Sorry

x2 It's not time to start investing yet. I'm going to go sit down with my financial adviser soon and discuss an investment plan, but I don't see any reason to do it just yet.

 

It doesn't take a lot of money to start investing, but you really should know what you're doing first. I like to follow Dave Ramsey's advice... if you can't explain it to somebody, you shouldn't invest in it. He likes mutual funds for the most part. Nothing exotic, and it spreads the risk around.

I would suggest picking up one of his books for starters. I've found a good bit of useful information all over the web, too. A few of the blogs I read almost daily are:

My Money Blog
Frugal Dad
All Financial Matters


There's lots of information in the archives that you can use. Another great website for a LOT of the basics is Investopedia. I've found some good stuff there.

Coincidentally, today's Frugal Dad post includes a link to a website called WeSeed that sounds EXACTLY like what you're looking for. It's been 'temporarily unavailable' all day, though. At the bottom of the post, the author says "WeSeed has been up and down all day, but I hope you bookmark it. It's worth the wait." I plan to check it out and see what it's like whenever it's available again.

 

I'm not a huge fan of Dave Ramsey. He's kind of like a good ole' boy who knows a little about money .I've heard so many dumb people call his show- people who screwed themselves with a mortgage, or got into serious debt or something only to hear him dole out bad advice.

Probably the best guy I listen to, and he's not even on the radio anymore is a guy named Rob Black: http://www.robblack.com/

Download his podcasts. They're excellent and he doesn't make money from promoting books or anything so its not biased.

Ray Lucia is ok too, but again the guy makes money selling his books, thus at least some bias.

 

Not to get into a debate or fight over it because I know Dave isn't for everybody... but what bad advice has he given people?

I'm going to look through Rob Black's website, but I haven't gotten very far into it yet. How do his ideas differ?

I stopped listening to his radio show a while back. It's the same type of all over and over, and he gives the same general advice: Get an emergency fund, pay of debts, invest in simple, low risk investments, etc. Good advice, IMO, but after a while it's like, "I GET IT ALREADY!" I used his ideas as a foundation and have been very satisfied.

 

thanks for all the good info guys. i need to start some where, just don't know where. i'll start visiting those sites and look for a couple books to do my research. i really am a rookie at this, so all this lingo about investments and such makes me cringe.

i know my goal for starting all small right now would be to buy a home in the next 5-8 years from now. or sooner depending on what could happen. again guys thanks for the advise

 

much of the world is feeling the backlash from America failing. what people dont understand is that the world economy is like a very fine tuned watch, with the major economies each representing one cog. if one cog is damaged or removed, the whole clock stops. America, China, England, India, whatever. the collapse of any large economy will affect everyone else. thats what pissed me off months ago when all the "anti Americans" were like "look at America collapse, serves them right, i hope they learn their lesson". Well guess what chumps, if we go down, you're goin down with us. Now the PM of england is basically pleading with congress to stop focusing on America so the rest of the world can recover. I hate when people fail to see the big picture, i just want to smack them in the back of the head and tell them to wake up

 

Exactly, i guess the economies should be more independent from one another?? I dont understand much about it, but i do know, that both of our countries have been affected by the NAFTA, a lot of producers here, find that imported products are cheaper now than the national ones, and im talking about basic stuff like corn, beans, sugar, that sucks, because they cant produce, and the government is doing nothing to help them produce, so now we are alimentation dependent too.... i see a lot of shit coming, now, next year will be 200 years proclamation of independence, and 100 yeras mexican revolution, im wondering if we are gonna go Pancho Villa again

 

Invest in an index fund (a fund that mimics one of the indexes like S&P 500 or Dow). It's hard to pick one or two winners. With an index fund, you're betting on the market as a whole.

 

non taken..... it is true.....

its a phenomenon i cant explain....

since 1988 the country became neoliberalist, and most of the public policies where like that, privatization of telephony (now owned by one of the top 3 richest man in the world), some energy sectors, the banks, that have been allowed to loot the pockets of many citizens, not to mention big big corporates with tax exemptions, and the common citizen starting his bussiness, like me, its not spared a dime on his tax declaration, the power, the government for the rich people, for the politicians friends, up there, on their life styles, they are all friends, and pretend to belong to different parties and have different point of views....

combine all that, and all the demagogic programs, with an 80% fanatic catholic country (not attackin catholics), which go vote the way their priest say, and now the narc problem, and not to mention a government bowing to international corporates and governments like the US, instead of their own people, what you get??? 40 million (aprox) poors.....

I would say clean up the house, but then again, people is so busy, standing in line..... in a line to no where.....


oh and before that, we were populists so..... no gain either....

 

And don't take me wrong, i work for what i have, i don't want anything for free, but sometimes people needs to get a better start to grow up in every aspect of their life....education, job opportunities, etc....

I would say start with education, the government wants to keep people ignorant, its better for them, so instead of education i give you food and a blanket every once in a while whenever election time is close....

Mexican people have no memory, and no knowledge of their history, and the reason why we are here, so i guess we are doomed to repeat it all over again....

 

I guess being Friday, most of us are pessimistic today LOL

 

I saw it too. I remember seeing news reports that the Affordability Index in San Diego was around 10% (only about 10% of the population can afford to buy a median priced home). That was before the huge run up the last few years. Then I noticed more and more advertisements for interest-only loans. I remember thinking there were going to be a lot of foreclosures on the market in 5 years when those principle payments come due.