Comments on: money advice

By: Taxing Justin

Taxing Justin — Tue, 08 May 2007 22:21:51 +0000

Remember the cliche about opinions? Well, investing advice is the same.
Keeping that in mind, I have two recommendations:
1. Read whatever you can on the subject — preferably in small doses so you can see a mix of perspectives. Articles on Yahoo Finance and money.cnn.com are a good start.
2. Whatever you choose to invest in, pay close attention to the fees. Never feel intimidated to question them and open an account elsewhere. That is where the bank, fund, broker, or advisor makes their money by taking from your pocket. TAANSTAFL, but that doesn’t mean you have to be a sucker. ]]>

By: tom

tom — Wed, 02 May 2007 16:46:15 +0000

Thanks for all the advice, guys. I think I’ll probably find somebody I can talk to and then send them checks and hope for the best.
G: glad we can agree that that cartoon dope isn’t good enough for Erin. ]]>

By: the g

the g — Wed, 02 May 2007 13:26:22 +0000

i second vanguard.
also, the N has a superhot crush on Erin as well.
The downside is that the guy from that commercial looks EXACTLY LIKE the douchebag ex of my best friend. So, unfortunately, even minxy Erin can’t solve my hated for that cartoon. ]]>

By: Matt F

Matt F — Wed, 02 May 2007 05:08:52 +0000

You might want to look into getting a financial adviser. I use one from Ameriprise, and it’s worked out pretty well. If you look around for one that doesn’t charge too crazy a commission, they can generally do better than you could by just sticking it in any old index fund. They also handle all the paperwork involved in setting up retirement accounts (Roth IRAs are your friend! Seriously, it’s like free money), a big benefit. You just send them a check whenever you have some extra money you want to invest, and talk to them on the phone for a couple of minutes every few months. Easy peasy. ]]>

By: chris

chris — Wed, 02 May 2007 04:39:09 +0000

On a walk to lunch, I was complaining to JP about the lack of a Really Good sandwich shop down near where were we work. We should all pool our money and start one. I’m sure it’d make a killing. Maybe all it would take is a cart, on the opposite side of 15th and K from the burrito guy.
Anyway, I have an ING Direct account, and that’s been pretty darn nice.
Argh, money. ]]>

By: mike d

mike d — Wed, 02 May 2007 04:10:58 +0000

The big question is what do you want to do with your money: maximize the upside or minimize the downside? As these are savings, I assume the latter, not the former.
Unless you’re investing for a time-sensitive horizon (say, you’ve decided to buy a house in five years and are saving towards that), then Becks – as always – has advice you can follow.
The bigger the number behind the index you’re tracking, the better, although the difference between the S&P 500, Russell 1000, and Wilshire 5000 is pretty minimal in your case.
The only thing I’d point out is that, in addition to getting lots of stocks in there, you should look at bonds and “other investments” – if, say, we go into a recession, then financial theory says that the value of your stock holdings will go down and bond holding up. But, then financial theory also said LTCM couldn’t fail.
To pick the first fund I could come up with that had both stocks and bonds in it, some thing like the Vanguard STAR Fund might make sense – bonds, stocks, standard fees, no unusual taxes. Make sure you understand the fees & taxes on the fund you’re looking at, otherwise you might find yourself losing all you’ve earned in interest if you have to unexpectedly liquidate your savings.
And the Esurance chick’s name is Erin? She is a minx…
(The usual disclaimers apply, as well as: as of right now, I have no savings myself; my job depends on getting people to invest in bonds, so I bring my own biases to the table. For God’s sake, talk to someone with more sense before you do anything.) ]]>

By: Karen

Karen — Wed, 02 May 2007 03:14:15 +0000

I’ve been reading http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/ for a while- I think that ANY DAY NOW they’re going to get around to how to pick an index fund. As far as looking at individual mutual funds (how do you tell which ones are index funds??), I pretty much just go for a 10 year return that is as high as possible.
Anyway, I know virtually nothing and I think I’ve made 8% profit dabbling with such things on Scottrade- I started last August. Two of my picks went up, and one went down, but only slightly. (I can give you some tips, for a small fee…)
And yeah, it’s so taboo to talk about investing, because it means you’re not broke. But what the hell, none of my friends read your blog (except for that girl with a penchant for finding rich boys, in contrast to my very good track record for finding broke ones.) ]]>

By: Becks

Becks — Wed, 02 May 2007 03:07:06 +0000

I really like Vanguard. They have low fees and I've never had to talk to a human being. Vanguard Total Market tracks the Wilshire 5000, which is a better index to use than the S&P 500 if you're looking to just put all your money in one fund because you get mid- and small-caps in addition to the large-caps. Or at least dump your money into a money market at ING Direct so it's getting a better interest rate than Bank Of America. Again, no humans.

By: Sommer

Sommer — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:16:35 +0000

Jesus. I have friends with savings. Who are looking to INVEST. When I’m homeless and unemployed at 65, can I come live in your house, Tom? ]]>