Long-Term Investment at a Young Age

[zach0105]

At some point this year, I will be getting 5-10k from my share of the inheritance from my grandmother who passed away at the end of 09 (selling her house and splitting the money left after funeral reimbursement between grandchildren). I am looking to make a 2-5k high yielding stable (hopefully) investment when I get the money.

Other than a few Dave Ramsey videos in my financial planning class from high school I don't know much about investing. I'm looking for something that I can invest, forget about, and find a substantially larger lump sum in 20-30 years.

Just looking for advice as to where to look to invest or where to go to find a brokerage that would be helpful.

Again, I don't know much about investing, so if you explain something, keep it in layman's terms.

Thanks in advance!

[KB5252]

PM droski, he could send you in the right direction.

[Hopvol]

The fact that your thinking about this at your age puts you ahead of most your age. I would say Roth IRA or mutual fund. Oh, and ammo!

[zach0105]

The only thing I really know a little about is a mutual fund. Don't know much about IRA's or ammo's.

Mutual fund was kind of what I was looking at, just don't really know where to go to invest or how to.

[Scooter426]

If you are only going to invest 2-5K as a one time deal I would definitely go with a mutual fund. You are young so you can go with a lot of risk. All the financial funds have made a surprisingly strong return this past year as has infastructure and even energy funds (albeit after the BP spill they took a little bit of a dive). I am actually looking at starting to throw money into European financials as I expect them to finally start to return to making money this coming year.

If you are planning on investing every year about 5k you should definitely start a Roth IRA. You will not get a tax break every year, but when you start taking money out in your golden years you will not have to pay taxes on it. If you are looking for a tax break every year, then you would want to invest in a traditional IRA, but then you have to pay taxes on the money withdrawn at a later time. Basically, when do you want your tax break? I prefer the Roth IRA because I expect to make many gains over my next 30 or so years.


You best bet is to find a financial advisor at a place like Ameriprise, Morgan Stanley, etc...

[Vols520]

An ira is just a retirement account. Mutual funds can be held as an Ira. You get ta deferall, but for the most part can't withdraw income until 59.5.

Just research mutual funds, you are young so be aggressive.

Don't get an advisor yet.
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[tigervol9802]

Redneck 401(k) baby - lottery tickets and beer to celebrate winning or drown your sorrows in losing!!!!!

[Daddy Gee]

vfinx (s&p 500) mutual fund thru vanguard ... very low fees per year .. dividends reinvest themselves ... one way to go if you want to bet on the s&p gaining ..

http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=MUTF:VFINX

[volinbham]

My basic advice with with Daddy Gee - if you don't know much about what you are doing get an index mutual fund like he suggested and let it go.

probably ought to double in value every 7 years (+/-) and turn into a nice pile of cash in 20-30 years. (assuming that old rule of 72 applies)

[VolsNSkinsFan]

You can open an IRA at etrade or any online brokerage in 5 minutes with no paperwork or signatures. (I use Etrade) No broker required. Morgan Stanley wont open an account under $50K and ameriprise will try to sell you something where they make the most $$. Most Online Brokers will give you the first months worth of trades for free. They usually charge $10 per trade and will reimburse you.

you can buy a blue chip stock like a "GE" or Coke and DRIP it. Thats the key Dividend Reinvest it. You can do this all online. If you want to be diversified buy the "SPY" thats the ticker symbol for the S&P500 exchange traded fund (if the S&P500 goes up 1%, the SPY goes up 1%) or you could buy Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) at $80 but they dont pay a dividend. If you like tech and want "growth", you could buy something like Apple (AAPL) or a Google (GOOG) Dont be afraid if the stock price is in the hundreds of $$, that doesnt make it "expensive"

Mutual Funds are boring and most underperform the "market" anyway, imo. If you insist on MFs, be sure to take a look at the "Top 10 holdings" of the MF to make sure you like the companies they hold. Fidelity has some decent funds such as the "ContraFund" which has a good mix of growth and Blue Chips. Another one called "The Growth Fund of America" by "American Funds" is an oldie but a goodie. I own 1 MF and thats FKINX, which is a mix of bonds and high dividend paying stocks


I always tell people to buy something they know. If you are a farmer, take a look at John Deere (DE), if you work in construction, take a look at Caterpiller (CAT) if you like planes or r in the military, take a look at Boeing (BA). If you like fast food, look at Mcdonalds (MCD) or drink Soda, look at Pepsi (PEP) or Coke (KO), If you smoke cigs take a look at Phillip Morris (PM), etc etc All of those are "Blue Chips"

Find a company u like/know and go here, pull up long term charts check dividends and see for yourself

Yahoo! Finance - Business Finance, Stock Market, Quotes, News

Think of an IRA as a "Folder" or "File" and in that IRA you can put pretty much anything in it like a Stock or Bond or CD or Mutual fund or an "Exchange Traded Fund" (ETFs are similar to some Mutual Funds)

[Scooter426]

Originally Posted by VolsNSkinsFan

You can open an IRA at etrade or any online brokerage in 5 minutes with no paperwork or signatures. (I use Etrade) No broker required. Morgan Stanley wont open an account under $50K and ameriprise will try to sell you something where they make the most $$. Most Online Brokers will give you the first months worth of trades for free. They usually charge $10 per trade and will reimburse you.

you can buy a blue chip stock like a "GE" or Coke and DRIP it. Thats the key Dividend Reinvest it. You can do this all online. If you want to be diversified buy the "SPY" thats the ticker symbol for the S&P500 exchange traded fund (if the S&P500 goes up 1%, the SPY goes up 1%) or you could buy Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) at $80 but they dont pay a dividend. If you like tech and want "growth", you could buy something like Apple (AAPL) or a Google (GOOG) Dont be afraid if the stock price is in the hundreds of $$, that doesnt make it "expensive"

Mutual Funds are boring and most underperform the "market" anyway, imo. If you insist on MFs, be sure to take a look at the "Top 10 holdings" of the MF to make sure you like the companies they hold. Fidelity has some decent funds such as the "ContraFund" which has a good mix of growth and Blue Chips. Another one called "The Growth Fund of America" by "American Funds" is an oldie but a goodie. I own 1 MF and thats FKINX, which is a mix of bonds and high dividend paying stocks


I always tell people to buy something they know. If you are a farmer, take a look at John Deere (DE), if you work in construction, take a look at Caterpiller (CAT) if you like planes or r in the military, take a look at Boeing (BA). If you like fast food, look at Mcdonalds (MCD) or drink Soda, look at Pepsi (PEP) or Coke (KO), If you smoke cigs take a look at Phillip Morris (PM), etc etc All of those are "Blue Chips"

Find a company u like/know and go here, pull up long term charts check dividends and see for yourself

Yahoo! Finance - Business Finance, Stock Market, Quotes, News

Think of an IRA as a "Folder" or "File" and in that IRA you can put pretty much anything in it like a Stock or Bond or CD or Mutual fund or an "Exchange Traded Fund" (ETFs are similar to some Mutual Funds)

Why would you not recommend a mutual fund despite their "underperforming" ways? I am relatively young, but have done decently for myself strictly using them. I have just recently gotten into investing money into one stock at a time, but I prefer mutuals because you can be somewhat aggressive, but still mitigate some of the risk since they invest in numerous companies at once instead of putting all your money in one company. I would think this would be ideal for a new investor?

[Daddy Gee]

anybody have suggestions for mutual funds that are a little more aggressive than those that follow an index (S&P/dow jones)?

[vol_in_ar]

Originally Posted by zach0105

At some point this year, I will be getting 5-10k from my share of the inheritance from my grandmother who passed away at the end of 09 (selling her house and splitting the money left after funeral reimbursement between grandchildren). I am looking to make a 2-5k high yielding stable (hopefully) investment when I get the money.

Other than a few Dave Ramsey videos in my financial planning class from high school I don't know much about investing. I'm looking for something that I can invest, forget about, and find a substantially larger lump sum in 20-30 years.

Just looking for advice as to where to look to invest or where to go to find a brokerage that would be helpful.

Again, I don't know much about investing, so if you explain something, keep it in layman's terms.

Thanks in advance!

put it all in Philip Morris, and reinvest the dividend

[Scooter426]

Originally Posted by Daddy Gee

anybody have suggestions for mutual funds that are a little more aggressive than those that follow an index (S&P/dow jones)?

Emerging Market funds are hilarious to follow. At least I find them hilarious. I know Vanguard, JP Morgan, ThreadNeedle, and Dreyfus all have one.

[BearCat204]

I am impressed that you are thinking about this at your age. Speaks volumes about your maturity. I would be proud if my kids thought like that at your age.
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