Thread: Investing Advice

I would talk to someone at smith barney, jp morgan (stay away from jp marlin) and or merril lynch...thats your best bet........

A friend of mine has a Roth IRA account, i don't but i probably should have started one years ago.

My best advice to you man is start early. Get a house fix it up and RENT it. 30 years from now u will thank me. I'm fixing to do this myself, I plan to hire a property manage to manage funds and maintence so I won't have to worry. When doing this make sure you have at least 6 months of mortgage payments in the bank. But property never fails man. I plan to have over 10 when I'm through. But I'm starting to draw up plans for my next home. I want it custom. But yea get ur retirenment going, forget about it, then start an alternate fund for your early retirement then focus on ur property. Property is the best, personally i think its as good as gold. Hard work but I've seen people really do well cause of it. So that's my plan. As far as playing the stock market... wait for the war to end. My dad lost 10000 in the period of two days in the tsp fund. I use tsp as well but my numbers are small now. From what I can tell you got a good head on ur shoulders. Think about it early in life and MAKE IT HAPPEN. Hell I'm 24 so im still learning and realatively young. But your on the right track man.
SPEEDY/PuN^

Originally Posted by CivilWars

When/if you call a broker/agent ask them to let you see their portfolio. $100 says they won't because most don't take their own advice. They are sales people trained to sell you the flavor of the month.

I'm not a fan of stocks because it is mainly the bigger sucker theory. I buy something now hoping that a bigger sucker comes along in the future to buy it for more.

More millionaires have been made in real estate, and more millionaires hold their money in real estate, than any other investment vehicle.

all depends, on where you are buying the property/what kind of property it is etc, don't be so hard on the stock brokers.....$100 dollars won't even get you a real estate property call back either.....it all depends on what you invest it in etc.....that's why i mentioned a Roth IRA plan, that way you can't touch it for a certain number of years and it makes interest, or so what i have heard.

I am not a Real Estate broker anymore, but i def am not a stock broker, nor have my cfa or passed any of the series tests (many hear of the series 7 test). My advice is to check the web, look up investment firms, as your parents, ask your parents friends who are in finance, and so on.

That will lead you to the right door step.

dont go to jp morgan unlesss you have half a million that's all they'll fuck with.. Trust me i tried. I have a friend who works as a broker.

I'm young too man, but my dad is really into investment strategies and has done quite well for himself, and he always preaches one word to me: Diversify. Invest some in "cheap" stocks/bonds/mutual funds; Put a very small amount of money into things that are cheap and look like they'll have a high return rate, that way if it plumits no worries, but if you strike gold, then that'll be a pretty nice return (smaller startup tech companies usually have good returns). Also invest some into bluechip stocks; US Steel, AT&T, Oil Companies, Microsoft, IBM (think somebody mentioned most of these already?). These next two could be tricky unless you have a nice chunk of change to drop down. The first is real-estate / property; this is (in my opinion) the best thing you can possibly invest in; stocks will come and go, but there is only so much land out there. Finally, invest some into "material goods"; diamonds/gold/other minerals are great investments that almost always have a HUGE return rate, and can be a nice way to make THOUSANDS of dollars over a period of a few months. Hope this helps you out some man.

I haven't seen this listed yet so I'll say it this way...

Use the advantages of putting money away tax deferred first...that is a 401(k) plan or such...your money is taken out of your paycheck pre-tax...then you don't pay taxes on it until you withdraw it...hopefully at retirement...

That function right there along with the compounding interest is too good to be true...what is the lowest tax bracket now ? 15 % ....that's an immediate 15% return on your investment...compounded for 40 years or so....$$$$$

Also another thought is the idea of "dollar cost averaging" ...it was brought up in a previous post...but when you buy over time, such as a regular deduction from a payroll....you are able to even out the highs and the lows of the market...instead of trying to time the market...which is a strategy that not more than 2 or 3 people have ever done successfully...