So.... where's the best place to put your money now?

POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 21:49
VIEWED: 7357
PAGE 1 of 5

1 2 3 4 5 NEXT PAGE

6IXSTRINGJACK

Saturday, January 19, 2008 7:35 AM

This one's for anyone from any end of the spectrum that isn't a leech on society. Where are you putting your money in the current market?

I got lucky and because of a buyout my very aggressive 401k plan had been frozen in late December until early this week, saving me a very large sum (about 10% of my plan) in a matter of weeks. Though I'm glad I dodged that bullet, I don't feel much like keeping it in a fund that is losing ground to inflation by the day though.

My IRA is doing pretty well, but that's because it's primarily Goldcorp and energy stocks I bought back in May, though they've taken a bit of a beating too recently. Fortunately, I sold my Google shares a while ago and I have zero money in technology now.

If it weren't for inflation being as big a hazard to my savings as a bear market, I'd just go Sopranos and stuff those Benjamin's under my mattress or bury them in coffee cans in the forest.

I'm thinking about buying into SiRF Technology after having lost its massive gains it had been building since September. I passed on buying it back when it was around 20 bucks because I thought it might drop more (Jim Jubak had announced three days prior that he liked SiRF and it jumped from $16 to $20 in that time). It did drop down to about $17 but then it rocketed up to nearly $30 a share before I ever pulled the trigger. I'm kinda looking at this whole market panic as a second chance to get a good stock that is just a victim of circumstance.

I really don't know though. I haven't picked a loser yet and I feel like it's probably my time to get stuck holding a bag I want no part of.

So.... what are you guys/gals doing?

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." http://www.myspace.com/6ixstringjack

FREMDFIRMA

Saturday, January 19, 2008 12:49 PM

I'm still basing on rocks and metals, with a sideline in a few technologies that are making a killing in our current atmosphere of near-total paranoia, scramdrives* are a high return item now, although finding an investment hook is both difficult, and probably fairly risky given that I anticipate they will be outlawed eventually.

*A scramdrive is a flash/usb stick with a scram button on it, which, when pushed, drives a pin through a vial of corrosive and into the vitals of the component, completely destroying the innards physically - absolutely ensuring total destruction of the data.

For a long term thing, stone and metal is still the most solid route.

-F

6IXSTRINGJACK

Saturday, January 19, 2008 1:35 PM

Scramdrives..... I will have to look into those. I was wondering one day what it would cost to buy one of those electromagnetic computer killers that the nerdy kid from Road Trip used on some movie where he was some crazy hacker.... I can't remember the name, or even who else was in it, but I know he wasn't the main character. Anyways, the device he used to fry his electronics supposedly doesn't really exist, the real electromagnetic drive fryers are painfully slow and the only time sensitive option seems to be a hard drive "shredder".....

Pretty cool machine that can pulverize a hard drive into dust in 8 seconds, I think, but I can't imagine the Feds or the RIAA would just stand by idle at the door waiting for me to finish my shower if it sounded like I was throwing somebody in a wood chipper like that guy on Fargo. Plus the cost is astronomical. That, and I really don't have anything that would warrant such a device anyhow. I mean, who doesn't have Hall and Oates' "Maneater" downloaded off Napster sitting on their hard drive since back in the day? Really?

What do you think, in light of the proposed cuts, the housing crisis, the debt crisis and the shaky state of the market in general means for metals in the short term? I was holding off on buying gold when it was 625 an ounce and then it shot off like a rocket with the rate cuts and the dollar going down the tube. Whoops. I really wish that Bernake would show some balls that his predecessor didn't have and raise interest rates and nurse that dollar back to some respectability. While he's at it, he could shred all of their Orange Hamiltons and give me some real GREEN American currency in exchange. Then I can get in on gold when it reaches 400 an ounce too.

What do you think of SiRF Technology Hldgs Inc?

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." http://www.myspace.com/6ixstringjack

KIRKULES

Saturday, January 19, 2008 5:13 PM

If you have the stomach for huge market swings I think it's time to start gradually getting back into the overseas markets (primarily China). Over the next fifteen years China should grow at a much faster pace than the US and this could mean huge gains. Just watch out for the inevitable market bubbles in the Chinese stock market. These bubbles provide a good selling point, and then start to gradually get back in after the market drops 15-20%. Depending on your age I wouldn't risk any more than 10 to 20 % of your portfolio overseas.

I looked at the chart for SIRF and I think I would wait awhile before getting into this stock. It may be a good stock but the chart shows a breakdown in the stock that will probably take it to $10 before it goes up again. I didn't look at the fundamentals of the company but my very limited knowledge of technical analysis says this could go lower. Depending on the fundamentals you might want to start slowly building a position even as it drops.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Sunday, January 20, 2008 2:33 AM

I'm only 28 so I had 100% of my 401k in very aggressive funds and though there were some pretty big swings I've had returns between 11.5% and 17% in the last 3 years. I had about a 60/40 split international to domestic and it worked out rather well for me. I sure like it when they're going up but I haven't felt the sting of it going down yet really. I'd probably have to actually have lost a significant amount of a chunk of my portfolio someday to test just how strong a stomach I really have for market swings. (Like I would have in the last few weeks if not for unbelievably lucky timing with the 401k rollover). I never win anything.... that kinda felt like winning the lotto to me.

I did own 3 shares of Google at one point for about a year and that was all over the map from day to day... but we're only talking a $1,200 investment and not my entire retirement account so that's not a very good barometer.

Your thoughts on SiRF pretty much mirror mine. I was thinking wait till about 8 to 10 dollars and buy.... probably a good idea to start positioning myself as it lowers though, like you said. I really like this stock and I'll kick myself if I miss the boat the second time around by being greedy.

Thanks for the input Kirkules.

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." http://www.myspace.com/6ixstringjack

FLETCH2

Sunday, January 20, 2008 3:01 AM

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/01/071801.asp

FREMDFIRMA

Sunday, January 20, 2008 6:29 AM

There's also the thought, and go do some research, even now we've begun to face the edge of it - about having those resources outside your PHYSICAL possession, especially in electronic form.

So what do you do when the bank locks the doors in your face, drops the grid and refuses to hand them over ?

Or does that and the FedGov confiscates or nationalies them under FEMA provisions ?

We're already seeing "withdrawl limits" and the like, and that could get worse, so ponder hard the fact that when you most NEED those resources, they will most probably NOT be available to you.

If things ever get real bad, someone like me can fix your generator, probably - but we don't take visa, that's for sure.

Just some advice, have at least some of your assets where you can PHYSICALLY lay hands to it.

Just in case.

-Frem

It cannot be said enough, those who do not learn from history, are doomed to endlessly repeat it

CANTTAKESKY

Monday, January 21, 2008 12:14 AM

My husband had difficulty withdrawing $5000 from the bank the other day. They didn't have enough money in one machine and had to go to another.

On the way to Peru to visit us, there was a uniformed cop-like person at the physical entrance of the airplane. He asked every single passenger exactly how much cash they were taking out of the country. When my husband said $1500, he was asked to explain why he was taking so much.

Something is really wrong, or about to get really wrong.

--------------------------
I would say that my position is not too far from that of Ayn Rand's; that I would like to see government reduced to no more than internal police and courts, external armed forces - with the other matters handled otherwise. I'm sick of the way the government sticks its nose into everything, now.
--Robert Heinlein

CHRISISALL

Monday, January 21, 2008 12:26 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by canttakesky:

Something is really wrong, or about to get really wrong.

Welcome to our world.

Chrisisall

FLETCH2

Monday, January 21, 2008 12:48 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by canttakesky:
My husband had difficulty withdrawing $5000 from the bank the other day. They didn't have enough money in one machine and had to go to another.

On the way to Peru to visit us, there was a uniformed cop-like person at the physical entrance of the airplane. He asked every single passenger exactly how much cash they were taking out of the country. When my husband said $1500, he was asked to explain why he was taking so much.

Something is really wrong, or about to get really wrong.

--------------------------
I would say that my position is not too far from that of Ayn Rand's; that I would like to see government reduced to no more than internal police and courts, external armed forces - with the other matters handled otherwise. I'm sick of the way the government sticks its nose into everything, now.
--Robert Heinlein

The one way that money to do bad things can go to bad people undetected these days is to physically carry it there. There's a possibility they are looking for people taking drug money out of the country or funds used to back terrorism.

Did the questions inconvenience your husband in some way or is it the principle of the thing (that you business is your business?)

1 2 3 4 5 NEXT PAGE