The Financial Markets

[TrebMaxx]

Just wondering if there are any financial gurus out in Chiefs land. I just recently inherited a modest sum of money and with the markets going crazy like they are right now I am not sure what to do with it. I will be seeing a financial adviser, but thought it would be interesting to see what others think.

Throw out your best opinions on what you would do if in my shoes.

[Fat Elvis]

Originally Posted by TrebMaxx

Fortunately, the inheritance was sizable, under 200,000, but not enough to qualify for estate tax, which BTW, the estate has to be over 2 million this year (thank you Replubicans!). This was all covered with the lawyer I used to settle the estate.

Like I said earlier, it is just me and the wife, no kids. We make a comfortable living. I write software and the wife is a Admin Assistant for the Director of one of the schools at MU. We are not uber wealthy, but not hurting at all. Our total debt is well under a $100,000 including everything, cars, mortgage, etc. I think reason for that is because we don't have any kids (not by choice, medical). It has allowed us to pay things off or pay cash for big ticket items and keep our debt low. We are also fairly modest. We don't have fancy cars or a house that is way too big for us, things like that. We live a fairly simple life.

The passing of my mother was totally unexpected, thus why I am scrambling to figure out what to do with the money she left. But, even before this happened I had my financial plans set up so that I can retire from my current job at 55 - I am 45 now. My company will pay my health insurance if you have worked 25 years and reach the age of 55. When I said retire it just means from my full time current job. I would still do B.S. work here and there, but on my own terms.

I think what some are missing on what I was trying to get opinions on. Really, it is all about the current financial crisis going on. In some ways it is great because like people say - buy low. That seems to be available in the current market. But all of the doom and gloom that is being reported has me very concerned.

Berkshire Hathaway is a slow but steady gainer over the years.

[Fat Elvis]

Originally Posted by steelyeyed57

Farmland can be a great investment.

After the runup in grain prices, it is getting harder and harder to get....

[triple]

Originally Posted by Fairplay

Havn't you heard?

Triple in post #18 said and i quote "99%+ of all banks in the united states are fine and well capitalized."

I need some rose colored glasses. Or a hit off his bong.

Where's your evidence to the contrary?

[jidar]

Originally Posted by triple

Where's your evidence to the contrary?

so... what's your rock like? the one you live under I mean.

[beavis]

Originally Posted by Stewie

Let's look at a little recent history for investment purposes.

If, in 2000 you invested $10,000:

The DOW: You'd have about $9,500 adjusting for inflation and fees.

The Nasdaq: You'd have about $4600 adjusting for inflation and fees.


Invest at your own risk. And do your own due diligence. Don't rely on what anyone else tells you. IT'S YOUR MONEY! Take care of it.

What about if you invested in 2002? That's not really a fair assessment.

[beavis]

Originally Posted by Fat Elvis

Berkshire Hathaway is a slow but steady gainer over the years.

Hasn't done much for me. I was in the red for it (bought about 6 months ago) up until today.

[Fairplay]

Originally Posted by triple

Where's your evidence to the contrary?

Dude, i asked you first in post #21.

I'm still waiting on your evidence.

["Bob" Dobbs]

Buy the Chiefs. Fire Carl. Live off of the gratitude of Chief fans.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by triple

alarmism. 99%+ of all banks in the united states are fine and well capitalized.

Yeah, besides that $4 trillion in the last year, I'm sure it's fine...

The New York Times has an interactive graphic up on its site that pretty much says it all. It shows that $4 trillion has been wiped off the total market capitalization of the U.S. stock market since last October. Of that, nearly $1 trillion is from the decline in the financial sector alone.

Each box in the graphic is proportional to the size of the market capitalization of the biggest financial firms then and now. As you mouse over the squares, you can see how much each value each company lost between October 9, 2007 and September 12, 2008. Here are some of the individual losses by market cap:

Citigroup: $236.7 billion to $97.8 billion.
Bank of America: $236.5 billion to $150.2 billion.
AIG: $179.8 billion to $32.3 billion
Goldman Sachs: $97.7 billion to $61.3 billion
American Express: $74.8 billion to $45 billion.
Morgan Stanley: $73.1 billion to $41.1 billion.
Fannie Mae: $64.8 billion to $700 million.
Merrill Lynch: $63.9 billion to $24.2 billion
Freddie Mac: $41.5 billion to $300 million.
Lehman Brothers: $34.4 billion to $2.5 billion.
Washington Mutual: $31.1 billion to $2.9 billion

[Stewie]

Originally Posted by beavis

What about if you invested in 2002? That's not really a fair assessment.

Hindsight is 20/20 baby. No one invests when the market is crap, but they should. Looking back I'd say, "You're fools for not investing in 19xx or 20xx...!"

Tell me this. Are you dropping 10K today in this market? Are we at a bottom? I've heard 8500 before we hit bottom.

[Swanman]

Originally Posted by TrebMaxx

Fortunately, the inheritance was sizable, under 200,000, but not enough to qualify for estate tax, which BTW, the estate has to be over 2 million this year (thank you Replubicans!). This was all covered with the lawyer I used to settle the estate.

Like I said earlier, it is just me and the wife, no kids. We make a comfortable living. I write software and the wife is a Admin Assistant for the Director of one of the schools at MU. We are not uber wealthy, but not hurting at all. Our total debt is well under a $100,000 including everything, cars, mortgage, etc. I think reason for that is because we don't have any kids (not by choice, medical). It has allowed us to pay things off or pay cash for big ticket items and keep our debt low. We are also fairly modest. We don't have fancy cars or a house that is way too big for us, things like that. We live a fairly simple life.

The passing of my mother was totally unexpected, thus why I am scrambling to figure out what to do with the money she left. But, even before this happened I had my financial plans set up so that I can retire from my current job at 55 - I am 45 now. My company will pay my health insurance if you have worked 25 years and reach the age of 55. When I said retire it just means from my full time current job. I would still do B.S. work here and there, but on my own terms.

I think what some are missing on what I was trying to get opinions on. Really, it is all about the current financial crisis going on. In some ways it is great because like people say - buy low. That seems to be available in the current market. But all of the doom and gloom that is being reported has me very concerned.

Since your are 45, I would put about 60% of the money in equities and 40% into bonds/fixed income. For your equities, I would recommend index funds/etfs. People will yell about stylized mutual funds, but over the long-term, something like 90% of the stylized mutual funds perform worse than the benchmark indices they are up against. You can get into index funds based on the S&P 500, DJIA, Russell 2000, etc. I would recommend bond index funds as well which will diversify your risk there. Plus, the index funds have very low fees by and large.

I would also recommend doing international index funds as well to further diversify, there are quite a few out there.

Right now I am 25% in an S&P 500 index fund, 25% in an international equity index fund, 10% in a Russell 2000 index fund, 10% in a GNMA bond fund, 10% in an emerging markets stock fund, 10% in an emerging markets bond fund and 10% in a commodities fund.

[Stewie]

Originally Posted by TrebMaxx

Fortunately, the inheritance was sizable, under 200,000, but not enough to qualify for estate tax, which BTW, the estate has to be over 2 million this year (thank you Replubicans!). This was all covered with the lawyer I used to settle the estate.

Like I said earlier, it is just me and the wife, no kids. We make a comfortable living. I write software and the wife is a Admin Assistant for the Director of one of the schools at MU. We are not uber wealthy, but not hurting at all. Our total debt is well under a $100,000 including everything, cars, mortgage, etc. I think reason for that is because we don't have any kids (not by choice, medical). It has allowed us to pay things off or pay cash for big ticket items and keep our debt low. We are also fairly modest. We don't have fancy cars or a house that is way too big for us, things like that. We live a fairly simple life.

The passing of my mother was totally unexpected, thus why I am scrambling to figure out what to do with the money she left. But, even before this happened I had my financial plans set up so that I can retire from my current job at 55 - I am 45 now. My company will pay my health insurance if you have worked 25 years and reach the age of 55. When I said retire it just means from my full time current job. I would still do B.S. work here and there, but on my own terms.

I think what some are missing on what I was trying to get opinions on. Really, it is all about the current financial crisis going on. In some ways it is great because like people say - buy low. That seems to be available in the current market. But all of the doom and gloom that is being reported has me very concerned.

I missed this some how. Dude, sit tight. Deposit the money in the bank you use (if it's reliable) and spread the money so you're not over the $100K FDIC guarantee on any one deposit. I'd wait this shit-storm financial debacle out. That's just me. Do your own due diligence.

[PhillyChiefFan]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

2 chicks at one time.

*****in a man...*****in a

[Fairplay]

Originally Posted by Stewie

Tell me this. Are you dropping 10K today in this market? Are we at a bottom? I've heard 8500 before we hit bottom.

Exactly my thinking Stewie. Everyone seems to think we already hit the bottom and are going up from here on out a couple days ago.

I disagree, but thats just me.

[TrebMaxx]

Originally Posted by Stewie

I missed this some how. Dude, sit tight. Deposit the money in the bank you use (if it's reliable) and spread the money so you're not over the $100K FDIC guarantee on any one deposit. I'd wait this shit-storm financial debacle out. That's just me. Do your own due diligence.

This has been my thoughts all along. The stock market is just too shaky ATM. I also don't think it has bottomed out yet.

Thanks for all that posted their thoughts, lots of thought provoking dialogue. I even researched running a hog farm and realized really quickly that is definitely out of the picture.