We can assist you via the web because are uncertain about your life, goals and amount needed for school. 20k isnt alot and can easily be wiped out due to the high cost of school.
Best of luck. Take Care
Keep everything for which you will need easy access in a bank account.
Anything you think you can keep indefinitely, invest in an Exchange-traded index fund that tracks the S&P 500 like SPY or put it in a Vanguard mutual fund that tracks the S&P 500.
You do not have enough money to pay an investment advisor and you need to keep expenses down. Vanguard has the lowest expenses. If you by an ETF, use a discount broker like Scott, Charles Schwab or E-Trade.
Investing in a dividend aristocrat fund is also a good suggestion. I personally invest in individual stocks selected from David Fish's monthly listing of Champions, Challengers and Contenders--some of which have raised dividends for over 40 years, Diebold, I believe ,has had the longest run of increases.
Banks are a bit notorious for investment advice. They will want you to put some funds into their own products. If it is a reasonable sum (￡100k+) then I would go to a good stockbroker (in fact 2 or 3).
You need the adviser to construct a portfolio that suits your requirements.
It is a bit silly saying read some books and learn yourself, this is what professionals are for. If you need a solicitor to do the conveyance on a proprty purchase you don't get a book on the subject and learn to do it yourself (not usually anyway!)
Your intuition is accurate. Bank officers will only steer you in the direction where they will generate the biggest commissions for them and the bank. And for God's sake, don't take anyone's advice on the internet, except for me of course.
People who are not following the market all day, every day should be invested in mutual funds. I am guessing you are young so you can look at aggressive funds. Be aware that stocks and funds may go down and they may go up. Don't panic when they go down - it is just about impossible to lose everything in mutual funds because the risk is spread across perhaps hundreds of companies. Do not trade funds, trying to hop on the one that made money last year. Buy a fund and forget it. Expect about 7% to 8% return over the very long haul. If you want protection from wild markets get allocation funds. These will also go down in market corrections but not as drastically.
For several good examples of allocation funds, google Dodge and Cox Balanced, Franklin Income and T. Row Price Capital Appreciation.
Any funds the bank tries to sell you will have a front end load (commission) of about 6%, so you have immediately lost 6% of your investment.
email me with questions.
One of the false ideas floating around is that people can just put money into .the stock market, then leave it unattended for years - and when they eventually decide to pay attention to it - magically they have a whole lot more than they put into it.
I'm not saying that is you, just others in general.
Given your age, the amount of money, and your plans to go to school - just plan on spending most of it for school related expenses and incidentals. Education is one of the best investments you can make.
Sorry, but you can't have it both ways. If you might need
the money right away, its no use investing it into the stock
market. Like you said, a bank adviser will put you into
something that you will regreet. Suggest you leave the
money in a bank account until you finish your schooling.
In the meantime, learn all you can about investing.
http://www.ehow.com/topic_558_investing-...
$5000 in a checking account for daily expenses/college
$5000 in a savings account (CDs perhaps)
$10,000 in an index mutual fund or Exchange traded fund. Split this into $5000 in a dividend ETF like SDY - an index of large companies that have paid dividends for 20 plus years :
"The S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats TM Index is designed to measure the performance of the highest dividend yielding S&P Composite 1500 Index constituents that have followed a managed-dividends policy of consistently increasing dividends every year for at least 20 consecutive years."
and invest $5000.00 in QQQ that follows growing companies (Excl financial) in a NASDAQ-based index fund
The Index includes 100 of the largest domestic and international nonfinancial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market based on market capitalization. Because of its exclusion of financial firms, the index tends to focus more heavily on companies in the technology sector among others. Some of the most popular companies in the benchmark include Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG).
The main problem of almost every trader is the thoughts that trading is game or it's easy money. Before profitable trading you should learn a lot about this field. So, even don't try to trade with real money. You can learn how to make real money from this course ( http://forexsignal.kyma.info ) Second, you should choose the right broker. There are some brokers that plays against their own clients. So, your main goal - find good broker. Third, yo can generate more profits with automated trading software. As you maybe know, there is a lot of different scammers on trading market so it will be hard to find really profitable trading system. That strategy brings me a lot of money every month, all thanks to the course that I posted above. Hope you will follow my recommendations, bye!
Don't go! Instead, buy a few books and learn trading/investing for yourself(it's not that complicated), then handle your own investing. You'll reap far greater rewards without the fear of your investment plan turning into a nightmare as many unfortunate peoples have, especially when dealing through banks. They get paid to lie to you.
20k isnt enopugt to matter., investment wise. just keep the loot in your checking or savings account and use it to pay tuition. youll use it up soon enuf.
I am about to receive an inheritance and while I have an appointment at my bank to speak with an advisor, it occurs to me that they might have a vested interest in where I put the money. So, with that in mind I was wondering if the Yahoo! Answers community had another perspective. This is my situation:
1. I am receiving approximately $20 000, probably a little less.
2. I am planning on using some of it for school so I need to access it easily.
3. I live in Ontario, I suppose location matters.
4. I have absolutely no clue about investing.
I appreciate any assistance that you may be able to provide.
