View Full Version : What would you do with $12K?
James Bond
01-18-2007, 01:35 PM
I would just put the $12,000 in the bank for now. Forget about the American Stock Market, it's peaking. If Bush hits Iran, the stock market will plunge. Big mistake is to chase last years gains. Small investors rush in while the people "in the know" sell into it leaving small investors holding the bag.
Put the $12,000 in the bank and use it as a rainy day fund for now. Have enough in the bank to last you 6 months if you lose your job.
Katrine
01-19-2007, 01:27 AM
I would put $5K into a high-interest savings account. I do not know which would be better for my situation, a regular CD or an annuity. Well, I don't have details figured out because after all, this is only a pretend/hypothetical situation.
No, no, no on the annuity! That's a highly illiquid investment. Put it in a money market or 6-month CD, as long as you have 6 months of completely liquid funds before that. Sorry, just an FYI. I doubt anyone could do much with 5K towards an annuity anyway. The fees would eat right through it.........
britneyireland
01-21-2007, 05:26 PM
I've gotten a bunch of PMs on my Investools experience and this is the first chance I've had to get back to this thread.
The Basic Stocks Program is the beginner course. It runs about $1995-$2995, depending on which vendor you buy it from. If you buy it through SuccessMagazine or The Learning Annex it is cheaper because those distributors buy large blocks of memberships and resell them at large conventions. I first came across Investools at The Learning Annex Real Estate Wealth Expo in LA last April. That price includes 6 months access to the website and a 2 day live training event. If you buy it directly through the site I believe it costs more in the 2995 range.
The 2 day live event, is 16 hours of lecture, catered continental breakfast and lunch at very nice hotel conference rooms. The speakers are always well known published authors of the trading world: Mark Larson, Mike Coval, and others. Note: this is where they HARD SELL upgrading to the Associate, Masters, or PhD program. I think most of the negative reviews came from people who only went this far, thought it was too expensive to continue, and were irritated by them asking for MORE money at every break.
My husband and I enrolled in the PhD program. It was 21K. Quite a large upfront investment.....and believe me I googled this company and read every comment (both negative and positive) I could find on financial message boards. They give you 30 days to finance it, so we re-fied our home and cashed out some equity.
Now, one great thing about the company is that they allow you to split the cost of tuition with a "family" member. Although the discount is meant for spouses, Ive met a lot of "stepsisters" and "brother in laws" that look nothing alike at the conferences. So, we rationalized that 5K per person per year is really not that expensive. That came down to $416/month or $96/week per perspn.
What did I get for my $96/week? One free attendance to all of the Workshops: Basic Options, Advanced Technicals, Advanced Options. A VIP pass that allows unlimited re-attendance to the workshops for only $99 (remember to they charge upwards of $3K for these live workshops if you buy a la carte) I get two years access to the website and 2 years of access to the coaching hotline. Literally, they have coaches from 7am-9pm to go through your trades if you have any questions about position sizing, entry and exit. I don't place a trade until I have a licensed coach go over it with me. I get one year access to MastersTalk, which is a weekly webcast of what's going on in the market, what stocks to watch, etc. I get one year access to Advanced Technical and Advanced Option Trading Rooms. These are weekly classes that are held on specific topics. For example I love trading price patterns. So twice a week I go to the Price Pattern trading room. It's done via WebEx (if anyone has used that before) So I log into my computer and join the conference, my computer screen synchs with the instructor's. Then I call in on the phone so I can hear the instructor. Each trading room is about an hour, and the instructor reviews what stocks are forming a certain pattern and what I can expect the target price to be, and how long I can expect it to take. All of this is LIVE...using real time examples of stocks I can trade that day and make money!
One thing Emily touched on is that THIS REQUIRES TIME COMMITMENT. I spend about 4 hours a day listening to the trading rooms. Luckily, as a stripper I have plenty of time during the day to do this ;) Probably one reason I haven't been as active on SW as I was in the past is because I'm in trading rooms instead of in Hustle Hut!
Like anything, you get out of it what you put into it. Katrine's friend isn't making much $$ from it because he hasn't looked at the stuff for a few months. I made 13grand two weeks ago with 20 hours of effort. We also formed a C-Corp to maximize our tax benefits, so the $21K is tax deductible as "start-up costs" for our trading business. So is are all the "family business trips" my husband and I take when we go to seminars across the country. We have been regulars at the Florida events even though we live in AZ so we can get our Disney Fix.
Melanie, I had never seen that chart before, but it looks like exactly what I do.
Again, feel free to PM me any specific questions. I don't hang out on SW as much as I used to, but I usually check it once a day.
Melonie
01-21-2007, 06:04 PM
Melanie, I had never seen that chart before, but it looks like exactly what I do.
well, I'm too 'cheap' to use a paid service for this, so I scarf the freebies at
Pretty_Penny
01-22-2007, 10:50 AM
i would buy a car. the one i have is 10 years old and dies every day or two.
Melonie
01-27-2007, 10:37 AM
back to the original question of the thread, you should have bought the VGENX oil/energy fund shares ! After my post on the 10th, the shares bottomed on the 11th and are up a couple of bucks = 3-4% over the past 2 weeks. Of course anybody that bought the MFN gold mining shares I also posted about at around the same time (in a different thread) would have realized an 11% gain over the past 2 weeks instead.
I'm not attempting to blow my own horn here, only to point out that James Bond is very probably correct that the US stock and bond markets are peaking. It looks like this week (specifically, GWB's state of the union speech and the reaction it got from the US congress) will wind up being the high water mark for US stock and bond market indexes for the time being at least. It's also possible that James Bond is right about middle eastern problems heating up in the very near future. But this does NOT mean that there isn't money to be made from 'contrary' investments like precious metals and oil, or the stocks of companies that produce them !
There's also very likely to be a great deal of money to be made from short selling, selling call options, buying put options etc. of 'mainstream' company stocks over the next couple of months.
~
Country_Boy
02-02-2007, 10:59 AM
If you have a means of storage, I would invest the $12k on a muscle car. All cars from the late 60s and early 70s will gain at least 10% of their value every year, some even 20%. Show me returns like that elsewhere, for something that you can drive around and enjoy. Can't do that with your portfolio, now can ya?
Melonie
02-02-2007, 04:42 PM
^^^ actually, yes I can, and my portfolio won't bankrupt me by getting 10 miles per gallon on premium gas ! I can pocket a 25% gain on my oil stocks, and afford to spend a few hundred dollars renting a brandy new super sports car for a weekend if the urge strikes me.
Emily
02-04-2007, 01:53 AM
and I believe your stocks don't require insurance, inspections and registration :P
britneyireland
02-04-2007, 12:31 PM
I have to chuckle. My hubby HAD (past tense) the same mentality as country_boy. We have two "parts" muscle cars in our backyard and another being delivered on Monday just to put together ONE refurbished Dodge Charger. It has turned into more of a hobby than an investment. Once you add in the hours of time, labor, and research....you'd better have a real love of muscle cars to view them as an "investment"
Yes, hopefully some day we can sell it for a mint at Barrett Jackson. However, even Barrett Jackson doesn't guarantee profit because of it's no reserve policy. We went to the Scottsdale auction two weeks ago and a porsche that sold last year for 180K only bid up to 90K.
I'm all about ICE ICE BABY!
I entered ICE on Jan 23
britneyireland
02-04-2007, 12:55 PM
Oops sent that too soon!
I bought the June 07 call option on ICE for 18.70 on 1/23. The option closed on Friday at 26.50 Thus far a 41% profit in two weeks on the option. The stock itself broke thru resistance on heavy volume on Friday. I have my stop loss set to lock in 30% pofit in case there is a sell off on Monday.
My plan is to hold it until Wednesday afternoon before they announce earnings. I personally don't hold options over earnings announcement. If it breaks to the upside after earnings I'll get back in.
Also on my radar: LVS earnings announcement on Monday, After the market closes. POT, X, and GS
Some of the investools instructors have their own personal blogs that you can follow trades (if interested)
http://shortit.blogspot.com/
http://optionaddict.blogspot.com/
21stcenturyfox
02-04-2007, 01:13 PM
go travelling, thats what i would do with 12K
Tigress
02-04-2007, 01:39 PM
Pay down your mortgage.
The single best tax shelter for your money.
It also reduces your debt load.
Melonie
02-04-2007, 02:01 PM
^^^ thank God that Canada doesn't have an AMT ^^^
VegasPrincess
02-04-2007, 10:14 PM
I say save 9000 and do something crazy fun with the other 3-
A big party for your friends, a shopping spree, fur coat or vacation? And why not?
scarlett_vancouver
02-05-2007, 10:05 PM
What's an AMT?
Melonie
02-06-2007, 10:24 AM
^^^ Alternative Minimum Tax ... which basically says that once you reach a certain level of gross income that your tax deductible items can no longer be deducted. Thus the ever-famous home mortgage interest deduction now begins to go 'poof' for Americans who live in high tax states like NY, CA, IL etc. whose gross income exceeds $112,000 or so. There's a separate thread started about AMT.