<p>Has anyone here invested in the past, and does anyoe invest currently?</p>
<p>What is the nature of that investment? I've thought about simply buying silver or gold coins. If I had spend my entire savings of gold in 2004, and sold it today, I'd make a $70,000 profit. The problem I have With gold though is, I wouldn't know when to sell it, or IF to sell it.</p>
<p>My investment goal is simply wealth aquisition... I have no plans to buy a house or car.</p>
<p>I've thought about stocks, options, futures, forex, mutual funds, etf's and I've looked at the credit union I'll transfer to (It actually has a branch on campus). </p>
<p>It looks like the best option for me there is a Money Market Share, but the dividend rate for that is 0.4% . Isn't inflation 3%? they also offer Term Share Certificates--- a 5 year certificate has a dividend rate of 1.98% That seems way too conservative. Because I am "young" and have no assets, do you think aggresive, high risk investments are the way to go?</p>
<p>you obviously know nothing about investing. save yourself thousands of dollars and ask for professional aid or at least get moderately educated. </p>
<p>and yes, the younger you are, the more aggressive you can afford to be.</p>
<p>You may not have current plans to purchase a home, but that will change quicker than you think.</p>
<p>I believe I read that you are former military and starting school, which means you are older than most students entering college, no? That also means you probably have a pretty nice nest-egg built up from the service, I certainly did.</p>
<p>I only ask because this could accelerate post-college plans quicker than most fresh graduates, who may plan on living at home to save some money, still have a roommate, ect. </p>
<p>If you finish school at 26 (just throwing an age out), you should probably look into purchasing a home after you get your first good job…buying a first home at 35-40 with a 30 year mortgage is essentially buying a tomb. The rates will never be lower in our lifetime as they are right now, and I think they will stay pretty level for the next few years. Remember, just a small fluctuation in the interest rates can cost you a few hundred dollars per month on your mortgage.</p>
<p>I have no idea how much you have, but it sounds as if you already have enough for a substantial down payment depending on the area you settle into. </p>
<p>If your goal is wealth acquistion, purchasing a home is really Plan A. I don’t mean do it now, but after you’re out of school it should be a priority. It’s hard to build real wealth without buying home. You’re just throwing money down a hole in rent.</p>
<p>I’m not discouraging you from investing, because you should. I would just keep it very conservative. You need to sustain what you have now so you can use it for down payments on homes/cars in the future. The money you saved up from the military will take decades to re-build if you lose it, so don’t get careless, don’t chase the quick turn around.</p>
<p>Thanks for the civil reply. actually, I’m 28 and I’m a transfer. (Junior status I think). I left the Army on a medical discharge in 2004, and I had saved $20,000… but sadly, that’s all gone (I have not had a job since I left the Army).</p>
<p>I’m not really thinking of buying a home because I don’t know where I’ll be living. For years, I wanted to live abroad. (SE asia). I just have 1 year of the post 9-11 gi bill (I’ve exhausted my regular gi bill), so I think I’ll be able to invest some. I’m also disabled, and I can get ss disability (I hope). I’ve not taken the steps to do that yet.</p>
<p>^ Sure, if you go out and purchase a home you can’t afford, take out a second mortgage, then get upside down on it…you would have been better off never buying a home. Ditto if you purchase a home that is grossley over-valued.</p>
<p>Plus, there is a quality of life issue. I certainly wouldn’t want to rent my whole life. I want my own home that I can modify how I see fit (remodeling), my own yard, my own space, ect.</p>
<p>If you buy a home you can afford, you don’t have anything to worry about.</p>
<p>Besides, you can always rent if you’re forced too. If you go bankrupt you can still go rent.</p>
<p>Well if you live in an area where housing prices are falling, I guess you could say all houses are over-priced, but you can’t avoid it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well that’s irrelevant considering we’re only talking about money.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If you actually do the math, in a market where the value of your home is not appreciating, often you will find that you’re burning more money paying your mortgage compared to if you were renting the same house.</p>
<p>I had the same idea. I’m not sure which countries allow foreigners to buy land, but that seems like a good investment. Am I correct in assuming marriage is also a big step toward wealth?</p>
<p>I was engaged 3 months ago, but it was a disaster. I’m very skeptical of marriage now, and I don’t trust my ability to judge character.</p>
<h2>If you actually do the math, in a market where the value of your home is not appreciating, often you will find that you’re burning more money paying your mortgage compared to if you were renting the same house. ~ You<em>of</em>eh</h2>
<p>Homes are meant to be a long-term investment, so it wouldn’t be accurate to only look at a 2-4 year period of time, in what should be a 10-30 year investment.</p>
<p>^ Because, the interest rates will never be lower in our life time.</p>
<p>And, what’s the first rule of investing? Buy when the price is low.</p>
<p>I don’t see your logic, wait till homes increase in price then purchase one? Makes no sense…buy it now, while the price is low and have an incredibly low interest rate.</p>
<p>Okay so you take out a mortgage for your million dollar house with your glorious interest rate and then the value of your home drops 6 percent over the next year, you just burned 60k. Nobody is saying interest rates will sky-rocket over the next few years. All I’m saying is if the value of homes in your area are decreasing or even staying the same, you may be wise to rent until the market outlook is favorable. Which doesn’t mean simply wait till housing prices increase, it means wait till the market trend is favorable, aka not most likely to trend downward. If you wait until housing prices aren’t decreasing, you don’t burn that 60k, rather you may make 60k.</p>
<p>This is my logic… Stock A’s price is $50, the price starts to fall, outlook is bad, you buy at $40 because it’s cheaper than $50, price falls to $30, stock starts to increase, outlook is favorable, I buy at $35 because outlook is favorable, stock bounces back to $50, I make more money.</p>
<p>^ If you can afford to live in the house you bought, none of that matters.</p>
<p>Even if the price would drop, it doesn’t affect you…unless you either A) Can’t afford the mortgage payments, or B) Have to sell your house (probably because of A).</p>
<p>A “favorable market” is only an issue if you want to SELL a home, not purchase one. Currently, we are in the most favorable market for purchasing a home we have seen in decades, and most likely for the rest of our lives. </p>
<p>If you treat a home as a long term investment and intend to actually live in the home (not flip it or just use the equity to purchase a more expensive home) then you can’t go wrong.</p>
<p>You’d only get into trouble if you want to re-sell the home when the value continues to decrease, which is something you can avoid as long as you are able to afford the mortgage.</p>
<p>As I said, homes are a long term investment 10-30 years, not something that should be treated as a get-rich-quick scheme.</p>
<h2>Okay so you take out a mortgage for your million dollar house with your glorious interest rate and then the value of your home drops 6 percent over the next year, you just burned 60k. ~ you-of_eh</h2>
<p>No you didn’t, not if you intend to live in the home for an extended period of time. As you imply, the market trends, so by your own logic that value would return…if you can afford to live in it.</p>
<p>Plus, you are paying a much smaller mortgage because you purchased the home when it was cheap…compared to your philosophy - wait till it’s more expensive then buy it.</p>
<p>Plus, I don’t think we are talking about million dollar homes, at least I wasn’t. I’m talking about a typical family home or a starter home, which would fall between 120K - 180K in many areas (or lower).</p>
<p>Holy **** dude lol. All I’m saying is the common idea that “You’re just throwing money down a hole in rent” is not always true. Why would you buy a house when you could save money by renting and then buy later?. </p>
<p>You’re saying that you won’t be any worse off in the long run by buying. Nobody is arguing that. I’m saying you can be better off in the short term by renting. Yes, go ahead and buy the house because you can afford it and the price will rebound and you won’t be affected by the short term decrease in value and you’ll live happily ever after. You also won’t save the money you could have saved by renting over the period of the decrease. Which is all I’m trying to say.</p>
<p>^ But in the end, you would lose money under your logic, because you would be purchasing the home at a higher price, and most likely a higher interest rate.</p>
<p>So each month you’d be paying more money ($200 - $400) than you would have if you just purchased the home when it was being sold at a lower price, and lower interest.</p>
<p>So, $200 (just an estimate, but a low one) per month over a 30 year mortgage would cost you $72,000 - out of pocket, not equity.</p>
<p>Renting wouldn’t save you a dime, unless you are just saying that a person should live in a cheap apartment and save money. If that’s the case, sure…we all know living in a shoe box would be cheap, but we also know that’s stupid.</p>
<p>Prior to purchasing my first home my wife and I lived in a two bedroom apartment - standard unit in a nice metro area. We paid $875/month plus some utilities.</p>
<p>We put 20K down on our first home (3 bedroom ranch, 1 1/2 bath, attached garage, 1/4 acre lot, suburban neighborhood, good school district) and our mortgage was $915 per month, including taxes. Of course, we also had utilities…but not a very drastic difference. So overall we are talking maybe a $100 per month difference, which was off-set by closer commutes for both of us.</p>
<p>Okay I tried to explain it to you, but you’re just not getting it. I’m not sure why you are talking about you and your wife saving on gas money, I never said you made the wrong decision buying a home lol. </p>
<p>I’m not willing to take the time to break it all down for you so just Google renting vs buying, I’m sure I’m not the first person to state that renting can save you money vs buying…**for equally valued properties<a href=“I%20will%20say%20that%20again%20seeing%20as%20you%20must%20have%20missed%20it%20the%20first%20time”>/b</a>. Good day.</p>
<p>I’ve studied about investing a lot and was in your situation 3 years ago when I was asking myself what to do with my money. Yes, I do agree that if you’re going to be very aggressive with investing at any time in your life it should be when you’re young (20s or earlier even), but only if you can handle the risk. You have to know your own personal risk tolerance and how your emotions will affect you if you do lose money (will you cry yourself to sleep if you lose 75% of your investment?)</p>
<p>I also don’t think it’s a good idea to think about what “could’ve happened” if you had done something in the past. In the investing world this is known as “chasing returns” and usually doesn’t work out like most people expect. Warren Buffet, arguably one of the best investors alive, once said, “In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.” If precious metals tanked from 2004 until now you wouldn’t have even thought about it. What if you bought precious metals and it tanked a day later? You should go for what you expect to increase in value in the future rather than look at past results.</p>
<p>If you’re like me and have a huge (emphasis on huge. I wouldn’t suggest this allocation for 95% of investors since they don’t have the right level of emotional detachment for it.) tolerance for risk and a large outlook (10 years or more), then buy and hold 100% high-risk stock ETFs (highest risk ones are ones like small-cap value, emerging markets, international small-cap) and make sure not to charge your asset allocation just because you are winning or losing (known as buying on emotion) or because some other asset is earning hot returns at the moment (i.e gold).</p>
<p>A money market share has almost no risk of losing money at all but good luck beating inflation. Remember that higher risk is generally correlated with higher potential (note potential not actual) returns. Money markets are meant to maintain your current purchasing power not increase it.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if this is the right forum for this question though, as I would think that most college students are in debt and don’t have spare money laying around to invest with.</p>
<p>You need to do alot of research for yourself with investing and also within yourself.</p>
<p>Are you ultra-conservative like me who views every gamble as, essentially, an automatic loss? Or are you ultra-competitive who sees every gamble as a win, neglecting the possibility for loss.</p>
<p>Best advice is to just play around and see whats out there - maybe look at stocks with nice dividends and decent growths over the past few months, or try to find some emerging markets - maybe look at apple/verizon with the new iphone deal there.</p>