Who Invests??

[KC Bimmer]

That's good that you're getting secured credit. Good luck getting everything built back up. I'm not trying to be a prick, but is owning an E90 really the smartest thing to do given your past history?

[ADHD]

Originally Posted by KC Bimmer

That's good that you're getting secured credit. Good luck getting everything built back up. I'm not trying to be a prick, but is owning an E90 really the smartest thing to do given your past history?

NO your not being a prick Id kinda wonder the same too BUT,,Yes actually I own my E90 and an 02 z71 truck..I own a house as well so what else do I need to do with my money??? I only filed bankrupcy for a 10k mishap cause some lady tried to sue me for her car for her mistake...Id rather filed bankrupcy and protect my assest then have her after 10k+ Cause I knew my grandparents were ill and Id have all there things soon so I needed to protect that! Grandparents are gone know and I have there money and Im not about to give 10k to that lady so thats why I filed BK. now im investing and trying to get back up..Thanks for your concerns and any advice would be appreciated

[KC Bimmer]

Good to hear! Sounds like you're pretty risk adverse, so I guess I'd personally recommend some bonds or CD's (you can find them 5.50% + right now). I've been happy in the stock market over the past several years (not recently however) with some solid gains. If you find a good advisor, they are worth their weight in gold; however, the wrong one can be devestating (I had some money tied up for a few years with a bad one). Best of luck investing!

[lumbergh]

I'm an investor by trade I guess you could say, I do it both for myself and others. That is not the norm though so I will comment on my observations of others.

The one thing I notice is that when people start early and invest often, typically systematic, it becomes almost addictive and you don't like to blow money once you have it. Those people tend to think real hard before spending money and that works out pretty well. You start to realize that if you sell an investment to buy something you not only give up the value of that investment but also the future growth potential.

When I see people randomly and kind of half assed make investments they don't seem to stick with it, make good investment decisions or save much.

I think stocks are the best investment in general if you can tolerate volatility, have the time to do proper research or want to pay someone to do it. I'm not talking about your average broker though 80% of them are sales people disguised as advisors but 20 percent are very very good it just takes some research to find the right one. They will not generally charge commissions but a fee for managing the money.

Don't get me wrong I invest in real estate as well. Real estate is not better but people in general are better at investing in real estate than stocks and here's the two main reasons why.

1. They can see if the door is hanging off or if it's an ugly color or if the roof needs replacing. They can see if it's priced too high compared to other houses. The average person has a very difficult time doing this with stocks. The same people that will scrutinize a piece of real estate and pick just the right property will stick half their money in a stock that they know nothing about because they got a tip from a buddy whose buddy works for the company. They usually do well in the real estate and bad in the stock because they didn't research the stock or even have the ability to properly do it but they did research the real estate. Anyone can research real estate.

2. You can leverage the crap out of real estate which can be substantially rewarding where you can't do that as much with stocks.

3. I know I said two but there is a third. There is not a centralized market place for real estate like a stock exchange so prices don't move as fast which enables a novice more time to make better decisions and it is 100% negotiated so deals can be found because of sellers that are in a bad situation or the house needs work, etc.

For the record I invest the majority of my money in stocks but I have a lot of experience in it which helps. Stocks can be wonderful going up or down if you know what you're doing. Real estate is a good place to start in my opinion.

Go to any of the broker websites and use the retirement calculator to find out how much you really need for retirement, make sure you include inflation. I think you'll be quite suprised to see how much you really need.

I know that was long but hopfully it helps.

Oh yeah...Investor's Business Daily is great for novice stock investors.

[ska///235i]

I invest my money in a local bank with a 00000000000.00000000 % apr
now thats a save investment with a dawmm good return......"Diversification"

jokes aside...use to put a lil money on stocks, but didnt do too well...
now i only have ING CDs with a 4-5% apr...peanut return, but is save

[spots]

My wife and I invest in real estate. We try to purchase a house a year (or 18 months). Been doing this for the past 12 years. Being a landlord has its moments but generally is good. Example: we have 2 houses which net $9200 per year and we purchased with 25k down. Others give us $6800 per year with 18k down payment. Once the money ball starts rolling it is easy to get more. I will never put a dime in the stock markets. My wife owns tons of stocks and she does well there. I started investing when I was 18 when I purchased my first house. I am 39 now.

[E90-4life]

real estate biatch. The best investment you can make. Wait until the next big quake hits SoCal, can't wait (i know that sounds bad), even more properties to buy and more people moving the (bleep) out!!!

[monolith]

SoCal has waaaaaay passed the point where you will be making money, the median home in LA is $561,000.

[E90-4life]

Originally Posted by monolith

SoCal has waaaaaay passed the point where you will be making money, the median home in LA is $561,000.

It's insane, but won't last forever. Most peoplp can't even afford to buy a house here. Good for those that are home owners though.

[ward]

Originally Posted by monolith

SoCal has waaaaaay passed the point where you will be making money, the median home in LA is $561,000.

for real!!!

most people see all the gains that were had in real estate and expect it to continue.

a 600,000 house may double, but a good stock market investment may increase many times more than double, if you catch a good company early it's easy to get returns of 100X, look at early investors in apple, starbucks, wallmart.......

find me any real estate that's got that potential..........

also keep in mind with real estate you're paying HUGE taxes (tax deductable) and pretty good size realtor fees every time you move (isn't it about 6%??)

[a_moux]

I have $$$ in a mutual fund only because I know very little about investing. I had saved up some $$$ and really hated the idea of my money just sitting there so I thought about investing and went with the mutual fund. I'm not too impressed with the results though and it fluctuates alot. At one point it grew to $500 over my initial deposited amount and right now I think it's at around $300 over. The way I see it, someone is using my money to get themselves rich and is leaving me a small share of the profit just to show some positive statistics. I'd really like to learn more about stocks, just haven't gotten around to actually sit down and read a book.

[findtom]

Originally Posted by ward

for real!!!

most people see all the gains that were had in real estate and expect it to continue.

a 600,000 house may double, but a good stock market investment may increase many times more than double, if you catch a good company early it's easy to get returns of 100X, look at early investors in apple, starbucks, wallmart.......

find me any real estate that's got that potential..........

also keep in mind with real estate you're paying HUGE taxes (tax deductable) and pretty good size realtor fees every time you move (isn't it about 6%??)

I'd have to say it's also about as easy to make bad stock investments as it is to make a bad real estate investment. At least real estate is an investment you can live in if the market dips. I'm 25 and pretty much my only investment in the place I live in... I researched it carefully, negociated hard on the price and I have realistic expectations in terms of return.... which it seems so far (it has been about a year) should be realized.

Thanks for posting that motley fool pdf btw... very interesting.

[ward]

Originally Posted by findtom

I'd have to say it's also about as easy to make bad stock investments as it is to make a bad real estate investment. At least real estate is an investment you can live in if the market dips. I'm 25 and pretty much my only investment in the place I live in... I researched it carefully, negociated hard on the price and I have realistic expectations in terms of return.... which it seems so far (it has been about a year) should be realized.

Thanks for posting that motley fool pdf btw... very interesting.

I think it's probably way easier to pick a bad stock than a bad home..

probably ideally people should have both.....

as the wu tang financial group said on the chappelle show "you need to diversify your bonds nigguh!"

[ska///235i]

Originally Posted by E90-4life

Wait until the next big quake hits SoCal, can't wait (i know that sounds bad), even more properties to buy and more people moving the (bleep) out!!!

you are F'ed up.......

can't beleive you can say things like that....just for money

[BeeEmDubU]

anyone here do foreign currency exchange (arbitrage)? i'm looking to get into this and was wondering if anyone can give me any info. one of my co-workers made over 300k doing this

http://economics.about.com/cs/money/l/aa022703b.htm

[lumbergh]

Originally Posted by BeeEmDubU

anyone here do foreign currency exchange (arbitrage)? i'm looking to get into this and was wondering if anyone can give me any info. one of my co-workers made over 300k doing this

http://economics.about.com/cs/money/l/aa022703b.htm

4x is one of the most risky markets to get involved in. It is hugely leveraged and moves extremely fast. People do get lucky but I have yet to meet an individual not working for a major investment firm that has done well consistently for a long peroid of time. When people are good they get paid millions to invest for proprietary money management firms and they implement risk based strategies so they don't eventually lose everything. I knew someone who did quite well for about 10 months, just enough to get comfortable with big dollar amounts, until the geopolitical environment changed a little and then ZAP all their money disappeared within a very short period of time.

Plus you have to be up in the middle of the night to trade if you live in the U.S.

[E90-4life]

Originally Posted by ska

you are F'ed up.......

can't beleive you can say things like that....just for money

blah blah bleeping blah... it's reality. That's how most of everyone here has been able to make as much money as they have off of real estate, it's a viscous cycle, no room for the faint of heart.

[ska///235i]

wahever makes you happy

[Synikal]

Gold/Silver is where its at! I believe our money (USD) isn't going to do us any good in the near future. And China is going to buy us, because we seem to trade money for everything decreasing its value/rate. I also have 401(k) and Bonds/Mutal Funds.

[KC Bimmer]

I prefer the returns on real estate. Picture this scenario:

The key is finding a good buy (Purchasing it for LESS than what it's worth). Put 20k down on a duplex with a purchase price of 100k (but a value of 110k).

Right away, your 20k has a 50% return and is worth 30k. Now, rent both sides out. It would be easy to make a profit of $400 a month or so. Watch as your duplex appreciates lets say 5% (on the low end) every year. After year one, it's worth $115,500. After year 2, $121,275. So after two years, you have more than doubled your money, had someone else paying down the mortgage, and can sell the duplex and purchase two more and let them appreciate.

Sounds good on paper. Nothing goes completely as planned, but I find it has significantly better returns than stocks.

[ward]

that would never work out here though KC, purchase prices are so high (out of base with rentals) that you would be incredibly lucky if you could even get rentals to break even, most likely even with both sides rented you'd still have to pay some additional monthlies....

when you can't rent the thing out for enough money, the plan falls apart

[deutschmann59]

Originally Posted by Synikal

Gold/Silver is where its at! I believe our money (USD) isn't going to do us any good in the near future. And China is going to buy us, because we seem to trade money for everything decreasing its value/rate. I also have 401(k) and Bonds/Mutal Funds.

Ha ha, until there's another government gold confiscation!

I've invested in some American Eagle coins, but I don't know what's worse...investing in something sure like gold and then have it taken from you in a crisis by the government, or invest in stocks and bonds and have your shares and dollars devalue in a crisis because of the economy.

You just can't win. Of course, they say the government wouldn't confiscate gold jewelery or even gold coins with numismatic value. So if you invest in gold, invest in rare coins or at least ones with numismatic value!

You guys with mutual funds, what do you think about Vanguard mutual funds? If I'm reading it right, their expense ratio is only about .23%.