What is the best investment for long term wealth / retirement?

Please be specific or add a good reference web site. 401 seem useless. Where can my wife and I really make good returns?

You should invest in stocks, bonds, and money market funds. You want to buy a diversified portfolio of stocks, as individual stocks are too risky. For most folks this means buying mutual funds. I like Vanguard.com, other people like Fidelity, TIAA-CREF, and DFA. Buy no-load, low cost funds. If you are like most people you will invest part of your money aggressively in stock funds, and part conservatively in money market funds and bond funds. Vanguard.com has an on-line questionnaire which will give you an idea of how to do "Asset Allocation," determining how much to put in each type of fund.

If your company offers a 401K plan at work, try to invest the most you can. The money grows tax free, and some companies will match your contribution. Investing in a mutual fund IRA is also a good idea. If you have children, you may want to consider a 529 plan or other college savings plan that grows tax free.

I like index funds. Because of their broad diversification, you are less likely to have a dramatic drop in value. They also have the lowest expenses. For stock funds, I would suggest putting ~70-80% of your money in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. and ~20-30% in a foreign stock index fund. However, there are many different opinions out there on what the best mutual funds are. Read the links below and form your own opinion

Buying a house instead of renting will save you a lot of money in the long run. You don't have to pay rent and you build equity in your house instead. Buying rental property can also be a good investment. However, being a landlord can be hard work, and many people are not good at it. If you don't know how to handle deadbeat renters, you can have trouble.

If you have high-interest debt, like credit cards, it is best to pay this off first before trying most of the investment ideas above. You should also have 3-6 months of salary saved up as an emergency fund in a bank or money market fund before trying more risky investments.

Believing advice you get on Yahoo answers can be risky, so read these websites for further information. If you find it too confusing, contact a professional financial advisor. They will charge you significant commissions, however.

Sources:

http://www.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/planni...
http://www.fool.com/school.htm
http://sec.gov/investor/pubs/assetalloca...
http://www.diehards.org/readsites.htm
http://finance.yahoo.com/education/begin...
http://finance.yahoo.com/funds/basics

Asset Allocation Calculators
(Determining how much to put in stocks and how much into bonds and money markets is a personal decision depending on your financial status. These Asset Allocation questionaires give you a rough idea how to do this. I like Vanguard best, but try some of the other sites as well.)
https://flagship.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/...
https://ais2.tiaa-cref.org/cgi-bin/WebOb...
http://www.ifa.com/SurveyNET/index.aspx

Web forum: http://www.diehards.org/
(Many investment web forums are overrun by scam artists. This one seems the most legitimate site.)


529 plans: http://www.savingforcollege.com

That's what I thought the same old bla bla bla. I guess that's what I expected. Report It

If you have large amounts of time then you can afford to place your money in more volatile funds. You will be able to get through a couple Bear markets. Small cap, aggressive funds get hit harder in bad times, but give better rewards in bull markets. I would not place all into small caps, but maybe 2/3, or in international/emerging markets /BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India China). Just do not invest in too specific of funds.

Go to yahoo finance or another site and use a fund screener. As you get closer to retirement or to cash it in, move the money to low risk funds during a bull market.

Those lifecycle funds do this, but at a predetermined time, and if it does so in a down market you can lose$$.


T.Rowe price in my opinion has some good funds to look at, you can buy directly through their site.

Take some and invest directly in large cap growth stocks,

i think this is the right source for U
http://www.freewebs.com/allstocks

If you know to buy good stock (share) and keep it may be the best, normally invest in share you have to take much time to monitor.so , the best option should be unit trust / mutual fund, because it manage by team of professional fund manage and you have track records to forecast and formulate your return to meet your objectives

One of the most common retirement plans is the 401 K. In a 401 K, some amount is deducted monthly from your pay check. The money is tax deferred and so you do not pay taxes on the amount invested. Usually there are various investment choices like mutual funds, stocks, bonds etc. In some cases, the employer will match the employee鈥檚 contribution to the account, though these instances are decreasing.