Buy a house or two

This is pretty good advice. Few investments have a lower tax burden. You get to depreciate an appreciating asset. Theoretically you pay that back on sale, but you can defer it if you're Starker-exchanging for like investment property, and if you hold it (and keep making money on it) till you die, your heirs get it at a stepped-up basis.

It's a little more work than other investments, but you can hire that out to a property manager and still make money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:okay, so assume someone just buys SPDR shares of, say, vanguard's total stock index or s&p 500 index. no maintenance fees. how are they better off picking their own "basket" of stocks? (answer: they aren't).

They are better off choosing a basket of stocks from the lists provided by "Dividend Achievers and Champions" because they are taking ownership and responsibility for their investment choices. They become tuned into the investment world around them. Through the simple process of owning shares, collecting dividends, reinvesting dividends, differentiating between low and high paying companies, tax implications, growth v. income, contrarian investing and as they move along in their education process over several year the more exotic types of trades.

If you just hand your money over to Vanguard, you'll never learn how to be a CAPITALIST and you'll never be able to teach your children the skills it requires to become independently wealthy.

Hopefully, you now understand my point of view and you will begin telling others you may meet to do the same.

Never let anyone else manage your money! No one else cares about your money and your family more than you do yourself.

I care about my money and I've done the research and thinking and concluded that "strategies" like buying dividend stocks and labels like "growth vs income" or "contrarian investing" are just the noise of the financial industry, and that I'm better off investing in broad index funds with expense ratios of .25% or less. The idea that my kids need to be able evaluate a company's stock to know how to save, invest and accumulate wealth is like suggesting they need to know how to a car engine works to be able to commute to work. Except the "skills" you keep talking about are not only not helpful for what they really need to do, spending time on those things would probably be unhelpful in the long run.

Anonymous wrote:okay, so assume someone just buys SPDR shares of, say, vanguard's total stock index or s&p 500 index. no maintenance fees. how are they better off picking their own "basket" of stocks? (answer: they aren't).

They are better off choosing a basket of stocks from the lists provided by "Dividend Achievers and Champions" because they are taking ownership and responsibility for their investment choices. They become tuned into the investment world around them. Through the simple process of owning shares, collecting dividends, reinvesting dividends, differentiating between low and high paying companies, tax implications, growth v. income, contrarian investing and as they move along in their education process over several year the more exotic types of trades.

If you just hand your money over to Vanguard, you'll never learn how to be a CAPITALIST and you'll never be able to teach your children the skills it requires to become independently wealthy.

Hopefully, you now understand my point of view and you will begin telling others you may meet to do the same.

Never let anyone else manage your money! No one else cares about your money and your family more than you do yourself.

First you need to decide what "relatively safe" means to you.

Bogleheads sometimes suggest one way to do that is to try to decide what % loss in a year would be ok, and put 2x that amount in stocks (so if you could bear to lose no more than 20%, then put no more than 40% in stocks). Here's a recent thread (just one of many overall) discussing how to evaluate risk and the role of bonds vs stocks. http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=129687&newpost=1908355

Once you've thought through what risk you are concerned about and what risk you can accept, we (or the bogleheads forum) might able to suggest whether the money should be in CD/savings bonds vs bond funds vs balanced (stock/bond) fund) vs stock fund.

okay, so assume someone just buys SPDR shares of, say, vanguard's total stock index or s&p 500 index. no maintenance fees. how are they better off picking their own "basket" of stocks? (answer: they aren't).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
When you own a basket of shares in different companies you incur no fees whatsoever beyond your initial purchase of each stock. That will be roughly $7-8 per purchase. After that point there is no fee whatsoever for purchasing additional shares when you are reinvesting your dividends. Theoretically, if you made no additional purchases or sales you could live into infinity without paying another dime for your investments. Whereas mutual funds charge an annual service charge.

More importantly however is the fact it's not difficult to create wealth for one's family in the stock market. But, if you only have mutual funds you'll never understand the stock market and because you are not engaged you'll never see opportunities when they present themselves. I'm not telling anyone that they'll become masters of the universe overnight, but in time you'll become pretty good at spotting profitable opportunities.

I do offer a couple warning. Never day trade unless you are very smart and never let anyone else manage your money. No one cares more about your money and your family than you do yourself.

All except the last paragraph is bad advice. That's the point of financial advisors and mutual funds. Most people don't have the time to analyze the market and figure out an investment strategy.

I could study up and learn how to change the oil and brakes on my car, and that would be cheaper than taking it to a mechanic. I also care more about my car than the mechanic.

So why don't I do it? Because the mechanic is already an expert in how to do car maintenance, and I don't have time to learn this stuff.

Geez - how many dopey analogies are going to come up with? Let me guess, the next one will be a dentist filling his own teeth.

Buying a basket of stocks and reinvesting the dividends is not the same as practicing medicine. It doesn't take a Nobel Prize winner to buy a basket of stocks. In the shirt term you'll make money and in the long term you may become very, very wealthy.

Never let anyone else manage your money. No cares more about your money and your family than you do yourself.

Anonymous wrote:
When you own a basket of shares in different companies you incur no fees whatsoever beyond your initial purchase of each stock. That will be roughly $7-8 per purchase. After that point there is no fee whatsoever for purchasing additional shares when you are reinvesting your dividends. Theoretically, if you made no additional purchases or sales you could live into infinity without paying another dime for your investments. Whereas mutual funds charge an annual service charge.

More importantly however is the fact it's not difficult to create wealth for one's family in the stock market. But, if you only have mutual funds you'll never understand the stock market and because you are not engaged you'll never see opportunities when they present themselves. I'm not telling anyone that they'll become masters of the universe overnight, but in time you'll become pretty good at spotting profitable opportunities.

I do offer a couple warning. Never day trade unless you are very smart and never let anyone else manage your money. No one cares more about your money and your family than you do yourself.

All except the last paragraph is bad advice. That's the point of financial advisors and mutual funds. Most people don't have the time to analyze the market and figure out an investment strategy.

I could study up and learn how to change the oil and brakes on my car, and that would be cheaper than taking it to a mechanic. I also care more about my car than the mechanic.

So why don't I do it? Because the mechanic is already an expert in how to do car maintenance, and I don't have time to learn this stuff.

Vanguard.

and Bogleheads.com for advice and research.

Anonymous wrote:you are a moron. how is buying a basket of dividend-paying stocks and letting it ride any different from putting your money into an s&p index fund? the main difference is you will probably underperform the market and pay higher fees.

Geez Gordon ... Lighten up a bit, I haven't even stepped foot on your sidewalk yet.

When you own a basket of shares in different companies you incur no fees whatsoever beyond your initial purchase of each stock. That will be roughly $7-8 per purchase. After that point there is no fee whatsoever for purchasing additional shares when you are reinvesting your dividends. Theoretically, if you made no additional purchases or sales you could live into infinity without paying another dime for your investments. Whereas mutual funds charge an annual service charge.

More importantly however is the fact it's not difficult to create wealth for one's family in the stock market. But, if you only have mutual funds you'll never understand the stock market and because you are not engaged you'll never see opportunities when they present themselves. I'm not telling anyone that they'll become masters of the universe overnight, but in time you'll become pretty good at spotting profitable opportunities.

I do offer a couple warning. Never day trade unless you are very smart and never let anyone else manage your money. No one cares more about your money and your family than you do yourself.

you are a moron. how is buying a basket of dividend-paying stocks and letting it ride any different from putting your money into an s&p index fund? the main difference is you will probably underperform the market and pay higher fees.

Never buy mutual funds! G. Gordon Liddy recommends the Vanguard 500 Fund as well as shooting federal agents in the head should they ever step foot on your property.

Buy a basket of dividend paying shares in well established companies with long histories of increasing their dividends annually. Reinvest your dividends and enjoy your new life as as an American Capitalist.

PUt the money with a firm that offers many options, like Schwab or Rowe Price. Then, make an appointment to meet with their investment advisors. They both have local offices, and the advice is either free or relatively low fixed fee since your'e a customer.

They'd probably eeven agree to meet with you before actually putting yoru money in.

For most people, they can just input the data and your goals into a computer program and it can spit out tailor-made advice.

Here it is from Rowe Price. $100k minimum so you'd qualify:
http://individual.troweprice.com/public/Retail/Products-&-Services/Advisory-Planning-Services

I'm sure others have teh same service.. I'm not pushing Rowe in particular.

Buy a house or two

Vanguard.com is all you need.

Folks,

I have ~200K that I can invest. We were planning on buying a new place but decided to stay where we're at. We max out our 401Ks and get a really good match (~10%) which is invested somewhat aggressively. I'd like to put it in something which is relatively safe and has a low tax burden and low expenses.

Should I just bite the bullet and get a fee only financial planner or is there something easy I can do?