Just a confused child.

[halfwit]

Life story- Im 23, purchased my home cash dec 2011. (savings from working for the 3 prior years)
unemployed, have associates degree in accounting, working on associates in bus management (then bachelors, then i plan to stop edu.) instant equity on home, i put 15k in repairs and now even in this market fair price i would earn 30k profit.

I have always been good with saving money. I have no debt, my SO pays the utilities as her contribution to rent since i purchased it outright.
I will only buy cars with cash, ect. i only have a credit card to build credit, but i always pay off balance to never pay interest.

I plan for the next 5 years (as i start my hopeful career in management and finish education) to only devote 5k a year to savings, after that, 10k + (just from extra cash) a year is easy if not much more (i like to think conservatively so i surprise myself later lol)

I do alot of reading but it is still all confusing. I am looking for LOW risk long term investments, basically a place to dump my money every few months and not want to look at it for 20 years, basically when i have extra money, ill put it there and forget about it.

looking for something simple, but even with my readings i dont understand
*the taxes ect
* bonds? stocks? ira? blah blah blah? portfolio? cds?

I dont mind doing the research if someone could throw some links my way (ive read alot on this siet already) or some phrases i could search.

I know the longer the money sits the better, so id like to get on it, hopefully to retire at 50 (ish)

best regards, casey james

[Midpack]

Welcome aboard, you're off to a very early start, so you can reach FI long before your peers if you choose to. http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...rum-34884.html

If you want to learn, this is the best book list I know of Investment Books. Not a bad one on the list, just pick your area of interest. Most if not all of them are at most good libraries if you're so inclined.

Best of luck...

[GrayHare]

When I was your age, one of the best ways I learned about those topics was to invest small amounts in each of various investment types, and then prepare my own tax return. Seeing each investment's impact on taxes was an eye opening experience I'd never have had if I'd instead paid a tax preparer.

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by halfwit .......... I dont mind doing the research if someone could throw some links my way (ive read a lot on this site already) or some phrases i could search.......... best regards, casey james

This is an excellent reading list:

Investment Books Edit: (oops, I see Midpack beat me to it)

My favorite is the Boglehead's Guide to Investing, but you can't go wrong with the others. Many are available at your library or very cheap on line, used.

Also, if you have not frequented the Boglehead's forum and wiki, you should find it very informative.

Bogleheads Investing Advice and Info

PS, you are doing much better with your finances than 99% of your peers.

[BigNick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by halfwit I am looking for LOW risk long term investments, basically a place to dump my money every few months and not want to look at it for 20 years, basically when i have extra money, ill put it there and forget about it.

First, make sure you have your emergency fund fully loaded.

Then, if you have a 20-year horizon, I'd suggest the lowest cost S&P tracker fund you can find, at least for the first N-5 years. Long-term, especially if you are contributing every month, this is not a high-risk strategy. Maybe put 20% into a low-cost emerging markets fund for a bit of variety. If you will likely know 5 years in advance when you want to retire, plan to convert 10% of the stocks to bonds each of the last 5 years.

[Hamlet]

What do you mean by LOW risk?

The risk-free rate of return right now is generally less than 1%. If you invest that way for 20 years, I suspect that you will lose money when factoring in inflation.

If you are looking to invest for 20 years, you will probably not want to go that way, but the alternatives will all bounce around a lot. Over 20 years, its a good bet (but not a guarrenteed one) that you will do well with a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds, but in any given year it can get pretty ugly.

Your choices nowadays are lose money slowly with inflation or take some risk, IMO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by halfwit I do alot of reading but it is still all confusing. I am looking for LOW risk long term investments, basically a place to dump my money every few months and not want to look at it for 20 years, basically when i have extra money, ill put it there and forget about it.