I am 32 years old and single, looking for some advice on what I can do with about $10k for my first investment. I currently just have it sitting in the bank and would prefer to use some type of investment vehicle to grow my savings and begin planning for the future.  I have no debt, this is more long term so access to the funds is not important as important as long term gains and I know very little about investments to be frank.  I live in the USA.  Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!
2853
I am young, just started my career, and looking to begin investing so I can make my money work for me. I'm still living like I did in college (occasional purchase on myself, but most of it goes into savings) and I would like to take the extra money and invest it.   What would you suggest are the best options for me to begin? I was considering getting a personal investor [a financial advisor] for perhaps a year or so, but I've heard that they really are not worth the money. I wanted to get the input of the great minds here.
108834
Heard Dave Ramsey speaking the other night on his growth mutual fund strategy and he mentioned  reading one of his fund's prospectus and said this fund had a 78 year history and 11.94% average return over those 78 years.  Tried some searches but not sure how to find this specific fund. Anyone know any tools/tips to find this fund or other like it?
48409
First, my understanding is that the long-term capital gains tax rate is 0% for those whose marginal rate on ordinary income is 10% or 15%, and (ignoring the highest 39.6% bracket) the rate is 15% for everyone else. (See  and .)  My interest is in what happens at the crucial break between the 15% and 25% bracket, which is $73,800 for married/joint returns in 2013 (and presumably will be higher in 2014, though I haven't been able to find out what that is or if it has even been set yet). Let's say a household has $64,000 in wage income, and sells stock for a $10,000 profit.   Does their income for the purposes of establishing their tax bracket go to $74,000? If so, is the entire $10,000 profit subject to the 15% long-term capital gains rate? Is any part of the wage income subject to the higher marginal tax rate?   Since the amount of income subject to the higher marginal rate is, well, marginal, part 3 seems somewhat less important than part 2. The real issue is whether the capital gains rate hits the entire profit, since, in that case, it seems the household should only sell enough stock to generate a $9000 profit, and sell the remainder in a future year.
77545
Being old I have/had much of my 401 K in REITS for income. I specifically avoided mall and retail.  Most imply that they are mostly residential mortgages. All are down substantially more than market averages. I am hoping they can still pay some, if not all, dividends as an offset to the capital losses. What may happen?
10895
In 2013 I opened a Roth IRA for year 2012, contributing $4000 for year 2012.   In 2014 I contributed $5500 to that same Roth IRA for year 2013.  In 2015, I realized I was not eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA in 2012 and 2013 due to MAGI exceeding the limit. I opened a new account (Traditional IRA), deposited $5500, then immediately did a conversion to a new Roth IRA. (This is the "backdoor" approach as I understand it, is perfectly legal, and what I should have done in previous years). So I believe my Roth IRA account #2 (for tax year 2015) is in good standing  So now, what exactly should I do with the first Roth IRA account that I contributed to (incorrectly) for years 2012-2013? Luckily (?) there is only about $500 of gain in the account at this time.  If I re-characterize it as "Traditional IRA", have I missed the opportunity to do the conversion to Roth IRA for years 2012 and 2013?  Out of curiosity: Had I not caught this error, what would be the implications at Retirement time when I tried to take money out of the Roth IRA? Would the funds be treated as ordinary income (plus penalty?)   Lastly, with all this seemingly "fancy footwork" opening Traditional IRA and converting to Roth IRA, what documents (if any?) do I need to hold on to when it comes time to withdraw from the Roth IRA at retirement time to ensure the tax-free benefit?
47925
I'm struggling to understand the core reason to invest in stocks as a minority shareholder. Majority shareholding makes more sense as you effectively control the company, so you can pay yourself dividends or even sell the entire company at will. You can guarantee your own payback.  However, as a minority shareholder, you don't get to make any of these decisions. You're basically just hoping to eventually, some day get paid, if the majority holders decide so.  Why do so many investors agree to pay now huge sums of money (trillions in total) for something that may eventually pay dividends, and even in the best case, these dividends are only a fraction of the price you paid to acquire these stocks?  The average annual dividend rate for the US stock market is 2%. That means if you bought 100 million worth of shares, you'd have to wait 50 years to recover your investment.  Of course, the most probable way you'd eventually get liquidity for these shares is by selling them to some other starry-eyed investor - which makes the whole thing seem like a giant Ponzi scheme.  Given all that, it's unclear to me why the public is willing to spend so much money to acquire minority shares in companies.
26324
I just graduated, and I'm starting a new job soon. My employer has pretty good policy for matching 401(k) contributions, so I want to invest as much as possible, especially during this first year.  My question is: should I invest in a traditional 401(k), a Roth 401(k), or some combination of the two? On the one hand, tax rates may be much higher when I retire, and I might be in a higher tax bracket, so a Roth 401(k) would be good. On the other hand, I might be in a lower tax bracket when I retire, so a traditional 401(k) might be better. It's hard to know where I will stand in 30 years.  Is this the same trade-off as with a traditional / Roth IRA, or is there any other tax difference I should know about?
44439
Why are American-style options worth more than European-style options?   I realize I can exercise American-style options anytime before the  expire, but I can only exercise European-style options during their  "exercise period" (usually right when they expire, but no earlier).   So it makes sense that an American option is worth at least as much as  a European option.   But why is it worth more? If I exercise my American option early, I  may make more money than waiting until expiration, but I also may make  less. Mathematically, there's no advantage, since I'm equally likely  to make as much money by waiting for expiration.   Mathematically speaking, is there ever a good reason to exercise an  American option early?   I realize people don't always behave logically, but even the formulas  that valuate options show that American options are worth more.   EDIT (answering comments):    Many of the comments people made would apply to lookback options  (), but not to American  options.  American options can do everything European options can and more. I  understand that, and that means American options can't be worth any  LESS than European options, but I'm still not clear on how you would  mathematically calculate this extra value.  @Aaronaught: "The difference between an American and European  option is the difference between getting N chances to get it right (N  being the number of days 'til expiration) and getting just one  chance. It should be easy to see why you're more likely to profit  with the former, even if you can't accurately predict price  movement."    REPLY: I don't think you really get N chances. Once you exercise the  option, that's it, no more chances. And, if you decide not to exercise  the option today, and the underlying's price falls, you can't go back  in time and exercise it yesterday.    @jdsweet: Think of it this way, if you traveled back through time  one month - with perfect knowledge of AAPL's stock price over that  period - which happens to peak viciously then return to its old price  at the end of the period - wouldn't you pay more for an American  option?    REPLY: Well, no. I'd simply buy a cheaper European option that expires  right at the spike. Or, I'd buy a European option that expires later,  and sell it when the spike occurs. American options don't give you  precognition, so you're still guessing as to when to sell/exercise.    @jdsweet: "one of the more common reasons people exercise (as  opposed to sell) an American option before expiration is if an  unexpected dividend (larger than remaining time value of the option)  was just announced that's going to be paid before the option contract  expires"    REPLY: This makes sense. I'm actually trading FOREX options, so there  is no dividend. In that scenario, are European and American options  worth the same?
43446
Whereas companies like Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Apple have all increased anywhere from 3x-6x in value in the past 5 years. If you just stuck with those companies, you would have easily beaten the S&amp;P 500's 1.5x gains. Then there are some companies like Tesla and Square that have 10x'd in value over the past 5 years. To me it seems that if you just pick a handful of good businesses to invest in, you'll be able to beat the S&amp;P 500. You can even just google the top 10 companies in the S&amp;P 500 and invest in them. The average gains from all of those companies including dividends, have also beaten the S&amp;P 500 in the past 5 years. I am just curious at what I am missing, because every time I research this question common advice seems to be to just stick to an index fund of the S&amp;P 500 as most investors can't beat its returns.
8255
So I have about $50 in pennies, dimes and nickels.  What would you do with it?  I'm asking because I don't think spending hours rolling up the change and taking it to the bank is the best/most creative thing.  More info:  I took the change to the bank (not rolled up).  The banker asked me if I knew the exact amount... when all I had was a huge bag of change weighing like 30-40 pounds :-p  I said I didn't know the exact amount.  So the banker put all the change into a different bag, gave me a little receipt and said look for a deposit to your account in about a week.  Next time I'll just find a coinstar machine. I don't like waiting a week to have my change counted.  Also I'm sure the banker could fish out the quarters and no one would be the wiser :-)
112913
I started a Roth IRA a little while ago, contributing ~$5,000, and I'd like some guidelines on how I should diversify my investments.  Should I invest in stocks or bonds or mutual funds or ETF? What percent should I contribute to these investments?  Additionally, I'm 30 years old, how might my age factor into diversification?  I understand that this is a very subjective question but any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
70675
I've read Einsteins quote stating "The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest." However, everywhere I read this is basically only possible with dividend paying stocks and then applying a dividend reinvestment plan.  Is there a re-investing strategy like this for non-dividend paying mutual funds (or even non-dividend paying stock)? I figured that the only way would be to sell all your funds and then buy x+1 funds again, but this would cause a big loss because of transaction costs from the broker.
70883
How much money do I need to make in order to generate 1k/month for the rest of my life? Is that even possible? If yes, in what way? Edit: I am 30 years old.
56416
I'm trying to avoid asking a duplicate question, but I feel my situation is more specific than general beginner's saving or investing.  I am a university student with a part time job that does not offer 401k options.  However, I would still like to start saving (and investing) for (possibly early) retirement.  I am already saving 15% of my income to this end and putting it in a regular savings account.  I would like to know what other places I could put this money at my age so I can earn a higher return on my investment.  I am considering, for example, the following options:   High yield savings account IRA Lower risk investing (mutual funds or something like that; I'm not an expert)   What are the advantages and disadvantages of each considering my situation?  Are there any other options I should consider?
110352
I am looking for a good in-depth stocks or investment application. I have tried GRISM but it is lacking. There are others Ive found like JStock which uses java, Eclipse Trader which is not user friendly. Stock Market Eye looks interesting, but it is pricey. Can anyone recommend anything else out there? Thanks!
88448
I am a young man who has recently reached a point of financial stability. I'm starting to think about long-term plans which may one day buy a home, or provide for myself in old age.  This raises the question of savings and investments, which causes me some ethical concerns.  I don't have an issue with investment in its basic form. Providing people money to help them do business, allowing it to grow and gaining interest in gratitude is not an issue for me.  The problem comes when we realise that a lot of the most financially successful businesses succeed due to addiction in their customers. Alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pornography, high interest financial services, and a number of others all rely on customers becoming dependent, unable to keep from buying their services. Because of this dependency, a lot of money is made in ethically questionable businesses, and professional investors (whose job is only to make as much money as possible) will choose to put money into these businesses.  The alternative would be to look in to investing myself. Although without some good practical knowledge, this would resemble gambling, throwing my money at whatever business takes my fancy, hoping for the best.  Being concerned about ethics, how can I go about investments and/or savings? Are there businesses which professionally invest ethically?
102307
Is it a good investment strategy to go long on "boring" companies (AT&amp;T for example) and keep them around just because of their dividends or would it be better to trade more frequently companies that don't necessarily offer dividends? Maybe a mix of the two?