Investing Thread

[Y2HH]

The sad thing is...it isn't just day traders who are being stolen from. It's "people who invest their retirement savings in the stock market".

 

What truly baffles me about investing is that people just don't care. I mean, it's their own money going into these 401k plans, and they just don't care enough to research what they're investing in or why.

 

The high frequency traders stealing from 401k investors is just a fraction of the pie ... people are getting robbed blind because they invest in BAD mutual funds, with 1+% fees. I looked at a few of my friends 401k's and had to reallocate for them, because they were paying huge fees on poor funds that weren't even performing in line with the S&P500, and if they were, it wouldn't matter since the amount of money getting skimmed removed any gain.

[CrimsonWeltall]

What truly baffles me about investing is that people just don't care. I mean, it's their own money going into these 401k plans, and they just don't care enough to research what they're investing in or why.

 

The high frequency traders stealing from 401k investors is just a fraction of the pie ... people are getting robbed blind because they invest in BAD mutual funds, with 1+% fees. I looked at a few of my friends 401k's and had to reallocate for them, because they were paying huge fees on poor funds that weren't even performing in line with the S&P500, and if they were, it wouldn't matter since the amount of money getting skimmed removed any gain.

 

While fees are being mentioned...

 

I'm looking to do some online investing. What sites/services are good for avoiding fees and charges and other ripoffs? I am not the type of investor who is going to be making lots of trades or messing with individual stocks. More of a "dump into an index fund and leave it alone" type deal.

Edited April 1, 2014 by CrimsonWeltall

[Y2HH]

While fees are being mentioned...

 

I'm looking to do some online investing. What sites/services are good for avoiding fees and charges and other ripoffs? I am not the type of investor who is going to be making lots of trades or messing with individual stocks. More of a "dump into an index fund and leave it alone" type deal.

 

Most of the discount brokers like ETrade, Ameritrade, etc., will have around the same commission prices, which you pay on any buy or sell, but on top of that, the funds you invest in will have fees of their own. If you stick with Index funds, the fees will be quite low, usually around 0.10%, versus some mutual funds which are often 1 to 2%.

[Jenksismyhero]

While fees are being mentioned...

 

I'm looking to do some online investing. What sites/services are good for avoiding fees and charges and other ripoffs? I am not the type of investor who is going to be making lots of trades or messing with individual stocks. More of a "dump into an index fund and leave it alone" type deal.

 

If you're only going to invest in some funds, go to the source. I have my own brokerage account with Vanguard. Low fees and the funds perform very well. I've been telling everyone I know to put their money in the vanguard 500 or maybe the total stock market fund and enjoy the gains.

 

I use Scottrade for my retirement account. I think you get like 7 trades free and so far in the last 5-6 years I've used maybe 4? Most of the sites probably have X amount free to start you off, so that shouldn't be a big deal if you're not going to trade a lot.

[southsider2k5]

While fees are being mentioned...

 

I'm looking to do some online investing. What sites/services are good for avoiding fees and charges and other ripoffs? I am not the type of investor who is going to be making lots of trades or messing with individual stocks. More of a "dump into an index fund and leave it alone" type deal.

 

Indexes have much lower fees than mutual funds, because a minimal amount of trading is needed to balance them. I personally think indexes are the lynchpin of a great retirement strategy. Over the long haul, you aren't going to outperform the indexes, especially with the cost of actively traded mutual funds factored in.

[StrangeSox]

S&P 500 adjusted for inflation

 

[ChiSox_Sonix]

PHOT has done this 5 other times in it's past -- going from a few pennies to ~60 to 80cents before crashing again. This is common for OTC stocks, they usually have very quick runups followed by very harsh corrections, so the idea is to get out BEFORE that happens. You won on this one, just don't hold all of it too long now, it just doesn't have the numbers to be where it is, and for an OTC stock, it's trading at massive volumes because speculators are piling into that industry.

 

These cannabis based stocks are all seeing these types of jumps right now, which is why I'd beware. When everyone wants in, you want out...when everyone wants out, you want in.

 

http://www.thestreet.com/story/12525417/1/...mp;cm_ven=YAHOO

 

The SEC has temporarily suspended the buying/selling of PHOT

[gatnom]

So, do any of you financially savvy people have some investing advice for a guy who is just starting his first real job out of college? Paying back my student loans is my primary priority at the moment, but I'd like to start putting some money aside for retirement etc. sooner rather than later. Any thoughts?

 

 

[southsider2k5]

So, do any of you financially savvy people have some investing advice for a guy who is just starting his first real job out of college? Paying back my student loans is my primary priority at the moment, but I'd like to start putting some money aside for retirement etc. sooner rather than later. Any thoughts?

 

Keep it simple. At this age, paying off debt will get you much further than anything else. Put somewhere around 5% away, and put it into whatever SP500 fund you have, and forget about it.

[Jenksismyhero]

So, do any of you financially savvy people have some investing advice for a guy who is just starting his first real job out of college? Paying back my student loans is my primary priority at the moment, but I'd like to start putting some money aside for retirement etc. sooner rather than later. Any thoughts?

 

What are the rates on your loans? That'll determine what you should do with your extra income. I'm paying back some of mine, but not all. I have loans ranging from 2%, essentially free money, and 6.75%. If you were paying back student loans over the last few years instead of investing you lost about 20% or more on returns.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Jenksismybitch

[gatnom]

What are the rates on your loans? That'll determine what you should do with your extra income. I'm paying back some of mine, but not all. I have loans ranging from 2%, essentially free money, and 6.75%. If you were paying back student loans over the last few years instead of investing you lost about 20% or more on returns.

 

Interesting point. I have loans ranging from 3.4% to 6.8%, but due to the way the federal loans seem to aggregated, I'm not sure that they will let me pay off the higher interest loans specifically. I'll have to contact them to see exactly how it works since apparently this isn't a frequently asked question in the FAQ section.

 

Doing some rough math, if they were to use a weighted average for the rates, it would be about 4.87% which would be enough I would think to try to pay them back first.

 

Keep it simple. At this age, paying off debt will get you much further than anything else. Put somewhere around 5% away, and put it into whatever SP500 fund you have, and forget about it.

 

Is there any fund you would recommend? I've heard of a few, but I'm not sure if any of them are particularly good.

 

 

Edited April 18, 2014 by gatnom

[IlliniKrush]

So, do any of you financially savvy people have some investing advice for a guy who is just starting his first real job out of college? Paying back my student loans is my primary priority at the moment, but I'd like to start putting some money aside for retirement etc. sooner rather than later. Any thoughts?

If your company offers any sort of 401K match, make sure you max out on that. Absolute first thing to do.

[gatnom]

If your company offers any sort of 401K match, make sure you max out on that. Absolute first thing to do.

 

Supposedly, they are in the process of starting that up, but if they're like anybody I've ever worked for before, it's probably not going to happen any time soon.

 

 

[southsider2k5]

If your company offers any sort of 401K match, make sure you max out on that. Absolute first thing to do.

 

This. If not, look to start an IRA with a stockbroker. In this case do your research and find someone who charges the cheapest commissions AND fees on their SP500 funds.

[Texsox]

So, do any of you financially savvy people have some investing advice for a guy who is just starting his first real job out of college? Paying back my student loans is my primary priority at the moment, but I'd like to start putting some money aside for retirement etc. sooner rather than later. Any thoughts?

 

Save up a $1000 and put it in savings then avoid thec redit card trap. "Borrow" from yourself and always, always, avoid paying interest.

[Y2HH]

Save up a $1000 and put it in savings then avoid thec redit card trap. "Borrow" from yourself and always, always, avoid paying interest.

 

I take things further than this...

 

I charge EVERYTHING I do, doesn't matter what it is, on my Discover or my AmEx Blue Cash -- both cards give me 1% to 5% off on everything I buy -- and I pay off everything in full every month. This way I'm completely protected from fraud on all purchases, and I get a discount on everything I buy.

[Jenksismyhero]

Interesting point. I have loans ranging from 3.4% to 6.8%, but due to the way the federal loans seem to aggregated, I'm not sure that they will let me pay off the higher interest loans specifically. I'll have to contact them to see exactly how it works since apparently this isn't a frequently asked question in the FAQ section.

 

Doing some rough math, if they were to use a weighted average for the rates, it would be about 4.87% which would be enough I would think to try to pay them back first.

 

 

 

Is there any fund you would recommend? I've heard of a few, but I'm not sure if any of them are particularly good.

 

You can. You can do it two ways, depending on what service provider you have. Some of them allow you to make an extra payment online and you can tell them specifically what loan you want it applied to. If you don't have that option, write them a letter and tell them that you'll be sending them X amount in extra payment and that you want it applied to the highest interest rate loan with the lowest balance. Here's an example of a letter:

 

I am writing to provide you instructions on how to apply payments when I send an amount greater

than the minimum amount due. Please apply payments as follows:

1. After applying the minimum amount due for each loan, any additional amount should be

applied to the loan that is accruing the highest interest rate.

2. If there are multiple loans with the same interest rate, please apply the additional amount to

the loan with the lowest outstanding principal balance.

3. If any additional amount above the minimum amount due ends up paying off an individual

loan, please then apply any remaining part of my payment to the loan with the next highest

interest rate.

 

It is possible that I may find an option to refinance my loans to a lower rate with another lender. If this

lender or any third party makes payments to my account on my behalf, you should use the instructions

outlined above.

Retain these instructions. Please apply these instructions to all future overpayments. Please confirm

that these payments will be processed as specified or please provide an explanation as to why you are

unable to follow these instructions.

Thank you for your cooperation.

 

http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201310_...n_repayment.pdf

[gatnom]

I take things further than this...

 

I charge EVERYTHING I do, doesn't matter what it is, on my Discover or my AmEx Blue Cash -- both cards give me 1% to 5% off on everything I buy -- and I pay off everything in full every month. This way I'm completely protected from fraud on all purchases, and I get a discount on everything I buy.

 

This is actually what I've been doing since I got approved for my first credit card last fall. I never buy anything I don't have the money for and just pay off the bill at the end of the month.

 

You can. You can do it two ways, depending on what service provider you have. Some of them allow you to make an extra payment online and you can tell them specifically what loan you want it applied to. If you don't have that option, write them a letter and tell them that you'll be sending them X amount in extra payment and that you want it applied to the highest interest rate loan with the lowest balance. Here's an example of a letter:

 

Thanks for the help Jenks.

 

 

 

[ChiSox_Sonix]

Really regretting not getting in to PHOT when my dad did. He bought in at 0.25, and its at 0.60 after like a month. Made a few grand so far. He's expecting it to reach $1.00 by June.

 

I bought in to OSLH today at 0.20.

 

Hopefully he got out of it. Down over 50% to .22 cents today. Those kind of stocks can crash fast.

[southsider2k5]

Hopefully he got out of it. Down over 50% to .22 cents today. Those kind of stocks can crash fast.

 

And OSLH is down to 5 cents.

[bigruss]

Hopefully he got out of it. Down over 50% to .22 cents today. Those kind of stocks can crash fast.

But $1 by June!!

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Hopefully he got out of it. Down over 50% to .22 cents today. Those kind of stocks can crash fast.

 

They were put on a freeze for about a week due to possible investigation. But there is no longer going to be any investigation and they are open for trading again. This obviously scared a lot of people off and it plummeted as a result.

[StrangeSox]

It's never good to think about how much you've "made" when it's all unrealized capital gains, especially when its in volatile sub-dollar stocks. You haven't made a penny until you've cashed out.

[Y2HH]

They were put on a freeze for about a week due to possible investigation. But there is no longer going to be any investigation and they are open for trading again. This obviously scared a lot of people off and it plummeted as a result.

 

Quite a few questionable things surrounding that and other stocks in that sector have occurred in the past few months.

 

From SeekingAlpha:

* There has been a variety of questionable insider share sales in the past few weeks.

* Two members of management received compensation which represented ~24% of 2013 revenues, despite the company’s profitability deteriorating year-over-year.

* One director has resigned from the board.

* FINRA had previously warned investors about scams in the marijuana space; PHOT is the fifth marijuana stock to be halted this year.

 

Also of note, a class action lawsuit has been launched against Growlife (PHOT).

 

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2165283-gr...iday-april-25th

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/investor-ale...-184400424.html

 

That's just a whirlwind of terrible news for any stock, especially one in a sector under such heavy scrutiny.

[Balta1701]

That's just a whirlwind of terrible news for any stock

JPMorgan thinks that would be an easy Tuesday.