Give me your best monetary advice
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Anonymous
| Read The Post's Michelle Singletary. She has great advice. |
Anonymous
Surely, it is fine to purchase some diversified ETFs like VTI and VWO, however you will benefit from owning individual corporate equities. The best way to learn to play soccer, poker, or the stock market is to be in the game. Index Funds are sure and steady and perfect for individuals who don't have the time or the interest to closely follow the economy and the stock market. Index funds like VTI, own shares in 500 different corporations which creates stability. At any given moment in time the price of some of those corporations will be increasing and some will be decreasing. On average your wealth will increase by roughly 5% annually. For the disengaged investor that's fine. You're not getting rich but your not losing money either. At retirement you'll be comfortable, but not rich. The problem with this approach is that you're not really in the game. You're not learning how the investment game is played. If you are not investing whatsoever in individual companies you have no vested interest keeping track what companies are going up or down and why these changes are taking place. If you allow and even pay someone else to make you investment decisions for you, you are essentially putting on blinders to opportunities that regularly appear in the stock market. If you are to busy or not interested in the stock market, then by all means you should buy nothing but index funds. However, if you are watching the world around you and you are conscious of macro economics and the consumer goods you and others are buying then you have the innate skills individuals need to generate vast wealth in the stock market over a period of several decades. Start by buying shares in well established companies which have increased their dividends annunually for decades. Automatically reinvest your dividends to purchase more shares. During these future years as an engaged investor you will develop an innate sense about the successfulness of your equities and other that you do not own as well. It's like being a Nats fan, but also having a sense as to how the Braves are doing as well. Now and then for unforeseen reasons there will be instances when good well established companies will miss their projected earning numbers and the price of their shares will be crushed. Sometimes these companies are doomed, but in other instances there are other explanations like weather, supply chain disruptions, or even the banking crisis. "Contrarians" are able to spot rapid stock price declines cause by temporary business anomalies. For those who are engaged in the market huge quantities of wealth can be gained by contrarians when they spot these temporary price disruptions. If you are so inclined you can accumulate generational wealth in the stock market, but for those who lack this potential, interest, or skill set required the learn they should buy index funds. |
Anonymous
| Max out your 401k. Invest an additional 10%/year. |
Anonymous
| Betterment.com |
Anonymous
| Don't be afraid to take risks |
Anonymous
| Just because you make more doesn't mean you need to spend more. |
Anonymous
|
11:36 I think I have seen your posts before, and they get a little tiresome. Do I agree that some people can make a killing investing in stocks? Yes. Do I think that is a reasonable or sensible goal for me, or you, or 99% of the people reading this board? No.
It is true there are always some individual stocks that will do better than the market, just like there are some that will do worse. The question is how do you know which you are buying? Your "innate sense"? The fact is that index funds outperform 80% or more of managed funds. Which means that index funds are doing better than people who are spending all day every day trying to pick stocks, with the research resources of enormous corporations backing them. That's good enough for me. |
Anonymous
Great - good for you, perhaps 5% annual gains half of which is eaten up by inflation and management costs are fine you, but not for those seeking the best monetary advice. Matching the market is easy - just buy the market if that's all you are seeking. However, for those who want to acquire significant wealth via the stock market they need to be individual investors themselves. As I've said repeatedly, if individuals are not interested in being knowledgeable about the economy and the goods people are purchasing then buying Index Funds is a better option than placing ones hard earned money in their mattresses. However, without too much effort individuals can invest in well established corporations that pay 3-5% annual dividends, enjoy the benefit of compounding by reinvesting those dividends, and on top of that increasing their wealth through equity price appreciation over a period of years. So using that simple method of growing ones wealth without paying management fees, individuals can easily beat the indexes. But, the most important thing individuals gain by managing their own money is KNOWLEDGE. Passive investors never see the opportunities that arise in the stock market because they are detached from it. Own stocks, collect dividends, watch the stock market, and occasionally when you see the price of stock in good companies get crushed for irrational reasons be a Contrarian and buy shares in those companies at bargain basement prices. Then wait for perhaps a year or two to sell them when they return to their normal price levels. These skills will make you wealthy and they will be skills you'll be able to teach your children. You can never really win the BIG prizes unless really enter the BIG games. Good luck - you can do this! I'm out!!! |
Anonymous
| I stopped listening when you suggested that dividend paying stocks are the best thing to invest in. Does that mean GM was a good buy 10 years ago and Apple wasn't? |
Anonymous
|
Spend less than you earn
$500 limit for first credit card |
Anonymous
| My credit limit is 1/2 months pay. Always has, always will be. |
Anonymous
| Tithe. 10% of your income to the church. God will provide and you will also be free of the trappings of materialism |
Anonymous
how do you do that on a small income? |
Anonymous
Typical lazy one sentence fear mongering response by an individual who suggests others are not smart enough to make their own investment decisions. Not every hand's a winner and not ever hand's a loser, but they'll be time enough for counting when the dealings done. It's only common sense to know not every investment will be a winner. That's why prudent investors own a diverse stock portfolio of many corporations. You remain a small minded defeatist continuing to deny the most important aspect of being an active investor which is KNOWLEDGE!!! Those who never actively enter the market never learn how it functions and will never know the opportunities they have missed to become wealthy. |
Anonymous
| Do not have children! |