User talk:Royor

Great wiki start up guide, thanks.


 * Great wiki startup guide, Thanks. Royor (talk) 09:11, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Best investment
Hiya Royor. I'm by no means an expert, so please don't take anything I say as gospel. Feel free to disagree with anything I say, I'm sure there are many good investors that would. It sounds like you're off to a great start in reading up on this stuff. I know it can be frustrating dealing with all the contradicting information that is common in the subject. I think you could make good choices based on the Intelligent Investor alone, it can be a little dry at times but there are good concepts in there. That is pretty much the only book I've read thoroughly on the subject, other than that I've just looked at internet articles and so on, mostly ones that agree with the mindset given to me by the Intelligent Investor. I guess all I can really tell you is what I do: I stay away from buying individual stocks because I don't believe I have the time or skill to pick "winners" consistently, so anything I bought would boil down to speculation. It is also expensive to buy stocks individually, probably around $20 per transaction (buying and selling) and if you're buying small amounts it quickly adds up to a significant percentage. I also avoid mutual funds for reasons you'll find in the Intelligent Investor and elsewhere: mutual funds outperform the market consistently far less than you might expect and they often have significant fees that can cripple your investment (a 3% fee in a poorly performing market can wipe out any profit) and the fees appear to be unrelated to fund performance. In short, I also doubt my ability to buy a successful mutual fund. Instead I buy Canadian and American index funds. I do this on a weekly basis through TD's e-series funds because it is the cheapest way to buy them that I've found in Canada (their fees are 0.31% on these funds, compared to about 1% at BMO). I have set it up to buy an amount automatically each month, as a means of dollar cost averaging and out of recognition of my inability to "time the market". Although I haven't at the moment, I intend to shortly start buying bond index funds on the same principle. Graham suggests having 25% to 75% of your funds in bonds at all times, and I have no reason to dispute that (the huge losses on stocks in the past year show why). This is quite a boring way to invest, I rarely make any changes and the values don't rise and fall nearly as much as individual stock holdings do. It is essentially on autopilot, and I think a lot of people would consider it pretty conservative. I intend to maintain the routine for many years (decades if possible). Anyway, hope that helps and hope I'm not leading you down the garden path. TastyCakes (talk) 15:10, 19 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Hmm, on reading the dollar cost averaging article it seems what I'm would be better described as automatic investing. TastyCakes (talk) 15:17, 19 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Any time, good luck with your investing. TastyCakes (talk) 14:22, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Royor, you don't know me from Adam, so any advice I give on investments should be treated with distain, at best. Definitely speak to a professional financial adviser, and if he or she doesn’t ask you a lot – a whole lot – of questions about your personal situation, find someone else. A bank will tell you about the bank’s products; an insurance company about the insurance company’s products, etc. So, you want an independent adviser. Ask around; talk to your parents, friends or friends’ parents. Seriously, I’m not being condescending: ask older people who they trust (especially, rich older people).

You must be asked for ID, perhaps even references. You should be asked about your income, current investments, cash holdings, debts and objectives. Without that information, no competent adviser can make a useful recommendation on anything at all. In many jurisdictions, those questions are required by law so that the adviser can understand your risk tolerance and investment profile.

You’ll want to ask questions, too. Start with “So, Mr(s). Adviser, how do you get paid? Is it a commission, a flat fee, performance-based compensation or some other arrangement? Are you working in any capacity with the company who’s products you’re advising me to invest in? Who are your clients, and may I contact them for references about you, Mr(s). Adviser?”

Don’t be shy, even if it is a big name company. After all, it is your money.DOR (HK) (talk) 01:28, 20 August 2009 (UTC)