well of course i would like to find a bank with yearly compunded interest, butttt i dont think that would be an option

fidelity has some options, but Im not real keen on that stuff...anyone willing to offer any advice?
and dont say real estate...i mean financial stuff here such as trading, bonds, all that jazz

5/4/2007 2:22:48 AM

The bottom line is to invest as much as you can afford.

Working isn't going to be nearly as much fun when you are 65.

5/4/2007 2:25:40 AM

^^i was going to say "flip houses"

5/4/2007 3:01:27 AM

20-30% in long term stock holdings with major companies
5-10% in long/short term stock holdings with interesting companies (high risk high growth potential, won't break the bank if they don't pan out)
10-20% in some sort of mutual fund
~20% in bonds/treasury bills (inflation protection/stability)
remaining 20-45% mixed with high yeild % options like CD's and such... long term real estate works well too...

pretty conservative Numbers here actually, but you should sail through pretty well if you put enough $ in

5/4/2007 11:56:53 AM

^^ it's better than flipping bugers

5/4/2007 12:22:38 PM

flicking boogers?

[Edited on May 4, 2007 at 12:24 PM. Reason : WORK AT HOME ]

5/4/2007 12:24:28 PM

what are your investment goals? save for retirement, house payment?

5/4/2007 12:27:18 PM

the best way to save money is by spending less of it

5/4/2007 12:42:29 PM

i'm a big fan of mutual funds and roth iras

5/4/2007 1:00:18 PM

get a roth at vanguard.com and max out yearly contributions.

5/4/2007 1:00:23 PM

The best investment advice you'll never get

http://www.sanfran.com/home/view_story/1507/

5/4/2007 1:20:43 PM

^ that's only 4k though

Do you own a house?
How are your taxes? Do you plan on moving up tax brackets in the future?
What are your cash and liquidity requirements?
etc etc etc.


Get a FA if you're serious about it - trying to simplify investing is almost always a bad idea.

5/4/2007 1:22:22 PM

don't know how money you are working with but here at the state employees credit union they just introduced a new type of account called a "bridge account".
pretty much you can invest up to $3,000 and the interest compounds quarterly up to 3% per quarter its based on the amount the s&p 500 earns each quarter

[Edited on May 4, 2007 at 1:34 PM. Reason : ]

5/4/2007 1:24:06 PM

^ Link?

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=453056

5/6/2007 10:57:11 AM

401k
roth ira
real estate

5/6/2007 11:20:25 AM

Get rid of your acura and get a honda instead...

in other words, dont make a stupid "investment" in a nice car... that is if your goal is to save.

If you want to be frivolous, then I guess a car is a good decision ( or if you are so loaded that you wont ever need to save money)

5/6/2007 4:11:41 PM

http://www.ncsecu.org/Investments.aspx?page=0&item=0&Name=cntlBridgeAccount

5/6/2007 11:31:37 PM

So, if the stock market does awesome, you can only make 3% max, but if it does crappy, you can lose the same amount if I invested in a regular account?

5/7/2007 7:22:04 AM

as i read it, as long as the s&p 500 gains, you make a percentage equal to the gain, but if it declines you are guaranteed to keep your initial investment

5/7/2007 7:28:28 AM

Here's an example from the disclosure document:
http://www.ncsecu.org/Resources/Publications/PDF/Brochures/BridgeAccountDisclosure.pdf

Quote :

"Below find a hypothetical example of the earnings had the Bridge Account been available in 2000 and subsequent years. The assumptions are an initial investment amount of $1,000 and applying a 3% quarterly cap to the S&P 500® return (maximum 12.00%APR/12.55%APY): Year APR/APY Year APR/APY 2000 1.99%/2.00% 2004 5.56%/5.68% 2001 5.96%/6.09% 2005 5.48%/5.59% 2002 2.97%/3.00% 2006 8.96%/9.27% 2003 8.17%/8.42% "

5/7/2007 7:40:33 AM

"without the associated risk of loss"

Must have misread it the first time.

5/7/2007 9:10:42 AM

looks like it would have been nice from 2000-2002

but beyond that, over the long haul, it underperforms the S&P.

S & P Returns over the same period:
2000 -9.11
2001 -11.89
2002 -22.10
2003 28.68
2004 10.88
2005 4.91
2006 15.79

5/7/2007 9:30:50 AM

I wonder if it would have been beneficial to leave my money in there vs. leave it in their money market account over that period.

5/7/2007 9:35:33 AM

probably yes. the fact that it has no fees is a nice positive.

5/7/2007 10:03:55 AM

Damn. I never realized how bad the S&P did 2000-2002.

Right now the secu money market account pays 4.5% and the best online accounts only pay a tad over 5% Maybe I'll move 3K from my emergency fund and set up a bridge account.

5/7/2007 11:31:44 AM