Figured old school is the right section for this.

What are your current investment strategies?

I'm maxing out my company's 401k (up to 6% dolla for dolla, up to 25%) and doing maximum contribution to Roth IRA, along with money market account giving 4.50%.

Without getting into real estate investing, what "lower" cost investing are you guys suggesting?

[Edited on December 19, 2006 at 11:41 AM. Reason : f]

12/19/2006 11:40:41 AM

Index Funds Index Funds Index Funds.

Read this:

http://www.sanfran.com/home/view_story/1507/

12/19/2006 1:46:11 PM

interesting read

12/19/2006 2:09:50 PM

find out what my dad is doing, do the exact opposite, the man is a veritable antithesis of good investing

12/19/2006 3:36:01 PM

there are some threads in the lounge regarding this...

12/19/2006 4:08:58 PM

i second the index fund sentiment, and i am a self proclaimed "stock picker". after much ado, i have barely beat the market by picking good stocks. btw, i have a thread about it in the lounge.

12/19/2006 8:45:25 PM

edit: "by trying to pick good stocks"

12/19/2006 8:46:24 PM

Are you maxing out your 401K or just maxing out the match? If just doing the match, then I would go ahead and keep putting money in the 401k after you max out your roth. If you are already maxing it then I would suggest buying some etfs and check out the threads in the lounge as well.

12/19/2006 10:00:07 PM

Do you have 3-6 months in liquid assets? I sure as hell don't but maybe one day I will. If not, forget the roth and MM until you can cover your ass.

12/19/2006 10:29:48 PM

You can easily store 3-6 months liquid in the mm.

12/19/2006 11:10:35 PM

Quote :

"You can easily store 3-6 months liquid in the mm."

Or an ING account that has rates better than most mm and no withdrawal penalties.



[Edited on December 20, 2006 at 11:55 AM. Reason : ]

12/20/2006 11:55:23 AM

mm have withdrawal penalties? I'd go with Emigrant if you were going to do an online account. I believe their rates are higher.

12/20/2006 12:05:46 PM

I have an emigrantdirect.com account

Pain to setup (all this security, gotta wait for some password in the mail, etc.) but nice once it's setup. Great rates, too.

be sure to hit up mymoneyblog.com for a $10 referral (not linked to me, I just used it and got a free $10 so hey)

12/20/2006 1:25:28 PM

^pain to set up? i got one when looking for an online account in november and i did everything within a day.

it is really easy if you have online banking and is just like setting up paypal (if you have that). verify 1 deposit and get on with your life. cant beat the rate for how easy it is to set up and use (5.05% annual i believe).

12/20/2006 1:59:11 PM

I put 10% of my pay into an ING account until I build up that 3-6 months - then it goes out and to my "super hard to touch without a LOT of hassle" account.

my company is currently going through a merger so i'm holding off on the 401(k) as it will change within the next 2 months anyway, and holding out on the Roth IRA until I get myself to a better financial situation.

HOWEVER, am doing our employee stock purchase plan from jan until it's terminated (when we merge) - about 2 months. investing 5% of my income in that and right now if I spend $5 and sell when elibigle (assuming the stock holds constant or increases, which all signs look to it doing) I'll make back my $5 and make another $5 on top.

12/20/2006 4:05:50 PM

401k to max match
Roth IRA
6 month cash cushion in online savings
Index funds with the leftovers

risk adjust for age and then make it a bit more conservative because i'm inclined to think it's more about how much you save than how much your return is

12/20/2006 4:40:08 PM

^^ 100% return is incredible... i hope 5% is the max allowed. if not, ramp that up immediately.

12/20/2006 4:47:39 PM

going to talk to my Fin Advisor(nice to have brother in law as your advisor) Thursday at 4 to discuss where to put my mo, then i will be poor, again

[Edited on December 20, 2006 at 4:52 PM. Reason : w]

12/20/2006 4:52:03 PM

i bought investment property

because 10% of 200k > 20% of 10k


[Edited on December 20, 2006 at 4:53 PM. Reason : .]

12/20/2006 4:53:00 PM

Quote :

"^^ 100% return is incredible... i hope 5% is the max allowed. if not, ramp that up immediately. "

10% is the max allowed, and i'm operating on the assumption that the stock price will stay constant (as it has since the merger was announced, going on 4 months now) or rise (to meet the industry norm post-merger - compared against people in our vertical and horizontal markets).

12/20/2006 5:16:18 PM

Quote :

"i bought investment property because 10% of 200k > 20% of 10k"

?

12/20/2006 5:32:14 PM

I had my yearly meeting with my Fin Advisor today, I made around 21% on my investments, I am happy.

12/21/2006 6:20:12 PM

Quote :

"^pain to set up? i got one when looking for an online account in november and i did everything within a day. it is really easy if you have online banking and is just like setting up paypal (if you have that). verify 1 deposit and get on with your life. cant beat the rate for how easy it is to set up and use (5.05% annual i believe)."

Found out they changed it...back when I set mine up, you literally had to wait for a paper in snail mail that had your password on it to login.

12/21/2006 11:14:34 PM

im maxing out all 25% on 401k. quarter of my salary goes directly to 401k. 6% is matched. thanks for the article BobbyDigital.

12/28/2006 7:47:36 PM

Quote :

"I had my yearly meeting with my Fin Advisor today, I made around 21% on my investments, I am happy."

What financial advisor do you go to?

I need one badly.

12/28/2006 10:52:12 PM

I use UBS.

12/29/2006 1:09:25 PM

I got about 14% return on an S&P500 Index fund this year.

I have about $5,000 I'm trying to invest now, so I'm looking around for a place to put it. I'm toying with the idea of waiting for another dip in the market.


[Edited on December 29, 2006 at 6:13 PM. Reason : .]

12/29/2006 5:53:06 PM

Quote :

"Found out they changed it...back when I set mine up, you literally had to wait for a paper in snail mail that had your password on it to login."

yeah, i wouldnt have bothered if i had to do that.

12/29/2006 11:28:02 PM

Maverick, have you set up a Roth IRA? 4k is the max per year....that is the first thing i did when i had some money a few years ago. Actually, I think you can still contribute for 2006 and 2007, so you could put 4k for 2007 and 1k or 2006(i think you can still do 2006, I am thinking that you can do 2006 until the tax filing deadline) It is pretty safe and is more long long term.

[Edited on December 29, 2006 at 11:33 PM. Reason : w]

12/29/2006 11:31:46 PM

Yeah, I got one and I max it out. Weren't the limits on Roths supposed to increase?

12/30/2006 11:14:28 AM

2008

12/30/2006 11:47:10 AM

yeah, 5k in 2008.

12/30/2006 11:54:26 AM

in bus 225, the professor said it was 3000...but the dvd's were made in 2002

12/30/2006 12:23:15 PM

YEAR AGE 49 & BELOW AGE 50 & ABOVE
2002-2004 $3,000 $3,500
2005 $4,000 $4,500
2006-2007 $4,000 $5,000
2008 $5,000 $6,000

by the time i turn 50, the fuckers in Washington will tax them....

12/30/2006 6:43:23 PM

^ no they won't

1/1/2007 7:33:36 PM

401k and land


working on my first 100 acres already... gonna use it for timber and pine needle harvesting, conservation easements, farming(tax purposes) and development (20 years or so)

I already have 6 acres, but the 100 additional should be a nice chunk of change come retirement time since it will have long been paid for

just hope the deal can happen

[Edited on January 1, 2007 at 7:48 PM. Reason : .]

1/1/2007 7:45:34 PM

How would one start making money off of timber and pine needle harvesting?

1/1/2007 9:00:26 PM

buying land with hardwood on it, selling the timber to a logging company, and then planting fast-growth pine on it. fence it in and put a bunch of goats out on the property.

1/1/2007 9:20:56 PM

talk to some of the people in forstry


but you can bring big money with timber especially once it gets some age... like 25-30 y/o pine doesn't sell as well as 45-50 y/o pine ($4000+ per/acre for the older stuff when harvested)

pine trees can begin producing needles at year 7

if you have exisiting forestland, cut/thin the trees and space them in 12x12 spacing (for equipment) and bale the straw (200 or so trees per acre will give you ~550 bales per/acre 2-3x/year @ $2.00-$2.50 per bale wholesale price)

cutting and thinning a pine tree stand can stimulate huge amounts of growth the first year because you've eliminated hardwood competition and the undergrowth also

I'm not wanting to go into the pine straw business, but I will do it for the additional income that will pay for the property

in addition to farming leases which can bring lots of additional money and keeps your property a "farm" for tax purposes

even selling hunting leases to hunters can give you $18-$25 per acre

not to mention conservation easements through the federal government that will pay close to $1000 per acre and the county government will chip in an additional $100 per acre every year, just to leave swamps, ditches, creeks, and wetlands alone (not like I want to build on that anyways)


so I'll make money the whole time I'm paying the mortgage on the property and cash in when I am ready to retire and move to the beach

sorry for rambling, but this is what I do everyday for clients, just doing it for the first time for myself and I am excited about the prospect of being young with >100 acres ~30 minutes from Raleigh

1/1/2007 9:31:20 PM

So, what's the best way to get started if I already have the land and its pretty much covered with trees, mostly pine.

1/1/2007 9:39:52 PM

first have a forester come and do what they call a "timber cruise" to determine age, types, and volume of timber

I would go ahead and thin the property and cut out all hardwood competition from the pines and do what they call a "crop tree release"... look that up on google and it will explain why you want to do that (basically opens up each individual tree from crowding)

the amount of thinning depends on what you want to do with the timber

pine straw harvesting needs wider spacing and rows but a standard timber thinning doesn't need to be thinned as much

shoot me a pm sometime and I can get you started with someone in your area




[Edited on January 1, 2007 at 9:58 PM. Reason : .]

1/1/2007 9:53:02 PM

Thanks for the info. What does thin the property mean?

1/1/2007 10:08:38 PM

thinning means that you are removing hardwoods, undergrowth, and pines that are too close together


if it has never been thinned and was clearcut years ago you could easily have over 1000 trees/acre

you don't want that

look up some of the forestry terminology via google and it will help you understand

managing timber is pretty simple and straight forward and I deal with people everyday that have become extremely wealthy doing this

[Edited on January 1, 2007 at 10:30 PM. Reason : no problem man, hope my info helped you]

1/1/2007 10:30:17 PM

wow, i've never read so much about timber, lol

I need to read those threads in the lounge about some investment opportunities

1/2/2007 5:05:59 PM

Do you have any good websites for this type of info? I do not believe it has ever been thinned.

1/2/2007 5:31:24 PM

^^ sorry about that

didn't mean to go off and type that much


^
http://www.ncforestry.org

or where I work

(pm sent with site)

1/2/2007 6:29:31 PM

oh nah, I thought it was pretty interesting, I've never really thought about it

1/3/2007 1:22:56 AM