Where you do put your money if you want a high rate of return?

[Svnla]

Higher the rate of return = higher risk of losing your money.

/thread

 

[brianmanahan]

I want 9%-12% interest annually. I hear universal life is no good for some reason. Why is that?

because it's primarily an insurance instrument, not an investment instrument, despite what the salesperson tells you. there are many fees and gotchas, and if you need to get the money out early, be prepared to lose a bunch of it to those fees. and even if you use it in the best case, those fees eat up more than you think. and the return is never as good as promised.

Can I just hand it all to a venture capitalist or a stock broker?

venture capitalist, no. stock broker, possibly. for an annual fee (%.15-.3), sites like betterment.com or wealthfront.com will auto-manage your money. they are cheaper than individual brokers taking a percent or more, and not a bad choice honestly.

wealtfront actually waives the fee on the first 10$k, then charges %0.25 after that. betterment starts at %0.35 but goes down to %0.15 over a certain amount.

Semi-related but mostly unrelated question: What happened to that social website where average people could lend money? Did they go belly up because of non-payment?

lendingclub is still around, and i have seen some people at bogleheads report returns of %10 or so over the past few years. some of them are quitting though, because of tax complexity issues (certain states are better than others), lower returns due to more lender competition, and rising default rates.

 

[IronWing]

Higher the rate of return = higher risk of losing your money.

/thread

That's a good theory.

 

[kranky]

I want 9%-12% interest annually.

And people in hell want ice water, but it's not happening.

There is no reasonably safe way to earn 9%-12% annually. You have to decide how much risk you want to take. Are you willing to suffer huge losses? If not, then you have to set your sights lower. You can do very, very well over time with just 7%.

There are no real secrets to investing success. If you're willing to get rich slowly, follow the bogleheads' system. If you want to swing for the fences, most people end up jumping on the "next big thing" just in time for the bottom to drop out.

vi_edit, are you really recommending forex? Did you forget a ?

 

[tortoise]

I want 9%-12% interest annually.

When reality sets in . . include VWEHX ($3,000 minimum investment), and VWEAX ($50,000 minimum investment) in your research.

Related IRS topic . . Estimated Taxes.

Watch American Greed on CNBC.

 

[mmntech]

Hey! That shitty economy is keeping my mortgage rate under 0.8% thank you very much.

It's also keeping me from finding a full time job so I can buy a place and pay a mortgage.