
Ask HN: What are some good ways to invest? - sjperez
If you had a moderate sum of money to invest in the current climate, what would you do with it? Stocks? Mutual funds? ETFs? Real estate? Something else?
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shoo
Bogleheads has a lot of advice about investing in a low cost, relatively low
risk, relatively simple way:

[https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started)

If you sign up for the Bogleheads forum & follow the template to describe your
financial situation you will likely get some reasonably good feedback & ideas.

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rocketpastsix
I would check out the book "The Simple Path to Wealth", or the authors blog at
jlcollinsnh.com and read up on his suggestions. Its all about mutual funds and
low risk

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RALaBarge
Depends on your situation. This is essential first reading imo:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intelligent_Investor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intelligent_Investor)

If you still had questions and more money than the average bear, find a
financial professional.

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sjperez
Thanks! I've officially added it to my reading list, along with Rich Dad Poor
Dad and The Richest Man in Babylon. I wish I had done more to become
financially literate earlier on--I don't think anyone ever talked to me in
school about financial literacy and now I'm in catch up mode.

~~~
eneveu
I wouldn't necessarily read "Rich Dad Poor Dad" or "The richest man in
babylon". You might find better books about personal finance by:

\- searching recommendations on HN, e.g. with a Google search like
"site:news.ycombinator.com investing book recommendations"

\- searching recommendations on the various subreddits like
[https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/](https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/) and
[https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/)
(search for book recommendation threads, or read their wikis)

\- on the BogleHeads website :
[https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_started)

Good luck :)

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sloaken
Depending on your time horizon, I recommend 3 pots:

1) Need in the next 1-2 years - Money market account

2) 3-7 years - value funds (either ETF or Mutual funds)

3) 7+ - growth funds (either ETF or Mutual funds)

Individual stocks take effort to watch. Make sure you do not buy just before a
dividend (you will pay tax on the money they give back to you). Watch for bad
news, so you can pull your money before they go bankrupt.

ETF are lightly managed, your money grows as that segment grows. Which is not
a bad idea.

Mutual funds - someone is actively watching it. Which can hopefully mean it
avoids a bad turn, but it can burn money being churned.

Safest bet is an EFT that tracks the S&P 500

I expect Real Estate funds to take a gut punch when things open up and the
businesses fold and they have no rent coming in. So I plan to put money there,
after it falls.

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idoescompooters
Money markets aren't looking so hot lately...

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sloaken
Money Markets never look good, but they are 1) better than a savings account
at the bank 2) less likely stolen by a relative when hidden under the
mattress.

Money markets typically pay just better than inflation. Not so much a place to
get rich, as a safe place for the money over the next year or two.

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giantg2
Reddit r/stocks and r/wallstreetbets can be pretty informative.

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quickthrower2
r/wallstreetbets is a joke really. Funny but no good advise there.

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naveen99
r/options more beginner friendly for gentle advice. wallstreetbets will haze
beginners a little more, and speak in meme, so you need thick skin, and some
lurking before you get a feel. But there is a lot more information on
wallstreetbets by sheer volume of comments. It’s Ranked 8th on reddit based on
number of comments:
[https://subredditstats.com/r/wallstreetbets](https://subredditstats.com/r/wallstreetbets)
It’s become my second home away from hacker news for consuming information.

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giantg2
Yeah, I wouldn't ask too many questions on wallstreetbets, but it can be
useful to read.

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austincheney
The most important rule is: _buy low, sell high_. If you don't do that you
just spending money.

In order to accomplish that rule you have to generally do the opposite of what
is popular, but in a meaningful way.

When the market began crashing I sold shares from my healthy mutual funds and
bought a lot of stocks in airlines and cruises. People aren't going to stop
flying. Eventually those markets will recover and I recently bought shares at
about 25-33% of their recent value. Now I just have to wait out the pandemic
and for business to return to normal.

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sjperez
Are you concerned that the airlines might end up declaring bankruptcy? Or do
you think the government will bail them out? As of right now, it's my
understanding that they're operating at unsustainable losses, absent some kind
of intervention.

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austincheney
The cruise industry has it even worse. I am betting that at some point in the
future business will resume and people will travel. There will still be
airlines and its less disruptive to keep the current players in operation than
to float new ones over the corpses of these giants. It takes an astonishing
level of liquid capital to spin up an airline that is more than merely a
regional player.

