[ire]

oh word.

Just a side question, at the current moment, what would you consider to be the best long term investment? mutual funds, IRA, even a 401K?

Probably a Roth IRA, unless you need to reduce your taxable income. In that case then a 401k or IRA

 

[BussaFrame]

Probably a Roth IRA, unless you need to reduce your taxable income. In that case then a 401k or IRA

There are Roth 401K's now also, that is if your employer offers that option.

 

[stoney]

I just wrote a 30 min response and my internet froze... mf.
I'll give you a good response when I am less pissed off.

 

[jonKranked]

Probably a Roth IRA, unless you need to reduce your taxable income. In that case then a 401k or IRA

I've already got a 401k, and Redman told me I need to diversify my bonds, n**ga!

 

[BIGHITR]

You can't put a price on memories. Can you imagine the memories you'd get from a night in a strip club with four grand on you?

 

[jonKranked]

You can't put a price on memories. Can you imagine the memories you'd get from a night in a strip club with four grand on you?

You're making that assumption that he'd actually remember any of it

 

[bluebug32]

You can do a lot of research on the investment sites (Vanguard, Fidelity, etc.) and find out what funds match your investment style and timeframe. I'm in the same boat with investing money for use shortly down the road. I've been happy with a money market (very secure). From my own experience, mutual funds have been best over time, not to be pulled out after one year.

But I'd also be interested in hearing what the Joker has to say about good places for relatively conservative short-term investments.

 

[$tinkle]

is the unwritten assumption that all debts are paid off?

that's my first suggestion: pay down all debts, except for maybe house, where you can write off the interest

 

[SPINTECK]

N 8 posted a cool video in politics by some financial guru who said he's making money in agriculture right now. It makes sense b/c population is growing and people have to eat- and many eat more and more.

I think I would seriously look into this if I didn't just have another kid and want to take time off w/out pay.

http://www.cbot.com/cbot/pub/page/0,3181,963,00.html

 

[jonKranked]

is the unwritten assumption that all debts are paid off?

that's my first suggestion: pay down all debts, except for maybe house, where you can write off the interest

this is a very good point. and its actually what I'm doing currently.

 

[BIGHITR]

You're making that assumption that he'd actually remember any of it

Aaah sooo young grasshopper, but this is what video tape is for... memories and bachelor party black mail footage.

 

[jonKranked]

Aaah sooo young grasshopper, but this is what video tape is for... memories and bachelor party black mail footage.

yea but a $4k night at a strip club... videotaping it could also wind up turning into what's commonly known as "police evidence"

 

[BIGHITR]

yea but a $4k night at a strip club... videotaping it could also wind up turning into what's commonly known as "police evidence"

HEY!! What, do you need a refresher course or something!?
$3000 for the strippers
$1000 to grease the cops

 

[pinkshirtphotos]

N 8 posted a cool video in politics by some financial guru who said he's making money in agriculture right now. It makes sense b/c population is growing and people have to eat- and many eat more and more.

I think I would seriously look into this if I didn't just have another kid and want to take time off w/out pay.

http://www.cbot.com/cbot/pub/page/0,3181,963,00.html

theres no money in agriculture anymore. farmers are selling their farms to developers. The cost of soy, oats, and corn have sky rocketed because everyone found out you can turn it into fuel for a car. Farmers cant afford to feed their animals. I know one farmer who cant afford to drive his farm truck anymore, he drives a honda civic when he gets feed because the gas is so much better. Another problem with dairy farms now is that organic milk costs the same as regular milk. Farmers are taking a huge beating right now.

 

[ridiculous]

i second the online saving account notion. 6% and no worries aint bad. Roth IRA would be my second choice.

 

[N8 v2.0]

CD's are great, just make sure you get a fixed rate and you get your funds out during the open window. If you do not, it re-cycles back into the CD for the same amount of time and you can't get out without getting hit with large fees (usually offseting the return). If the rate is within .5%, it might be worth just dropping it into a HY savings account.
BYO and JonKranked are spot on with the ETF and MF recommendaitons (more so ETF's), but you do still have market risk. You can still buy high and if you need the cash, be forced to sell low.
As to Cru's comment for shorting, it can be VERY lucrative, but the cost can be limitless. If you are short, your losses are only limited by how high the security can go. Your profits are limited to the security going to zero. You also have to take short term risk on single contracts and contract roll dates, dividends (you pay them to the actual owner when issued), and again, market exposure. When you are playing with $4k and it looks to be a good portion of your "free liquidity", I would avoid shorting. Shorts are for HIGHLY advanced traders (it's not investing, it's trading) and only on <1-2% of your overall portfolio.
**IF you decide you want to short, look into the S&P double short ETF's. This will allow you to short the market as a whole, while giving you the liquidity of a stock. With this, you have double exposure though. For every dollar the S&P goes down, you will make $2. The opposite holds true as well, for every dollar it goes up, you lose $2. Needless to say, it's an extremely risky proposition and you should only use funds that you can afford to lose entirely.

So basically you are saying:

Good trading comes from experience, and experience comes from bad trading!

 

[$tinkle]

theres no money in agriculture anymore. farmers are selling their farms to developers. The cost of soy, oats, and corn have sky rocketed because everyone found out you can turn it into fuel for a car. Farmers cant afford to feed their animals. I know one farmer who cant afford to drive his farm truck anymore, he drives a honda civic when he gets feed because the gas is so much better. Another problem with dairy farms now is that organic milk costs the same as regular milk. Farmers are taking a huge beating right now.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/farm-bill-47121706

 

[jonKranked]

i second the online saving account notion. 6% and no worries aint bad. Roth IRA would be my second choice.

did you miss the part where I said it had since dropped below 4%?

 

[jonKranked]

HEY!! What, do you need a refresher course or something!?
$3000 for the strippers
$1000 to grease the cops

you must have cheap cops


and most strippers I've seen aren't worth anywhere close to 3 grand.

 

[BrooklynMachine]

While the consensus is to play long and safe (especially in this market), set aside some pocket change to dump into a handfull of short term investments- if only to keep you active and interested in your financial management (3% growth over ten years is safe, but booooorrrring to watch ).

For those that have a vegas-style approach with some of their investments, XM satellite radio (XMSR) shares dumped another 8% today after a 15% surge earlier in the week. Similar tidings from Sirius; volatile and cheap, good times.

Major Video Game console manufacturers and title publishers seem to have been ignoring downturns. Their stock prices are actually somewhat indicative of sales sales volume of title releases, also fun to keep an eye on.

Non-precious metals, zinc, copper, aluminum, have been yoyoing under the rising price of gold for lots of interesting reasons. Again, nothing to jump into with both feet, but it's worth saving that extra five dollar bill from the G-string at the club.

 

[antimony]

ING Direct Orange Savings Account... if you want a high-interest savings account that's easy to access anytime. I think mine is 4%-ish. Also, their customer service is phenominal! Yay Orange!

 

[giantrider89]

dude.....definitely put it in bear sterns!


not sure how many people will get this.......

 

[Sherpa]

um... maybe.
I used to be a financial advisor, became a trader for a high level portfolio manager ($4 billion under active management - most mutual funds are under $10mmm for context), and now I sell financial software.
I'm pretty tied into the market.

That's what I'm going to school for

 

[eaterofdog]

Roth IRA or custom titanium 29er

 

[N8 v2.0]

Hummm......

Merrill, UBS, Citi in Whitney's crosshairs
On top of losses, Oppenheimer analyst says the banks will face yet another capital shortage.
By Katie Benner, writer-reporter
http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/27/news/companies/benner_meredith.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008032713

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney upped the ante on the banking sector Thursday when she predicted Merrill Lynch, UBS, and Citigroup would report worse-than-feared earnings and find themselves once again scrambling for cash.

The new report comes just two days after she cut first quarter, full-year 2008, and full-year 2009 estimates for Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), JPMorgan (JPM, Fortune 500), Wachovia and Wells Fargo due to estimates for mortgage- and CDO-related writedowns.

"We expect net losses for C, MER, and UBS of greater than $30 billion," Whitney wrote Thursday. "As many expected the fourth quarter to be the "kitchen sink" for the industry, we believe first quarter results, to be reported in two weeks time, will be a rude awakening."

Whitney's reports have been known to move markets, but midday Thursday Citi and Merrill (MER, Fortune 500) were trading slightly lower while UBS (UBS) was up about 2%.

Nevertheless, that would be cold comfort for investors who have come to take her predictions very seriously.

She also referred to a report she wrote last November, "Ring of Fire," that predicted Tier 1 Capital, the financial cushion banks must have in order to meet regulatory banking requirements, would fall more dramatically than anyone expected. "We believe this report is once again relevant and that the ratings agencies' actions in February will contribute to "Round 2" of financial recaps," she writes.

Her argument is straightforward and simple. Ratings agencies downgraded more than $370 billion worth of securities. "The indisputable truth about how this works is simply that when a rating agency downgrades a security held on a bank balance sheet, the regulator requires said bank to hold more capital against said security/asset."

According to Whitney, Citi is once again in most need of the swiftest and largest capital infusion.

Whitney has been one of the financial sector's biggest skeptics, a role that thrust her into the spotlight amid the ongoing Wall Street meltdown.

It began last October, when she downgraded Citi and said it would need to cut its dividend in order to raise much-needed capital. She was one of the first to paint such a grim picture of the bank's future, and she was proven correct.

Less than two weeks later, she released the "Ring of Fire" report, that said downgrades to asset-backed bonds would force banks to raise capital. That report hit on November 11 and by the end of January Wall Street's biggest firms including Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500), and the now defunct Bear Stearns were all working to raise capital from sovereign wealth investors.

Whitney was back in January, this time setting her sights on the bond insurers, a group that had been scrutinized because they insured risky asset backed securities and would likely not be able to make good on those contracts.

"While we had previously believed the monoline insurers MBIA and Ambac were too important to fail due to the threat of systemic risk and thus would likely be bailed out, we no longer think systemic risk is even realistic or a bailout of the monolines even viable."

Not since her October Citi report had she received so much resistance to a report. But the chorus of voices demanding the complete overhaul of the monoline industry shares many of her concerns. To top of page

 

[Arkayne]

Fantastic info guys.. I've got some serious researching to do now!

 

[Da Peach]

Criminy, someone buy Joker the title, "Financial Monkey"

No. Monekey

 

[valve bouncer]

US$4k huh? What's that in real money?

 

[Da Peach]

Index funds

 

[JohnE]

Hey Joker, I own a bunch (1000+) shares of JP Morgan...with the whole Bear Stearns thing, am I getting rich?

 

[stinkyboy]

Buy Apple.

 

[stoney]

So basically you are saying:

Good trading comes from experience, and experience comes from bad trading!

yes, but I learned much from reading Graham and by watching others (as well as making my own mistakes). It's very easy to learn the hard way, however a bit of work will allow you to learn the smart way.
"Experience: That most brutal of teachers, but you learn, my God do you learn." -C.S. Lewis

 

[stoney]

Hey Joker, I own a bunch (1000+) shares of JP Morgan...with the whole Bear Stearns thing, am I getting rich?

No. Depending on your BOT price, you might get a good bump in the price (if you haven't noticed it already). However until it is sorted out as to just how toxic BSC is, there is no real telling.
A lot of their traders and PM's have jumped ship and are going to other banks. Those are the people that really add the value to the company.

 

[brungeman]

Unless I missed this being posted in this thread these fvckers have it all wrong!

You need to look into the 401-Keg plan...

If you had purchased $1000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would

now be worth $49.00.



With Enron, you would have $16.50 left of the original $1000.



With WorldCom, you would have less than $5.00 left.



If you had purchased $1000.00 of Delta Air Lines stock you would
have $49.00 left.



If you had purchased United Airlines, you would have nothing left.



But, if you had purchased $1000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank
all the beer, then turned in the cans for recycling, you would have
$214.00.



Based on the above, the best current investment advise is to drink
heavily and recycle.



This is called the 401-Keg Plan.

imagine the stories you would have from all the drunken fun! Hell we might see another "Worst night of my life" thread!

Durka Durka!

 

[ridiculous]

did you miss the part where I said it had since dropped below 4%?

mine is at 5 now but i switched to a BOA account from etrade.

 

[eaterofdog]

You need to look into the 401-Keg plan...

The math is faulty as it does not account for depreciation on your liver.

 

[brungeman]

The math is faulty as it does not account for depreciation on your liver.

may not account for the depreciation of the liver, but it leaves you with more ching that you can then use to pay for healthcare!

 

[eaterofdog]

Liver transplant procedure costs can range, but most average between $100,000 to $400,000, depending on time waiting in the hospital ICU and extent of liver...

I guess $200 might get a hand job from the nurse or something.

 

[BIGHITR]

you must have cheap cops and most strippers I've seen aren't worth anywhere close to 3 grand.

ALL strippers aren't worth $20! Hell they won't go out with you if you begged, but they'll bare their snapper inches from your face and for what, a buck? Trying figure out THAT mentality. Which is why three thousand one dollar bills would buy you every stripper in the house all freakin night. It would be like you were the only guy in the in the place! And c'mon, like you'd turn down a grand and a hand job in a dark corner? Personally I wouldn't spend twenny buks in a strip club. Okay, maybe on pool.

 

[Sherpa]

ALL strippers aren't worth $20! Hell they won't go out with you if you begged, but they'll bare their snapper inches from your face and for what, a buck? Trying figure out THAT mentality. Which is why three thousand one dollar bills would buy you every stripper in the house all freakin night. It would be like you were the only guy in the in the place! And c'mon, like you'd turn down a grand and a hand job in a dark corner? Personally I wouldn't spend twenny buks in a strip club. Okay, maybe on pool.

Ghey??