February 6, 2006
financial "securities"
Given that I need to start "planning for the future," I've started looking at ways to invest my money. I looked at CDs, T-bonds, mutual funds, etc. etc.
What really irks me is that there's really no difference between these "conservative" items in terms of return. I was looking at CDs, and they generally have a return rate somewhere around 4%. Meaning if I give somebody $1000 for a year, they'll give me $40. Except the rate of inflation is roughly 3%, so really I'm only getting $10 real dollars every year for every thousand dollars I loan to somebody else.
That really sucks.
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SuperSunJ
CD's tend to be a waste of money for you in my opinion since the returns are so minimal and rates are crappy. Better to be a bit more aggressive with them now while you can afford to take more risks. If you INSIST on playing with CD's though, I'd do a tiered system, where you buy a new CD every month or two, staggering them so you always have one retiring around the time you invest more. That way, you can have some liquid in the event of emergencies.
roy
spaceinthewho
Let me know if you've got questions... I've been reading a lot about in the past year. I really enjoyed Peter Lynch's book "One up on Wall Street" and find a lot of articles on Motley Fool informative.
PS. Don't bother with putting "retirement money" into lower risk/no risk vehicles like CDs & savings accounts. You will do much better by putting them into Index Funds. However, you should have a savings account for shorter term cash, since you cannot withdraw from IRAs/401ks without penalty.
6 months living expenses ~= fixed expenses + "some buffer"
fixed == rent, insurance, car payments, student loan payments, food
hparade (guest)
hapy
mee2u2
Anton Zuiker (guest)
noramonster
Allen
look into a Roth IRA, thats the best "long term" investment you can make. I'm sure you already know, but its a retirement IRA that does not get taxed when you remove the money post retirement.
roy
;)
bert
INGdirect.com for the meantime while your deciding what you wanna do. Free savings account that is semiliquid (1 day turnaround). its at 3.8%
i've put a lot of money in mutual funds as well as my "play" money in actual stocks.
I don't like CDs,
and i don't like savings accounts (well except ING, and that's just my "vegas" account).
Allen