Does anyone invest?

porchdweller

Ishares.com or etfconnect.com

Two great sites. Just curious, Why? wouldn't they be for you. The only drawback to them is their inability to dollar cost average (invest monthly sytematically).

Byrnzie

onelongsong wrote:

i live in an area where gold is easily found in streams and dry washes. nature walks can be quite profitable.

But you live nowhere? Are you perchance a woodsman? Grizzly Adams stylie? How do you get internet access up there in the big beyond? Have you got a bicycle generated turbine or something? And...and...errm...and...have you ever fought a bear in single unarmed combat?

he still stands

miller8966 wrote:

Im recently gotten into making a few investments. Besides my 401 k i have a Roth Ira with oppenheimer and a 1000 5 month cd from the bank. Im looking to make some other investments ( maybe with fidelity) and am just wondering if anyone here has any experience in the field.

Currently im reading : rich dad poor dad...good book by the way.

those aren't investments they are savings plans.

miller8966

he still stands wrote:

those aren't investments they are savings plans.

yea but savings can go down the shitter..so you have to invest your savings.

onelongsong

Byrnzie wrote:

But you live nowhere? Are you perchance a woodsman? Grizzly Adams stylie? How do you get internet access up there in the big beyond? Have you got a bicycle generated turbine or something? And...and...errm...and...have you ever fought a bear in single unarmed combat?

since you asked; i live on a buffalo ranch in the rocky mtns. my power is solar; my internet and tv is satellite (hughes.net). never fought a bear but had some run ins with rattlesnakes and almost a mtn lion.
my goal is in medical research as the cures for several diseases are found in buffalo. before i die i hope to own the biggest bison herd in the world and maybe get the nobel peace prize for my research in finding a cure for cancer. a buffalo must be "raised in the wild" to have the full medical value (such as the amount of CLA found in the meat) and the industry is now raising them like cattle because it brings higher profits in a shorter time. this greatly lowers the medicinal benefits and you; the consumer; are paying higher prices for health benefits you are not receiving. for example; if you've ever had a buffalo burger; beef suet was added unless you bought (or the store/resturant) it from me.
if you're still confused i'll gladly discuss this further.

sweet adeline

i invest for a living. financial planning actually.

buy some no-load index funds, like vanguard or dfa, that mimic the various world markets. not many investors or investment managers can consistently beat the market, so why pay someone to fail when you can invest and track the market for relatively no cost?

onelongsong

sweet adeline wrote:

i invest for a living. financial planning actually.

buy some no-load index funds, like vanguard or dfa, that mimic the various world markets. not many investors or investment managers can consistently beat the market, so why pay someone to fail when you can invest and track the market for relatively no cost?

that's why i said invest in land. a person buying a large amount of land can sell parcels or blocks of land for developement later in life and always make enough to live on. land that sold for under $50.00/acre here in the late '70's is worth $3000.00 now. and this is basically worthless high desert unless you raise cattle or buffalo. yet 40 acre and smaller parcels sell like hotcakes.

sweet adeline

onelongsong wrote:

that's why i said invest in land. a person buying a large amount of land can sell parcels or blocks of land for developement later in life and always make enough to live on. land that sold for under $50.00/acre here in the late '70's is worth $3000.00 now. and this is basically worthless high desert unless you raise cattle or buffalo. yet 40 acre and smaller parcels sell like hotcakes.

while real estate is not a bad investment, it doesn't give you enough diversification and it can be highly illiquid.

equity markets outperform real estate over the long haul anyway. you should never put all your investments in one place, even if its land as you suggested.

onelongsong

sweet adeline wrote:

while real estate is not a bad investment, it doesn't give you enough diversification and it can be highly illiquid.

equity markets outperform real estate over the long haul anyway. you should never put all your investments in one place, even if its land as you suggested.

i can agree with that. i guess i have a knack for picking what realestate will be the next to skyrocket. i'm about to make 6 times what i paid for property bought last april (2006). i bought this property based on the current trend in/near L.A. and looked where people were moving to.

sweet adeline

onelongsong wrote:

i can agree with that. i guess i have a knack for picking what realestate will be the next to skyrocket. i'm about to make 6 times what i paid for property bought last april (2006). i bought this property based on the current trend in/near L.A. and looked where people were moving to.

do you 1031 exchange your properties or do you just take the gains and pay the taxes? doing a 1031 can be a good way to defer taxes on the properties you are buying and selling.

onelongsong

sweet adeline wrote:

do you 1031 exchange your properties or do you just take the gains and pay the taxes? doing a 1031 can be a good way to defer taxes on the properties you are buying and selling.

i'll do the 1031 (starker?) when it applies. as a rancher; i get great tax benefits because land is business related. if i sell land to reinvest in more land it works out ok.

Byrnzie

onelongsong wrote:

i can agree with that. i guess i have a knack for picking what realestate will be the next to skyrocket. i'm about to make 6 times what i paid for property bought last april (2006). i bought this property based on the current trend in/near L.A. and looked where people were moving to.

I know someone who was in the year below me at school who is now worth £6ooo,ooo from buying and renting properties. Like you say, he had a knack for picking the right areas to buy property in. I wish I'd gotten onto the property market here in the U.K 10 years earlier. A house worth £40K ten years ago would now go for about £200k - £250k.
I'm just beginning to climb the property ladder now. I'm still just stepping off the first rung though, and looking to buy another property next year.

onelongsong

Byrnzie wrote:

I know someone who was in the year below me at school who is now worth £6ooo,ooo from buying and renting properties. Like you say, he had a knack for picking the right areas to buy property in. I wish I'd gotten onto the property market here in the U.K 10 years earlier. A house worth £40K ten years ago would now go for about £200k - £250k.
I'm just beginning to climb the property ladder now. I'm still just stepping off the first rung though, and looking to buy another property next year.

i don't like rentals because the bloody renters don't respect what isn't theirs. i started with rentals and the profits were low. mostly because of repairs and especially the cleaning and repairs when they move out. it's best to bank your profits from renting for these repairs. i've found that you only make the profits when you sell. a bloke can really mess up a place when he doesn't do the regular maintainence you'd expect a renter to do. like vacuum and the like.

onelongsong

onelongsong wrote:

i don't like rentals because the bloody renters don't respect what isn't theirs. i started with rentals and the profits were low. mostly because of repairs and especially the cleaning and repairs when they move out. it's best to bank your profits from renting for these repairs. i've found that you only make the profits when you sell. a bloke can really mess up a place when he doesn't do the regular maintainence you'd expect a renter to do. like vacuum and the like.

i don't like giving advise in case i'm wrong; but i found that cities will get worse and people will move outside of them. being a country bloke; i naturally swayed towards rural land. i thought my first parcel was remote and everyone advised against it; but 5 years afterwards it was a subdivision so you never know. you also take the risk of someone putting a dump or something next to the property but i think rural land in england is a great investment. the population is always going to grow.

kenny olav

fidelity sucks.