What is Digg?57 Comments
- opiestana, on 10/10/2007, -2/+29Why bother with this crap when I can just invest in some spinners for my H2?
- slimbooty, on 10/10/2007, -0/+17seriously, It's amazing how ignorant people are about their money...One of the most important things in life yet people go around not knowing their credit score/credit card APR/loan balances/401k investments...etc
Imagine if you replaced all the hours you spent playing WOW with reading about money management...it won't happen but just imagine. - thesoprano, on 10/10/2007, -1/+17Why buy when you can rent? All of the responsibility with none of the ownership.
- torched, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12Right on! Lets put it on a credit card with 20% apr too!
- slimbooty, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9For all of you who just got their first real job with real money, consider the following (someone told me this 8 years ago and it's been working for me):
-Pay off all credit cards (pay the ones off w/ the highest APR first)
-Cut up all store credit cards (macys/jcpenney/banana republic) - the initial discount you get doesn't make up for the headache of dealing with
increasing APRS later
-Put as much money in your 401K as possible
-Don't worry about immediately paying off your student loans (pay the minimum on time every month...the APR should be very low)
-Know your credit score- (go to www.annualcreditreport.com - you are entitled to get a free credit report once a year)
-Get a credit card that can give you points while using it (for airline miles/gifts...etc)
-Buy common goods in bulk (cosco/sams club/bjs) - you win twice by getting a discount from buying in bulk and from beating inflation (if you are still using stuff from the previous year)
-Don't ever lease a car and don't buy a new car...buy a preowned honda/toyota (mine looks new/runs well and has 200k miles)
-Don't buy boats/jetskies/4-wheelers until you have done everything above - these items are money drainers
-Stop going out to lunch at work (unless it's under $5)
-If you have more than 10k in savings then it is worth talking to a financial advisor (Get the best recommended one as possible that charges by the hour) - since they are making money from their hourly wages they don't need to sell you ***** policies for commission - photoguy416, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Finally, something useful for those of us over the age of 12... oh and it's not a picture either.
- fraul, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6its such a shame that many people don't bother reading these kind of stuff
- sodade, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Hell no - I am keeping my eyes open for some bargains - in 10 years, the real estate market will be back with more vigor than before.
- corvairkid, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5A friend of mine in college followed much the same advice with a few steps further. He introduced me to the "pack a day" savings plan. Here's how it works.
Whether you do or don't smoke, assume that a pack of cigs is $10 (CDN) and you smoke a pack every day. That's an average of about $300/month and $3650 you've burnt by the end of the year. That's a decent car payment right there.
Now, if you save that money by putting it in a separate bank account that's out of sight, out of mind, you can invest that money at the end of the year. While you work on next year's investment fund, that money you saved is now earning interest and dividends which you can add to your savings account. Next year's investment will now be larger and your total investment is growing. (Don't forget to pay any taxes owed though.)
Also
- Don't gamble and forget the lottery. The house always wins.
- Curb your drinking. - rune420, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5its a shame some people waste their money instead of reading stuff like this before investing
- paMELLa, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4It lists mortgage-backed securities as an "undiscovered gem" and "virtually risk-free".
There's no risk... except for all those mass foreclosures that they keep talking about in the news.
Yeah, it has some good information, but take it with a big grain of salt. - Quag7, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I would note that a good start are mutual funds/index funds. You can get started for a minimum of $50 a month with certain popular online financial companies - I'd mention the one I use but they're pretty well known. Until you get up to a certain balance (usually $2000), they'll charge you $5 a quarter in fees or something like that. No big deal because if you let them withdraw monthly, you'll pass that threshold faster than you imagine.
They will withdraw from your paycheck monthly so you don't even have to worry about it. I've done fairly well with these and accumulated a nice 5 digit "***** you, boss" account without very much effort at all. If I really feel the need to bail on my job, that money is there as a cushion.
If you find one that is very diversified, you minimize risks (though you won't get rich overnight), and you'll outpace any kind of savings plan in the long term. If I could give one piece of advice to people in their 20s, it would be to forego a few dinners out or gadgets or CDs and put some money into low-risk, unmanaged mutual funds *now*. You won't believe how fast it grows if you set it up to reinvest your dividends.
I'm sure there are other sensible investments you can make. Index funds have served me quite well (and don't be afraid to look beyond the United States, if you're an American. My best performing funds have been Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean Rim - the value of my funds has increased substantially and held value for 5 years now - these are higher risk, obviously, but they are balanced with domestic index funds comprised of stocks you know.)
Please please PLEASE, if you are in your teens or 20s (or later!), find some way to squeeze out enough to invest *now*. You won't regret it in the long term. I wish I had started earlier. Mutual funds work for me; maybe there is something better for you (though index funds are a great option if you're just not into money very much, and I'm not - I don't have any desire to be rich, just stable.)
Lastly, if you're skittish and otherwise uninterested in money (this is my situation), it is important that you treat long term investments appropriately. Look at them quarterly, think about them, but stick with them over the long haul.
Trust me, you can do this now, and you can do it online, and it will take you 15 minutes to set up. You're really screwing yourself over financially if you wait any longer than necessary. Unless you are in particularly dire straits, the degree to which you miss that $50 will be far less than the satisfaction of a growing account.
Really, if you're thinking "what the hell," go ahead and do it - NOW. It's never too early to be rolling out a cushion for yourself. - kenvsryu, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6Can someone draw me a picture instead?
- Ascendant, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Hell yeah, then I could retire early and just play WOW for the rest of my life.
- Newcastle, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Precious metals are an extremely volatile investment. Please don't take this poster's advice.
- Endeavorer, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Nothing about investing in precious metals? Lame
- skidooer, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Education is a pretty poor investment, actually. There are certainly exceptions, but generally you'll be lucky to see a 5% return. You would be just as far ahead leaving the money in the bank, without any risk.
- psykiv, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I take it you havn't seen metal prices lately?
And uh, I think I'll stuff my money in a savings account giving me 5%+ before i stuff it under my mattress giving me 0%, thanks. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Only the financially ignorant thinks that playing the market is easy. A lot of people have gotten burned because they think they can time the market and make lots of money.
- encognito, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Stop pushing your crappy website punk! Moreover, who in their right mind would take financial advice from an idiot who claims people born in the 1970's are teenage boys today?Furthermore, the rest of that rant was incomprehensible and retarded.
- Euler2718, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2I have some toys with lead paint on them, do you think that counts?
- BESTenemy, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3As long as you're collecting investment advise, read up on history before you rush off writing checks.
"The Great Depression : Delayed Recovery and Economic Change in America, 1929-1939"
by Michael A. Bernstein
Combine that with "Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage"
by Kenneth S. Deffeyes
Add any decent paper on government reserve currency funds and monetary inflation and hopefully, cry yourself to sleep.
Personally, I can't decide, being wealthy and all, whether it's worth dumping half of my Chinese noodles stock, for instant soup and canned beans bonds.
// Sarcasm - mindvise3, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1This is excellent advice. It's the same advice touted by investment experts such as Andrew Tobias. I'm not sure whether I agree about the student loans bit, but I do think that if you're using the money you could be using to pay off the student loans to invest in other opportunities, then it is a good use of the money. Your investments should get a return that is higher than the APR of your student loans. Otherwise, you should probably just put the money toward the student loans and eat fewer Doritos.
- kenvsryu, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2i'm with you, we need a geriatric nsfw section.
- pagemaster, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2it's a good idea to invest but they missed the most important one. invest in yourself: go to college and get a good job. I may be near broke in college but when I'm done that investment of my life will have an imeasurable return.
- ephemeral, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Direct link to PDF
http://i.investopedia.com/inv/pdf/tutorials/20_Investments.pdf - TechCF, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1I know, a colleague was amazing this other day. I have just learned him online auctioning and he sold a few items. Some went for $5 each and he was like "nah i wont collect the money because is so little, its just two cokes. i told the buyer he could pick it up for free later this evening"
What is wrong with people and money?
I myself ebay everything I don't need and regulary check prices on water, insurance, loan and gasoline and switch companies often. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I always skip the long comments. Did you invest somewhere?
- SmackMyMac, on 10/10/2007, -3/+3If you have a Facebook get the Fantasy Stock Exchange App. It's a hands on approach to learning to trade. Its pretty fun too.
- faceicles, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Invest in value stocks and large cap stocks (those are the safest with the best return).
- peterinjapan, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Here's what I recommend: add the Motley Fool's headline feed to your RSS feeds and surf the articles they show you. Note that some no-nonsense articles will come around again and again (as they should) so you'll have time to see something important later if you miss something. Reading about investments, how to start saving more, how to cut our the bad things in your life (credit card debt) and so on is very useful, and having it in my RSS feed means it's always in my face.
http://www.fool.com/About/Headlines/Rss.htm - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Inflation + taxation is the ~single most important~ aspect to increasing value in your portfolio. For the most part, inflation is being understated by the government and most of the gains being seen are not from an increase in value in the stock but from an increase in the money supply flowing into the stock market. Likewise, these, "gains" are being taxed which is taking away value in your stocks because, well, your shares didn't increase in value, they increased in price! With that being said, I think the article doesn't cover commodities enough. Lets face it, the only reason we invest is so we can increase the amount of resources we can purchase with that money. Since resources on this planet are not infinite commodities can be one of the single best investment you could ever make! There other aspects of gold/silver/commodity investing that makes them better than the others but well, I don't want to cover those aspects for obvious reasons.
- Orbiter9211, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Educate yourself about the REAL stock market
HTML Rundown of the FED
http://www.invisiblepatriots.com/web2/Fed.html
The Money Masters
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936&q=Money+Masters
America: Freedom to Fascism - Director's Authorized Version
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173 - HPSauce, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0The site this article is on has some excellent advice on investing, for beginners and vets alike - in convenient PDF files for reading later too.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2Better yet, if you have a Facebook, get a life.
- wpgcoder, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0Funny moron, thats not my site by the way.... I don't think you understood my response teenage boy! People born in the 1970's are acting like teenage boys playing WOW, spending more on video games and their car than a 401K.. read before you reply, or go back to school to learn reading skills!
- JackHorner, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0I am 27 years old and just recently I started making real money at my day job and today I just purchased my first stocks after doing alot of research. Stocks are so amazing these days, never before have you had all the information you needed at your finger tips to make pretty good decisions on where you put your money. I am going to stick with this and I will make money, lots of it. People think playing the market is difficult. It only takes a few weeks to get up to speed, honestly. I don't understand why more people don't do it. With the Internet and information right there in front of you, you would have to be down right stupid to not try it with some of your money every month.
- wpgcoder, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0It is funny how people talk about investing and never actually invest themselves. Why spend the time investing when you can play WOW!, lol.. or invest your money in spinners for your H2.. hmmm, are fricken society is full of teenage boys who were born in the 1970 & early 80's... how old are you guys again? We had a debate about this on http://www.mycreditapply.com with the world acting like we are 15 years old, when we have two kids, a home, car and play WOW with our oldest sons! Social networking has turned into home networking! Our society seems to like video games more than a hummer, and if you own a fricken hummer, you must know a little about investing or your going to have nothing when your retired... If ou have a hummer in your garage, either the bank owns it or your 401K is packed with gold!
- Spoomeister, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2From the end of the article (section 20, conclusion), in order to get the condensed version of this...
Here's a recap of the 20 investments detailed in this tutorial:
An American Depository Receipt (ADR) is a stock that trades in the United States but represents a specified number of shares in a foreign corporation. ADRs are bought and sold on U.S. stock markets just like regular stocks and are issued/sponsored in the U.S. by a bank or brokerage.
An annuity is a series of fixed-amount payments paid at regular intervals over the specified period of the annuity. Most annuities are purchased through an insurance company.
A closed-end fund is an investment fund that issues a fixed number of shares in an actively managed portfolio of securities. The shares are traded in the market just like stocks, but because closed-end funds represent a portfolio of securities they are very similar to a mutual fund.
A collectible is any physical asset that appreciates in value over time because it is rare or it is desired by many. Many people think of collectibles as things like stamps, coins, fine art or sports cards, but there really are no strict rules as to what is or is not a collectible.
Common stock is ownership in part of a company. This gives you entitlement to a portion of the company's profits and any voting rights attached to the stock.
A convertible bond is a bond that can be converted into the company's common stock. You can exercise the convertible bond and exchange the bond into a predetermined amount of shares in the company.
When you buy a corporate bond, you are loaning your money to a corporation for a predetermined period of time (known as the maturity). In most cases, the bond’s par value is $1,000. This is the face value of the bond and the amount the lender will be repaid once the bond matures.
Futures are contracts on commodities, currencies, and stock market indexes that attempt to predict the value of these securities at some date in the future.
Life insurance is income protection in the event of your death. The person you name as your beneficiary will receive proceeds from an insurance company to offset the income lost as a result of your death.
Money market instruments are forms of debt that mature in less than one year and are very liquid.
A mortgage-backed security (MBS), also known as a "mortgage pass-through" or a "pass-through certificate", is an investment instrument that represents ownership of an undivided interest in a group of mortgages. Principal and interest from the individual mortgages are used to pay principal and interest on the MBS.
Municipal bonds, or "munis" for short, are debt securities issued by a state, municipality or county to finance its capital expenditures.
A mutual fund is a large group of people who lump their money together and give it to a management company to invest it on their behalf. A mutual fund manager proceeds to buy a number of stocks from various markets and industries.
Options are a privilege sold by one party to another that offers the buyer the right to buy (call) or sell (put) a security at an agreed-upon price during a certain period of time or on a specific date.
Preferred stock represents ownership in a company, but it usually does not give the holder voting rights (this may vary depending on the company).
Real estate investing doesn't just mean purchasing a house - it can include vacation homes, commercial properties, land (both developed and undeveloped), condominiums and many other possibilities.
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) sell like stocks on the major exchanges and invest in real estate directly through properties or mortgages.
Treasuries are a debt obligation of a national government. Because they are backed by the credit and taxing power of a country, they are regarded as having little or no risk of default.
A unit investment trust (UIT) is a registered trust in which a fixed portfolio of income-producing securities is purchased and held to maturity.
A zero-coupon security, or "stripped bond", is basically a regular coupon-paying bond without the coupons. The process of "stripping" or "zeroing" a bond is usually done by a brokerage or a bank. - wpgcoder, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0We were having a huge debate about this on http://www.mycreditapply.com in the forum... its true, your comment. With the amount of time people spend playing WOW and other useless time grabbers, we could all be millionaires.
- Hunterville, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0Hmm does lead count?
- corvairkid, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1Paper money is only worth whatever the government says it is and you can't eat gold.
Buy land with a good source of water and buy guns. If the stock market crashes or your country's government is overthrown, those are the only two things that'll be worth a damn. - SpykerSpeed, on 10/10/2007, -5/+3Then we'd have a lot more billionaire hedge fund managers who eat chicken while placing trades.
- idc5, on 10/10/2007, -6/+3Might want to stay away from anything with "real estate" on it for the time being
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -5/+0Anyone remember Enron, and Wall Street's six trillion dollar bubble?
Play Wall Street like a ponzi scheme!
United States Government are the world's greatest terrorists, war criminals, and horrific liars.
9-11 was an inside job! What happened to building 7?
Depleted uranium is a weapon of mass destruction! - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -8/+0its a shame some people waste their lives reading stuff like these instead of investing money.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -10/+2No it isn't. If everybody did this, nobody would make money.
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Show 51 - 54 of 54 discussions
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