Hi

I am new to investing and i wonder if anyone has any ideas on new or current investment methods. Or is current climate dictating we take our 6% or so from the bank and think safe for a while.

I am aware that 1 persons down fall should be another persons gain.
But where is it?


Best regards


Jason

Rusty I represent the top investment firm in the caribbean you could mail me for information on rates and the company's background if you like...
Oh an By the way CIFA...the fund is protected by laws in the counrty and your prinicple is guaranteed, you don't loose like stock markets. Our funds are protected in a statutory reserve fund held by our Central Bank. It is manditory that we keep this to protect our clients from loosing. So unlike the US banks that declared losses and its clients lost as well. We have enough reserves to pay out our debts plus a break rate... Its stated on our contract and its on our company website as well. We've also been rated by the AM Best and our reserves are well over 1Billion US$...

Cambir

Hi Rusty

I would suggest a few considerations

I would only invest in established mature well regulated environments for security eg UK, EU, USA etc as these areas are well regulated and the investor and their funds are protected by law and the providers are highly monitored/regulated by their governments.

If you are a novice investor then you should be probably taking a diversified approach to your investment. Rather than gambling on one asset class to do well you should construct a portfolio covering the major asset classes (equities, fixed interest, index linked, cash, and property) followed by smaller focused investments in more speculative investments in things like commodities, private equity, emerging markets etc.

You need to consider the suitable vehicle to do this based upon your tax position etc.

I would consider in this volatile market the idea of dripping your monies into the markets- eg divide your investment amount in 4 and invest a quarter of it every 2 or 3 months. This will protect you to an extent against further falls, but also hopefully allow you to get at least some of you portfolio invested at the bottom of the market.

There are a number of other considerations as well but too much to list on a forum!

I am a UK based independent Financial adviser and would be pleased to discuss/ help further. If you have any other questions either post or email me direct.

Regards

Christian

Thanks Christian

Hi Jason

I can't pm you as the system won't let me until I have made 15 posts!

Its boring advice BUT if you have debts my advice would be to pay down as much debt as you can - as long as you do not incur penalties for doing so.

This is because the credit crunch is making borrowing a lot more expensive and harder to get and most worryingly, hard to keep!(people having credit limits/overdrafts cut/removed etc)

Also it looks like we may have interest rate rises later in the year with inflation starting to take off.

If you are investing you need to be very confident that you can afford to lose some of it, and that the return you expect to make(after tax!) will at least outweigh the interest you have to pay on any debts.- This is hard to be very confident of especially as most people are paying 6% on mortgages and 8% loans, and 10% plus on credit cards.

Get back if you want further help

Cheers

Christian

What do you think about on-line investing?If you're not afraid of scam, it's possible to try it.

Investment Opportunity

leaving your money on the bank at 6% , less tax, less inflation etc is only saving - your principal sum is safe but investing will involve some risk, mainly better returns versus losing some of your capital

you need a good stock broker to invest direct into the market or look for an IFA for as lower return

after a reivew might be that the best for you is

£30,000 cash at bank
£60,000 - low / medium risk
£10,000 - high risk / special situations

you can then review or get your broker / IFA to review and move money around your options as seen fit

Good advice from CIFA on paying debts first.

I placed £5k in a SIPP a couple of months back, then realised I should have just overpaid my mortgage with it all instead. Will see if I can cash that in in a few weeks and do exactly that.

Meanwhile, my business last month invested in a raft of UK banks and US financials - regional banks, investment banks, bond and mortgage insurers. Been a volatile month, but am up over 20% in one month. Should've been more if I could have invested on July 15th when I want to, but the stockbrokers was closed.

Am planning to put about another £30k in stocks again around October, but will do so via online trading from TD Waterhouse - cut costs, allow for transactions as and when I want to, plus plan to do day trading.

Are you going to invets yourself, Brian? Sure you've got enough experience? I've tried investing myself. well, i got some profit but it might have been much better. So, I'm a bit sceptic about it now.

Getyourmoney.Investment

why are you sceptic? What then do you think about the people who make fortune on trading on the stock markets?I'm totally for it. Only you yourself can really care about your money and all the rest just try to make their money on yours.

It's erally great if you're so sure of our abilities to make money trading forex. But as the practice shows there wouldn't be so many losses if it all were so easy. One should be a real proffi to cope with the task.And if you're a novice, you'd better first refer to the specialists so that they could show the basics to you.

Getyourmoney. Investment

Yep - started investing in UK and US financials over the summer. So far my returns are 35% since mid-July.

lucky you are, Brian!

I think UK financials are currently ripe for the picking - they just bounced again leaving them unseasonably low. HBOS, RBS, BARC and LLOY I think are all very good long-term buys at present. I'd predict these to be worth between 150%-250% over 5 years.

However, there are far better opportunities on US financials at present, not least because of the perceived risk. I've watched the Radian Group - RDN - grow from $0.97 to $5.00 in just 8 months. It's a risk, though, and I limited my risk in the mortgage security business to PMI, which has grown from around $2 to $4.5 in the same period. Smaller comparative growth, but smaller risk IMO. I may actually put something in RDN soon if it bounces next week.

Just my personal thinking, though.

you may be right but only experience can teach you. And there're losses, it's only natural, from my point of view.

i think if you use the concept of pound cost averaging at the moment and buy up units in mutual funds at low low prices, then when market starts to rise, you should make a killing.

Depends on your attitude to risk though.

Bah! Only made 5% on selling because of the financial crisis, but feel lucky to have got out with my shirt on.

Not the best time to invest in financials at present, I don't think!

If not finance, then what? Where should one invest from your point of view?

I'm waiting for October to unfold, then will be looking at US financials again.

You will be a brave man to dip into financials at the moment. I agree, October is a sit and wait month. I will be dipping in and out of the indices as usual with tight stops and limits.