I think RM needs a thread dedicated to personal finance issues. The econ thread is basically controlled by PHD candidates who hate the federal reserve and offers nothing in a practical sense. In this thread you can ask me (and everyone else) any question you have on the stock market or anything regarding your personal finances and I (we) will try to answer them. No question is dumb though you might still get laughed at.

Don't be bashful: Most questions you have, others have. If you are embarrassed to post you can always PM me. This weekend I came across this photo in the USA Today (It was on my door in the hotel room, leave me alone).

Edit: I took out a really funny picture from the USA TODAY cause it "fucked the thread".

question. how do i make some money right now?

Great question. I will not be giving any advice in regards to what individual stocks to buy. I *might* comment on a stock you own but most likely I will not. Also, I realize in replying to this my photo has fucked up this first page. Sorry.

This should make the economy thread easier to read for me. Maybe.

Hey Matt, a good start would probably be explaining the difference between stocks and bonds. A primer on the relationship between bonds and interest rates would probably also be quite useful.

BTW, you've really managed to f*ck this thread with that picture.

I took down the picture.

Kris, I don't think there is any point in explaining anything that can be googled. If someone has a specific question about stocks or bond or a question about their lives, I will try to answer it. Alternatively, feel free and answer the questions you posed.

That brings me to another point: I have no training in "personal finance". Shit, I don't have training in anything, really. If something is over my head I will tell you gladly. I'm more than happy to answer personal questions like "I'm, 28, married, $24,000 in the bank, etc" but I will probably answer them rather generically for a variety of reasons, namely the lack of training.

Can you tell me every stock I shouldn't buy?

Seriously, though, what would you recommend right now as a reasonably safe place to put money without losing a lot from devaluation? I have like $5k-$10k that I'd like to spread out in relatively safe, but inflation-insensitive investments. CD and savings rates aren't high enough to make inflation not matter. I've looked at some treasury note ETFs that yield maybe 2-3%, but that's not really enough if inflation beats that. I do have about $3k in the TIP ETF, which has done pretty well this year, but I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket. HY seems to have some bubble-like characteristics, considering it has skyrocketed this year even with increasing defaults. Is IG safe enough?

I hear you should buy gold. Is this true?

I sent all my gold to Ed McMahon.

Two questions.

1. I have no money in my bank account - how do I obtain this?
2. If I blow up Fort Knox, will these increase the value of my own personal gold reserve 10 fold?

I have questions

- What was the picture of?
- You say it "fucked up the page"... how, exactly?
- Do you think you might put the picture back up one day?
- If not, could you at least provide us with a link to the picture?
- Thanks.

Will the babyboomers fuck everything up when they are all retired?

I'm really close to getting a new money manager, I dont like my guy...How much do you charge?

2 years ago, SELL SELL SELL

This is a loaded, albeit, good question. I have many friends who want a "risk free" investment that will return better than the 0 they are making in their savings accounts. Well, if it's risk free, it won't return above the risk free rate, will it?

I also own the TIPS etf. For those of you that don't know, TIPS are Treasury Inflation Protected Securities and can be learned about here: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/products/prod_tips_glance.htm. While TIPS will protect you from inflation over the intermediate term, it will not protect you from the devaluing of the U.S. Dollar.

Other places you can put your cash depends on how risky you want to be. I own, still, some financial preferreds. You have to be comfortable in believing the bank is solvent and will not go out of business. If you believe that, then you have to be comfortable that long term interest rates won't go up so fast that the value of the preferred will decline to compensate. The preferreds I own yield 9% and are backed by Bank Of America (Merrill Lynch). I am comfortable getting 9% (vs 3-4% for Treasuries) and feel there is an almost 0% chance of Bank Of America going insolvent. If you don't want to place a bet on the longer end of the yield curve, you are going to be shit out of luck. All short term, high investment grade yielding instruments are going to yield just a few percent. You're better off just getting an ING Savings account.



I own some Gold. Gold is a complicated asset. The price of gold is effected by both global demand for Jewelry and supply/demand for investors. While demand for Jewelry has plummeted the last 12 months, demand by investors has boomed. Why? People view Gold as the only global currency that is actually backed by a real asset. In the U.S., we have heard about the price of Gold skyrocketing. However, against the Euro, Gold hasn't gone up much. In effect, all that's happened is the price of the U.S. Dollar has plummeted. How does a falling U.S. Dollar affect a U.S. citizen? Well, right now, it doesn't matter so much. There is no inflation. The only way it will affect you is if you travel abroad. In the future, the weaker the U.S. dollar gets might mean U.S. imports (we import most of our goods) become more expensive and create inflation. The bottom line is Gold is another way to hedge against inflation and a weak U.S. dollar. I don't look at it as an investment but more as a currency hedge. You can buy Gold through an online broker as an ETF, like TIPS. It trades very liquid and the ticker is GLD. Wait, you were serious with this question, right?



http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii227/given2trade/askmatt.jpg?t=1257870194



This is better off for the econ thread.



I don't manage external money anymore. I have too many gray hairs as it is.

So Matt, what kind of economic environment do you foresee in the near- to medium-term? Inflation, deflation, stagnation...what?

Could you explain to me how the American dollar seems to be weakening in every country but is actually going up in Argentina? Hyper-inflation?

No. Econ thread.



No. Econ thread.

I'm no expert on Argentinian monetary policy, but my first guess would be that the powers that be are expanding the monetary base/supply at a greater pace than Hopalong Ben is here in the States.

Is the Argentinian peso pegged to the dollar, Jorge?

Why? This relates to my personal finances.