Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with finance and investing

Online games for money moguls?

skypieces — Fri, 01 May 2009 06:31:51 -0800

I dig "Mafia Wars" for its investment features. Would love to find more games about modern money-making and investing. I've recently become a fan of Zynga's "Mafia Wars" game, via Facebook. Right now the bulk of the action (fighting battles, collecting loot, etc) is not as much an appeal to me as the accumulation of cash and investment property in the game. An odd side-effect has been that this part of the game engages my brain and I have actually become more productive elsewhere, structuring aspects of the game so that I play less often and maximize the investment return-over-time aspects of the game.

I am looking for other games (preferrably web-based, though I certainly will consider any others - PC games, board games, etc) that are more primarily about wealth accumulation. I do have Kiyosaki's "Cashflow" E-game (PC based) and do like it a lot. And I have seen other board games that are marketed as teaching tools (maybe rightly so) but that I thought were outrageously expensive.

I did see this AskMe thread, but it is from 2005 and almost all suggestions therein are now outdated or gone.

Any suggestions of games featuring financial empire-building (preferably modern)? While I am not as interested in stock market "day trader" fantasy games, I am certainly willing to look into those and any others suggested, since this is a new hobby interest for me.

An opportunity, or a pig in a poke?

LN — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:21:41 -0800

How do I get the most out of a meeting with a financial advisor I don't particularly trust? I have a meeting this afternoon with a financial advisor at my bank, to discuss investing strategies and wise places to put money in this economy. This meeting was requested by him, not me.

A little background: I dealt with this individual when opening an RRSP for myself eight months ago, and was not at all pleased with how the process was handled. It took a couple of months to get the RRSP set up, because he repeatedly botched the process. Now he wants a meeting with me to discuss my investments (I presume he means the RRSP), but because of past experiences, I am extremely suspicious of him.

Add to this the fact that I am not at all a "numbers person". So much so, the minute he starts talking about the various options the bank offers, my brain ceases to be able to process the information. I might as well be listening to white noise.

I'm prepared to at least talk to the guy, because I understand that it's his job to sell services to the bank's clients, but I want to go in with eyes wide open. I don't want to be sold a pig in a poke!

Financial-savvy Mefites, what are some strategies you recommend for me to get the most out of this meeting?

(This is in Canada, in case that makes any kind of difference)

Allocating my assets between mutual funds in my IRA account

stuehler — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:06:16 -0800

I have four mutual funds in my IRA account - a Total Market index fund, a Small-cap index fund, an International stock index fund, and a Bond index fund, and I'm trying to figure out how to allocate my assets between them. I've read a little bit about "Modern Portfolio Theory" and the "Efficient Frontier", but I'm struggling to understand some of the math. So, is there a simple way I can test whether a particular allocation is on the efficient frontier? Or, see all the possible allocations on the efficient frontier and choose between them? How do I figure this out? Ideally, I'd love to see a simple enough formula that, given the mean and standard deviation (and maybe correlation matrix), of my four funds, would tell me what allocation is on the efficient frontier. Or, some type of online tool, or an Excel spreadsheet or something. As an aside, I'm not interested in using a financial advisor (I don't have nearly enough assets to justify that), nor am I interested in general rules of thumb ("If you're N years old, you should have an allocation of x% stocks, y% bonds, etc.")

Nothing wrong with that - just seems like this is something I should be able to understand myself.

A lot of what I've found on Google is high-level explanation (e.g., what MPT and EF are), but not the tools to actually allocate between N funds. Or, very sophisticated math that I don't understand.

Of course, maybe I'm wrong - maybe the math is intractably hard. But, maybe not!

Many thanks in advance for any advice or insight!

30-year investment portfolio which has to start before the end of the year and wants to be left alone afterwards?

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:59:37 -0800

If you had a very strong incentive to invest money before the end of the year with a 30-year outlook, and a further strong incentive to not adjust your investment strategy over that timeframe unless absolutely necessary, what kind of portfolio would you assemble? I live in Germany, which has an effective 0% capital gains tax on long-term capital gains from financial instruments. The government has finally decided to end this peculiar state of affairs and will start to tax long-term capital gains at 25% or more starting in 2009. Investments made before 1/1/2009 and held for more than a year will continue to be (un)taxed under the old system. But, naturally, if you redistribute the portfolio at any point, what was redistributed will come under the new law, so there is a strong incentive to leave it alone if at all possible. I don't see this as a suicide pact, and would make changes that were necessary without sweating the tax too much, but I am trying to design a portfolio to put a little money in now that has decent odds of not requiring rejiggering and having acceptable performance over the long timeframe which is available.

Personality and background: I consider good money management to be an obligation but not a pleasure of life or inherently interesting, so I believe in keeping things as simple as possible, within reason. Past experience has taught me that if the workings of a financial vehicle aren't clear to me after one good and comprehensive explanation, I'd do best to avoid it. I have invested for the (shorter) long-term before and I've had good outcomes, and I've been lucky enough to have received my lessons about active short-term trading and speculation at reasonably low prices. My general financial health is healthy and the investment seed is extra money. I'm able to purchase many (but not all) US and other international securities/ETFs/funds/bonds without too much of a markup, so let's just assume for simplicity's sake that I can purchase any of them. This will be retirement money, but not the only source of retirement money.

I've read the Scott Adams article, lots of Warren Buffett, and several good books on index fund investing, and now this is my AskMe gut-check/brainstorm request before proceeding: what would your 30-year fire-and-forget portfolio look like? I would love to hear your ideas and advice if you wouldn't mind sharing. Thank you!

Financial crisis blog recommendations?

vizsla — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:21:38 -0800

Recommend any financial crisis blogs written by people who are following all the relevant indicators, or by people involved in the finance industry, who are trying to make sense of the market and economy?

How do I check the 'health' of my brokerage?

random1destiny — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:58:36 -0800

How can I find out the health of my investment brokerage (like Fidelity.com, E-Trade, etc)? Can brokerages even crash and lose my money like in a bank failure? Much public focus has been placed on having a bank fail and people not getting their money. I know that in the case of banks, the money is covered up to 100,000 of FDIC coverage and there are sites to look up the health of your bank like http://www.bauerfinancial.com which give banks star ratings based on their current financial stability.

However, what if you have your money in stocks/mutual funds in a place like Fidelity.com or E-Trade? Can these places fail and not be able to pay you back? Are there places that rate how safe/healthy these institutions are?

Should I cancel my health insurance and invest the money instead?

Anonymous — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:59:31 -0800

Is cancelling my health insurance and investing the money instead a good bet, or a foolhardy risk? I'm young, in good health, and have no chronic health conditions. And compound interest means that I'd have hundreds of thousands of dollars more at the end of my life. I'm currently paying over $200 a month for an excellent health insurance plan that includes doctor's visits, prescriptions, and low to no deductible for most things. However, I'm living more or less hand-to-mouth. I'm 25 years old and work as a freelance writer, which makes it very difficult to invest any amount of money -- there is simply nothing else in my budget I can cut. If I cancelled the health insurance or downgraded to an emergency-room-only health insurance plan, and invested the money instead, I'd have a few thousand dollars in savings a few years earlier, which would give me a lot more financial stability and flexibility. (Hey, I can buy a car / move to a new city / travel now!) Or, heck, I could just keep saving that money -- the effect of starting a few years early would exponentially increase the longer I left that money invested.

Now: I'm healthy -- I an ex-smoker and run frequently, and have no chronic health complaints, and haven't been to the doctor for an illness in years.

Looking at the problem in terms of risk or reward, I am currently paying $200 a month to guard against a (relatively) low risk of have to pay a lot more in the case I become ill. Now, if I invested the money instead, I'd be taking on that risk, but for a substantial payoff -- a few thousand dollars a year, which could become hundreds of thousands by the end of my lifetime. Essentially, investing my health insurance money guarantees me a large payoff, but I take on a risk of large expense.

Let's posit that I do get any medical help I need, I just pay for it out of pocket, but drift a little more towards poverty. Let's also assume that I'll do this for only two years, by which time I'll have saved a few thousand dollars and will be earning more money. And, remember, I'll have emergency room insurance, so if I'm hit by a car I'll be covered.

So: is this a foolish risk to take, given the payoff, or not? If you were to run this scenario ten thousand times, would you come out ahead, or would the house win? And given that I can only run the scenario once, is it still a good bet? If this were Deal or No Deal, would you take the deal?

(posting anonymously because of all the personal financial information. thanks for the advice, everyone!)

Resource for evaluating past stock recommendations?

ibmcginty — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:10:23 -0800

Is there anyone (especially online) who's collected reasonably well-informed stock picks from, say, 2, 5, or 15 years ago and explained why the recommendations did or did not work out? Is there a better way to track that stuff down than hunting around for old articles on financial websites? It seems like making the effort to learn from mistakes in the past would help guard against over-optimistic, irrationally exuberant picks today.

How would you invest $100000?

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:43:33 -0800

About $100 000 has been transfered to me, and I don't know how to properly invest it. For various reasons, I am now in charge of about $100 000, cash. Problem: I am 21 years old and I know absolutely nothing about investing on this scale.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to properly invest this much? I already have a discount brokerage and savings accounts holding about 30 grand of my own money, so I'm not completely helpless, but I've never had to even think about this many figures before. I'm terrified that I'm going to mismanage this situation into disaster.

Okay, so details:

-I live in Canada. My job doesn't offer any sort of investing plan or anything like that.
-I want this money to grow. At minimum, I would like to "keep up" with what other people do (I'm imagining this is around 7-10% growth per year, is that correct?)
-I don't want to spend any of it for the foreseeable future.
-Tax! Please tell me about how to deal with tax.
-I have a fairly low risk tolerance
-Diversification is important to me. Simplification is not really, although of course it's welcome.
-Property is out of the question. I spent most of last week thinking about buying a Playstation 3. I most certainly cannot handle owning land at this juncture in my life.
-I really don't want a financial advisor. Self management is important to me.
-I have established accounts at TD and ING Direct.

So basically, AskMe, I think I am asking how you would choose to invest this money, given these parameters. Please hold my hand and treat me like an idiot, since I am.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Financial / 401k advice for a 23-year-old engineer.

decrescendo — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:26:06 -0800

Financial / 401k advice for a 23-year-old engineer. Considering the state of the economy and the price of oil, what should I do with my stocks. Also, I have the option for a 401k but I have no idea what type of 401k to choose. I have around 30k in McDonalds stock that is up 80% from when it was bought for me when I was a kid. Should I hold onto it and weather the storm? I keep reading rumblings of a recession and stock market crash but is that just a scare tactic? I don't want to get kicked back down to a 30% gain on that stock when it's been doing so well up until right now. It has defintely been a long-haul stock but I'm afraid I'm going to lose all that I've built up over the last 23 years.

Also, I've had the opportunity to enroll in a 401k from my company for the last 6 months. I haven't done it yet mostly because I have no idea what to fill out on the form. I have the following options. Any recommendations? I believe my company matches up to 15%.

Should I go with option 1 or option 2?

1. I elect to contribute ____% or ____$ (per pay period) of my compensation as before-tax contributions to the 401(k) Plan until
such time as I revoke or amend my election.

2. I elect to contribute ____% or ____$ (per pay period) of my compensation after-tax as a designated Roth contribution to the
401(k) Plan until such time as I revoke or amend my election.

Note: The total of your before-tax and Roth deferrals cannot exceed 100% or $15,500.00. Your before-tax and Roth deferrals must be specified consistently (both as a percent or both as a dollar amount). If I am 50 years of age or older and I am eligible for a catch-up contribution, I understand I may exceed this total.

I also have all of these to pick from. No idea what to go with here. Considering the economy and what I hear, I'd probably rather take a semi-conservative approach.

Maxim Aggressive Profile II
Maxim Moderate Profile II
Maxim Conservative Profile II
American Funds EuroPacific Growth R3
Oakmark International II
Oppenheimer Global A
First American Small Cap Select A
MainStay Small Cap Opportunity A
Maxim Index 600
RidgeWorth Small Cap Growth Fund I
Lord Abbett Mid-Cap Value A
Maxim Ariel Small-Cap Value
Fidelity Advisor Mid Cap T
Fidelity Advisor Leveraged Co Stk - T
American Funds Growth Fund of Amer R3
Davis NY Venture R
Marsico Focus
Maxim S & P 500 Index
Maxim T. Rowe Price Equity Income
Oppenheimer Capital Appreciation A
RiverSource Diversified Equity Income R3
Van Kampen Comstock - R
Maxim Bond Index
Maxim Loomis Sayles Bond Portfolio
Maxim US Government Securities Fund
PIMCO Total Return Admin
Guaranteed Certificate Fund 36 Month
Guaranteed Certificate Fund 60 Month
Guaranteed Certificate Fund 84 Month
Maxim Money Market

Any help would be fantastic.

Is an index fund really a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

reenum — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:34:08 -0800

InvestingFilter: Is there anything inherently flawed about investing in index funds? I recently opened up a Roth IRA, and have invested in an S&P 500 Index Fund. I'll also be investing in a bond index soon.

I've been reading articles online and books such as 'The Lazy Person's Guide To Investing' by Paul Farrell. These books make it seem that investing in anything but index funds sets you up for a loss long term.

In my opinion, I'm a passive investor. I don't have the inclination to try and pick hot stocks. I'm fine getting a market average return. Farrell's book and some other sources such David Swenson make it seem that investing in anything but an index fund is lunacy. They harp on about load funds and how actively managed funds always underperform the market.

My question is: What's the catch about investing in index funds? It seems to good to be true. You keep putting money in and 30 years later, a nice pile is waiting for your retirement.

Some input from the more financial minded members of the Hive Mind would be much appreciated.

What should a European do with this American savings account that is depreciating in value?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:42:23 -0800

European who has USD in an American account - what should I do? I'm European, but lived in the US for a little while, where I had a very good paying job that allowed me to save money. I have a little over $10,000 in an American CD now. I came home to Europe and went back to school, thinking I could use that money to start up a business, make a downpayment on an apartment or something once I gradutae.

I have been watching in horror as the dollar went down against the euro and now that money I was counting on is shrinking away. Are there any suggestions on what I should do with it? Should I just leave it and wait for the dollar to recover? Should I buy something in the US that is likely to appreciate in value? If I had a good income now, I would buy an American apartment or something with it, but I'm a student living from paycheque to paycheque.

What should I do?

Calculating standard deviation on compounded investment returns

stuehler — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:20:18 -0800

Is it possible to estimate the standard deviation of an investment's return after "y" years, if you know the investment's mean annual return and standard deviation? In other words, I understand how to estimate the probability that next year's return might be n standard deviations above the mean, or between +n and -n standard devations around the mean.

But what if you bought and held that investment for y years. Is there a way you could estimate the standard deviation of the investment's value then?

E.g., let's say that i put $10,000 into an index fund. That fund has an average return of 8%, and a standard deviation of 16%, and I plan to hold it for 20 years. According to Excel's FV function, the portfolio's expected value will be $46,609.57 by then.

But I don't know how to estimate the standard deviation of the portfolio's possible value after 20 years of compounded growth. Is it possible to calculate/estimate it from just these measures?

I figure that simulation will get me an answer, but I'm hoping for something more generalizable...

Many thanks in advance for any advice or insight (or better yet, a formula!)

What's the safest possible thing that I can do with my money?

Afroblanco — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:18:24 -0800

What's the safest possible thing that I can do with my money? Anyone who's seen me around the finance threads knows that I take bearishness to an extreme. Having witnessed the 2000 tech crash, I have no faith in the stock market or the US economy. I keep all of my money (USD) in a savings account. However, with the recent financial turmoil, I have a few questions :

1) Is it conceivable for the FDIC to fail?
2) If so, is there a place where I can put my money that will be safer than a savings account?
3) What's the safest, most risk-free way for me to save money and not get killed by inflation and the tanking US dollar?
4) If there is a safe way for me to save money and not be punished by inflation and the depreciating dollar, is there a way that I can do this without having to stress out and micromanage my finances? I don't want to be checking the finance page and making adjustments every day.

One thing that I must ask of you all - please do not turn this into a political debate. I know that issues of economics are often politically charged, but I ask you to please not address that aspect of the situation. Also, please take it easy on me. Even though I follow finance news, I've never done any investing or money management other than socking money away in my savings account. I'm a n00b, I admit it, so please don't talk down to me.

Any links to relevant articles or informational resources - especially those readable to the layman - will be appreciated.

Thank you.

Head back towards zero and start over?

andifsohow — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:29:17 -0800

I am considering selling off most of my assets to pay some of my debts, and want some outside advice on if I should. I'll try to be as brief as possible.

Current income is about $28K per year; there is reason to believe that will improve shortly, but nothing promised.

Assets:
I have about $28K in a brokerage account; 8 of which is in retirement funds, 11 in a handful of investments, and about 9 in cash. I also have an external savings account with about $3K in it.

Debts:
With the same bank that holds all the assets except the 3K, I've got $19K in credit card debt and $53K in student loans. The CC debt is at a fixed 4.99% APR, the students loans are mostly at 7.5% with about $500 at 11.75%. I have been paying this off most aggressively. Payments for the CC are about $400/month, for the loans about $400 on the bulk and another $150 or so on the smaller one.

I also have $2300 at 1.9%, and another $8K at 4.9%, both fixed until the balance is paid off or I miss a payment, which I'm pretty good about not doing (has happened twice in the last three years, once my complete oversight and the other a matter of a check not getting there in time). Payments on those are $40/mo and $160/month, but I usually pay about $200 on the latter.

The impetus for this is that $3K of the retirement was in a CD that matured yesterday, and I have 7 calendar days to do something with it. If I do nothing, it rolls over for 5 years @ 3.1%. Not great, but better than most options now. If I want to move it out of that bank without penalties, though, I'm pretty sure I need to do that now.

I am considering selling off all non-retirement assets, paying off the CC with the $19K balance, and divorcing that bank (to go to Schwab, most likely). The money is yielding some growth but not near the $1000 a year in finance charges I'm paying on the CC, and ridding myself of that $400/month payment would enable me to go after my other debts more quickly. If I move to Schwab I'd have most of the account privileges I do now as far as no fees, online banking, etc. I'd have $8K in retirement assets, $3K in savings, and have $10 grand of CC and the student loans to deal with still.

It seems to make sense; I guess I'm just leery of selling off everything. I'll be talking to a Schwab person on Monday to make sure I know details. What does the hive mind think?

Stocks and bonds and...silver or something?

sarelicar — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:36:52 -0800

What are some great, informative sites/forums related specifically to trading/investing in/selling metals? Apparently metal is where it's at now that the dollar is dropping. I know little to nothing about finance and trading, etc. - but my boyfriend does and he's getting into metals trading/futures/whatever you call it. He needs to bone up a bit on his knowledge of the particular subject, but I'd also like to support him by learning about the stuff myself. This whole question is probably worded incorrectly, so you should realize that I personally am a complete novice. I'd like to be able to talk to him about his work.

With that said; please, kind, brilliant, all-knowing Mefites, direct me to some quality entry-level info on the subject and also to some material that's more advanced (in other words, assuming the reader is in the industry) so I can support my wonderful man in his new endeavor. Thank you most kindly!

Timing, forget the timing

alb — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:21:57 -0800

Automatic investment plans (e.g. employee retirement accounts) often seem to make their investments on the first day of the month. If millions of people are known to consistently invest in markets on the same day of each month, does this have an effect on the price of what they purchase? More specifically, I've always wondered if the amount of money invested in this way gives other investors an opportunity for market timing, say on stocks that are most widely held in mutual funds. Or is the amount invested in this way just a relative blip? Or, more likely, am I misunderstanding how the process works?

What to do with all that money?

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:41:00 -0800

I will soon receive an inheritance of about $100,000-$150,000 (numbers are vague right now). I'm looking for tips and advice for managing that money. I have talked with a financial advisor from one of the major firms about this and they would be happy to help me with my money at the rate of 4.5% per year. Frankly, I view that as extortionary. I even remember once hearing advice that said to not pay more than 1% in fees. This sounds reasonable to me. My current IRAs and other means of saving that do charge, charge less than 1%. I doubt it's 1/5th of a percent. I'm pretty sharp and generally good with money. I think that with the right research, and proper dedication, I can manage this money myself and save scads of fees.

Ideas so far:
1. I have a small amount of debt that I want to pay off immediately. Less than 10K.
2. I have a 13-year-old daughter for whom I want to sock aside somewhere between 20-30K for college. This is very important to me.
3. My mortgage is split 80/15 (the 15 being about $23K). I am toying with the idea of paying off the 15%. The interest on that portion is 8.25%.

For what it's worth, I am a late-thirties male with decent (not great) income and a proven ability to live frugally when I set my mind to it. I have no car payment. Only regular payments are child support, house, utilities, subscriptions etc. Currently, I am paying towards that small amount of debt on a monthly basis.

I need help on figuring out how to manage the rest of the money and my future money since I will ideally be out of debt aside from the mortgage. So, pointers, advice, tips, reading material, ideas, what have you?

email can be sent to AnonyMeFimomoney (at) sbcglobal.net

Where can I find summary information for a specific stock for days in the past? (more inside)

tozturk — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:37:12 -0800

Where can I find summary information for a specific stock for days in the past? I'm trying to find summary information similar to what you'd find at http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=goog for a specific day in July. I have found the stock prices for those days without any problem but I've been unable to find things like market cap, volume, etc for that same day way back in July.I've been to bloomberg, wsj, zack's, and any other number of random sites but I'm having no luck. Does such a thing exist or am I just missing it?

Thank you in advance.

Flea Market Maven

jasondigitized — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:28:15 -0800

My wife and I will be moving stateside from Bermuda next year. We will be moving into an empty house with NOTHING except outdated wardrobes and cash. With that said, we will be acquiring a lot of stuff. We will need cars, furniture, appliances, electronics, art, tools, clothes, insurance, etc. etc. How can we maximize our investments in all this stuff? What is your opinion on getting good deals in each of these categories? Our financial planner suggested we incorporate to get some tax write-offs. Another friend said to look into SwapLease. Yet another said to buy all of our furniture in North Carolina. If you were starting with nothing, how would you approach it? Should I walk into Best Buy and tell the manager to make me a deal? Should we buy used cars? Hit garage sales? Buy fine art and antiques? Get a part-time job at the Gap? Where and how can I find the best deals / best investments?

'Ethical' funds?

lindsey.nicole — Sun, 20 May 2007 16:49:26 -0800

How ethical are Ethical Funds? After meeting with an SRI adviser and perusing the literature, I'm not so sure. Recently I got interested in investing my money in something more profitable than a term deposit. I know nada about the stock market, but after reading up on Socially Responsible Investing, positive screening, etc, Ethical Funds seemed like a good fit. So I set up a meeting with an SRI specialist at my credit union to talk it over.

I'd thought SRI meant investing in only 'good' companies (told you I was new to this). Through the meeting I found out certain businesses I find rather reprehensible - and make a point of not frequenting - are on the list for most SRI funds. At least, that's how I understood it.

My adviser was pretty convincing - stakeholder activism, power to bring about change, and so on - but I'm still doubtful. Yeah, it's great that socially-minded stakeholders convinced Company X to finally produce a sustainability report - but if X still employs sweatshops, busts unions, and in general conducts itself in a way that I don't support, it seems like a moot point. I'm all for changing businesses from the inside, but it seems like any changes accomplished will be concessionary at best.

So I have a few questions. Feel free to answer any or all, in whichever way you see fit:

1) Do the benefits of ethical investing outweigh the negatives?
2) What have your experiences been with Ethical Funds, or related funds (Meritas, etc)?
3) Are there any other options? I know about local, microcredit initiatives, but I'm wondering if there are any super-ethical plans with very rigorous criteria (and whether they make any money at it).
4) How much knowledge/time would it take for me to be able to invest on my own, without a built-in plan? And would this be worthwhile, considering I'd be filtering out a lot of profitable companies? I should clarify that I mean "worthwhile" financially - I'm aware that supporting socially responsible companies is rewarding in non-monetary ways.

Financial planning resources for U.S. expatriates?

armage — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 19:44:49 -0800

What are some good resources to help an expatriate plan for retirement? I anticipate spending most of my life living outside of my country of citizenship (the United States), specifically in Japan. I'm reaching the point where I need to begin thinking about financial planning, particularly saving for retirement. I'm aware of how to do this if I were resident in the U.S.; however, I'm very unclear on the particulars of doing so as an expatriate. Much of what little I have found on the Internet or in books is grossly out of date or vague.

Can you recommend any books (websites are also okay, but I'd prefer something something well-written and well-sourced) intended for expatriate Americans who want to begin saving for their retirement? First-hand advice or experience would also be welcomed. I realize that I should talk to a financial planner, but at the moment that's putting the cart before the horse; I just want some general advice on my somewhat unique situation.

(FYI: I have read this recent thread as well as many others in the archives. I am not interested in advice about living abroad, only managing my finances and planning for the future while in a foreign country. Personal inquiries or off-topic comments are welcomed via email. Thanks in advance.)

I've paid off all my credit cards.... now what?

weiler63 — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 02:11:54 -0800

I've paid off all my credit cards.... now what? Over the past 6 months. I have managed to zero out the balances of all my CC's down from 10k.

Any help as to how long before this gets reflected in my credit score, and what if any tips you have for boosting that score.

If it helps, I'm keeping the lines open, and use them sporadically for small item purchases. Thanks in Advance. It is certainly a great day when you look online and see all zeros in the cc balances.

--Credit Debt Free

Help me spend my loonies wisely.

flibbertigibbet — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 06:09:13 -0800

Help me learn about personal finances... Canadian style. I'll admit it: I know very little about personal finances, beyond "save for retirement now!"

So, I googled, and found a few good blogs, mostly thanks to get rich slowly, but I am craving more.

So: can you suggest any Canadian personal finance books, blogs, and websites?

Bonus points if they are of the "hello, idiot, welcome to the world of money" genre!

Investment options for the young and the restless?

killdevil — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 11:03:32 -0800

A friend needs to find a good place to park some money that will ultimately be used for house down-payment purposes. Help me come up with a few good investment options. My friend has around $100k sitting in a low-yield savings account. It pains me to see the cash left there when better options are legion.

Key points: the money will be invested for around 1-3 years. I think one or two good mutual funds would be a reasonable choice, but am not really an investor myself so I don't have specific funds or fund families to which I can point my friend.

Other options are welcome, of course, provided they are relatively conservative and are low-maintenance (i.e. they do not require active monthly monitoring; keep in mind that my friend is relatively young and is not an experienced investor).

Thanks!