Topic: Does any body invest?

[ScaryTooth]

So, I've been trying to be more money savvy, so far I've been doing pretty good. I don't really eat out, I brown bag my lunch, and I budget a little bit for different things. And it's working pretty good.

I've been putting $100 a month into an ING direct savings account. Man, I love ING. And with what I initially opened my account with, and with what I've been saving, I'm getting like $20 a month in interest. Which is awesome. I mean I know it's not a lot, but before it was just sitting in my chase account not making a thing.

Then I opened a Roth IRA, and I'm dumping about $50 a month into that, which I can't touch until I'm 64. So at least I'll have some money stashed away for retirement. I'll hopefully increase the amount of what I put into it as I get older, and get through school and hopefully make decent money.

Then I purchased a Target Retirement Fund through Charles Schwab. Which is basically a mixture of Stocks, bonds, and cash which are automatically balanced according to your age. The younger you are the riskier your portfolio will be balanced, and as you get older it gets more conservative. Since I don't really know much about investing, I figured it was a good place to start. I've only put $500 into thus far. I just want to kind of see what it does, and how it works before I put anything else into. I mean it could potentially have great returns, but I could also lose money. I dunno. Still keeping tabs on it.

Has anyone else done any kind of investing or anything? How has it turned out for you?

[angrykeebler]

Investing money requires having money.
 

[Quemaqua]

Investing money requires having money.
 

QFT.

[Ghandi]

I invested about 9 grand around a year and a half ago. I've lost over 3500 so far. Luckily it's a long-term investment.

[gpw11]

So, I've been trying to be more money savvy, so far I've been doing pretty good. I don't really eat out, I brown bag my lunch, and I budget a little bit for different things. And it's working pretty good.

I've been putting $100 a month into an ING direct savings account. Man, I love ING. And with what I initially opened my account with, and with what I've been saving, I'm getting like $20 a month in interest. Which is awesome. I mean I know it's not a lot, but before it was just sitting in my chase account not making a thing.

Then I opened a Roth IRA, and I'm dumping about $50 a month into that, which I can't touch until I'm 64. So at least I'll have some money stashed away for retirement. I'll hopefully increase the amount of what I put into it as I get older, and get through school and hopefully make decent money.

Then I purchased a Target Retirement Fund through Charles Schwab. Which is basically a mixture of Stocks, bonds, and cash which are automatically balanced according to your age. The younger you are the riskier your portfolio will be balanced, and as you get older it gets more conservative. Since I don't really know much about investing, I figured it was a good place to start. I've only put $500 into thus far. I just want to kind of see what it does, and how it works before I put anything else into. I mean it could potentially have great returns, but I could also lose money. I dunno. Still keeping tabs on it.

Has anyone else done any kind of investing or anything? How has it turned out for you?

I had a fair amount of money in various stocks and GICs until last summer. I cashed in my GICs when I had a buy a new car and didn't want to finance and I sold the stocks early because I hate the stock market and figured it was better than a student loan (I got hella lucky there as everything took a huge dive shortly after).  The stocks I had very little to do with; it was money I gave to someone to invest for me and never worried about.

Right now I have nothing invested.  I pretty much cleared everything out recently in order to pay for school, pay off a previous student line of credit, various necessary purchases, and a horrible, horrible back-tax situation.    I'm currently in debt due to school (two motherfucking degrees aren't cheap) and I'm not going to invest anything until I have school payed off, especially since the current financial situation offers few options where the return makes it worthwhile to pay the interest on the debt plus the loss of use and the decline in credit.  As soon as that's paid off I'll probably start throwing a small ammount into RRSPs every month and look at T-bills and GICs again.

My philosophy on the stock market is to not get involved in it unless you're willing to pretty much lose the money.  You won't lose all of it, but if your financial situation isn't good enough to take the hit or if you can't stomach it go with lower risk options.  Sure, the potential return is obviously lower, and taking risks when you're young is a good time to do it, but it's also a good time to save for a house or other investments that require a fair margin of capital to even begin to get involved in.  Again, I'm a huge GIC fan.

[Ghandi]

It's probably a good time to invest in the stock market, all things considered. Buy low, sell high.

[gpw11]

Yeah, a lot of people make huge money that way.  Sadly, a lot of people also lose money.  The stockmarket is still a good long term investment strategy if you're knowledgeable and want to do the research.  As such, it's totally still a viable option for the young, it's just that it's probably your most risky serious option.

[poomcgoo]

I invested about $500 when I was 16 (6 years ago), and I just sold it all last summer because I'm a bum and was strapped for cash.  I did well, bought mostly Coca-Cola and McDonald's - possibly my two favorite things, which itself is a good move in terms of investing.  I had a little over $1400 when I sold them, so my return was pretty excellent.  I always keep up on E*Trade though, because it lets you put fake money into things and just play around really.  It's fun and good experience, as I've learned things here and there that would have pissed me off should I have used real money.

If I only had money right now, man I would buy up all sorts of GM, and maybe some GE.  Please do yourself a favor and buy some GM though, it's literally at a dollar and change right now.

[ScaryTooth]

I'd actually like to play with that etrade thing. Are there only certain account types that allow that? Or do they all let you trade fake money?

[wizall]

I second Scary. Where is that feature, poom? I poked around the etrade site a bit, but it didn't stand out.

[Raisa]

Not yet. I'm not quite settled with investing in anything here in this country.

[ScaryTooth]

So, I actually did some research. Bought some books, did some reading, some homework blah blah blah. I bought 150 shares of general motors which cost me roughly $0.70 a share, and today it closed at $1.15. So I made about $75 on it. Which is kind of cool. I think I'm going to take that gain and buy more shares. I don't think it's going to go down much. I mean GM just escaped chapter 11, so they are kind of back in business, I think it's just going to slowly go up. We'll see how they do in the coming months.

I'm liking this stock market thing. It's like gambling, but I feel like I can sway the odds more into my favor if I just do some research and homework.

Plus, all the outside influences that make the money market fluctuate are far more interesting then a slot machine or some lame shit. Technology, medicine, agriculture, entertainment. Everything does something to the market. It's really cool how all this stuff works, and flows.

I really really want to take a good econ class now...

[Cobra951]

I'm liking this stock market thing. It's like gambling, but I feel like I can sway the odds more into my favor if I just do some research and homework.

It's not like gambling.  You can lose your principal, therefore it is gambling.  Your odds are much more favorable and the return potential is much more limited than what you'd find in Vegas, but the principle is the same.  The house is not stacking the odds against you, though.  That is one important difference.

[ren]

Your not likely to find much in an Econ class that'll help you in the stock market. That stuff you're more likely to find in some sort of Finance class.

Definitely do your homework if you decide to move beyond the standard buying and selling of shares, that's when you can really lose everything.

[gpw11]

Yeah, econ (especially at a low level) won't really help you as much as taking some finance classes.  The first thing one of my first economics professors said was "If a doctorate in Economics made you rich or helped you make millions in the stock market I wouldn't be here right now".  A firm understanding of economics could help you read some signs faster than you otherwise would but that's about it really.  UNLESS you want to get involved with currency trading or maybe even direct commodities.