I want some wealth

[tobee43]

Most regular financial planners have minimum amounts, e.g. $100K

So, that pretty much leaves you with the retail establishments such as Edward Jones or Ameriprise.

HA!!!! guess that will be leaving me out for some time then!! LOL!!!

[Peeps]

Depending on how much you plan to invest, the fees associated with financial planners might be a bit cumbersome. Sometimes smaller investers have a hard time coming out ahead once they pay management fees.

There are great suggestions here for retirement accounts and emergency funds. If, when you're done getting those started, you still want to do something a bit more aggressive then you still have options. If you use the interim period to get smart on some investments that appeal to you (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs etc), then you can avoid the financial manager and do your own investing through something like zecco. They allow smaller investers to place their own trades. And there are others out there, too. I can vouch for zecco an ok place to start, since I started there myself. Top tip for investing in the market: only invest what you can afford to lose. And be prepared to monitor your investments so you can make changes if you need to. Managing your own portfolio can be kind of fun and can also build confidence. On the downside, it can also build confidence (ie too much of it). Be careful and have fun!

[LSUTiger32]

As mentioned....emergency fund has to come first. When you are ready to invest, you do not need a financial planner. You might want to talk to some people and learn but you want to always understand what is going on with your money and YOU want to be making the changes and decisions, not leaving it in Bernie's hands!

First do any 401K investing that has a match.....then max out a Roth. You want to get to the point where you are saving at least 10% of your income but 15% would be better. You are looking for mutual funds with long track records, NEVER single stocks. Way too easy to get burnt with those!

[Logan]

As mentioned....emergency fund has to come first. When you are ready to invest, you do not need a financial planner. You might want to talk to some people and learn but you want to always understand what is going on with your money and YOU want to be making the changes and decisions, not leaving it in Bernie's hands!

First do any 401K investing that has a match.....then max out a Roth. You want to get to the point where you are saving at least 10% of your income but 15% would be better. You are looking for mutual funds with long track records, NEVER single stocks. Way too easy to get burnt with those!

Of course percentages depend on your goals and your age. I'm 43 and to retire with what I want I am saving 36% of my income for retirement. If I was younger that number would be much smaller.

Logan

[gman]

My personal plan is simple: after BK start taking any excess cash and buy small silver and gold coins/bars.

With all of the world governments printing money like mad, I see this as a no brainer.

Just find a good and secure place to literally store these items. Some think safety deposit boxes are the way to go. Personally, given that we've had a US President raid those before and take the gold out (FDR did it....read about it on Wiki...) I might be apt to find someplace else where no one except close family knows where it is.

You can easily buy/see small amounts at local coin shops (or online) with ease. No need to be Mr. $100K right away.

By the way, silver alone is up something crazy like 75-80% in the last 3 months alone!

[LSUTiger32]

Of course percentages depend on your goals and your age. I'm 43 and to retire with what I want I am saving 36% of my income for retirement. If I was younger that number would be much smaller.

Logan

Well yeah, but it also depends on your budget. Most people, no matter how old they are can save 36% of their income. 10-15% is a minimum, more would be wonderful but most people can't....heck most people can't save anything.

[LSUTiger32]

My personal plan is simple: after BK start taking any excess cash and buy small silver and gold coins/bars.

With all of the world governments printing money like mad, I see this as a no brainer.

Just find a good and secure place to literally store these items. Some think safety deposit boxes are the way to go. Personally, given that we've had a US President raid those before and take the gold out (FDR did it....read about it on Wiki...) I might be apt to find someplace else where no one except close family knows where it is.

You can easily buy/see small amounts at local coin shops (or online) with ease. No need to be Mr. $100K right away.

By the way, silver alone is up something crazy like 75-80% in the last 3 months alone!

LOL! Gold and silver. So when the world economy tanks, what are you going to trade that gold and silver for? You're better off investing in generators and bottled water.

[gman]

LOL! Gold and silver. So when the world economy tanks, what are you going to trade that gold and silver for? You're better off investing in generators and bottled water.

Gold and silver have been "real money" and the ultimate store of value for at least 5,000 years.

Paper money - and even worse - fiat paper money - has never held value once in history....ever. There has never, ever been a paper fiat money that did not eventually become worthless in history.

Storing wealth (as in future purchasing power) in gold and silver make sense. You do not have a counter party risk with physical gold or silver because you own the metal and it cannot be diluted/counterfeited like paper money can and always has been.

Investing your savings (risk-based gambling) is fine as well - but you are now bringing risk into the equation.

At day's end, I am willing to put my wealth into a real physical asset that someone cannot dilute via printing (and yes, digitally creating more is like printing.) I am willing to bet my approach will buy me all of the water I need, using your example, with ample gold and silver left over to spare.

By the way, when the world economy tanks, what are you going to trade your worthless pieces of paper for? Check out the history of Germany, Argentina and other nations that have seen their wealth evaporated when their currency went bust....the peeps with the gold and silver holdings turned out OK...the ones with paper lost it all.

[Peeps]

....the peeps with the gold and silver holdings turned out OK...the ones with paper lost it all.

Woooo! I like the sound of Peeps with gold and silver! Say it again!!


But seriously, Gman, yours is a very interesting perspective coming from someone with a "likely to file Chapter 7/ No assets" in their signature line. The whole thing about buying plenty of water with gold and silver left to spare, well, it kind of sets the mind in motion, doesn't it? I'm sure that was a theoretical example...

[gman]

Woooo! I like the sound of Peeps with gold and silver! Say it again!!


But seriously, Gman, yours is a very interesting perspective coming from someone with a "likely to file Chapter 7/ No assets" in their signature line. The whole thing about buying plenty of water with gold and silver left to spare, well, it kind of sets the mind in motion, doesn't it? I'm sure that was a theoretical example...

I am "starting over" so buying I've taken a long look at historical cycles and believe firmly we are in a cycle now where all countries are on a race to devalue their currencies in the futile hope that it jump starts their economy and makes their debts easier to pay.

Actually, food and water are stores of value as well, but most food spoils and water has too big of a "markup" and is not easy to transport - making it a poor storage vehicle for "trading" at a later date.

Those who poo-poo gold and silver - IMHO - simply have not done any homework and rely on silly statements like "you can't eat gold." Well, you can't eat Google stock, an investment home, or a US T Bill either - so I guess using that logic the world is filled with fools who purchase those as well.

The one thing I like about gold and silver especially is that you can start your next war chest for as little as $25/week - the cost of a one ounce silver coin. Try doing that with any other investment and get back with me on the commission/transaction costs.

I am going to accumulate silver until I can start buying 1 ounce gold coins - and will balance accordingly - kind of like having $1,000 bills (gold) and $20 bills (silver) stored in my mattress.

[frogger]

I would not be doing any investing until I had a six month fully funded emergency fund.

Excellent advice indeed.

[msm859]

Excellent advice indeed.

Agreed. I also would not put all my eggs in 1 basket -- even if that basket is "gold and silver". How about paying off a house, planting a garden, add solar, buy a super efficient car etc...

[gman]

The idea of a establishing a 6 month fund is a wise one. The goal here should be to NOT buy any unnecessary items until the 6 month fund is filled up.

The question is: Filled up with what?

Cash, gold and silver are all money. Reality is, one of the 3 will outperform the other....I am simply saying that I have my preferences. When others say don't buy gold and silver, they are putting cash/paper money into their own preference list as first in line.

You can "store" your savings in virtually anything. Heck, you could buy hundreds of batteries until you had enough that if you sold them you could survive for 6 months.

With that being said - personally - I think gold and silver will outperform cash for quite some time to come. This won't be the case forever, but while our government is in hyper-printing mode - I see this as a no-brainer.

Just my 2 silver coins....Ha Ha

[frogger]

With that being said - personally - I think gold and silver will outperform cash for quite some time to come. This won't be the case forever, but while our government is in hyper-printing mode - I see this as a no-brainer.

Just my 2 silver coins....Ha Ha

I think that food and bullets will outperform everything else.

My can of beans worth.....

[Logan]

Well yeah, but it also depends on your budget. Most people, no matter how old they are can save 36% of their income. 10-15% is a minimum, more would be wonderful but most people can't....heck most people can't save anything.

I agree but it is important to have realistic expectations and know what you need in order to save for those expectations. After much research I determined 36% to be the high number I needed in order to achieve my goals and my 1st thought was there is no way I could save that much. My wife and I had a lengthy discussion and we cut out cable and eating out and we started using a credit card for cash back, paying our auto and life insurance a year in advance and whatever else we could do to save money.

Between cable, eating in, cash back from credit cards, paying auto and life 1 year in advance we're saving hundreds of dollars a month which has helped translate into more retirement savings. I still want to live my life and do the things I love to do so rather than cut out the fun we cut out the things we really didn't need.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.......

Logan