Investments?

• thedynasty1998

  

  I don't know of any financial advisors on here, but what are some investments you have and their performance? Whether it's bonds, real estate or the stock market? How do you diversify?
• Pick6

  

  Im into stocks. The first time I was in I mostly invested in banks and medical stocks. I also was dumb and got into some penny stocks and lost some money that way. I also gambled on the medical stocks (a drug gets approved, stock soars or if it gets declined, it drops a lot. I lost some money the first time I was in the market. I ended up taking all of it out at one point to buy my car in cash a little over a year ago.
  
  Got back in a couple months ago. Going a lot more conservative this time. I invested in a Japanese based medical stock right after the tsunami and an alternative energy stock just recently. I am actually considering getting into silver tomorrow. I think its at a pretty good buy-in price and wont go much lower if any at all. In the past couple months since I've been back in my account is up 11%.
• Pick6

  

  Also, I dont have the money for real estate yet seeing that Im still in college, but I would like to get into that when able.
• sleeper

  

  I'm all about ETFs. I use primarily vanguard funds primarily because they have low expense ratios(much lower in fact). It's practically impossible to pick stocks, and unless you have uber amounts of money, its fairly difficult to diversify without using a tool like an ETF.
• O-Trap

  

  I plan on being in foreign real estate when I can.
  
  As far as investments, it's all about going with what you know. I turned a $300 investment into about $32,500 profit my first year in. It was because it was a business model with which I had been professionally familiar.
• O-Trap

  

  Sleeper, what is the distinction between an ETF and the foreign exchange market?
• thedynasty1998

  

  sleeper;772358 wrote:I'm all about ETFs. I use primarily vanguard funds primarily because they have low expense ratios(much lower in fact). It's practically impossible to pick stocks, and unless you have uber amounts of money, its fairly difficult to diversify without using a tool like an ETF.

  
  I thought vanguard was expensive, something like $20 per trade after your first 10 or so?
• sleeper

  

  O-Trap;772362 wrote:Sleeper, what is the distinction between an ETF and the foreign exchange market?

  
  An ETF is like a mutual fund that trades actively like a stock. It has lower expense ratios and usually isn't actively managed, rather it just invests passively in whatever the ETF represents.
  
  A foreign exchange market is something entirely different. That deals with the trading of currencies and from what I've gathered is a giant cluster fuck trying to decipher how to play.
• sleeper

  

  O-Trap;772362 wrote:Sleeper, what is the distinction between an ETF and the foreign exchange market?

  
  An ETF is like a mutual fund that trades actively like a stock. It has lower expense ratios and usually isn't actively managed, rather it just invests passively in whatever the ETF represents.
  
  A foreign exchange market is something entirely different. That deals with the trading of currencies and from what I've gathered is a giant cluster fuck trying to decipher how to play.
• O-Trap

  

  sleeper;772369 wrote:An ETF is like a mutual fund that trades actively like a stock. It has lower expense ratios and usually isn't actively managed, rather it just invests passively in whatever the ETF represents.
  
  A foreign exchange market is something entirely different. That deals with the trading of currencies and from what I've gathered is a giant cluster fuck trying to decipher how to play.

  
  Ah, makes sense. I know a couple dozen people who trade on the ForEx market. Only two of them seem to do well at it, and they're the most engaged, so it CERTAINLY seems like a homework-intensive venture. I know next to nothing about ETFs though, which is why I asked.
  
  I prefer to invest in myself. I have more control over how that goes.
• sleeper

  

  thedynasty1998;772366 wrote:I thought vanguard was expensive, something like $20 per trade after your first 10 or so?

  
  You don't have to have vanguard as your broker in order to trade their ETFs. I do believe Vanguard offers free trades of their ETFs if you use them as your broker, although I do not use them so I have no idea.
• sleeper

  

  O-Trap;772396 wrote:Ah, makes sense. I know a couple dozen people who trade on the ForEx market. Only two of them seem to do well at it, and they're the most engaged, so it CERTAINLY seems like a homework-intensive venture. I know next to nothing about ETFs though, which is why I asked.
  
  I prefer to invest in myself. I have more control over how that goes.

  
  You really should get into ETFs. They are essentially mutual funds, but mutual funds are garbage and expensive.
• O-Trap

  

  I may consider it once I get my next big project off the ground to see if it has wings (I have a feeling it will).
  
  In doing so, I would be diversifying my investments, which is a good thing (said for the OP, not sleeper).
• Cat Food Flambe'

  

  Self-directed IRA's - mutual funds, split 65/35 between Vanguard and Schwab. I don't make many changes other that to reallocate the balances. I'm pretty conservative here and stick to the "classic" distribution model ( maybe a bit heavy on international stocks) - I'm no market guru, and this is the core of our retirement fund. I've netted about 10% per year over 25 years Exception - I had a 20% position in gold "paper" from 2005 until I chickened out about four months ago - tripled the investment in less than six years.
  
  For the company 401K's - I use a service that reviews the available options and recommends a mix every three months. I'm a little more aggressive here with the professional advice - it's easily worth the $350 a year I pay for it. Doing about 15% here over the eight years I've been using them, but some of that has been to a significant run-up in company match which has to be in form of company stock - just pure luck. I have to ride that pony downhill at some point in the future, I'm sure.
  
  It's not sexy, but we should have no problems retiring anytime after age 60.
• kayo

  Doesn't MPD teach a class in this? I think I heard that a time or four thousand.
• password

  

  BYD Cos.