Investing 2018

Hello and yes, I've waited a long while to ask ATS about investing. I recently inherited a bunch of money and don't know how to proceed best.

Coming up on 2018, we have a 9000 pound gorilla in the room... Bitcoin

gizmodo.com...

gizmodo.com/bitcoin-blows-past-9-000-1820747737

Aside from a general discussion on Bitcoin, I'm wondering about advice specific to my situation. Also, I'm not relying on "Botcoin" by any means. just that it exists.

Of course a financial advisor is a good idea, I don't want to be flat-footed when I meet with someone here in the near future.

Ok, I have a few 1000 shares of Verizon, and they were acquired cheaply. So, is it advisable to keep VZN just for the dividends? Maybe sell some every year to adjust my capital gains....? I have zero tax experience, only ever had a few rental properties that were mostly cash.

Aside from Verizon, mom had a guy at Oppenheimer managing a few $100k of investments, many "tax free". I'm pretty happy and comfortable with him, he already mentioned adjusting the portfolio toward being less conservative. I don't want to be tied to the stock market for income, nor do I want much risk. Is there anything I should ask him for or about? He says 4-5% a year is about the effective rate of gain. I think that's pretty good, but....

Even if I made no changes to those accounts, I have a sale of her home under agreement for about a month from now, Dec 27th. That's a lot of cash, and I should have a plan on what to do with it. I could try to buy a bit of real estate, like a vacation home. I have a bunch of modest places already, not looking to do anything in that dept, but I could. What do I do, convert it to physical gold, $.5MM ??? I'm serious, people. imo, the Bitcoin ship has already sailed. no way would I be buying at this point. I have a few bits of Etherium....nothing really.

How would this group avoid global meltdown? I have more than enough exposure to stocks and brokerage type investments. I'm looking for serious ideas, not just "buy .223 ammo" or whatever.....unless you think so????

a reply to: FlyingFox

Immediately go and read the Windfall ELI5 (Explain it Like I'm 5) on the Personal Finance subreddit.

Windfall

As soon as you read that, you need to read the PRIME Directive, How to Handle Dollars which will tell you how best to maximize the tax advantages available to you.

How to Handle $$$

Look at the flowchart there. Use Zoom.

With respect, you are going in the wrong direction right now.

How old are you?

What are your financial goals?

Do you have a current portfolio?

Are you saving on everything you can?

Keep some money in accounts that are not effected by a crash. Savings accounts guaranteed by the government are fine, if the government collapses, all your money is gone anyway, but your bills keep on rolling in. Having some money in the stock market is all right, as long as you can afford to lose it if something happens. Keep some in the bank for security, banks only shut down for a little while if things go bad. Have enough food stores to last a few months and enough cash on hand to survive a couple of months too. If things go sour, people start to buy and buy, credit card purchases do not have to be allowed in stores, cash is legal tender. Only the cash, as far as I know, a bank debit card is not considered legal tender.

So, keep maybe a grand in your safe if you can afford to, and if you use it replace it as soon as possible or it will shrink down to nothing. If you feel that having twenty five percent of your money in the bank is adequate, go for that and try to invest the money in the market in safe places. You may not make as much, but the more secure the better, a major crash will wipe out almost everything though, government safeguards may shut the market down for the day but ten days shut down can surely hurt your account. On top of that, when it is shut down, you cannot get any money out, having money you can get at is important. Demand accounts can be gotten from banks, but if the bank is closed, you cannot even withdraw that.

It is your money, you need to evaluate this to best fit your needs and future.

a reply to: FlyingFox

You need a professional investment adviser. I recommend going with a major bank and their investment professionals. I want to be able to sit across the desk from the person who will be handling my money. My guy is an an ex-marine and I have a lot of faith in him.

You need to decide if you have immediate needs or you want long term appreciation. You may want a combination of both depending on your age, income and any debt.

I have my major accounts divided into two styles of diverse investments. I have some in capital appreciation and some in dividend based income bearing portfolio.

Part of my money grows (up over 20% this year) and the other part I get monthly payments from that hits my account every month. I can easily live off the amount I get in dividends.

I also have several other accounts. One account I use 'for fun' because I have an MBA in finance so I do enjoy playing around in the market. I don't take this money too seriously because it is designated for higher risk stuff I want to try.

Anyway, I would try to get as much of those shares into an IRA as possible. An IRA is vastly superior to any other savings vehicle because it is judgement proof including safe from a spouse in divorce. You can designate your payee so on death it will go to who you have selected and even supersede a will.

Anyway, I hope you are careful and do the right thing with your new found wealth. I hope I have helped you.

a reply to: FlyingFox

My advice....

Take care of the basics first.

If you don't have to live in a specific area for work (you have enough money to retire), then move somewhere cheap, buy a piece of land, and build and pay off land and house so it is yours.

Have water source on property

Get a couple of years of food and associated "things" for yourself, friends, and family.

OK, once you have your basics in place for you and your family, invest... (no advice here since it is impossible to predict currently).

a reply to: FlyingFox
Well if you did just inherit something, and you have not already, get your end of world bunker built and supplied. Assuming that is done, buy lots of guns and ammo because theres never enough.

Land, graveyard plots if you want to just keep it safe. Bitcoin is an artificial bubble and much of the smart money has already been made.

Start mining stuff real stuff not cryptos

originally posted by: FlyingFox
Hello and yes, I've waited a long while to ask ATS about investing. I recently inherited a bunch of money and don't know how to proceed best.

Coming up on 2018, we have a 9000 pound gorilla in the room... Bitcoin

gizmodo.com...

gizmodo.com/bitcoin-blows-past-9-000-1820747737

Aside from a general discussion on Bitcoin, I'm wondering about advice specific to my situation. Also, I'm not relying on "Botcoin" by any means. just that it exists.

Of course a financial advisor is a good idea, I don't want to be flat-footed when I meet with someone here in the near future.

Ok, I have a few 1000 shares of Verizon, and they were acquired cheaply. So, is it advisable to keep VZN just for the dividends? Maybe sell some every year to adjust my capital gains....? I have zero tax experience, only ever had a few rental properties that were mostly cash.

Aside from Verizon, mom had a guy at Oppenheimer managing a few $100k of investments, many "tax free". I'm pretty happy and comfortable with him, he already mentioned adjusting the portfolio toward being less conservative. I don't want to be tied to the stock market for income, nor do I want much risk. Is there anything I should ask him for or about? He says 4-5% a year is about the effective rate of gain. I think that's pretty good, but....

Even if I made no changes to those accounts, I have a sale of her home under agreement for about a month from now, Dec 27th. That's a lot of cash, and I should have a plan on what to do with it. I could try to buy a bit of real estate, like a vacation home. I have a bunch of modest places already, not looking to do anything in that dept, but I could. What do I do, convert it to physical gold, $.5MM ??? I'm serious, people. imo, the Bitcoin ship has already sailed. no way would I be buying at this point. I have a few bits of Etherium....nothing really.

How would this group avoid global meltdown? I have more than enough exposure to stocks and brokerage type investments. I'm looking for serious ideas, not just "buy .223 ammo" or whatever.....unless you think so????

Oh Great!!!
Was hoping to get some free investing advice, from internet strangers too!

a reply to: FlyingFox
I agree with infolurker. A small question for you, what will you do in a minor SHTF scenario or a global meltdown? You can have a ton of gold but you can't eat that and everybody will be in the same scenario so they will not want your gold for anything. So that's out. Invest your money, make more money, make a million. All that will do is line the pockets of money people, like, go and see a money expert on where better to place your cash. But he'll want his cut first.
Well you've got your million now so what happens when it hyperinflates and it costs a million just to but a loaf of bread?
Think of you priorities for the future, you can't eat gold or money.
But land, when it's yours you'll have somewhere to live and somewhere to feed yourself and your family and the excess you can barter for other things.
But take not the slightest notice if you only want to be rich and go about with your big car, big house etc. but when the SHTF you'll be just as poor as the next man.

Thanks. I'll have to reread everything and review the links.

I opened the estate account today at Wells Fargo.

I need someplace to deposit the proceeds of the house sale, and have the title paperwork prepared.

All I know so far is that if I settle the estate before 90 days there is a 5% reduction in state tax. The proceeds from the house will take care of estate tax and leave a substantial amount in "cash". I have no idea what to do other than buy real estate. Any property with low overhead and objective merit is an ok investment, especially "tangible" when I have these other bank-oriented investments already.

The other things mentioned like provisions are important too.

See, I never trusted the same banks and stocks that gave rise to my mom's relative success. She lived through the Depression Era, and should have been keen on the weakness of stock markets. However Verizon's employee shares were incentivized so she maxed out on them. 3500 shares, I have no idea except I deplore Verizon Wireless customer service and business practices, but I own the stock, and it's losing value all the time.

Whatever, I'll be ok, it's just my job now to maximise everything....it's what mom would have wanted....

IRA sounds good, although I'm pretty secure with my wife.

But, now that you mention it....

a reply to: FlyingFox

Stay diverse!

Keep some liquidity so you can grab any investment opportunities that may arise. This also applies to crytos as well.

Oh, and have fun!

I'm 54. Figure 1/3 each of Verizon, diversified portfolio at Oppenheimer, and cash from the house sale.

The reason I ask is because I really have no accounting nor investment experience.

Every bit helps.

Too bad you couldn't purchase physical gold or silver,if the economy crashes and the dollar is worth nothing,they will start a new currency based on one of the 2,real estate the government could raise taxes so one couldn't afford,I often think about this because the day is very near,it's not going to be good

The number one piece of advice, and the only thing that I'll stand by as anything more than opinion: Get yourself a financial planner. A bunch of random internet strangers, even if they have no ill intent aren't going to be able to maximize representing your interests.

That said, diversify like crazy. The more money you have, the more diversified you should be. The goal of successful investing isn't to strike it rich in one company, it's to take advantage of the general market trend which generally appreciates. Buying and selling and making trades is merely to leverage one areas higher gains against another areas lower gains but is generally a bad idea if you're not a professional investor. Only play day trader every now and then in order to maintain portfolio balance.

To put this in perspective, if you were perfectly diversified across the entire market, you would always return the market average for the year. The best investors in the world struggle to hit the market average in a specific sector in any given year (and when they do, it's basically pure luck).

Here's some literature to read
www.fidelity.com...

Basically, you can get close to 8% growth (given the conditions in the last couple years) with a balanced portfolio. That's generally considered about 35% in stocks 40% in bonds, 10% in short term investments, and 15% in foreign stocks.

In those stocks, you ideally want no more than 5% of your investment (so 1.75% of your total worth) in any given stock, and that's only for something you're extremely high on. Ideally you want to be more in the 1% range on any given stock. So that means if you have $500k invested, 35% in stocks puts 175k in the market, which means you want around $1750 in a specific company. If you diversify more you might be able to go even lower. Balance these stocks between different sectors as well as different companies. For example, one blue chip tech stock, one startup tech stock, one large auto dealer, one small dealer, etc... and split them between different markets. Don't go all in on the NYSE for example.

Similar principles apply for everything in your portfolio. Treasury bonds are very safe and reliable, but have low yields... still they're a very good hedge against a market collapse. So they make a good vehicle to balance out more speculative investments.

Don't play the real estate game. Land only has value when being developed and it's not a good idea to buy land, develop it, and rent it out. Beyond paying off your home or making it more efficient (which is about reducing your future bills) real estate offers very low returns.

If you're interested in Bitcoin or other currencies, treat the budget for it like cash reserves which shouldn't exceed 10% of your total holdings, except remember that you'll be paying arbitrage fees on it.

Lastly, invest no more than 3% in metals. Gold is a good hedge against inflation, but it's not a good investment on it's own. It's purpose is basically a form of insurance. If inflation happens the gold will also inflate rapidly and cancel out your other losses. But if a collapse doesn't happen, it's just a drain on your portfolio so if you do this you want to keep the hedge small.

Edit: On the topic of currency, this just happened the other day:
www.reuters.com...

Bitcoin lost 20% of it's value within 24 hours. It's still trending up overall, but this is why you want to diversify, you don't want all your eggs in one volatile basket.

Depends on how much money you have, should investing in organic farming, safest bet of all time.

If I am reading this right, it sounds like you are planning to go with a financial planner and are just looking for some ideas to run by him (and potential pitfalls to be aware of). So I am posting based on that.

You have several choices, and each one has pros and cons depending on your personal situation and goals. For instance, do you want to create an additional passive income, or are you comfortable at your present standard of living? Are you looking for retirement? How far away is that? Are you looking for security? If so, how fast do you want to get to your money if needed? Remember that the greatest returns often are where the money is harder to access. Are you expecting an economic crisis and are looking for safety?

• The stock market is bullish right now, but that is all pretty much dependent on politics. First rule of the market is diversify; second rule of the market is diversify; the third rule of the market is diversify.
  
  
• Bonds are the safest (outside of a total economic collapse) investments, but they also pay very poorly.
  
  
• Futures are risky, but can also be windfalls. This is a zero-sum game, though, unlike most other investments.
  
  
• Real estate is up in many places. That's not the time to get into it. Owning rental property can also be a demanding part-time job in itself.
  
  
• Precious metals are good side accounts, as they are usually pretty stable. Make sure you have the right to take possession, and remember that metals are only worth something in SHTF if they can be used directly as currency. That's actually rare in my experience... it's hard to eat gold.
  
  
• If you have ever wanted to run your own business, that is a possibility. Franchises are easier to start and will pay off faster, but private enterprises are more rewarding and offer more freedom in my experience.

Whatever you choose, make sure it fits with your goals and lifestyle. Also, find out how your planner makes his money; the biggest pitfall there is is to use a planner who has a vested financial interest in selling you certain questionable investments instead of selling you the best investments for your needs.

TheRedneck

Cool man,

get just a little of salt.....litecoin.....veritasium.....etherium and Silver....100 ounces is all....right there quick and fast on ebay...nuff to grab and throw in the trucks.....sell

....the GBP/JPY instrument