best way to invest 150k?
 

im tired of my money sitting around scraping pennies from a patelco savings account so i was wondering if you guys knew of a good and safe way to invest 150k? i just started by opening a ING account since that pays way more than a patelco savings.

how much risk are you willing to take on? If slim to none, then CDs/savings. If more than there are options

im willing to take a little more risk but i have no clue about stocks/bonds or any of that wall street mumbo jumbo...

Here is just a thought allows you to learn to play the market a bit and keep the other money rolling on interest try CD Laddering

Take 48K a month for 3 months and invest them into 4 CD accounts

Invest 12 K into a 3 month CD in Sept
Invest 12 K into a 6 month CD in Sept
Invest 12 K into a 9 month CD in Sept
Invest 12 K into a 12 month CD in Sept

Next Month

Invest 12 K into a 3 month CD in Oct
Invest 12 K into a 6 month CD in Oct
Invest 12 K into a 9 month CD in Oct
Invest 12 K into a 12 month CD in Oct

Next Month

Invest 12 K into a 3 month CD in Nov
Invest 12 K into a 6 month CD in Nov
Invest 12 K into a 9 month CD in Nov
Invest 12 K into a 12 month CD in Nov

Then In December your 3 month CD comes to maturity and now Invest that money into a 12 month CD
keep doing this every month until you have a CD maturing once a month and you can roll it over or invest it somewhere else

Now you have 6 K left over to experiment with the stock market and if you find a good investment you can wait until one of your CD's matures which happens every month and invest the money into that stock or roll it over with the interest into another 12 month CD

do you know what bank has the highest interest rate for the CD's? your plan sounds like a good idea but seems a little complicated. the point is so that i don't have the whole 150k stuck in a CD for a year right? but having it in for a year will yield more interest yeah?

ING pays a higher interest rate then most banks pay on CDs unless you want your money tied up in the CD for years.

no i dont want my money tied up for years. a CD ladder seems really interesting tho. i've never looked at it like that before, i only saw it by years. $100k into ING 1 year CD comes out to roughly $800 a year or $66 dollars a month before tax. for some reason i can't quite get the numbers into my head about a revolving CD ladder that matures every month.

Why though? A one year CD at ING pays .5 % APY their savings account pays .8 APY %.

Some credit unions offer higher rate CDs you may want to check out something local but your not looking at much more.

yes instead of putting 150 K into a 1 year CD earning 1.14%

you end up with 12 1-year CD with 12K that way if the interest rate goes up in 6 months to say 1.5% you keep taking advantage of that

I might not have explained the system that great but if you are interested just a search for CD laddering will point you in the right direction

I know Ally's rate

3 month .39%
6 month .74%
9 month .75%
12 month 1.14%

so you might be better to put the lump sum in a high yield savings account thats at .8% and once a month put 12 K in a CD

whoops i meant ING savings account at .8%. this is what i am looking into right now a little bit. does anyone know if i have to transfer all my money over to ING? dont really get how ING works if its not a physical bank that i can deposit money into. what if i have cash to deposit?

so if i open a 1 year cd every month and deposit 10k i will have 12 cd's by the end of the year. then the following year it will be revolving and i will make $114 a month in interest which essentially comes out to $1368 a year with about 120k invested right?

Buy house rent it out.



http://www.tampabay.com/news/busi...pp/1252624

yep this way it just gives you the flexibility next year to have $10,114 become available to you then once a month for each month next year.

Which allows you to say hmm I've discovered a better investment plan I'm going to take this out and put it in here

Then maybe another month goes by and you go well thats not going as great as I thought I'll stay safe and let my $10,114 of this month renew for another year in a CD and maybe the rates have gone up

that article makes me sick. here we are thinking of ways to earn a little here and there and they go buying up everything and raping everyone else.

you could always go to Vegas and put it all on Black

CD rates suck right now and is pointless. Beside ING, go with Ally CD if you want decent rate with little 2month penalty for early closing.
http://www.depositaccounts.com/bl...-2012.html

Find deals for opening accounts with your money. Get a trading account at OptionsHouse, and or other brokerages that are offering opening bonus. I think Sharebuilder has a bonus when you fund it with 10-25k so open it with like $200 min and then wait for their fund it with this amount and get $200 bonus email.

Put some of your stocks in REITS as they are going strong right now. Homebuilders are doing good too. Don't buy a house if you know nothign about Real estate or being a landlord.

the easiest thing to do is have a local bank and just transfer money electronically between the two

Some kind of franchise restaurant maybe.

So many variables to your question. Age, risk tolerance, potential future earnings, goals, job situation, etc.

Open a savings with TIAA Direct
1.25% interest

I feel confident that the current administration will still be ruling in the next cycle. If I am correct, Gold will go through the roof. $150k in Gold could be worth $300k in a year or more. That is 85 gold 1oz bullion coins. Safe? It is a pretty safe bet it won't be coming down anytime soon.

Gold is a good way to go.

Vanguard no fee index fund.

Also make sure the rest of your finances are in order - Ramit Sethi's "I will teach you to be rich" is a good read. It's really "I will teach you how to manage and understand your money with the least amount of effort."

Don't listen to someone saying "experiment with the stock market", that really means "lose all your money in the stock market."

Listen to "financial sense", great podcasts. That should get you up to speed in a week.

AAPL and GOOG

intermediate municipal mutual fund

If you're willing to take a little risk, I'm not sure why we're talking about CDs.

Is the $150,000 extra cash for you? Do you already have 6-12 months of living expenses set aside beyond this? If not, put $20,000 (or so) into an easily accessible savings and look at investing the rest.

Should you play with individual stocks / bonds? Likely not.

Are you looking for current growth? Are the funds for retirement? Are they meant for family when you die? Do you have goals to spend the money on in the near future?

If you want to do something long term, find a good, well diversified, mutual fund and stick with it.

Dude just buy some mutual funds through vanguard. I bought one a couple weeks ago, put 3k in it and its up 4%...which equates to $120. Not a ton of money but its better than any savings account.

I have another mutual fund thats about a year old...bought through vanguard, 9k...its now worth over 11k. Up 2k in a year. Plus you get dividends each quarter which also helps.

I like you have too much money in savings right now but I'm working to lighten that load.

I'm not a pro when it comes to investing but theres so many tools/charts that show what the fund is, what it invests in, track record, morningstar ratings, expense ratios. You can even choose how much risk you want to take and it will provide you with some funds that fit that category. I dont mess with individual stocks. A lot of people do and im sure theres some serious coin to be made if you know what you're doing or what to look for. Id rather buy a fund invested in 100 different stocks. Just makes me feel more comfortable.

I feel confident it's going to keep doing what it's been doing mostly because that's what it does :) regardless of which puppet they put in there as suckwad in chief. Having said that, I'd love to see a bit higher low and it some serious stops run to shake out any weak hands before it continues on it's way.

Would I go "all in?" Absolutely not, but if the people behind the scenes finally declare gold = cash as a Tier 1 asset, then I think it's absolute curtains for the dollar - and by extension all dollar-denominated investments. Gold is not a dollar-denominated investment.

OP - I think you need to determine the best allocation of that cash that allow you to sleep well enough at night that if *something* happens, not all of it is taken with it. Unless you have an iron gut, spread some risk and have physical cash on hand for who knows what.

If you want to venture into something more risky than CDs and US Treasury securities, look at the volatility in the long term:

Here's how $10,000 invested in Jan. 1981 grew when invested in the Vanguard S&P 500 fund or the Vanguard GNMA fund (GNMA essentially represents bond market, but I didn't have bond market information that far back):

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/993...vsgnma1981.gif

But that graph hides some of the volatility. Here's how those funds varied in share price:

http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/1...p500vsgnma.gif

Notice the occasional 50% drops in stocks, while the GNMA share price has varied only about 10%.

And while stocks have outperformed bonds in the long run, look at what happens when we change the time period so it starts in Jan 2000 instead of Jan 1981:

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/4...vsgnma2000.gif

Index funds or go buy real estate. I prefer real estate if you find a good deal, in a good area, can rent it out, and can pay it off immediately.

Worst case, you have a paid off residency or worthless paper (index fund).


edit: Only buy real estate if you have common sense on how to repair things and can keep tabs on it. I wouldn't buy real estate in another city unless you have a buddy that can keep tabs. I'm slowly getting out of the market and buying real estate.

the only real estate im really interested in is in the bay area but 150k is pretty much a down payment only.