Mutual Funds

[momopi]

Okay, so right now I'm looking at GoldMoney and Vanguard for Index Funds and ETFs. Can anyone suggest good indexes to follow?
Also, where can I look as far as investing in foreign CDs? Here's one place I found:
https://www.everbank.com/personal/forei ... ncies.aspx
Is it better to go for basket CDs?

As I've already posted, for questions regarding Vanguard funds, see the Bogleheads forum:
http://www.bogleheads.org/
http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/index.php
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_Portfolios

[Contrarian Expatriate]

Don't waste your time with Everbank. Take a look at the site here, you must travel to these banks to open accounts there:

http://www.deposits.org/

[fschmidt]

It's a mistake to think other countries will do better than America in a crash. In a crash, the world will go down together. The world is interconnected and all major currencies are experiencing reckless money printing. So I prefer to invest in America which I at least understand. In fact I prefer to invest where I live so that I can deal with people face to face. It is very easy to get scammed when investing far away.

GoldMoney seems like a reasonable option, though if I bought gold, I would just put it in a safe deposit box. I recommend this book if gold interests you:



If you invest in either stocks or bonds, you are betting that the financial system will hold together. I am working hard to get out of this position.

With $25K, you can still invest in real estate. You can either pool this money with others and buy property jointly. Or you can use leverage and get a fixed rate mortgage for the balance. This option is a bet on inflation instead of depression, which I think is a good bet.

I think American real estate is one of the safest investments possible. The majority of Americans own property and a large number of them have guns, so the American government is not likely confiscate property on a broad scale.

[momopi]

For those that want to invest in domestic RE, there's still a small window of opportunity for you to buy with 20% down instead of 25% down.

[MrPeabody]

I don’t trust anyone to manage my money. Mutual funds set their goal as to beat the market. Thus, for example, if the market goes down 20 percent but your fund only goes down 10 percent, your manager considers his strategy a success, even though you have lost money. Hedge funds follow the goal of absolute return, which means always making money. Hedge funds techniques are now available to the public and can be programmed even on excel.

Here is a free Internet course that is coming up in February.

https://www.coursera.org/course/compinvesting1

https://www.coursera.org/course/fe

[Rock]

I don’t trust anyone to manage my money. Mutual funds set their goal as to beat the market. Thus, for example, if the market goes down 20 percent but your fund only goes down 10 percent, your manager considers his strategy a success, even though you have lost money. Hedge funds follow the goal of absolute return, which means always making money. Hedge funds techniques are now available to the public and can be programmed even on excel.

Here is a free Internet course that is coming up in February.

https://www.coursera.org/course/compinvesting1

https://www.coursera.org/course/fe

Majority of hedge funds don't have such a great long term absolute track records either, even if they are absolute return type funds. But they are a lot less regulated and transparent. So much more risky. And expensive as In fact, typical admin fee 2% or more per year and 20%-50% of profits in black years. That's some extreme friction. All funds including feeder funds of Madoff had nice track records for well over a decade. But those were fictitious. If you do a search of hedge funds which have returned at least 8% each year for the last decade, you will find the list is quite small. And many of those have huge entry requirements, big redemption restrictions, and very high fees. Sometimes it takes 6 to 12 months or even years to liquidate too.

[Rock]

Don't waste your time with Everbank. Take a look at the site here, you must travel to these banks to open accounts there:

http://www.deposits.org/

Everbank is the dumb and expensive way to invest in currencies.

[MrPeabody]

I don’t trust anyone to manage my money. Mutual funds set their goal as to beat the market. Thus, for example, if the market goes down 20 percent but your fund only goes down 10 percent, your manager considers his strategy a success, even though you have lost money. Hedge funds follow the goal of absolute return, which means always making money. Hedge funds techniques are now available to the public and can be programmed even on excel.

Here is a free Internet course that is coming up in February.

https://www.coursera.org/course/compinvesting1

https://www.coursera.org/course/fe

Majority of hedge funds don't have such a great long term absolute track records either, even if they are absolute return type funds. But they are a lot less regulated and transparent. So much more risky. And expensive as In fact, typical admin fee 2% or more per year and 20%-50% of profits in black years. That's some extreme friction. All funds including feeder funds of Madoff had nice track records for well over a decade. But those were fictitious. If you do a search of hedge funds which have returned at least 8% each year for the last decade, you will find the list is quite small. And many of those have huge entry requirements, big redemption restrictions, and very high fees. Sometimes it takes 6 to 12 months or even years to liquidate too.

Just to clarify, I am not recommending anyone join a hedge fund. I doubt anyone here could meet the income requirement anyway. I gave links to two excellent courses where they can get the knowledge and formulas. They can always adopt the information, open up an account at a broker and manage their own portfolio using these principals and any other. That's what I do.

[abcdavid01]

What can you guys tell me about Oceanstone? It seems a bit sketchy.

[Rocky Top]

Question:

Even if I purchase a mutual fund that is heavily leaning towards (domestic or international) bonds, would that shield me from if the dollar crashes?

[momopi]

4. Perhaps consider lending clubs. Momopi can provide you with the websites to the biggest ones. These should generate great returns until a market wide crises similar to 2008 hits. Then your returns will go deep into the red. But at least you should still get bulk of your capital back cus they are well diversified and durations of individual loans vary a lot.

For those who might be interested, P2P loans:

http://www.prosper.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosper_Marketplace

http://www.lendingclub.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lending_Club

Be warned that P2P loans are unsecured and the borrower may default regardless of their credit rating.

[zacb]

I would suggest maybe investing in Indonisian Rupees as a spec play, the Norwegian Kroner as a defensive play, some gold, and try and stay away from major world currencies if possible. You can buy currencies at www.travelex.com for a decent rate. The only stocks I own right now are through IAE, which in between pure gain and dividend will give me a yield around 20%. So try and go for dividends above ten percent (because of the deflation as of yet). Maybe look into foreign cds, such as Italia Bank in Ukraine (7 percent after inflation, 16 pre-inflation adjusted) and one other bank which is at a 22 pre-inflation rate. Also, you might consider Mills Music Trust, A&W Trust, which average 7%+ a year in dividends. As for mutual funds, Leithner & Co., Pty. Ltd. is interesting since it follows the Austrian School + value investing that was followed by Warren Buffet and his mentor Ben Graham. I can give props for the Permanent Portfolio fund, as well as Magic Formula types. Some of John Boogle's funds tend to do well. That is all I can recommend.

[Cornfed]

You’re probably better off investing in .22 bullets and a storage space to keep them in. They will likely be the main currency of the post collapse economy.

[Maker55]

The best days of mutual funds are long gone.

Mutual funds come with too many expenses and lower returns.

Real Estate and silver is the best investment vehicle.

[Maker55]

It's a mistake to think other countries will do better than America in a crash. In a crash, the world will go down together. The world is interconnected and all major currencies are experiencing reckless money printing. So I prefer to invest in America which I at least understand. In fact I prefer to invest where I live so that I can deal with people face to face. It is very easy to get scammed when investing far away.

GoldMoney seems like a reasonable option, though if I bought gold, I would just put it in a safe deposit box. I recommend this book if gold interests you:



If you invest in either stocks or bonds, you are betting that the financial system will hold together. I am working hard to get out of this position.

With $25K, you can still invest in real estate. You can either pool this money with others and buy property jointly. Or you can use leverage and get a fixed rate mortgage for the balance. This option is a bet on inflation instead of depression, which I think is a good bet.

I think American real estate is one of the safest investments possible. The majority of Americans own property and a large number of them have guns, so the American government is not likely confiscate property on a broad scale.

You know your stuff!

True, once the U.S. dollar goes, the rest of the world is going down with it.

Real Estate is the BEST investment, it gives you the BEST cash flow than any investment.

The problem with stocks is that you're relying on capital gains and that's just like a pyramid scheme or gambling.

Maximize your CASH FLOW when you invest in real estate.

Mutual funds are garbage.