Investment Options

[Bruce]

Way too complicated..... I plan to run an ad on craigslist for a young dare devil kind of guy to do motorcycle stunts on a reality show I am producing (What reality show? WHO CARES! Any reality show! Call it 'Fatal Wreck Waiting To Happen, I don't really care)  And then invest in a Kawasaki 1000 cc Ninja deathcycle...

 

Get the stupid bastar.... er, ah, young stunt man... to sign a bunch of releases and phony contracts with a life insurance policy hiding in the stack of papers....

 

Then travel to some exotic location where the nearest hospital is hours away and the docs there work for pisos.....

 

What can go wrong? Well it is just in the planning stages now, but the concept is a good one!

[JJReyes]

I prefer to use mutual funds or EFT's rather than purchasing individual stocks. I don't want the job of micro managing a portfolio during retirement.

 

Years ago, I had a similar attitude, Mutual funds were my "buy & forget" investment strategy. Let all those financial geniuses take care of my money. After the 2008 economic collapse, I did a 15 years look back and found out those 1% to 1.7% fees had costed us between $50,000 to $100,000. The average performance of all those financial geniuses were no better than the Standard & Poor 500. Yet they collected fees whether or not they made money for you. In addition, the mutual fund companies made trades, sometime 3 or 4 times a day and there were charging huge fees for each trade. 

 

What made money for us were DRIPs (Dividend Re-Investment Plans). We bought stocks directly with participating companies. Most of the money went into oil company stocks. You couldn't time the trade, but if you had extra money at the end of the month, send them a check for $300 or whatever and they will buy additional shares. A few were emotional stock purchases. I bought Wrigley's chewing gum because every shareholder on record received every year a box of chewing gum as a gift.

 

We sold all our mutual funds in exchange for self-directed IRAs and a joint trading account. Although our portfolio adjustments are every six months, I like getting up at 3:30am for the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Then it's a phone call to my wife from the office after the closing bell to let her know if it was a good day or bad day for us. A little crazy, but fun since it's paper profits or losses.

 

On an annualized basis we are doing better than mutual funds. Everyone in the family still has Berkshire Hathaway B shares, including our granddaughter for her college fund. The reason is because it is really like a mutual fund, but there are no fees involved. Warren Buffet is probably the world's greatest and most consistent stock picker. If you had purchased one "A" share for $ .25 when he first started, it would be worth something like $150,000 if you sell it this week.

[stevewool]

it sounds to complicated for me guys, all i know is that i have 1 house to rent out and a guaranteed income from that.

savings in both our names up to the maximum that is safe and another account with a building society that is for emergencies, so all in all for me its cash that i can see that counts, these figures do not include state pensions and private pensions, i am not claiming them yet so to me they are not real, so not counted in future figures.

I try to work out on figures that are real to me and at this moment cash is king.

Uts just my way off dealing with things, as they say each to there own

[jpbago]

I prefer to use mutual funds or EFT's rather than purchasing individual stocks. I don't want the job of micro managing a portfolio during retirement.

 

Years ago, I had a similar attitude, Mutual funds were my "buy & forget" investment strategy. Let all those financial geniuses take care of my money. After the 2008 economic collapse, I did a 15 years look back and found out those 1% to 1.7% fees had costed us between $50,000 to $100,000. The average performance of all those financial geniuses were no better than the Standard & Poor 500. Yet they collected fees whether or not they made money for you. In addition, the mutual fund companies made trades, sometime 3 or 4 times a day and there were charging huge fees for each trade. 

 

What made money for us were DRIPs (Dividend Re-Investment Plans). We bought stocks directly with participating companies. Most of the money went into oil company stocks. You couldn't time the trade, but if you had extra money at the end of the month, send them a check for $300 or whatever and they will buy additional shares. A few were emotional stock purchases. I bought Wrigley's chewing gum because every shareholder on record received every year a box of chewing gum as a gift.

 

We sold all our mutual funds in exchange for self-directed IRAs and a joint trading account. Although our portfolio adjustments are every six months, I like getting up at 3:30am for the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Then it's a phone call to my wife from the office after the closing bell to let her know if it was a good day or bad day for us. A little crazy, but fun since it's paper profits or losses.

 

On an annualized basis we are doing better than mutual funds. Everyone in the family still has Berkshire Hathaway B shares, including our granddaughter for her college fund. The reason is because it is really like a mutual fund, but there are no fees involved. Warren Buffet is probably the world's greatest and most consistent stock picker. If you had purchased one "A" share for $ .25 when he first started, it would be worth something like $150,000 if you sell it this week.

I agree fully with all four paragraphs. I have done and am doing the same.

[i am bob]

 

I prefer to use mutual funds or EFT's rather than purchasing individual stocks. I don't want the job of micro managing a portfolio during retirement.

 

Years ago, I had a similar attitude, Mutual funds were my "buy & forget" investment strategy. Let all those financial geniuses take care of my money. After the 2008 economic collapse, I did a 15 years look back and found out those 1% to 1.7% fees had costed us between $50,000 to $100,000. The average performance of all those financial geniuses were no better than the Standard & Poor 500. Yet they collected fees whether or not they made money for you. In addition, the mutual fund companies made trades, sometime 3 or 4 times a day and there were charging huge fees for each trade. 

 

What made money for us were DRIPs (Dividend Re-Investment Plans). We bought stocks directly with participating companies. Most of the money went into oil company stocks. You couldn't time the trade, but if you had extra money at the end of the month, send them a check for $300 or whatever and they will buy additional shares. A few were emotional stock purchases. I bought Wrigley's chewing gum because every shareholder on record received every year a box of chewing gum as a gift.

 

We sold all our mutual funds in exchange for self-directed IRAs and a joint trading account. Although our portfolio adjustments are every six months, I like getting up at 3:30am for the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Then it's a phone call to my wife from the office after the closing bell to let her know if it was a good day or bad day for us. A little crazy, but fun since it's paper profits or losses.

 

On an annualized basis we are doing better than mutual funds. Everyone in the family still has Berkshire Hathaway B shares, including our granddaughter for her college fund. The reason is because it is really like a mutual fund, but there are no fees involved. Warren Buffet is probably the world's greatest and most consistent stock picker. If you had purchased one "A" share for $ .25 when he first started, it would be worth something like $150,000 if you sell it this week.

I agree fully with all four paragraphs. I have done and am doing the same.

 

The problem you had with mutual funds is a pretty common one - you bought without researching the fund.  You wouldn't buy a stock without looking into it so why buy a mutual fund the same way?  JJ, you ended up paying those fees because of the way it was loaded.  As for if it was going to make money or not?  All mutual funds will say that past performance is not a guarantor of the same to happen in the future.  But, odds are, if the manager sucks, all his past work will show that he does not manage a better performing fund.  A good manager will usually have a fund that is rated higher in it's class over the last few years.  As for Berkshire?  They are good but there are companies out there that are performing just as well if not better on a broader scale of risk.  Speaking of risk, this is where most people make their mistakes in mutual funds.  "Is it safe?" they ask?  "Hmmmm..." says the bloke selling the funds....  "They want no risk - straight Bonds it is then".  NOT!  You might as well go buy Savings Bonds yourself.  Sit down and figure out what level of risk you want to go with.  Best way to do that is to talk to the guy selling you the funds.  There are formulas and questionnaires and computer programs that can figure out the percentage of funds to place in high risk, medium risk, low risk and "Oh my Gawd I'm now a millionaire/broke" risk.  Actually the funniest part of investing for me?  I know a couple stock brokers.  Two I know have done this for sure.  Now these are guys who have more money than they know what to do with and couldn't care less about working any more. They might have a few stocks that they got hold of when they were going for a song and a dance and the rest of their money is in mutual funds.  Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it?

[JJReyes]

All mutual funds will say that past performance is not a guarantor of the same to happen in the future.

 

It took awhile to figure it out, but some of these large companies had as many as 900 different mutual funds. They promoted and advertised the funds that were doing well. The mediocre and terrible ones were ignored. Investment "darlings" change. Some years its pharmaceutical, energy, technology, consumer products, retail sales, etc. So the mutual companies change their pitch depending on what's hot.

 

When our granddaughter was born, her dad, who is a mathematician, started her college fund. Grandparents on both sides are contributing in lieu of Christmas, birthday gifts, etc. He decided on Bershire Hathaway because she won't need the money for 18 years. While it is not likely Warren Buffet will live that long, he has managers who remain with the company forever. How many mutual fund companies would you trust in comparison looking forward 18 years? These mutual fund managers move in and out every few years either because they are good (pirated) or bad (kicked-out).

 

Our granddaughter is starting to exhibit the same mathematical gift as her dad. There is a possibility she won't need the college fund. A provision has been added in the trust that she gets the money upon graduating with a Ph.D. or by age 35 if she is one of those who declares, "School sucks!" and drops out before completing high school.

[i am bob]

All mutual funds will say that past performance is not a guarantor of the same to happen in the future.

 

It took awhile to figure it out, but some of these large companies had as many as 900 different mutual funds. They promoted and advertised the funds that were doing well. The mediocre and terrible ones were ignored. Investment "darlings" change. Some years its pharmaceutical, energy, technology, consumer products, retail sales, etc. So the mutual companies change their pitch depending on what's hot.

 

When our granddaughter was born, her dad, who is a mathematician, started her college fund. Grandparents on both sides are contributing in lieu of Christmas, birthday gifts, etc. He decided on Bershire Hathaway because she won't need the money for 18 years. While it is not likely Warren Buffet will live that long, he has managers who remain with the company forever. How many mutual fund companies would you trust in comparison looking forward 18 years? These mutual fund managers move in and out every few years either because they are good (pirated) or bad (kicked-out).

 

Our granddaughter is starting to exhibit the same mathematical gift as her dad. There is a possibility she won't need the college fund. A provision has been added in the trust that she gets the money upon graduating with a Ph.D. or by age 35 if she is one of those who declares, "School sucks!" and drops out before completing high school.

When I was working on the selling side of financials, I learned a lot on what to look for in a company and their funds. It is better to be in a fund that isn't scared to diversify and will move the money to the proper places rather than have it sit and rot waiting for that individual market to pick up again.  The companies that have "900 funds" ?  They are the ones that sit and wait.  That way they will have a couple funds that do really well while the majority of their funds tank.  The ones that have a lot less are the ones who are going to be more aggressive and thus make a better return for you.  I don't know if it's the same in the US but here most money managers have their own money invested in the same fund.  If you lose money then they lose money.  And they don't like to do that!

[JJReyes]

I don't know if it's the same in the US but here most money managers have their own money invested in the same fund. If you lose money then they lose money. And they don't like to do that!

 

I like Warren Buffet's style. He pays himself something like $100,000 in salary and the remainder comes from bonuses and growth in the company's value. No profit, no bonus.

 

I owned Hawaiian Electric, which was paying a steady 6% per year in dividend. Then someone from a subsidiary, a local bank who was actually dragging down the value of the parent company, took over. The first thing she did was raised her executive pay from $1.7 million to $6.5 million. Her new team received equally hefty salary increases. Time to sell, which I did.

 

Aloha - J.J. Reyes

[GregZ]

I am from the USA and here are my plans, not fully implemented yet.

 

I will be moving my tax deferred retirement savings (US 401K) to a self directed IRA (Individual Retirement Account, still tax deferred until withdrawal).

 

I have about 20% of my retirement in my old condo which I will rent out for about a 5% return, plus it will help protect me against monetary inflation.

 

The retirement savings I plan on putting 20% in emerging asian markets (excluding japan), another 20% in emerging Central/South American markets, another 20% in a hard asset/commodity fund, the remaining 40% in a more traditional mutual fund targeted towards long term dividend paying stocks.

 

I can do this in the USA by purchasing mutual funds or EFT's (Exchange Traded Funds) matching those sets of criteria.

 

Reading into my choices you can see that I am not bullish long term on the US economy, at least not for the next decade or so.

 

I prefer to use mutual funds or EFT's rather than purchasing individual stocks. I don't want the job of micro managing a portfolio during retirement.

Even though I've moved to more like JJ thinking... Good plan!  I may use the ETF to get into foreign markets if I don't find something I am comfortable with.  I DO prefer to manage the individual stocks NOW that I have done it for a while over keeping track of who is in charge of a fund and wondering if I should change when the manager does.  You keep doing what works for you AND to those without a plan: GET ONE! :bash:

 

I prefer to use mutual funds or EFT's rather than purchasing individual stocks. I don't want the job of micro managing a portfolio during retirement.

 

Years ago, I had a similar attitude, Mutual funds were my "buy & forget" investment strategy. Let all those financial geniuses take care of my money. After the 2008 economic collapse, I did a 15 years look back and found out those 1% to 1.7% fees had costed us between $50,000 to $100,000. The average performance of all those financial geniuses were no better than the Standard & Poor 500. Yet they collected fees whether or not they made money for you. In addition, the mutual fund companies made trades, sometime 3 or 4 times a day and there were charging huge fees for each trade. 

 

What made money for us were DRIPs (Dividend Re-Investment Plans). We bought stocks directly with participating companies. Most of the money went into oil company stocks. You couldn't time the trade, but if you had extra money at the end of the month, send them a check for $300 or whatever and they will buy additional shares. A few were emotional stock purchases. I bought Wrigley's chewing gum because every shareholder on record received every year a box of chewing gum as a gift.

 

We sold all our mutual funds in exchange for self-directed IRAs and a joint trading account. Although our portfolio adjustments are every six months, I like getting up at 3:30am for the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Then it's a phone call to my wife from the office after the closing bell to let her know if it was a good day or bad day for us. A little crazy, but fun since it's paper profits or losses.

 

On an annualized basis we are doing better than mutual funds. Everyone in the family still has Berkshire Hathaway B shares, including our granddaughter for her college fund. The reason is because it is really like a mutual fund, but there are no fees involved. Warren Buffet is probably the world's greatest and most consistent stock picker. If you had purchased one "A" share for $ .25 when he first started, it would be worth something like $150,000 if you sell it this week.

I'm with this except the DRIPs.  Have never tried that, yet.  I dumped the mutual funds for individual stocks.  Won big on some and lost a bunch on some, because I got greedy.  Overall I am AHEAD of where any mutual fund would have me right now (roughly +10% return over the last 3 years) and I was in some good ones with USAA FSB.

Thanks for all the detailed response to EVERYONE in this thread... It helps to know others approaches and perspectives. :tiphat:

 

it sounds to complicated for me guys, all i know is that i have 1 house to rent out and a guaranteed income from that.

savings in both our names up to the maximum that is safe and another account with a building society that is for emergencies, so all in all for me its cash that i can see that counts, these figures do not include state pensions and private pensions, i am not claiming them yet so to me they are not real, so not counted in future figures.

I try to work out on figures that are real to me and at this moment cash is king.

Uts just my way off dealing with things, as they say each to there own

Best of luck with the guaranteed income.  :thumbsup:  The laws in the US (state of Illinois anyway) make things difficult for the owner when the renter doesn't pay.  Took me 2 years with a court order and associated expenses with the LAST renter before I could collect.  That is when I dumped my rental properties. :cheersty:   IF I was in the area it would have been different, but I was an absentee landlord.

[GregZ]

[quote name='I am bob' timestamp='1361200528' post='90870] The problem you had with mutual funds is a pretty common one - you bought without researching the fund. You wouldn't buy a stock without looking into it so why buy a mutual fund the same way? JJ, you ended up paying those fees because of the way it was loaded.

 

I bought mutual funds WITH research.  That doesn't stop them from collecting their management fee, especially in a no-load fund.  All those fees that JJ speaks of are why I go direct to the stocks myself now.  I am preferring the dividend paying, but always looking for one that I expect will appreciate.  YES, I don't mind gambling as I usually win. :540:

 

Recently (over last 3 years) I was active trading Cooper Tire, Corel, Genco, Navios Maritime, Bank of America and Chyron Corp (CHYR).  I don't own ANY of these now and don't want to.  I was active trading them because the value was there, the price was fluctuating a lot, and I had money to risk.  I'm just giving examples of winners in the past.  Of course, past performance does not indicate.... :hystery: ANYTHING.

 

My loser list... short, but I really didn't think they would go bankrupt.  I WAS STUPID! ! ! ! :bash:  CHAMPION ENTERPRISES INC

 

I'm still holding a couple of underwater ocean shippers and a bank.  Not to worry as I only have hundreds invested there.  I was actively trading them and got MOSTLY out when they were up.

 

My ONE that I still like, but currently am out of is CIM (Chimera Investment) a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) that is currently paying 11%+ in dividend and has good potential to appreciate. TODAY's price $2.99.  Everyone is AFRAID of anything with "Real Estate" in the name but with the dividend I don't mind holding.  :dance:  Anyone want to loan me money at 8% guaranteed???  I'll get back in and make the interest payment from the dividend.  :cheers:

 

Why did I get out?  1. USA tax situation.  2. Opportunity to make up to 60% in a "special project". (no details available)

.