What is your investment choice. I tend to focus on individual stocks as opposed to funds.
What is your investment choice. I tend to focus on individual stocks as opposed to funds.
I think it depends on several factors:Originally Posted by basscla
1. Your time line
2. Your knowledge of the market
3. Your profile......moderate or aggressive
Funds offer a lot of "safety" and diversification for many who don't have the time or knowledge to pinpoint investment choices.
I don't have a lot of money to put in the stocks/funds/ETFs right now, so I am sticking with stuff that pays out dividends.
In my Scottrade account I have a few shares of O (Reality Income Corp) yielding 4.92% paying a monthly dividend of 19 cents per share.
In my wife's Schwab Roth 401k account, have 27 shares of an ETF PGX (Powershares Preferred Portfolio) yielding 6.05% paying monthly dividend of 7 cents.
When we get in a better financial situation, I plan on focusing on a few stocks.
IMO, unless you have $1M+ in net worth, you shouldn't be buying individual stocks.
The best bet would be index funds. Low cost structure, consistent returns.
Many investors don't like them ... no excitement to be had, just invest and take a nap.
Most unfortunately, many brokers don't recommend them - low profitability.
I started with ETFs and believe that novice investors should start with an ETF until they learn how to evaluate individual companies. When investing in stocks you need to pay attention. You need to review earnings reports. You need to understand and watch the stock price. Not daily. But you need to know what is going on. It's your money afterall. Charting skills will greatly improve success. I am a believer that fundamentals will always prevail in the long term but technicals will prevail short term and provide you with the best buying opportunities.
BONEIL, how about a lesson or an example of how to read/review an earning report and/or your chart?
Mutual funds for me. I tend to view things long term, and MF's work real well for that kind of strategy.
I will do something on walmart.
Individual stocks are many, many times more risky than investing in a diversified group of mutual funds--perhaps 5 different funds. Most of my investments have been in the best performing Fidelity funds over the past 30 years, and I continue with medium risky portfolio. I've done okay since retiring 6 years ago, with 30% more in my investments despite withdrawing $40K per year average. My new money's going into very low expense ETF's.
I will by individual stocks that are large or mid cap and use mutual funds or etfs for small caps, emerging markets, or bonds just to add diversification to the portfolio. Most of the individual stocks I buy pay a dividend because I tend to favor these. Just personal preference.
Times must be bad. This is the second time for me to agree you. I don't know about the million dollar threshold, but the sentiment is spot on.
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