Post: #26

Online business

Post: #27

Jefferson is right. 2-3% is the right way to learn.

Then again, I'm more ballsy and do more swing trades, rather than day trading.

5k is a good amount to start, and sticking to the 2-3% rule is the safe way to go. Cut the losers, and let the winners run.

With all of that, don't plan on really multiplying your account, as you will most likely lose money. Its learning

Post: #28

From my humble opinion I would either start my own business or travel.

If you're young those things are awesome and I feel will be better for you in the future.

Post: #29

I think a safe investment for the long term would be VTSMX, Vanguard.

Post: #30

2x leveraged bitcoin short with a stop at 5.5k and target of 3k.

EDIT: This is what I would do, not necessarily what you should do.

Post: #31

Well, I would rather invest in forex. If we are talking in a broader sense, we cannot really make a comparison on which one is riskier. If we start talking about individual instruments within each market, then it starts making more sense. Both stocks and equities are comprised of ‘individual’ instruments that will exhibit distinctive volatile characteristics at times. In the case of currency markets, think of the Sterling ahead, during or after the Brexit shocker. That led to a major period of volatility, especially in GBP. Now we are seeing the opposite, with compressed volatility in forex, while stocks in the US and globally see huge spikes in price movements as reflected by the VIX index (or fear index), which trades at the highest level in months. There is a re-adjustment of US assets fleeing stocks into cash allocations as the investment in higher global bond yields become more appealing. Bottom line: You must be pragmatic and first define what type of investor or trader you want to be. Are you a short-term, swing or position trader? What type of exposure are you looking to have? Instruments to trade? There are many questions you must fill in the gaps with. Once you can find an answer to each one, you will be better positioned to make a judgment call in which one is riskier. If you find that forex can be an interesting venue to give it a go, I am happy to provide you with a list of Forex Brokers that provide an opportunity to open your own PAMM-account or choose one from the pool and invest into it [spam link]

Post: #32

(12-02-2018 12:01 PM)chrisblackbeard Wrote:  Jefferson is right. 2-3% is the right way to learn.

Then again, I'm more ballsy and do more swing trades, rather than day trading.

5k is a good amount to start, and sticking to the 2-3% rule is the safe way to go. Cut the losers, and let the winners run.

With all of that, don't plan on really multiplying your account, as you will most likely lose money. Its learning

Only if your not paying transaction fees or that alone will drain your account. . . 2-3% of 5000 is a very small trade.

Post: #33

(12-03-2018 05:05 AM)FraddyD Wrote:  Well, I would rather invest in forex. If we are talking in a broader sense, we cannot really make a comparison on which one is riskier. If we start talking about individual instruments within each market, then it starts making more sense. Both stocks and equities are comprised of ‘individual’ instruments that will exhibit distinctive volatile characteristics at times. In the case of currency markets, think of the Sterling ahead, during or after the Brexit shocker. That led to a major period of volatility, especially in GBP. Now we are seeing the opposite, with compressed volatility in forex, while stocks in the US and globally see huge spikes in price movements as reflected by the VIX index (or fear index), which trades at the highest level in months. There is a re-adjustment of US assets fleeing stocks into cash allocations as the investment in higher global bond yields become more appealing. Bottom line: You must be pragmatic and first define what type of investor or trader you want to be. Are you a short-term, swing or position trader? What type of exposure are you looking to have? Instruments to trade? There are many questions you must fill in the gaps with. Once you can find an answer to each one, you will be better positioned to make a judgment call in which one is riskier. If you find that forex can be an interesting venue to give it a go, I am happy to provide you with a list of Forex Brokers that provide an opportunity to open your own PAMM-account or choose one from the pool and invest into it [spam link]

Excellent post and totally agree.

You can not start an online business with 5000 dollars, mine cost 80,000 over the initial two years. Forex is the best option with 5000 USD.

Yes, forex is risky, but as with all investments the reward is proportional to the risk. And with risk management you can minimize risk.

However, as Repo correctly says, 2% or 3% is a small trade. Again, the less risk the less reward. The more you risk, the more reward.

Now, if you have an account of say 500 dollars, would you stick to the 2% or 3% rule? Not at the start. You could risk 10% at the start, what would you lose, 50 bucks? The cost of a meal? Who cares. But if you win, and you compound the money won you can turn an 800 dollar account into 55K in two weeks. It's not typical, but it has been done. Ninety per cent of forex traders lose money. However, 10 per cent make money, because they have a proven strategy, put in hard work and manage risk/reward sensibly.

Of course transaction fees will not drain your account, unless you're dealing with the broker from hell.

Post: #34

There are several set ups:

First know your expenses. Can you cover them?
Is there any open depth on your account? Pay it.
Do you have some liquid cash for unexpected expenses? Something that can cover a broken washing machine, some car that need a fix and so on. I consider to have 3 - 6 months salary stock in cash a good things. It is bad when you invest money and out of sudden you need to pull it out.
Did you do your long term saving / investment?
Just after that I would seek where I can afford some extra investment of the money.

Post: #35

I would do one of three things:

1. Pay off all my credit cards and loan debts.
2. Buy a decent PC, a DAW and a ton of VSTs, along with a guitar, a bass and a synth or two. I'm making my own music in 2019 so being able to get all that in one go instead of in stages would be handy.
3. Live off half of it while I spent the other half on advertising an online business or affiliate offers.

Post: #36

(12-03-2018 11:27 AM)Praetor Lupus Wrote:  ...

3. Live off half of it while I spent the other half on advertising an online business or affiliate offers.

How long you looking to live? $2500 is maybe one month worth of living expenses in any decent city (at least in the US).

Post: #37

(12-03-2018 11:39 AM)General Stalin Wrote:  

(12-03-2018 11:27 AM)Praetor Lupus Wrote:  ...

3. Live off half of it while I spent the other half on advertising an online business or affiliate offers.

How long you looking to live? $2500 is maybe one month worth of living expenses in any decent city (at least in the US).

My expenses are lower than a lot of others, granted. I could make it stretch to maybe three months. I'm more likely to go for either of the first two choices.

Post: #38

(12-02-2018 01:19 AM)Australia Sucks Wrote:  Really? Bank shares? There are so many better shares to buy in Australia then the stodgy no growth (earnings per share are likely to go backwards over the next few years) banks!

I think the banks will upswing in the next 12 months.

Fortesque, TOE, wollies all gone to shit.

Pick me a share AS, I'll drop $20K on it.

Post: #39

I'm pretty keen on the idea of investing 5k, or actually growing my 5k to 10k as quickly as possible.
I started a new job working long hours, so it will most likely be from saving like a monk. The upside is I'm almost forced to save.

I reduced all my recurring expenses, lowered all my bills and got cheaper car insurance which saved me ~$400 already.
The next thing is to avoid unnecessary spending, and drive that into savings.

When you realise that 5% on 5k is only $250. You start to look for better ways to make $250!

Giving up alcohol would be a quick way. Stopping buying lunch at work would help too, I want to set myself up for the future.
Longer term, I'm thinking about registering a company for investing to take advantage of lower corporate tax rate. BUT there's no 50% CGT discount after 12 months, there's recurring fees each year and you can't just make personal drawings. It will have to wait and I will have time to consider that approach as I save up the capital.

For ASX stocks I like RFF, but the returns don't work out at higher marginal tax rates, so i haven't bought. Maybe ex dividend it will fall back to an attractive yield and I will consider buying.

CCP another one I like. The way I see it, it would benefit from the economy doing worse while consumer spending stays the same.

Post: #40

Now I'd like to hijack this thread. How'd you invest $100K? If this is most of your net worth. I'm thinking half of it for a down payment on a mortgage for an apartment. The other half would ideally go to starting a business but I still have no idea.

Post: #41

^^
@duedue I think I can answer that question

I only speak for myself so this is my approach:

I know I'm worth it. Therefore I will utilize my money so I can obtain the best ROI for my efforts. So right now I'm going from food industry into sales. I've worked so hard and have lived off of peanuts so I can transition my skills into 5Xing my money. I view myself as a brand that can ROI my money. Once I obtain that career now I have to maximize my ROI from that point. From there I probably would go into owning real estate. One of the dumber answers I've ever heard was from someone who said he/she would take inheritance money and go on a hedonistic spree....and people wonder why lotto winners go broke within years.

From there you have to figure out how you want to ROI your money. Do you want to cater to the masses which is the easiest and arguably the best way? These are the basic bitch CNN watching monkeys that will spend money on a $10 sandwich or a $20 CD. Or do you want the harder approach of appealing to the elite? This category is hard to categorize and best bet would be get into medical since people will pay top dollar for pain relief. Trump's real estate empire is a prime example of how to sell to the elite.

Even if you can't answer this question everybody has 24 hours to do their work regardless of age, sex, and color. So why can't you maximize your time and turbo charge whatever money you may have?

Post: #42

Lots of people are suggesting “Start a Business”

My question is : What makes you think you will be good at it?
Lots of businesses fail in the first two-years. It’s a good way to lose money if you don’t know what you’re doing.

The conversation was more around how to invest 5k, in terms of returns and allocations, whereas the response addresses a marketing/business strategy between pursuing differentiation(luxury) vs cost leadership(masses) strategy.

Post: #43

Need a few more details to give better advice. Do you have high interest unsecured revolving debt (credit card)? Any secured debt (car loans)? I would pay those two types of debt off before investing anything. Those are tax free gains you can lock in right away. Personally if that was my only savings I would find an investment vehicle with the highest return and zero principal risk. I definitely wouldn't put it into a software product that I knew nothing about.

(11-28-2018 01:56 PM)debeguiled Wrote:  Buy T Bills or a T Bill Fund/ETF and keep putting money into it until you have one year's operating expenses socked away in case of sickness or loss of work.

Then start talking about investing.

This is good advice. I would say put it into a PenFed CD @3% but there is a low-moderate interest rate risk right now with the Fed raising rates into the near term that takes CDs off the table completely for me. I would probably re-invest 2-6 mo T-Bills or a HY MM fund to minimize that.

(11-28-2018 11:39 PM)Swell Wrote:  if I had an extra $5000; I would buy a power-rack, a bar and some plates.

Invest in yourself.

I did this about 5-6 years ago and it was a great investment. Not just for the health benefits, but the time convenience of having your own equipment at home is amazing. You could even have a great setup for maybe half that.

Post: #44

(12-03-2018 05:46 PM)RatInTheWoods Wrote:  

(12-02-2018 01:19 AM)Australia Sucks Wrote:  Really? Bank shares? There are so many better shares to buy in Australia then the stodgy no growth (earnings per share are likely to go backwards over the next few years) banks!

I think the banks will upswing in the next 12 months.

Fortesque, TOE, wollies all gone to shit.

Pick me a share AS, I'll drop $20K on it.

I'll do better that for you, i will pick 4 shares!

In order of attractiveness (my opinion) I think you should consider the following 4 shares:

1) Credit Corp Group (ASX code: CCP). Today's closing share price $18.40 which i have mentioned in another thread already. Australia's largest debt collection company. Today's closing share price was $18.40. I have been buying in recent months at anything below $19 per share. I forecast (I think they will beat their own guidance) earnings per share of at least $1.50 and dividends per share (fully franked) of at least $0.75 for FY2019. That is a fully franked yield of over 4% and a price to earnings ratio of less than 12.5 times for a company that will continue to grow earnings per share at double digit rates and has a 24% return on equity.

Broadly speaking the company has 3 major divisions:

First division is the Australia and New Zealand debt collection division (primarily the purchasing of defaulted credit card debt, personal loans, utility bills, etc). The second division is Australian consumer lending (e.g. personal loans, car loans, small business loans, etc). The third division is the U.S. debt collection division.

If you break down the 3 divisions the largest division of Australia and New Zealand debt collection will be steady (most likely no or minimal growth). This is due to unsecured consumer lending being largely static in Australia (the credit growth in Australia in recent years has largely occured in the areas of mortgage debt and government debt) and them operating in a highly concentrated and competitive market where they are a price taker. this division can be considered fully "mature" (i.e. low growth).

The consumer lending division will continue to grow at a rate of knots. Other companies operating in the consumer lending sector such as Cash Convertors, Thorn Group, etc are still reeling from the effects of tougher regulations, whereas the products they provide are designed to be more consumer friendly and thus have and will continue to avoid the harsher levels of regulatory scrutiny that other companies in the sector have faced. This means they will continue to gain market share. Tougher regulations that are likely coming through the pipeline will only strengthen their lead over competitors.

U.S. debt purchasing. Dynamics in the U.S.A. debt collection industry are favourable after a number of difficult years. A number of the large companies in the sector are struggling with weak balance sheets (meaning less competition), meanwhile banks are offloading a higher portion of their bad debts to debt collectors. This has resulted in ample supply and attractive pricing for U.S. debt ledgers. It appears these favorable tailwinds will continue for some years to come.
Disclosure: I own shares

2) Platinum Asia Investments (ASX code: PAI). Todays closing share price $1.01 This is a listed investment company run by Platinum asset management (ASX code: PTM) who have a good track record in outperforming the market. It had its IPO in late 2015 at $1.00 per share and ran up to around $1.35 earlier this year before tumbling recently. I would recommending buying at or below $1.00 per share (i.e. if the share price falls further). The shares are around NTA and it represents a good opportunity to benefit from the undervaluation/weakness of Asian stock markets. Disclosure: I own shares


3) Sunland Group (ASX Code: SDG) Current closing share price $1.34. The management and directors own over 30% of the company and it has been around a long time. Its a property developer (and property owner) that is heavily/primarily weighted towards the Queensland property market. They do a mix of residential, retail, office property, etc. The last reported NTA was $2.50 per share (notwithstanding any potential declines due to property price declines which could occur). If it keeps falling I would recommend buying some at anything below $1.25 per share (i.e. half NTA). The current guidance for FY2019 is around 27 - 30 million (AUD) in NPAT. Even if you downgrade it to $25 million NPAT that is more than $0.16 in earnings per share. If you buy at $1.25 that is less than 8 times earnings and half NTA for a well established company. It pays a healthy dividend and if you are willing to look past the current impending property downturn (i.e. take a long-term view) it offers good value.

4) Thorney Technologies (ASX Code: TEK). It today closed at $0.185 per share. I would be buying at these levels. Recent market declines and the rotation out of tech stocks has seen its share price plummet. Its a listed Investment Company (specializing in Australian technology companies) run by Alex Waislitz the clever and successful Jewish businessmen (and also the son in law of billionaire businessman Richard Pratt). Disclosure: I own shares.

If I had to pick only one stock it would be Credit Corp Group (ASX code: CCP).

Post: #45

I'm broke, invest in me!

Post: #46

p2p investments, like bondora, mintos etc. Goolgle it or PM. Works great for me.

Post: #47

5000 invested Into My music

Post: #48

I ended up investing in 2x $4000 parcels of a REIT. Have set it up to reinvest the dividends.

It's time to stay focused on earning the next $5k and find another suitable investment in order to diversify.

Post: #49

Fuck stocks, fuck Forex, and fuck p2p lending. With only $5k in, you won't make enough profit on those within the next 20 years to make it worth not being able to touch that money at all for all of that time. I had a little over $10,000 in an aggressive mutual fund myself where I made only a few hundred dollars in interest over 2 years before I pulled it all out because I can put it to better use myself. If you had $50k-100k that you didn't need just lying around, it might be a different matter but you don't.

Instead, I recommend investing it in learning a life skill. For example, $5000 is more than enough to buy a musical instrument and get lessons until you are decent. It's also enough to pay the tuition for a full 1-2 year language course at a foreign university, such as in Ukraine, Mexico, Bulgaria, or Indonesia for example and still have a lot of money leftover.

Proficiency in another language can get you paid in a countless number of ways for the rest of your life and knowing how to play an instrument is one of the oldest and most reliable methods of making yourself more attractive to women as well as just being a great mode of self expression. For $5000, you could transform yourself into an Amharic-singing Masengo-playing musical sensation and get yourself on TV in Ethiopia. You'll have to hire a secretary to schedule all the Habesha girls who will be trying to jump on your dick every time you visit Addis Ababa, Washington DC, or Atlanta. Maybe you'll even marry one of them, convert to Ethiopian Orthodoxy, and start your own clan in a house you bought near a castle in Gondar. Doesn't that sound cooler than letting it just sit in an account for 10-20 years where it might not even grow that much?

Your software idea sounds good too, OP.