Who here has started to invest some of their money?

wazawski

Member
So I don't have a whole lot in savings, however I do have a few grand that I would love to see grow till I'm ready to buy a house/nice car. Basically what I'm saying is, I've got a few grand that I'm willing to invest and not be able to touch for 10 years or so. Basically, where should I start? Anyone else here in their early 20's that have started to invest some of their money? When I say "see my money grow", I know that 3 grand won't turn into a million. But cash sitting in savings for ten years will gain chump change which is why I'm looking to invest and earn some real interest. So for my fellow NSer's who have started invested at a young age, what was you approach? Like I said, not expecting to get rich, just better off than if I had let my money sit in Chase savings and gain .01% interest.
 
Invest in precious metals.

I wish I had been able to borrow mad loot and invest. Still doubled my 1700 that I had saved up from dishwashing back in the day. Took about 2 years. Would have tripled it if I was still in.

Invested in pan american silver bullion. I had a 100 ounce bar, and 5 10 ounce bars of .999 pan american silver minted by NWT mint in oregon.

I was like a fucking pirate. Too bad nobody would let me borrow mad loot to invest and make us both money. Instead I could only invest a little and most people got raped because they're retarded and invested in shitty stocks.
 
yeah, you're in a much shittier spot now than when i invested. With the recession coming it was pretty obvious I was gonna do well.

Now it could take a long time before price really spike. Would need some more economic shit storm or a real run on silver to bid it up. Also not a quick way to make a buck.

I have friends invest in me though. I'm good at turning things into cash. I'm like a real life alchemist. Found bacon on the ground at mountain jam last year and sold it. Sold somebody bad advice at jones beach for a buck. God I love capitalism.
 
I do the safe thing and max out my retirement accounts at work. That plus time and a state pension is the real deal. Not gonna lie though, I don't trust that shit 100%, so I'm doing my best to learn some skills im NOT good at or need improving. Construction and general handyman stuff, gardening, hunting and fishing, just getting better at living life simply. Its an investment in myself.
 
i work for a financial service company. investing in terms of 10 years with a couple grand is way too risky. if you are looking for something with greater interest than your chase account, look into some cds or bonds. both are extremely conservative investments that offer "guaranteed" return.
 
Nothing too serious but i have some GLW, aka Corning Glass for their new bendable Gorilla Glass 2 years ago. Would have banked $400 had I sold now I'm down a ton. Need to just wait it out though.
 
so coming from a about to be finance major.

be careful and try to put your money on more than 4 or 5 horses (much more wont be feasible with 3k).

anyone that tells you some "legit information" apart from diversification lies or has no clue. why would anyone with an information that is worth ANYTHING even bother with telling it others when he could make millions the next day at the SE?

so my advice would be a portfolio of bonds of 1-2 big banks in "emerging markets" (right now brazil, australia, new zealand) and protect yourself with some stable, low revenue bonds from another country/branch. be happy if you make 2 percent above the riskfree rate and live your life.

 
muni bonds for safe returns over a long period of time. wont get you much but its better than your bank account
 
agree.

finance major here now working at morgan stanley.

Seriously the growth these guys are putting on all kinds of managed accounts on average is only like 5% a year tops. Yea you doubled your money, but with an enormous risk. Most people don't put that risk on there money
 
Well what are you looking for?

large gains, high risk?

small gains, low risk?

the best way to make money is in the stock market, the problem with that is you need to know what to invest in. For example, 5 years ago if someone invested in apple they would have doubled their money by now.

Chipotle is the same way just in less time, in 2 years they went from around 100 dollars a share to 440 at one point. I really wish I ate at chipotle 2 years ago.

Verizon was another one that had good gains in 2 years, at 26.52 currently at 44.90

so you really need to do a lot of research, any of the companies I have mentioned would still be a good investment today as they are still growing just not at the rapid rate they were before.

If you are looking for a low risk, check out a bond. you will get a guaranteed % of growth although now much it is better then your savings account.
 
bond and gic ladders and remember that silver doesn't work the same way as gold. silver is still very much tied into industrial uses, which means a strong economy means high demand for silver and high prices. a recession means low industrial demand and low prices. since it looks like we are heading towards another global recession i would consider shorting silver with the ZSL etf. look what happened within 7 days to this stock when the first recession hit. then look at SLV.
 
I bought around 300 bucks worth of CN stock when it was close to 40 bucks, sold it not too long ago and it was at around 80 bucks. Was a pretty cool experience I guess.
 
I had $2,500 to play around with a few years ago and was toying with investing it all in Ford when the company hit rock bottom as the stock was valued at like $1.50. I knew that ford, an american icon would not shut its doors - but i still wasn't confident cause it was such a huge amount of money (to me) at the time

Instead I invested it all in GE which was about $8 a share at that time...GE made a nice turn around and is somewhere near $20 today so I know what you mean about doubling your money so quick

But i do the math every time and realize if I went with my gut and invested in Ford I would have made over 30 grand! Kick myself in the ass all the time over that decision...guess thats why they say hindsight is 20/20
 
Although I know absolutely nothing about investment, in my eyes gold is a bubble that will burst sooner or later. It's been on the up and up for a lonnggggg time now, and everything has to come crashing down at some point.
 
i've got 12g that i'll be moving around in the next few months. gotta meeting scheduled with my financial adviser for the first week of august.. i do pretty well though
 
gonna be buying a house soon, pretty big investment. felt it was a better idea than simply throwing my money at rent and never getting it back.
 
best idea -

I have property in London and America - plus money is cheap at the minute and prices are down... 30 yr mortgage fixed at 3.5% is a great deal.

If you can, do it - plus the (slight) tax deductions from mortgage interest and property taxes...

You will see that money again - unlike rent....

Plus if you move and rent it out, it covers your mortgage and pays for itself - and/or gives you a passive income from renting rooms to room mates etc.

 
gotta quote for emphasis.

I have a couple condos and there is nothing better than getting a big fat rent check every month for not doing anything.

Look for a HUD or something with a live in restriction if you want the best deal.
 
gonna set a lot of people straight in this thread, I too was a finance major-i now work as a analyst at a intelligence company/firm in NYC.

You only have a few grand, dont diversify like people were saying, if you invest in 5 different companies after trading costs 1buy 1sell youre out 70$ per full transaction-say you invest 2500$ you need to make about 2.8% per transaction to just to cover costs... not a good deal.

Screw having a savings account...dont give the bank an interest free loan when they give you .05% leave it under your mattress...the most liquid your money could ever be and you allways have access to it.

Someone mentioned safe investments bonds/cs's at 2% are you kidding me...congratulations on making an investment that's not even beating inflation. The best way to go is an insured muni bond...you could find some pushing 5.25-6% its insured so you have guaranteed returns and its triple tax exempt on top of that.

you could even get about 2% dividend on a blue chip company.

The market is super overvalued as it it now i see down side coming a huge sell off before september...you could play QE3 when that drops too.

TO who was talking about metals-its not a terriable time to get in, prices have fallen a lot-I called the 1900$ oz gold 'bubble' last year by the way just didnt take any action. There is upside especially if the dollar get weaker.

If your playing/want to play the dolar you could get in to an ETF against the EURO since the USD is so much stronger than it has been lately and bound to collapse at some point.

YOu could play this drought now corn prices have gone through the roof, its going to be much more expensive to feed hogs so most likely the supply of hog/cattle will increase becasue farmed cant afford to feed them.

Remember investing takes a ton of work. you need to look at financials/management/press releases/new/whats the fed doing/its a lot of work

some companies I Like ANW, BTU, F at 8.85$, any shipping companies heavily in LNG for the next 2 years, DIG (i see oil reaching 100 again) BAC isnt going to fail anytime soon could hit 9 on an upswing in the fall, you could play znga on facebook's earning...the opportunities are endless

 
BUILD A PORTFOLIO NOW.

DETAIL EXACTLY WHAT YOU WOULD DO WITH LETS SAY 50k. i will then calculate the portfolio value and come back in a year or two.

no offense but i have heard too many analysts talk like that and yet so few experts manage to beat the market.

large hedge funds and their respective managers: around 10% have actually beat the market last year and rarely has this number been above .500.

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Oh without a doubt analyst are always wrong...look at before the crash in 08 no Lehman bros/ bear sterns were still are highly regarded by most even the morning they crashed

it all depends on what risk tolerance your looking at, I just took a look bond now for example, if you dont want that much risk there you go guaranteed 6% return annually.

ST LOUIS MO ARPT REV REV BDS yielding 6% maturing in 2013 BBB rating but insured by MBIA and FGIC

If you want a lot of risk on a 3-5 years scale In my honest opinion short the hell out of the market and the dollar
 
Agreed. If you are in a situation where you know you can swing the purchase of a home, it is a great investment.

Purchased myself back in February 2011. Got a steal during the winter of someone looking to payoff the remaining balance of their mortgage. Walked into the place with an instant $15k of equity based off the appraisal. Furthermore, this purchase was done with nearly zero impact to our monthly expenses.
 
thing is, he is in canada, the housing market has not reacted the same way as the united states. buying a house in the canadian housing market now is retarded to say the least. would you buy a stock at its 52 week high with no chance of blowing past its moving average? no. the housing market is very much inflated here. for example, a shoe box condo in toronto, where it has the highest rate of condo vacancies in the world is still worth over 350,000 on average.
 
not necessarily, all depends on where you live-

99% of people on NS wont have a 750 credit score and 20% to put down to get a 3.5% rate

Its all dependent on where you live-property tax is the killer.

My town for example (75 miles north of NYC) 1/2acre house around 350k youre looking at 10g annually in property tax

2 acres 500k house looking at 17k annually in property tax

lets use a benchmark of 10g's property tax and 4% apr on a 30 year morgage: youre paying 300k in property tax alone-say you financeed 240K (thats with a 20% down payment) youre paying about 172k in interest over the term of your loan. If youre home doesnt appreciate by 475k in 30 years you basiaclly lose money.

youre 300k home in 2012 needs to be worth 775k in 2042....if you look at the past 30 years house prices havent increased by 158%...
 
seems pretty risky man.

i'd invest in waffles. waffles and maple syrup. lots and lots of waffles. i'm a pro at money and shit. and waffles. and maple syrup.
 
dont buy stocks.

one guy suggested putting it under your mattress. honestly, not a bad idea.

i put about $400 a month into a tax free savings account.

makes a little interest (VERY little).

i can access it whenever.

can contribute up to $5000 per year.

income tax is roughly 30%, so youre saving about $1500 on tax if you were to contribute $5000.

youre not making money no, but youe saving money which you would otherwise be spending on tax.

* note, im from canaduh so these figures and percentages might be a little different up here eh.

#wutsdataboot
 
wow those property taxes are insane, i didn't even believe you until I checked for myself

It's about $800 a year for every $100k of home value around Denver.
 
10g's is nice man for tax on that. My dad's house where i live 35 miles north of nyc on a 800k house we pay like 45 grand a year. Shits wack
 
i'm in calgary canada and things are a bit different. my parents 250k home 10 years ago is now worth over 900k.
 
holy cow @ those property taxes. my house is worth between 250-300k, and I pay 1200/year-- plus all the interest is tax deductible so it basically pays for my property taxes.
 
^were were you at man 45mins north armonk area? yea 10gs isnt nearly as bad as 45 but its still rediculious by any means you never own your home, youre just paying the govt to let you live there, theyre in debt up to their eye balls but miss a few property tax payments and you will be draged out of your house.

Imagine if you guys rented granted itd be a little more a month but at 45k a year...saved that tax that 1.35m into saving in 30 years, more than the house is worth haha-I'd love to own a home one day but im my mind its just not a good decision in the NY area.

^no way have you seen the run ARNA has taken this year, their was some approval of their recent fat loss drug but there will be a sell off just like there was when it hit 13$.

On a side note the first time they tried to get that drug approved i was in the company at 1.80 i think sold after 6 months because it didnt move and the drug got rejected. I actually took a loss on it i think, lets just say i forgot about it and looked at it today, well basically i wouldnt be sitting here right now...well leave it at that.

^And to the guys putting a few hudred into savings a month, I understant and like how you see the banks ripping you off, Why dont you take what you have and put it in a insured muni like i said earlyier guaranteed 5%-it wont be as liquid by any means but its worth the risk or lack of there....youre losing money in a saving account when accounting for inflation. and the muni is still tripple tax exempt
 
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