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Last edited by BringOnTheMen; 07-28-2012 at 10:49 AM.





Gov't sanctioned retirement accounts have some 'positives' but also have some large potential 'negatives'. Is your interest truly in putting away money that you don't want to touch for the next 40 years, or are you just looking for some investment arrangement that makes access to your money less 'easy' than a local bank or credit union ?





^^^ well, if you're talking about $100-$200 per month, this really isn't enough to get involved in an investment / brokerage account or a 'gov't sanctioned' retirement account. As a 'starting point', perhaps consider purchasing 6 month or 1 year CD's from the credit union you just joined. They probably have a $1000 minimum, so this would involve accumulating the $1000 in your regular savings account first. The CD's typically carry a penalty for 'early withdrawl' before maturity, which provides strong incentive not to 'touch' this money without an extremely good reason !!!
Before I 'retired', I actually used to maintain six separate 6 month maturity ~$2500 CD's as my personal 'emergency' fund, with the maturities arranged such that one CD matured every month. Under normal circumstances, when a CD matured I would simply roll over the proceeds into a new CD. But if for some reason I was unable to dance / cam, I wouldn't roll over the proceeds, meaning that every month for up to six months I'd have another $2500 available to pay my bills.
Last edited by Melonie; 06-28-2012 at 07:58 AM.





check out any of the links at
Personally speaking, I think The Motley Fool does a very good job of 'simplifying' explanations.


Not much interest in saving account. If I was I would invest in gold, not all of it though. Here is why gold will go up as long as the economy is doing poorly. If you look at the past 5 years you will see gold has gone up and will go up. If the economy is doing better than you sell the gold as fast as you can. Not gold stock I mean real gold.
Another investment is savings bond. It is safer investment and higher interest in savings account.
http://www.thestreet.com/topic/43441/gold-price.html
http://www.mymoneyblog.com/savings-b...-accounts.html





I'm actually fairly strong on gold as a long term investment ( lots of 1 oz gold bars in my safe ! ) for a number of reasons. But the price of gold is subject to cyclic upswings and downswings over shorter time periods ... which makes it unsuitable as a short term savings substitute if you may be forced to sell at a low price during a downswing.
This is a variation of the 'trade-off' involved with CD's ... i.e. paying a penalty if you are forced to sell before they reach maturity. And of course, returning to the thread's title issue, gov't sanctioned retirement accounts are totally unsuitable as a savings substitute because 'early withdrawl' before reaching retirement age will result in both the payment of a penalty PLUS a potentially nasty tax surprise.
Tuition is definitely a short term savings issue ... with at most a 6 month short term savings cycle time proceeding a major need for a huge 'withdrawl'. As such, any financial vehicle that is time based or is subject to cyclical price variation isn't a good option. So that basically leaves money market accounts and regular passbook savings accounts. If you would find funds segregation and more 'difficult' withdrawl procedures an advantage, opening a money market account might be the better option.I really do want to start saving for the "future" but I'm not at a place right now where I can put away a big chunk of my income (primarily because of tuition). Maybe I could just open up a 2nd savings account with a different bank that is more difficult to access and transfer money over.
Last edited by Melonie; 07-08-2012 at 01:00 AM.


Learn to spend less. I learned to cut out things I really didn't need I wait for specials in grocery stores and stock up. I don't eat out and rarely eat take out. I am talking about long term investments. Inflation will outpace interest from a savings account. I saved $5000 so far not much really but considering a lot of people live pay check to pay check I'm probably better off. Here I only pay 50% on capital gains so I get a head start. Yes gold is not easy but it's worth in the long run.
Note it is predicted a loaf a bread will cost anywhere from $18 to $25 a loaf according to predict and current trends. So you should be prepared.
http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/201...says-loaf.html




I have nothing to add to the OP... but just saying: the above "prediction" is from the National Inflation Association, a completely unreliable source.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq-buz2C9Po
Time will tell.![]()





^^^ that isn't an impossible scenario ... ask the Germans, the Zimbabweans etc. And if a deliberate policy of monetary inflation is pursued in lieu of reduced gov't spending and/or increased tax rates, the WORST losers will be savers / investors whose money is tied up in 'long term' financial instruments.


Well Capitial One sort of offer something like that. But not saving account that I can see. You can pay through your bank account. I use the bank machine to pay for my credit, you will have to ask the bank to set it up. It is really nice. I hated writing checks and spending money on postage.
http://www.capitalone.com/creditcard...36_T_CP35616RW
I read some bad reviews on sites so I can't really say but the one is Canada is ok. Also don't get credit card insurance. It usually promises to pay for your payment if you're not working. But what they don't tell you is that they only pay the miniumum fee. It's a real rip off, in Canada a lot of people been scammed from this.
http://www.creditcards.com/credit-ca...rance-1267.php
One should save up money so they can last 9 months without income. So if anything happens you have yourself covered. I am already there now I'm saving to buy gold and other stuff. It took a while but it's worth it.





Botm, you could go to merrill lynch or fidelity and tell them you goals and they can suggest a portfolio to you. I have an account with merril but no one actively manages it anymore since I took most of my money out after sept 11 and an 85,000 loss because of MCI World comm. I you have 50,000 you can go in office and they will actively mange your account, if you have less than that they have a number you can call were qualified( so they say?) associates will help you make decisions, send pamphlets out to help you make a decision.
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