What is the better investment,real estate,stocks or mutual funds?

Answer 1

That totally depends on your personal situation and what you are investing for.

Answer 2

For the long term, NOTHING beats stocks. Historically real estate barely covers inflation over the long term. There have been short periods over the past 30 years or so of unusually high real estate price inflation but over the long haul real estate generally isn't a great investment UNLESS you are heavily leveraging your investment with credit. That's risky because if the market tanks, you're on the hook for the balance of the loans.

Mutual funds are highly touted as a comparatively safe investment vehicle with potentially high rates of return and that can be true IF you choose carefully. There can be significant negative tax implications if you invest in a fund subject to high churn rates as the capital gains are passed directly to you even though you don't get the funds to pay them unless you withdraw them from the fund. That can wipe out significant portions of the gain and therefore the advantage to a mutual fund.

The best long-term strategy is a careful mix of stocks and bonds, purchased outside of a mutual fund, and held for the long haul. That way YOU control any capital gains and are not subject to the whimsy of a fund manager chasing rainbows. Of course, this also takes the most work as you need to research all of the companies that you will invest in.

Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has amassed the second largest fortune in the world with a comparatively simple strategy: Lacking any business information to the contrary, buy when everyone else is selling and sell when everyone else is buying. Then, hang onto your investments for the long term unless there is key business information that indicates you should dump a stock.

Answer 3

You have wonderful responses from people that seem to invest. I can only relate with you my experiences of 28 years investing. Listen to others as well and try different types of investing.

The safest investment of the three above for me over the years has been mutual funds. For the majority of funding, I used deductions from pay and I could choose various mutual funds or used recommendations from a financial advisor, usually a banking officer, and even, CPA's. This always seemed safe and profitable but limited. Whoever you use get their, not a bank or company, personal references.

I changed careers in 2000 and went to the mortgage industry. Other than buying my own home, here I learned how mortgages worked, how investors were involved, how foreclosures work, and the contacts, etc. It never crossed my mind to invest in real estate because I did not know the business before. I have become very successful in real estate investment and made some very good profits. With the market as it is today, this is a great time to buy because the market will come back. There are many foreclosures. Use caution with foreclosures, check these out first, and insure to check local state laws and understand them.

Good cash flow has allowed me to feel safe in investments and get out of my "bubble". I found a great stock broker and investments I have made through him have been extremely rewarding as well. He gave me some advice years ago I followed up on. He told me to go to my bank's trading area located in downtown Atlanta. After my visit he asked what I noticed and that was mostly young aggressive types, most appeared to have just graduated college. His point I still have stuck in my mind today, you want an experienced, likeable, educated broker that can provide personal references, not just a bank's accounts.

These are only my experiences and opinions and, above all, feel comfortable with those you have trust, take ocassional risks, and go make some money.

Answer 4

There is no better investment type than another.

You should however be diversified, and always have cash on hand regardless of your investment strategy.

Real estate is an important investment nearly everyone will have at one point in their lives. Many think of their home as an investment but its not. Not to say you can't make money but it's never good to use your home as an investment as you can end up homeless as a result of market conditions.

Stocks are good investments for those that have the time and inclination to learn about the companies they invest in and can dedicate that time continuously.

Mutual funds are better suited to folks who don't want to invest a lot of time into stocks and other investment vehicles such as commodities, bonds, and real estate to name a few. Mutual funds already succeed at diversification so they are easier to participate in. A little research here will go a long ways to finding one that meets your needs

As a new investor, make sure you take advantage of investment professionals who can advise you effectively. This is alot easier than it sounds, as you want to find someone who understands you and your risk tolerance and experience. Even very experienced investors look to experts for advice.

Answer 5

For total return, stocks have outperformed all other forms of investment for over 100 years. They will continue to do so for as long as more people believe there is a future than don't. When we reach a point where there really IS no future, all the real estate in the world will be worth nothing.

The "safest" way to gain from stocks, however, is to invest in stock mutual funds, since owning a "pool of stocks" (which is all a mutual fund is, really) is good insurance against you picking the wrong individual stocks!


(For perspective, a 3-4 bedroom home might have sold for around $8-10,000 one hundred years ago...the same home sells today for about $200,000. If you had invested $10,000 in the stocks that make up the Dow Jones industrial index a hundred years ago (the DJIA closed 1907 at about $94.25), today they would be worth $1,420,000.00 or so)

Answer 6

In the real estate market, current values have been dropping now for over 2 years, but will begin to show signs of recovery as long as the Fed continues to drop interest rates. The farther the rates drop, the more buyers are able to qualify for home loans. The more buyers out there, the more housing values will increase. This is simple economics...the higher the demand, the greater rise in value.

A good source for buying real estate right now can be bank auctions due to foreclosure, because the bank only needs enough money to cover their losses, but you'll be bidding against others, many of whom are speculators, and know the business.

Real estate will increase in value over the long term, but if you expect to turn a fast profit, you need to get in at the right time, and know what to buy. How long are you willing to hold on to a property, and how much additional expense can you afford to throw at a property in order to unload it? That right time to invest could be very soon, or it might take a year or even more, depending on the Fed and the economy.

Buying stocks is much more risky, because their value is determined by so many factors. You have to analyze each stock individually. Mutual funds are inherently less of a risk because they diversify among many different types of stocks, but you need to look at the entire stock portfolio for each fund.

Answer 7

in my view I choose the inventory industry because of the fact i think it extremely is way less complicated to make money via choosing man or woman shares. for my section a mutual fund delivers much less probability for increasing your portfolio's fee. there is in many cases too lots diversification. some human beings equate that with risk-free practices yet what good is risk-free practices in case you're actually not making any money? of course in case you're actually not waiting to elect shares on your man or woman then a mutual fund must be the superb thank you to bypass. It in simple terms relies upon on whether you're keen to accomplish a splash examine or not. some each physique isn't keen to do their very very own examine so the question of whether to purchase a mutual fund or not is the comparable as asking whether you intend to make your man or woman investment decision or have somebody else do it for you.

Answer 8

Real Estate.........it is slow as compared to others but safe enough....at this point in time Real estate seems to be a better option.

Answer 9

mutual funds safest....if u r young take some risk in stocks...