$3,000 play money

[newyorklady]

i have a large portfolio with my financial consultant at a large well known firm. this is my income stream, my retirement, my safety...

also have a tiny little online broker account to play with. that is what i am talking about now. so what would you do with 3,000 dollars? after this should be investing 500 or so dollars per month into this account. this is my well, not spending money at the casino or on expensive purses so lets have a little fun type of a thing.

looking for individual stocks, or mutual funds, whatever... throw out some ideas for me please.

 

[yakers]

Wow NYL,

Now that is so Unclemick. This is what he prescribes for males who have to satisfy their investing hormone. So some fellows here should be offering suggestions. And Brewer knows the hot shipping companies. I just do boring DRIP funds I buy & hold forever for dividends.

Anyway, your request should get the guys going....

 

[Cut-Throat]

Trip to the Bahamas. 8)

 

[unclemick]

Water utility - the old Philadelphia Suburban now Aqua America WTR - if you like dollar cost averaging, Not cheap anymore.

My really wild and frivolous money - Aetna AET. Still waiting for the dividend to come back.

Watching Avon, Wrigley but doing nothing. That's what happens when you are not a basketball fan - Spring hasn't arrived and not Football season either.

heh heh heh - mostly just trying to watch and not invest until sept/oct.

 

[HelpMeRhonda]

KRSL - recent big contracts, low float... My big hitter stock right now..

 

[lswswein]

If you can add a couple of hundred dollars more I would recommend BRK-B. You can buy only a share, but would be a shareholder in a great company. Suddenly you appreciate Buffett a lot more for the style and the great businesses he is accumulating. Also if you ever end up at the shareholder meeting you will meet a lot of unassuming and LYBM millionares

-h

 

[2B]

i have a large portfolio with my financial consultant at a large well known firm. this is my income stream, my retirement, my safety...

This forum is more geared towards helping you learn how to manage your own portfolio. That will save you a lot more than you'll ever make with $3,000 in "play money."

How much do you pay this guy every month, quarter or year? Take your pick.

 

[newyorklady]

i am not comfortable managing my money on my own at this point in time that is why i have a smaller etrade account to force me to learn more about investing. the fees that i pay my financial consultant are worth it to me for peace of mind at this point in time. until i feel more comfortable investing i will not manage a very large account on my own and i feel that his fees are outweighed by the value he adds.

why can't i find brk-b on etrade? will ask my fc about this and maybe add to my main portfolio.

 

[lswswein]

why can't i find brk-b on etrade? will ask my fc about this and maybe add to my main portfolio.

You might have to look for variations like BRK.B or BRK/B etc The easier way might be search for company name Berkshire Hathaway and then find the tickers. You will find 2 tickers - BRK-A and BRK-B. The A share costs around $105K and the B share is 1/30, so around $3.5K I recommend going to the company webiste and reading the owners manual and also the annual reports before buying. Also the Motley Fool BRK board is very useful
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/

-h

 

[2B]

iwhy can't i find brk-b on etrade? will ask my fc about this and maybe add to my main portfolio.

That's Berkshire Hathaway B shares. BRK.B should work.

i am not comfortable managing my money on my own at this point in time that is why i have a smaller etrade account to force me to learn more about investing. the fees that i pay my financial consultant are worth it to me for peace of mind at this point in time. until i feel more comfortable investing i will not manage a very large account on my own and i feel that his fees are outweighed by the value he adds.

Read more about low cost index mutal fund investing and less about poker. Look up Scott Burns' Couch Potato Investing.

You never did answer my question.

 

[newyorklady]

Read more about low cost index mutal fund investing and less about poker. Look up Scott Burns' Couch Potato Investing.

You never did answer my question.

no i didn't answer your question. i already know that you will show me what i could do with that money, not taking into account that perhaps i would not earn as much overall by investing on my own in low cost index mutual funds. as i said i am not comfortable at this point investing on my own. i will check that book out. thanks for the recommendation. i don't think that it would be a smart move to plunge into something all at once so i am slowly learning at my own pace.

 

[lswswein]

as i said i am not comfortable at this point investing on my own. i don't think that it would be a smart move to plunge into something all at once so i am slowly learning at my own pace.

Doing it at your own pace is important and good for you. At the end of the day you should be able to get a good night's sleep and not worry about it

-h

 

[2B]

no i didn't answer your question. i already know that you will show me what i could do with that money, not taking into account that perhaps i would not earn as much overall by investing on my own in low cost index mutual funds. as i said i am not comfortable at this point investing on my own. i will check that book out. thanks for the recommendation. i don't think that it would be a smart move to plunge into something all at once so i am slowly learning at my own pace.

But there's the ugly truth. Every study has shown that investing in low cost index funds consistently beats the vast amount of market "professionals." This is especially true after all of the fees get slammed on the accounts. If your guy or gal was that very rare individual that has the skill to consistently beat the herd, don't you think they could make a lot more money than whatever they make managing your account. That's true even if you have several million with the firm.

I have no intention of showing you what you should do with your money. I'm trying to encourage you to take control of your own money. You are an intelligent sort, although I've never met a lawyer that seemed very good at math, and already know how much you are paying in "management fees." You may not understand all of the other ways your account is being drained.

Scott Burns is a newpaper columnist. Google him and read some of his couch potato columns. There are other excellent books. ESRBob's is a good start too but it doesn't spend much time on investing. Of course, none of us should.

Take control of "some" of your money -- start with 10% if that makes you comfortable. Figure out an asset allocation and stick with it for a year or two. See if you don't have a better "after fee" return.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Scott Burns is now at
http://assetbuilder.com/

 

[newyorklady]

that is solid advice. thanks.

 

[Spanky]

CAMH.OB

 

[2B]

NYL,

I'm a reformed chartist. I paid an "advisor" for years and he took my charts and used them to encourage other clients to make trades. When I started comparing my return of many years with diversified indexes (not just the Dow or S&P but a real mix), I realized I was working hours a day just to have a poor return. My stockbroker got lots of business. I'm sure I was paying his mortgage. This was in the days before discount commissions so I was paying a lot for every trade.

You can do it. It should only take an hour once or twice a year. Unfortunately, most of us just "have to look" much more frequently. Here's a link to an overly simplified book but it has a lot of "data." I personally have a more diversified portfolio and less in fixed income than the author recommends. I actually got my DW to read the book so she'd have some understanding of how our investments are organized. The only group of people with less math skills than lawyers are business majors (DW). If you read Scott Burns you'll see that the only math required is being able to divide by 2, 3, 4....up to 10 if you're a real zealot. Calculators are allowed. Being an engineer, I use percents just to show off but only break my investments out into 6 asset classes. The book shown below uses three.

http://www.smartestinvestmentbook.com/

 

[unclemick]

March 5 - The Little Book on Common Sense Investing by Bogle should be availible at amazon. Rumor has it Bogle has condensed his usual abundant data and detailed points down to a - heh heh heh -

'Little Book---'

My other lefthanded suggestion is to either buy or 'buy on paper' your age appropriate Target Retirement Fund and track it for a while - seeing if you can understand why it's doing what it's doing and how it compares to what you own now.

Owning a single stock is not education - it's er well - play.

heh heh heh

 

[newyorklady]

i actually think that owning single stocks is play and education. taught me how to read between the lines of a company's financial statement and i think this is important to do. was pleased to have bought johnson and johnson before buffett's statement came out. even though it went down ever so slightly, gave me a little confidence that i am learning how to read financial statements and see value. as a portfolio is much more about diversification and safety for me, i won't learn about that by buying individual stocks. but it does make the whole thing more exciting and fun, therefore i am reading and learning more about investing in general. some people go and blow money at the casinos. i can have a little fun investing in some individual stocks if i want to. i certainly can afford it. could be spending the money on fancy electronic gadgets, but have no desire, or high end designer gear, and really don't care to do.

 

[brewer12345]

If this is really play money that you wouldn't miss, I would use it to buy longer dated call options and LEAPS on individual stocks.

 

[Spanky]

For play money, visit American Bulls that uses Candlestick Analysis to recommend buy and sell decisions. Be warned that their track record is based on hindsight. Practically every stock and index tracked is making significant profits. That is, it issues a "buy-if" signal and then if the stock goes up, it will issue a "buy-confirmed" signal and claim the buy at the price when the "buy-if" is issued. If the stock does not move up, it cancels the "buy-if" signal. It does the same thing for the sell. When the algorithm detects a sell, it issues a "sell-if" signal. If the stock declines, it then issue a "sell-confirmed" signal and claims to have sold the stock at the "sell-if" signal.

 

[2B]

That is, it issues a "buy-if" signal and then if the stock goes up, it will issue a "buy-confirmed" signal and claim the buy at the price when the "buy-if" is issued. If the stock does not move up, it cancels the "buy-if" signal. It does the same thing for the sell. When the algorithm detects a sell, it issues a "sell-if" signal. If the stock declines, it then issue a "sell-confirmed" signal and claims to have sold the stock at the "sell-if" signal.

That is just following that tried and true Wall Street maxim -- "Only buy stocks that go up."

Most analysts with the major firms have the same technique. They remind people of their correct recommendations and conveniently forget the ones that weren't. Charting is always an excellent way to say why a certain stock did what it did. I ultimately found out that it wasn't any good at predicting what was going to happen.

 

[FinanceDude]

Charting is always an excellent way to say why a certain stock did what it did. I ultimately found out that it wasn't any good at predicting what was going to happen.

Now THAT should be a Wall Street Axiom.................

 

[FinanceDude]

i have a large portfolio with my financial consultant at a large well known firm. this is my income stream, my retirement, my safety...

also have a tiny little online broker account to play with. that is what i am talking about now. so what would you do with 3,000 dollars? after this should be investing 500 or so dollars per month into this account. this is my well, not spending money at the casino or on expensive purses so lets have a little fun type of a thing.

looking for individual stocks, or mutual funds, whatever... throw out some ideas for me please.

For "play money", I would not go with a mutual fund. There's not enough "learning quotient" in a mutual fund.

With $3000, you really can buy only one or two stocks. I would pick a stock you're interested in. I used to look around my house and see which products I used and who made them. Kind of like a treasure hunt............ Maybe it's Coach (COH) or Starbucks (SBUX). Fact is, if you use the product, you'll be more interested in learning about the company.

Make sure you have a SELL DISCIPLINE regarding the stock. Set a goal, maybe where you'll get out, like a 25% gain. Also, it is important to set a DOWNSIDE goal, I usually use 15% down as a place to get out. You can always rebuy if you want later. You'll learn a LOT more about the markets and how they work by buying individual stocks.

Just my 2 cents worth...........

 

[Coach]

With $3000, you really can buy only one or two stocks. I would pick a stock you're interested in. I used to look around my house and see which products I used and who made them. Kind of like a treasure hunt............ Maybe it's Coach (COH) or Starbucks (SBUX). Fact is, if you use the product, you'll be more interested in learning about the company.

Good suggestion! Any company that you personally like dealing with? You think is doing a great job? See if they're publicly traded. My Mother was so impressed by the first Walmart she ever saw she bought a little stock. That worked out very well....

Coach