I'm part of an investment that turned £100 into £1000 in one year and pays more money in fees than in losses. Anyone can join it.

^Full disclosure about high management fees. I like that.

What's up gents, this is my first time posting in this thread. I never realized the vast amounts of applicable knowledge (outside of game) on this forum; it's like an online version of a cigar club.

So I was hoping to get some advice. I am young-ish (28) and I have been fortunate enough to have worked and saved up a significant amount of cash. Because of my impulsive nature I am shifting some money around and trying to invest. I put some stacks in a savings account as an emergency fund, mostly for my house in the US that I rent out. However, I have more leftover that I want to invest. After doing some research I find myself comfortable with putting my money in a mutual fund. I am wary of stocks as a non-gambling man I don't want to lose money. I have been looking at Vanguard as they have a much lower expense ratio than my current financial institution. I'm looking into the Total Stock Market Index Admiral Shares (0.05 expense ratio).

Good choice? Anyone with minor advice for a relative newbie? Thanks gentlemen.

Fury, Vanguard is a great choice. Decide on asset allocation, pick low cost Vanguard funds and invest.

Quote: (10-22-2015 09:03 AM)Fury Wrote:  

What's up gents, this is my first time posting in this thread. I never realized the vast amounts of applicable knowledge (outside of game) on this forum; it's like an online version of a cigar club.

So I was hoping to get some advice. I am young-ish (28) and I have been fortunate enough to have worked and saved up a significant amount of cash. Because of my impulsive nature I am shifting some money around and trying to invest. I put some stacks in a savings account as an emergency fund, mostly for my house in the US that I rent out. However, I have more leftover that I want to invest. After doing some research I find myself comfortable with putting my money in a mutual fund. I am wary of stocks as a non-gambling man I don't want to lose money. I have been looking at Vanguard as they have a much lower expense ratio than my current financial institution. I'm looking into the Total Stock Market Index Admiral Shares (0.05 expense ratio).

Good choice? Anyone with minor advice for a relative newbie? Thanks gentlemen.

Yes, it's a good choice. The bottom line is to get started.

At 28 you shouldn't be wary of stocks...or at least the stock market ( via mutual funds) Time is on your side since you're young. I wouldn't recommend buying individual stocks per se, as those can be a quick way to lose money if you don't know how to trade, etc.

But, mutual funds give you access to the stock market and the benefit of diversification and professional management.

I would :
1. Have 3 to 6 to no more than 9 months ( pretty high) of living expenses in a mmkt ( cash account) which it sounds like you have.
2. Invest in growth stock mutual funds ( the fund you mentioned is fine) the rest of your money. You can open an IRA and put $ 5000 a year in that too as IRA investments grow tax deferred. So perhaps take your first investable $5000 and do a vanguard IRA, then the remainder, just buy a regular non-qualified ( non- IRA ) account mutual funds.
3. Invest at least 10% of everything you earn every year into these mutual funds.
4. Keep "bad" debt ( credit cards, clothing stores, cars ) at zero or an absolute minimum.
5. Don't worry about bear markets, market declines, etc. It's almost a good thing as you'll be dollar cost averaging through these getting a better cost basis. Just keep investing each and every month and year. Markets always recover , always have and always will.

Do this and when you're in your 40s, 50s and 60s, you'll be ahead of 90% of people your age. Then you'll get to a point where you have a "nest egg" you can convert to a regular income so you can have options ( a million dollars can give you a 50,000 to $ 60,000 per year ) etc.

Thanks for the advice Brodiaga. Outside of the Total Stock Market Index, any other good ones?

Quote: (10-21-2015 12:34 PM)Mike5055 Wrote:  

Hope none of you guys were holding Valeant Pharma (VRX) as of this morning.

Gonna hurt a lot of large Canadian funds, most have Valeant in their top 5 holdings, hopefully they arent the ones holding the hot potato when it ends

Bought Valent on TSX at 129 today.

@Fury: buy any low cost funds that have global exposure to the likes of the one already mentioned. SPY is also never a bad choice if you just don't know.

@tynamite: post audited track records or you can PM me the details.

Fury, check out the website Portfolio Visualizer. Backtest some of the preset portfolios and pick one of the options. The website tells you the tickers of the funds.

Robreke and Brodiaga,

Thanks for the quick and in depth responses. I will consider all of your suggestions. You made a good point of diversifying as I was planning on putting my whole stack in that Total stock fund I mentioned. I'll take your advice and also speak with Vanguard and set up an investment account.

Robreke,

I actually have a Thrift Savings Plan account (from my time in the military) which I have to do something with now. I believe I should have 12-15k in there now but I will look into transferring that into a Vanguard IRA. I appreciate the help gentlemen.

Quote: (10-21-2015 12:34 PM)Mike5055 Wrote:  

Hope none of you guys were holding Valeant Pharma (VRX) as of this morning.

There are fraud allegations, but top hedge fund manager Bill Ackman bought another 2 million shares yesterday. I doubt someone like that is going to buy that much if there's any real chance of the fraud being true.

Sold VRX on TSX at 158. +22%

Big money is not necessarily smart money. We shall see if Valeant is real.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/25/investin...ddle-east/

Not sure if this article has any truth to it. But there are claims that Saudia Arabia will deplete all of its cash reserves with 5 years based on $50 / barrel.

If it is true, it seems to me we should see a price increase tomorrow in oil companies.

I don't see the connection in them having low cashes because they have to sell cheap pull, causing company stock to go up.

Look at this big mother fucker. Has this affected the market at all?

Besides selling umbrellas and kayak rides through Houston, was there any way to cash in?

Gents, don't confuse immediate world events/news with something that should happen in the capital markets.

For example, Hurricane Patricia ^, wrong side of Mexico.

Bought more TCK.B on TSX at 8.13. Bought CBD (NY) at 14.5. I really like EC and MCEP here as well and would buy if I wasn't all in on the previous 2.

EC is Colombia's state producer, not gonna fail. MCEP will survive at ~$35-$40 oil but is dead money, opportunity cost.

Question for RVF members in this thread:

- What are some non-US natural gas companies that are large, but currently depressed? Same question for coal companies. Again, non-US companies.

Quote: (10-22-2015 03:15 PM)Fury Wrote:  

Robreke and Brodiaga,

Thanks for the quick and in depth responses. I will consider all of your suggestions. You made a good point of diversifying as I was planning on putting my whole stack in that Total stock fund I mentioned. I'll take your advice and also speak with Vanguard and set up an investment account.

Robreke,

I actually have a Thrift Savings Plan account (from my time in the military) which I have to do something with now. I believe I should have 12-15k in there now but I will look into transferring that into a Vanguard IRA. I appreciate the help gentlemen.

Fury thank you for your service:

If I had a long time horizon of 20 to 30 years I would also consider dividend aristocrat ETF's - one of my newsletters recently reported that the stellar long term performance among so called "Dividend Aristocrat" ETFs over 60% of their returns is from dividends and if you do not have immediately need for the dividend income then dividend aristocrats ETFs that buy dividend aristocrat stocks that reinvest their dividends are safe and return very superior long term returns if you have a long term time horizon of 20 or 30 years before you plan to retire.

I am not going to include the link because I am at 40% warning for posting investment spam so just google:

ProShares S&P 500® Dividend Aristocrats ETF seeks investment results, before fees and expenses, that track the performance of the S&P 500® Dividend Aristocrats® Index. Ticker symbol NOBL

This is basically a buy and hold diversification play and I would put a portion of my dollar cost averaging contributions into it so that you are not fully exposed to tech and growth stocks in a diverse Vanguard fund just in case we have another 2008/09 market "correction" or crash in 2016.

That said I have several newsletters forecasting a major correction next year in 2016 so another reason to consider a diversified Dividend Aristocrat ETF as these securities tend to rebound the most after a major market correction.

Deepdiver,

I appreciate it man. I will look into the Dividend Aristocrats ETF. Anyone else invest in that?

The supposed 2016 market "correction" is definitely an interesting topic. I went to a lecture a couple weeks ago by an economic professor that mentioned that we were moving towards a market event, be it small or large.

^^^ Second NOBL, I also own some Wisdom Tree's dividend fund, which also includes tech dividend companies (MSFT)

@SunW: are you looking for upstream, midstream, downstream? If you don't know or care to know, just buy a major, think Exxon or Chevron.

And not to be facetious: you can check out Bellatrix(2/3 nat gas), or TransCanada(pipeline).

For coal: checkout BHP, Rio, Vale, Teck(which I have). Coal isn't for the faint of heart FYI.

Quote: (11-16-2015 11:51 PM)jj90 Wrote:  

@SunW: are you looking for upstream, midstream, downstream? If you don't know or care to know, just buy a major, think Exxon or Chevron.

And not to be facetious: you can check out Bellatrix(2/3 nat gas), or TransCanada(pipeline).

For coal: checkout BHP, Rio, Vale, Teck(which I have). Coal isn't for the faint of heart FYI.

Thanks; I'm side-stepping US companies because the US is trying to bankrupt its coal companies - leftists don't have moral problems with bankrupting coal companies. Oil is next - see Clinton going against Exxon.

However, outside the US, I like natural gas and coal because I think both of them are close to the bottom and are like buying stocks in the great depression. I'll check those out - thanks dude.

Starting a small position on Liquor Stores N.A, nice yield and the Saskatchewan government announced they will be privatizing some government run stores, LIQ will be in a good position to purchase.

First time posting in this thread. I'm looking to invest in to a/some mutual funds to start gaining money. I have a few questions, but don't feel obliged to answer them all.

1. Very quick one here, what is the best website for comparing all types of mutual funds, which isn't jargon heavy and contains only mutual funds, not ETFs, shorts or stocks.

2. Which type of fund is best out of money market, bond, and growth? I have about $1000/£700 I can invest, which type is best for that. I'd also like it to be a fund that I can just leave, I don't care too much about high returns.

3. Does it matter that I'm UK based, can I still buy US mutual funds just as easily?

4. Any straight out, reasonably safe recommendations of mutual funds?