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Ask HN: What kind of personal financial investment do you do?

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Re: Ask HN: What kind of personal financial investment do you do?

#21

Post by tricky »

we (married) drive shitty cars.

our 401k's are maxed out.

I shop around for the best savings account rate. I wind up changing banks every year or two.

I pick stocks and hold for the LOL's. Currently getting a 12% APY on about $5000 invested. No real plan and not interested in dumping a ton of money there. It's just more interesting than the casino.

We bought the house we're going to die in. paying it off asap.

After the house is paid off we'll probably buy something else. I REALLY want to build a self-storage building on some cheap land. She wants a condo on a beach. We'll see.

Re: Ask HN: What kind of personal financial investment do you do?

#22

Post by jessriedel »

thushan wrote: post #8

A good person to read up on is Vanguard's founder John Bogle. He's the champion of low-cost/low-fee index funds. I'm pulling this straight from his wikipedia page: "Bogle argues for an approach to investing defined by simplicity and common sense. Below are his eight basic rules for investors: - Select low-cost index funds - Consider carefully the added costs of advice - Do not overrate past fund performance - Use pas…

Could you explain "Don’t own too many funds"? Is that just because of fixed per-fund costs?

Re: Ask HN: What kind of personal financial investment do you do?

#24

Post by rorrr »

* 401k (from an old job) and an IRA (maxed out). I also trade for my wife's IRA.

* I have a Zecco trading account (it used to be nice, cheap trades)

* I pick individual stocks only, doing my own research. Mutual funds and ETFs are OK for long term investment. I've looked at at stock recommendation sites like covestor.com, kaching.com and collective2.com, and they do have some amazing traders, so you can just mirror them (I'm kind of hesitant to do that, not sure why).

Re: Ask HN: What kind of personal financial investment do you do?

#25

Post by jsm386 »

Looking below the consensus here is on index funds. I think, historically that was the right strategy, but the notion of buy-and-hold an index fund, broad basket of stocks, etc is being looked at in a new light. From the early 80s to the peak of the dot.com bubble you saw a long bull market. Buying and holding a low cost index fund would have served you well. Since 2000, not so much.

See: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/03/vanguards-broken-buy-ho... & http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/12/buy-hold-vs-trend/ - Yes both sources are the same author but I really respect Barry Ritholtz's views and he's hardly the only one making this argument.

Trying to pick individual stocks can be a foolish endeavor, but buying trends, whether it is index funds over certain periods, various sector/commodity ETFs, and yes, companies with great stories is what I try to do. I'm young (27), and the advice I've gotten consistently is at your age take some risks. So right now I have a managed portfolio, some bonds/MLP/MLP funds for income, and some short term positions in individual stocks and commodities. Oh, and a short on a particular content farm :)

Re: Ask HN: What kind of personal financial investment do you do?

#28

Post by acconrad »

I have a 401k, Rollover IRA and Roth IRA. I don't max them because for a while, my returns were lower than my student loan interest rates and I felt it be a better use of my money at the time.

Until my loans are paid off, I will be sticking with just those 3 retirement accounts.

I pick my own ETFs because I'm super type A, but it's based on crowd appeal. So if I find 5 experts recommend an ETF, and it has a low management fee, I'm likely to purchase it.

I stick strickly to ETFs (but in all asset classes, such as bonds) because the rate of return generally exceeds CDs and Bonds, and I don't need the money at the moment. Plus, Bonds and CDs pay out so low that I'd rather just have my money in a high interest (hah) savings account.

What else do YOU have in mind? Feel free to find me on any of the networks listed in my profile if you'd like more feedback :)

Re: Ask HN: What kind of personal financial investment do you do?

#29

Post by amh »

RyanHolliday wrote: post #14
shareme wrote: post #7

My short answer is individual stock investing is fools path to being poor as you are betting against a full deck stacked against you. Index funds is slightly better than mutual funds by-itself but not much better.

If you wouldn't recommend individual stock picking, mutuals, or ETFs, what investment vehicle would you recommend? I want to invest but feel like I really just know enough to get myself burned.

I'm not that other guy, but my advice:

There's no substitute for doing your own reading and research. Some good authors to start with are John Bogle, Larry Swedroe, Rick Ferri, Peter Bernstein, Nassim Taleb, William Bernstein, Burton Malkiel, Harry Browne. Don't invest in anything you don't understand, and don't trust any investing concept that can't be explained to you in 5-10 minutes.

The learning process should take you at least 6 months. Whenever you think you've got it figured out (most financial authors present their ideas in a very convincing, absolutist way), keep reading, because the next book might change your mind. In the meantime, put your money in a safe place -- bank CDs or short-term Treasurys -- and don't touch it.

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