hey FLIP answer my financial questions...

[81elocd]

Personally, I would do the research myself rather than listen to a bunch of people on CA.com...

blasphemy

 

[cobra65427289 10+ year member]

Dunno...Flip can answer that better...but if things crap out, gold won't do you much good... consumables and services will be where its at. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

Gold and other metals will hold their value as the dollar depreciates. It's one of the few things that keeps up with inflation. Dollar goes down, gold goes up.

Gold will especially gain value in times of BANK FAILURES, low or negative real interest rates, and war-time or other crisis.

 

[SocMunky 10+ year member]

Gold and other metals will hold their value as the dollar depreciates. It's one of the few things that keeps up with inflation. Dollar goes down, gold goes up.
Gold will especially gain value in times of BANK FAILURES, low or negative real interest rates, and war-time or other crisis.

Yeah, it keeps up with inflation, but ideally you'd like something to get a bit above that yes? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

 

[cobra65427289 10+ year member]

see second sentence of my last post.

 

[Flipx99 5,000+ posts]

Roth IRA...
leave it there...

nG

A Roth IRA is the best choice; however, the A stands for ACCOUNT within the account, you have to invest in things. Stocks, bonds, equities, etc.

gold

Gold is a dumb investment, IMO. For two reasons, oftentimes you can only get gold certificates; not the actual bars. Secondly, if shit hits the fan, I'd much rather have a shotgun than a gold bar. You can't eat gold, nor can you rob somebody with it.

can't you only put in like 5k a year??

Correct

Invest in gold, or oil. Really the only dependable things in the market.

I guess

Dunno...Flip can answer that better...but if things crap out, gold won't do you much good... consumables and services will be where its at. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

Consumables like soup. Services are iffy, depends on what kind.

Gold and other metals will hold their value as the dollar depreciates. It's one of the few things that keeps up with inflation. Dollar goes down, gold goes up.

The dollar has been appreciating. Gold/Oil are hedge against inflation. Equities has never depreciated over a given 10 year period. Unlike Gold/Oil. I am curious what effects nanotechnology can have on the price of gold. If gold goes to $10k an ounce (or something crazy) you can make money making gold; atom by atom.

--------------------

As for my answer.

The big question is. "how much".

If the amount is less than $5k, I'd suggest the i-bond. It is a type of savings bond that pays a premium, plus an inflation componet. The reason I say $5k, as that is the maximum allowed to invest. Anything over $5k, I'd suggest plain old savings bonds. You will be able to get out of the bonds after 1 year.

Here's why. I have studied the market nearly every day for the last 5 years. Which I know isn't a lot, but I am only 24 now. Nevertheless, I do not really have a firm grasp on what is going on. I am not selling, as that only exacerbates the problem. What I am doing is contining to dollar cost average in dividend-paying large cap stocks, but shifting my more speculative investments into savings bonds. The fact the market keeps sinking allows me to lower my average costs. And I firmly believe much of the wealth I have 10 years from now will be based on my continuing to invest now.

If you want to take a dollar cost averaging strategy, I would suggest finding an index mutal fund to your liking. I am a huge fan of investing in things I kind of use and understand, for retirement purposes.

Here is a list of mutual funds I invest within my Roth IRA:

ALSIX -- American Century Life Sciences

BPTRX - Baron Partners MidCap

JAOSX - Janus Overseas

JSVAX - Janus Contrarian

All of these are index mutual funds that have no load and low fees.

If you do wish to DCA, and want something you feel safe with, I suggest DIA. It is basically the DOW Index (30 stocks of the DJIA). You get dividends near quarterly, and it's rather simple. The reason I suggest DIA vs. a mutual fund is that sometimes, the understanding the fee structure is hard or whatever. The downside is that you must pay transaction fees with each trade. http://www.sharebuilder.com tries to limit this...you can put your money in the account, and then have it deduct, say $500 and it purchases $500 worth of DIA every tuesday. You can even do this within a Roth IRA.

If you need additional assistance, assistance setting up an account, or whatever, PM. I have no issue helping fellow DoD folks, or anyone else for that matter. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif