iam 45 years old, i want to invest, which is better, etf/mf? I have $10,000. This is all i have , i need help?

Question

i dont have any pension, or savings.

Answer 1

Great... it's nice to see you making a move.

The two words that best answer your question are;
Low expense
Diversification.

You can do well in both, as long as they're both diversified and inexpensive.

For the amount of money we're talking.... I'd suggest Mutual Fund(s) at Vanguard. ETF's like the S&P500 would be good, but I'd try to find a fund that includes domestic & international stocks, along with bonds. There are "Life Cycle" funds, geared to a retirement year that would work well for you.

Another fund company to check (other than Vanguard) would be T. Rowe Price. The Vanguard is the least expesive, T. Rowe Price may be a little better (overall)...... but... you wouldn't be making a mistake in either.

BTW: "Invest Guru" who also answered your question, clearly has no idea what investing is all about. DON'T CHASE PAST PERFORMANCE. Any mutual fund doing 40% a year will certaily also disappoint by 50% or more at sometime. There are still people that invested in NASDAQ stocks back in 2000 that have still not recovered their losses from the funds that were earning 40% and more.

Answer 2

Really ETFs are just mutual funds that trade on the stock market--you can find etfs and mfs that both hold all the stocks in the S&P 500 for example-- so either one can work. If I were you I'd probably just stick as much money as you can comfortably afford to put away into ETFs or MFs that track the market-- IVV or SPY are two good low fee ETFs that follow the S&P 500 for example. Or alternately there's vanguard. Be wary about buying whatever fund did the best last year--often as not that's luck and not skill.

Answer 3

If you aren't familiar with the stock market or investing I wouldn't do that right now. I'd put the money in a bank CD and then head over to my library and get some books on personal finance - Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey, Jane Bryant Quinn are a few names to try. Educate yourself and then decide what you think is best. You may decide you want to open up an IRA or something else.

You won't lose money by putting it in a CD and you'll be able to make a better decision by educating yourself about the stock market rather than making a wrong decision now. Good luck and keep saving - it feels good to have some money in the bank for a rainy day.

Answer 4

It all depends what you are looking for. If I only had 10k and I was 45 I would learn the stock market or the option market. It's risky so you need to lear as much about what you choose before jumping in. Make a model portfolio with dividend paying stocks, you will get a better return than with a bank cd. There are companies that don't get hurt with all this market volatility. I had a friend start with 12k in feb. with a a very safe portfolio I designed for him and has had about a 8000 ROI YTD. Just mae sure you have a very good idea as to what you are doing before you jump in. Good luck. And remember it's never too late to start.

Answer 5

At age 45 and with no savings or pension...you definitely want to go with a LOW risk investment. My suggestion would be long term CD's which you get thru your bank...they pay decent interest (far more than a regular savings account) and the money is protected. For more info...contact Suze Orman or pick up her books! She's amazing!

Answer 6

I am a professional investment advisor. I have found that there is a recurring problem with the questions that are asked on this site. There is usually not enough information being supplied by the asker to accurately answer your question.

What we can try if you seriously would like a professional answer would be for you to email or Yahoo Messenger me. Re ask your question and answer mine. We could then have more meaningful dialog and help you more efficiently. It now becomes one on one personal help. You can now compare my answer to the other ones you got on Yahoo Answers and make the right decision.

By the way for the others of you who are reading this response you can email or Yahoo Messenger me with any comments or questions you have and we can also have private dialog.

I will be happy to email you my full credentials when we connect.

Answer 7

You need liquid emergency funds for things like home/auto repairs, unexpected employment change....which is supposed to be 3-6 months of your salary. Having said that, knowing nothing more then what you've stated, I would open a roth IRA in a low commission online account like Tradeking.com and start putting in $150/month(or like what Jim Cramer does for his kids, if the market goes way down, put a higher lump sum in). For what to invest in, look at morningstar.com track records of funds and etf's and decide for yourself. In the 1990's it was Japan and US internet, in 2000's it's been commercial REITs(until recently)LA, SEAsia and China, and energy, with US lagging behind being more mature, debt-ridden and under housing/credit woes... until you feel confident in what to invest in I would keep the money in a savings account.

Answer 8

This penny stock service has years of proven experience. Ultimately it is the best service for beginners to use https://tr.im/O4jq5
You will have to wait between 3 and 10 days to get into the system in most cases. When I signed up it took 8 days. I wished it was faster, but if you can wait a week or two to start earn life changing money than you will have what it takes to make it in this business.

Answer 9

Remember that the $10k that you have is yours. I think that investment is the right thing to do, I agree with your thinking.

You are, however, asking for free financial advise. Normally free advise is worth just about what you pay for it, and can become quite expensive.

So here is my free advise...

Put your money in a safe, secure, interest bearing account of some sort, your choice, until you have had the time to research your options enough to make a well educated decision.

Answer 10

Hi,

The follwing are the best Performing funds in the market.

Franklin Templeton - Prima Plus Growth Fund
Reliance deversified Power sector Growth Fund
Fidelity Equity Growth Fund
DSP Merrill Lynch TIGER Growth Fund
JM Basic Growth Fund


You can close your eyes and divide the amount you have by 5 and invest in these MF's

I am sure you will get an annualised return of 40-50%.

So what ru waiting for .............