cash that you are doing nothing with it, or plan do to something within a year ? I do not own a house, and obviously that's wil be the plan, the burning question is where can I stash this cash. Leave it where it is ? Or look for other investment options ? ideas ?

[number_2]

i'm an advocate of mutual funds, because my parents, grandparents, and myself have pumped money into one for me my entire life, and it's now putting me through college.

only thing is, most mutual funds (at least the ones i've come into contact with) are geared towards long term investment. they try to pick safe companies that will grow in worth gradually over longer periods. of course, as with anything, there are high and low risk mutual funds. but in the short term (your year, for example), no matter what type of fund it is, i'd predict that the yield is likely to mirror the activity of the market as a whole.

[Dunecune442]

If you want a good sized profit dont bother with banks. However if you would like to take a risk then Id either put it in low risk or a mutual fund.

The bank would probably be your best bet if you have everything set up already, just waiting for the right time. However you will get very little in profit. I personaly like trading stocks. Short term, high risk low cost penny stocks are my favorite.

[Whaazup17]

fuck all that. Put it in a cd. Shit even 6 months with 10k at the bank I know at 3.05%
will bring in 25 dollars a month. I dont think that is to bad and you keep putting money in that just goes up and up

[XtremeVision]

wow, 25.00 a month on 10gs...wtf...thats shitty as hell...fuck, paypal pays 3.05% on your money..lol......there are much better ways to turn a profit on 10gs then with the bank, thats for sure...

[Charles]

If you are looking to be able pull this cash out at any time without penalty and want little to no risk of losing principle I would just look for the highest paying money market account you can find without any monthly maintenance/BS fees. If you dont mind some risk, chose bonds or stocks or a mixed blend of the two to buy into monthly. www.vanguard.com has a variety of funds to choose from usually only need 3k to start, there are many others out there too.

[Dunecune442]

I would personaly buy a house now with 10gs...

If your any good with stocks you can play with those.

Please note I said if you want the "safe" way you can bank it... I only have money in the bank in case of emergencies, nothing more than 2,000. Some people like using the bank, I dont.

Pollo how big of a house are you looking into? 10gs will take care of most of a downpayment.

[POLLO]

I would personaly buy a house now with 10gs...

If your any good with stocks you can play with those.

Please note I said if you want the "safe" way you can bank it... I only have money in the bank in case of emergencies, nothing more than 2,000. Some people like using the bank, I dont.

Pollo how big of a house are you looking into? 10gs will take care of most of a downpayment.

Im not particularly picky on my first home. Since Im single Im gonna focus on something like a condo, or a town home. I am aware on what it takes for a down payment on a home and the options that I have available.

I mentioned purchasing a place because its going to be my first major purchase, until I take that initial step, Im just stashing away what I have extra. . This does not include my 401k, emergency fund, ect. that i've been working on since I joined the workforce.

[Charles]

This does not include my 401k, that i've been working on since I joined the workforce.
When did they start offering benefits like this on the strawberry farms??

[POLLO]

When did they start offering benefits like this on the strawberry farms??


You'd be surprised the type of benefits they offer us strawberry field workers.

[Dunecune442]

move to plant city so the drive isnt TOO far. Either that or you can rent a trailer from your employer and watch the strawberries grow at night and sing them lullabyes. Ive heard they grow faster. :lol:

On a serious note I wasnt questioning your knowledge in this area. I was just giving you my choice if I were in a situation. Gotta love foreclosed homes...

[Whaazup17]

wow, 25.00 a month on 10gs...wtf...thats shitty as hell...fuck, paypal pays 3.05% on your money..lol......there are much better ways to turn a profit on 10gs then with the bank, thats for sure...

really? I got 5k in the bank. I got it in a savings account 2.57%. I am thinking about putting 4500 in a cd and 500 in the savings account. If you say that is a bad investment. Please tell me what you suggest I do with it?

[number_2]

savings accounts aren't really for investing. they're for saving. there's a difference, at least in my mind.

[Whaazup17]

yea? Then what do you say? EVerybody says mutual funds. I dont know if I really want to go that way...

[DeadSexY]

good stuff!

[number_2]

i already stated that mutual funds are my preferred method of investment. see above. they've worked out well for me in the past. the small print is that they seem to function best when used for long term investing rather than an easy way to make a quick buck. and the disclaimer is that all of this is simply my take, based on my own experiences.

[Amortized]

Let's say that every month you stash away in a sock $1000 - $1500.00 every month after you cover the rest of your living, and entertainment expenses and currently you keep pumping that amount of cash in a savings account.

Where else would you recommend you stash this cash that you are doing nothing with it, or plan do to something within a year ? I do not own a house, and obviously that's wil be the plan, the burning question is where can I stash this cash. Leave it where it is ? Or look for other investment options ? ideas ?

how much cash is in the sock currently? many investments require a certain amount to initially invest. What are you saving this money for? How bad would it be if you had a hole in your sock and a you lost a bunch of money? Basically, how risk averse are you? Being only a year, I wouldn't expect much of a return unless you invest in "pharmacuticals". But boy oh boy is that risky.

[Dunecune442]

yes, pharmaceuticals are probably the highest risk stock you can invest in. A company will have a great miracle drug thats going to hit the market and everybody buys into it and the stock soars!

Then the fucking FDA says no go and the company no longer exists :owned2:

[_Charles_]

The value in the house will increase MUCH faster than any reasonable investment. I judge investment homes as a possible risk, but a personal residence is 100% reccomended.

The average renter has a net worth of $4,000, while the average homeowner has a net worth of $150,000.

In your situation, I would find a way to buy your first home (or at least sign a contract at pre-construction prices to build one. The longer you wait, the harder it will be.

[Whaazup17]

What is the average returns on mutual funds?

[Whaazup17]

The value in the house will increase MUCH faster than any reasonable investment. I judge investment homes as a possible risk, but a personal residence is 100% reccomended.

The average renter has a net worth of $4,000, while the average homeowner has a net worth of $150,000.

In your situation, I would find a way to buy your first home (or at least sign a contract at pre-construction prices to build one. The longer you wait, the harder it will be.

yea right 150k maybe in 30 years. You don't own anything until then the bank does. They can take it just as fast.

[m0nk3y]

wow, 25.00 a month on 10gs...wtf...thats shitty as hell...fuck, paypal pays 3.05% on your money..lol......there are much better ways to turn a profit on 10gs then with the bank, thats for sure...


3.22.

ive got 10k sitting in paypal, looking for the right investment... kicking around a mutual fund.

[John]

yea right 150k maybe in 30 years. You don't own anything until then the bank does. They can take it just as fast.

:bsflag: you'd be surprised how hard it is to lose a home in FL. Its obvious you don't own a home. My average house earned me 60k in equity in 13 months. Name me an investment that can do that sort of return with the risk you face owning a home (virtually none).

[_Charles_]

yea right 150k maybe in 30 years. You don't own anything until then the bank does. They can take it just as fast.

I have $80k in equity in my house, and $60k in equity in my vehicles (equity means ABOVE what I owe on them). So...I'm at $140k. I've been a homeowner since 2000, so 5 years. I had $0 equity when I bought.

You were saying?

Charles

[POLLO]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

[Dunecune442]

If your going to be buying a home avoid buying in new areas such as new tampa. The market is very slow. Try buying in a very hot area such as tampa heights, parts of bayshore (trust me, there are places still for under 400k), new condos on channelside and surrounding area (lotts of people are re-financing in this area, meaning they are going shit broke trying to live a very expensive lifestyle). I myself have seen two homeowners being foreclosed on for debt.

[Whaazup17]

3.22.

ive got 10k sitting in paypal, looking for the right investment... kicking around a mutual fund.

3.22%. So you are saying I can transfer my money into pay pal and get 3.22% on it? Just like a savings account? Any hidden fees?

[Whaazup17]

3.22.

ive got 10k sitting in paypal, looking for the right investment... kicking around a mutual fund.


yea but I just found out it's a money market NOT FDIC secruced

[_Charles_]

If your going to be buying a home avoid buying in new areas such as new tampa. The market is very slow. Try buying in a very hot area such as tampa heights, parts of bayshore (trust me, there are places still for under 400k), new condos on channelside and surrounding area (lotts of people are re-financing in this area, meaning they are going shit broke trying to live a very expensive lifestyle). I myself have seen two homeowners being foreclosed on for debt.

Ummm...what kind of world do you live in? Not ours! $400k is way too much for us. Hell, $275k is pushing it for most TR members. Sounds like you com efrom a family with $$$.

[XtremeVision]

If your going to be buying a home avoid buying in new areas such as new tampa. The market is very slow. Try buying in a very hot area such as tampa heights, parts of bayshore (trust me, there are places still for under 400k), new condos on channelside and surrounding area (lotts of people are re-financing in this area, meaning they are going shit broke trying to live a very expensive lifestyle). I myself have seen two homeowners being foreclosed on for debt.

man, you need to wisen up quite a bit...new tampa is one of the hottest markets in tampa right now...prices have doubled on a lot of houses from 5 years ago...also, my last house in new tampa i had for just over a year and made 41k...hmm, ya, thats pretty slow return....riiight....the house i own now, i bought for 232 in feb...house 3 doors down with no pool and a smaller yard then mine just sold for 310k....new tampa is hot and has increased 20-30% last year..and its still going....

[Rdline1]

if you dont plan on buying a home right now, id seriously look into investing into an energy-geared mutual fund. check out www.morningstar.com . its a great website for mutual funds and id advise just scrolling through various energy funds and looking at the recent performance. you'd be surprised ;-)

[_Charles_]

id advise just scrolling through various energy funds and looking at the recent performance. you'd be surprised ;-)

Never look at 'recent performance'.

WHY CONSISTENCY MATTERS If, despite what we’ve said, you still think that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, consider the behavior of two different growth funds: Smith Barney Aggressive Growth A and Sentinel Small Company A. Both funds have great records, producing total returns of more than 300 percent in the 10 years since 1994. When Herbert at Morningstar tracked investor money flowing in and out of each fund from December 1997 to June 2004, however, he found that their investors saw vastly different results:

Although both funds had roughly similar annualized rates of return, about 14 percent, investors in Sentinel Small Company A earned an average of 15.3 percent annually, while Smith Barney Aggressive Growth A fund customers averaged 6.1 percent a year.

Why did Smith Barney Aggressive Growth A’s investors fare so much worse than its listed returns? Many people piled into the fund in 1999 and 2000, after it had enjoyed extremely high gains. (See the bar graph below.) Many then pulled out after the fund stumbled in 2001 and 2002. Sentinel Small Company A, which didn’t offer as much temptation to investors in 1999, didn’t collapse in 2002 in the market downturn. Investors tended to stay with the fund and, as a result, got the listed returns and a bit more.

Stephen Cohn, a financial planner in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., and co-author of “The Sage Guide to Mutual Funds,” says volatile investments are much more costly than people realize. Investors lose money when they panic and bail out at the wrong time. Volatile funds also tend to have higher internal costs because their managers choose strategies based on heavy trading and, sometimes, more borrowing to increase the fund’s exposure to a hot trend.

Bottom line. Investors would do better to pick a fund with above-average gains and a history of repeating its performance than to find the fund with the showiest returns.

[Rdline1]

Never look at 'recent performance'.

"recent" is not meant in this case as the last 6 months, for the past 3-4 years energy funds have been growing, and with China's increasing demand for fuel and energy, along with the U.S.'s, i dont see energy funds going anywhere but up in the next year or two.....

[m0nk3y]

yea but I just found out it's a money market NOT FDIC secruced


you arent going to find anywhere above savings rates with this kind of liquidity.

-edit- according to number_2, ING has some fdic insured funds, but has no idea of its liquidity, or restrictions.

[John]

if it's insured, you're never going to make much, if any money, b/c you are taking no risk.