Stocks, Mutual Funds, investment basics.
 

At this time, the dow is approaching the neighborhood of 13,000. Historical highs.

I'm trying to learn more about investments, in plain English how some of these things work and how to best use them.

I don't dabble in day trading, but have mutual funds and ownership shares in a Bio Co.

When I watch the Dow climb, it makes me happy that I'm making some money, that the college fund is growing, but it also makes me wonder.....when is it time to pull back, and put that gain into something safer to 'hold' the value. Will the market keep climbing? What will the ceiling be? Keep putting money in or hold off for a drop?

How do Index funds work....

I'm here to learn.

Check out morningstar.com. Lots of good info there. Other than that, I check out yahoo finance almost daily.

I get nervous whenever the indexes start hitting new highs. I'm not taking any money off the table right now, but I'm sure not putting anymore in.

Open an eschwab account for starters, a self-directed IRA, and just start paying attention to investment shows.

I just cut a fat hog on Jones soda.

Ignore the Dow, the S&P is more useful. The Dow is only 30 stocks, S&P 500. Much better barometer on what the market is doing.

Index funds simply buy what is on the index. That is why their fees are low. Con is that you won't ever beat the market, just follow along.

As far as when will it stop climbing, if someone can answer that they will be a billionaire. Don't focus on the short term, think long term. The market generally follows a pattern of ups and downs. I am a little worried because this current upswing is lasting longer than normal. But no one really knows diddly squat.

I'm definitely not looking for "Get rich quick" sollutions, but want steady growth in the money I am able to invest.

I do have a broker that I trust for the investments I have, however I also like to have some idea as to what I think should be done. Right now, I've got some in the higher risk stuff that is doing well, I've made some money this year, but wonder if the right thing to do is to keep riding the wave, or pull back and save some of that gain. The majority of my investments are in safer mutal fund areas where I don't see the huge gains, but steady and supposedly "safer".

Brock,
With the self directed IRA, "I" am selecting the companies that make up the fund?

Yes, and the great thing about it: TAX FREE.

As in, No capitol gains?

That would probably be worth looking into, if a guy did his research and was comfortable in putting together a solid core group for the fund.

Since its an IRA, its long term? Can you get to that money prior to retirement age, say if I wanted to build a house, buy land?

I'm interested in some good websites that explain this stuff in a way it makes sense.

Look for Mutal Funds like this one

SLASX

http://quicktake.morningstar.com/Fun...fdtab=starrate

High Return, Low Risk, No Load

This one has been kicking ass over the last three years but it goes up and down a lot.

FSENX

http://quicktake.morningstar.com/Fun...fdtab=snapshot

It is up right now and could drop in price for no reason really fast.

fool.com is a good website to read up on

Do not, I repeat, Do not get your stock tips from shows like Mad Money on CNBC. Jim Cramer is a total moron.

I've made a lot of money off of his tips, so whatever I guess....

I would have to suggest you pm memyselfandI. She has lots of good tips.

I recommend John Bogle's Common Sense on Mutual Funds . Bogle is the founder of Vanguard and a major proponent of index funds.

I don't have the time or inclination to stay up to date on stocks. If I recall correctly, though, Index funds beat 80% of actively managed funds dealing with a similar portfolio of stocks. Index funds do that because they don't need to charge for the costs associated with heavy buying and selling. Sure, 1 in 5 actively traded funds in a certain sector will beat the Index fund. Is it luck? Or is it a good manager? Bogle, I believe, would say it is mainly luck.

Any money I don't need for at least five years currently goes into a Total Market stock index. FWIW, though, you can get Index funds in target areas like International stocks.

If someone really enjoys learning about specific stocks and thinks they can be the 1 in 5 to beat Indexing, more power to him. I'm not that guy--and I'm comfortable with that. Besides, it leaves me with more free time.

Any money that I would need in less than five years, I would likely be more conservative with--right now, for instance, some CDs are paying a little over 5%.

I'm young, my kids are young, so it's time to be relatively aggressive.

Maybe my best bet is to put the money into Bail Bonds, and buy a $15 wooden collections-stick.

There is alot to learn and keep up with, and I don't claim to really understand alot of this stuff. I do have some short term CDs I was able to get in for over 5.5% last fall, which is a far cry better than the pathetic Savings account rate I was drawing at my local bank. I do also put a good percentage into the work retirement fund which is more than matched, however I am trying to make some moves now that I may not be able to in the future.(no car payments at this time, more kids, build house etc...) My mutual funds are managed by a broker, who is a member of the extended family who I trust. He answers questions when I have them, but I'm always interested in other perspectives I can approach him about.

I'm also fairly young (34) and have a young family, and have an agressive nature that fueds with my very fiscally conservative nature(broke as a kid, always waiting for the hammer to drop).

I'd describe myself as.....restrained-agressive. I'll take risks with a %, but don't want to go "all in". I got my ass slain in the late 90s with everything I had in high risk-high reward accounts......dumb kid.

Anyone do Ag commodities?

http://www.cramerwatch.org/