if u had 30k to start a portfolio, what would u do?

Hello

If you want to be sure you are getting the best possible price for a stock and/or mutual fund do not invest all at once, just $2000.00 a month divided by 4 weeks., it will take you 6 months but if the market falls you get more shares. just my opinion, I did the same thing in the 90's., I put in 1000.00 a month and it took me 24 months to invest 24,000., I doubled my money and quit work to have 2 kids, that way when I went back to work I had money to fall on., even though you didn't mention it but are you thinking mutal funds or stocks, you should have both to be safe.


ps. go to morningstar.com and see what mutual fund companies are the best...

First things first. How old are you? How long do you plan on holding this money in investments before you decide to use it? What is your risk tolerance - how much risk are you willing to take with this money? Do you have any other investments? Are you contributing to your 401K? Are you contributing to an IRA (Roth or Traditional)?

I know that's really making it complicated but you need to take all this information into account. Keeping your money in qualified accounts such as a ROTH Ira will help during tax time. You'll need to be figuring in short term vs long term capital gains tax etc if it were in a taxable account so take advantage of tax qualified accounts first. Assuming you don't have a portfolio.

Put the money in a money market account like ING Direct while you figure it out; it earns near 3.5% so you get something as you research. Don't do mutuals unless you're hands off- make your own "mutual fund" and follow it with 5-6 stocks; split the money between them. Fewer stocks allows you to minimize commisions and maximize your gains. Try to get the best picks in varying, strong sectors.

Don't be afraid to sell if something starts tanking; just set stop-loss orders and stick with them. And don't sell if something's doing well. I made this mistake with apple about 2 years ago when it was surging. Just set stop losses behind the price rise as it goes up. This keeps an unlimited upside and also protects you in the event of a slide.

I couldn't agree more. It depends on what you can risk. I hate formulas though (stock/bond/cash splits, etc). It doesn't take a genius to figure out you shouldn't put money you can't lose in volatile places.

I stick by my aversion to mutual funds, unless you can't spend time managing your portfolio. Problem with mutuals, in my opinion, is that they're usually just a reflection of a sector. By law, they can't put more than a certain (low) percentage in one stock. This pretty much prevents them from capitalizing on best of breed, and limits their leverage. They do great when the whole sector does well, of course... but then again, we could do just as well and be more selective.

I hope I'm not alone on this. I started out with mutuals, but now hate them... especially the fees. I once read that the only mutual one should consider is a no load/low fee S & P 500 model.

I can understand your aversion to mutual funds. Unless you can find a Peter Lynch or a Bill Gross managing a no load mutual fund then it might not be the best place to put your money.

The whole mutual fund industry can be suspect in light of all the negatives that have come to light these past couple of years.

With that said and done you should take a serious look at ETF's, which have lower fees and trade like stock. Exchange Traded Funds track a specific index of stocks. QQQQ for the Nasdaq & SPY for S&P. I'm sure you probably know about these investment vehicles. In the long run, it eleminates all the emotion out of investing since your main goal in investing in ETFs is to get the market averages.