now that stocks and bonds don't bring any money, in what to invest?

[HerbalEd]

"Now that stocks and bonds don't bring any money"??? Says, who, besides you?

My stocks and bonds investments are doing quite well. Not as good this year (average increase of 5%) as last few years (average increase of 7%) but I'm not complaining.

[lostoday]

You have an account large enough for the bank to give you a personal manager? Why on earth are you asking the hacks at TV?

"Personal managers" are not always exclusive. Fidelity will assign you one if you have your retirement money with them but that personal manager will handle numerous customers in addition to you.

Not at banks. Private banks have personal bank managers. I know I have one.

Yes, you do. And that person acts as a personal manager for a number of clients.

There is a lady at Bangkok bank who calls me up when I have a CD coming due. That is not a personal bank manager (INMHO). Area to prepare for meeting with my private banker and meeting areas below. That person advises me on financial matters. Not really the same as the Bangkok bank lady.

[bazza40]

I'm about 85% cash, 15% Australian bank stocks. At age 72, don't want too much risk. 20% of assets in Thailand, 80% in Australia.

From everything I've heard, it's very easy for a falang to buy condo apartments in Thailand, and the returns are quite good, about 8-10%. The problem comes when you want to get out of them again.

ETF's such as the Vanguard fund apparently have a good reputation.

I do dabble in selling call options on the shares I own, and then buying puts to match at a lower premium. With current market volatility, I am doing quite well on a small scale.

[jacksam]

it seems this year I won't make any money at all.

worth to invest in a condo in Bangkok or Pattaya and give it to an agency to manage

Well there is a huge correction around corner. So stocks not good. Also who would keep 60% of their assets in cash.

As for some suggesting real estate. Depends where. Many bubbles in many paces. My country one of them. AU.

ALSO depends completely on what total amount we are talking about

[kannot]

What's the worst thing you could do?

Ummm...buy property on Thailand and expect to make money at it. Buying property in Thailand is always the wrong thing to do.

ummmmmmm trash talk, i did pretty well out of Thai condos thanks

[Friendly Stranger]

my investments are in the European & USA market.

little bit of commodities too like gold, silver...

all my business is managed by a bank. I could do it by myself but too risky. too many of my friends lost all thinking they could make big money and have been hit by the crisis. They have lost most of their money.

when market is based on a fraction of a second, better give this to professionals and have a good night sleep.

I will not invest more(in stocks and bonds ) . better be safe than sorry. this is why I am asking you if there is a better and a safer way to invest.

Yes, it's rough out there, but you only lose if you sell. It's just going through it's cycle. I don't know what you own, but when this clears up, get into div paying stocks. If you do not have the stomach for it anymore then buy a property back home with the investment proceeds and rent out.

[spud67]

There are a lot of opinions out there, I guess that's why you asked. I suppose they're all right and all wrong at the same time.

When it comes to stocks, trading and investing are completely different. I know I am not smart enough and not willing to put in the time to trade. I only invest. It's easier to take my time to understand the companies and the industries. My approach is to find companies with good dividends and a history of growing sales and profits. Being from Canada, I concentrate on Canadian and American stocks only recently started to pick up some Euro and Asian ETFs.

I'm still in the 'wealth generation' stage so I continue investing. Values are good now; seems like a good time to buy. I don't know enough about real estate so I leave it alone but I'm considering a small piece of farmland to which I may retire. I am 80% stocks, 10% bond funds and 10% cash. If I were retired and needed the income I would make some minor tweaks but not much.

[gk10002000]

Try Lending Club. Peer 2 Peer investing. Been in 2 years. Steady at 7%. Fairly liquid.

This is a very interesting idea. I have looked into it and quite frankly I like it. I basically am acting as a bank, and lending out my money to others. Lending Club seems pretty organized. I like the 401k, IRA and direct ivesting options. Tell me, how do they report payments in a regular investing account? Do you get some sort of 1099? Is the net considered a capital gain, or a dividend or an interest type of income? Do they do tax withholding up front of some amount or can you specify a certain amount of withholding? I don't want to have to do quarterly payments to the IRS or have a large tax bill and be penalilzed when I file my taxes.

[ozyjon]

Just saw a story on the BBC about a shop

selling rafts to refugees in Europe, it's not

ethical someone said, shopkeeper says, if

they want to buy, i will sell, so how about

canoes in Bangkok. Or buy a house in Issan.

[Time Traveller]

What's the worst thing you could do?

Ummm...buy property on Thailand and expect to make money at it. Buying property in Thailand is always the wrong thing to do.

Please provide more explanation. From an investment perspective, Thai property is basically the same as property investment in any other country.

Actually, the worst thing he could do is what until after the stocks have sold off before deciding he should invest in a different asset class. The best thing he could do is the opposite, accumulate stocks on the down turn and more agressively if the market falls significantly further.

[VIPinthailand]

What's the worst thing you could do?

Ummm...buy property on Thailand and expect to make money at it. Buying property in Thailand is always the wrong thing to do.

Please provide more explanation. From an investment perspective, Thai property is basically the same as property investment in any other country.

Actually, the worst thing he could do is what until after the stocks have sold off before deciding he should invest in a different asset class. The best thing he could do is the opposite, accumulate stocks on the down turn and more agressively if the market falls significantly further.

this is what I m going to do : do nothing.

wait for the bubble to explode and buy more stocks.

[thrilled]

I'm 10% cash,90% stocks 10% muni bonds.I invest heavily in the NY stock exchange. I will give you 1 tip.Only invest in Thailand the amount that you can afford to lose. Investing in CD's at your bank might be ok.

[thrilled]

I will change that more like 80% in stock

[VIPinthailand]

I will invest only 800'000 bahts for a "retirement extension" but I still have some time for that.

[elgenon]

Try Lending Club. Peer 2 Peer investing. Been in 2 years. Steady at 7%. Fairly liquid.

I am planning on checking that out soon. If you are up for it, please PM me with any tips you can provide. The Economist had a very good feature article on peer to peer earlier this year.

Cheers!

[jacko45k]

I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending a Pattaya Condo piurchase, as to BKK, let someone who knows there answer. Does a 12th floor apartment increase in value when it sinks to an 11th floor one?

How do you feel about a punt into Bitcoins?

[gk10002000]

Try Lending Club. Peer 2 Peer investing. Been in 2 years. Steady at 7%. Fairly liquid.

I am planning on checking that out soon. If you are up for it, please PM me with any tips you can provide. The Economist had a very good feature article on peer to peer earlier this year.

Cheers!

I spent some time researching this, including a related "Prosper" company. Either seem doable with a few pros and cons for each. The key thing seems to diversify and buy many "notes" as they call it. You put your money and can buy pieces of loans. You basically act like a bank. Sure Lending Club (trades as LC on the open market) or Prosper take a percentage for their time and trouble of setting up the system to find the borrowers, "check them out", rate the quality of the loans, process your money, etc. There will be defaults, up to 10% I think in some of the more riskier note categories. So buy many notes. If you invest $10,000, try and buy at least 100 notes of $100 each, spreading your risk around. After that, the key thing I found is you need to understand a loan. Just like your house mortgage, at the beginning, the borrower is paying mostly interest on his monthly payment. As the loan matures the payment is less interest and more towards principle. So to keep your money making money, I think on these sites you want to select the auto invest option. I believe the money sitting in your account where they pay you is FDIC insured via Wells Fargo I think. That is some comfort, but in general you won’t want money sitting there, you will want to invest it.

I talked with a Prosper rep today on the phone about how they do 1099 DIV, or 1099 INT or capital gains which could be generated as you sell or trade notes, or if your notes get defaulted on. I think the rep was knowledgeable and at the end of the year you will get those tax forms. I did not ask about if they withhold any taxes so that you don't get hit with a large tax bill or penalty. Of course you an always start quarterly payments to the IRS in anticipation if you want.

For simplicity, it seems like setting up an IRA with them would save you a ton of tax work and would be the best thing to do. You an roll over a 401 k if you are about to leave a company like I am, or you can open a Traditional or ROTH IRA with them. That basically means you don't have any yearly reporting to do with the IRS since all the stuff is inside the IRA. If you do a Roth, all is tax free. If a Traditional, then of course you get taxed on anything you withdraw. But keep in mind the ROTH penalty free withdrawal can only be done if that particular account has existed for 5 years, even if you are over 59 1/2, although I just read some fine print that says the IRS treats all ROTH IRAs as one, so if any of your ROTH IRAs exist for more than 5 years the other is considered like that also and you won’t get penalized. I would check on that.

Now some negative thoughts. What if the loan pool gets reduced and Lending Company doesn't get enough loans for you to invest in? There are more and more of these peer to peer lending sites popping up. Looking at online complaints, most seemed to be from borrowers, but there were a few lenders/investor complaints. Most of those seemed to be that they did not make as much as they expected, and I think most did not understand how the defaults took away from their returns.

That's this engineer's two hour research and analysis report.

[GOLDBUGGY]

Bonds are probably a poor investment now as Interest Rates can't go much lower so very little room to appreciate. There is a far greater chance Interest Rates will rise, given way to the Bond losing value. Stocks are down so no point selling them now. Best to hold and wait. Since many stock markets have decreased in value over the past year what I find is a good investment right now is high yielding dividend paying stocks.

When a dependable dividend paying stock remains paying the same, but the stock price goes down, then the yield goes up. I recently bought a Liquor Stock that has been paying a dividend faithfully for over 10 years now. Last year the dividend yield (Interest Rate) was 6.75%. But along with all the other falling stocks and for no good reason I could see this stock dropped a lot. So now I bought back in when the yield is now 9%. At that yield I can afford to wait to when this stock returns to normal. I have no problem sitting on my Butt and earning 9% return on my money and not have to chase people around for rent money. Dividends have preferred tax rates as well.

If the stock should go back up in price when things look better and the yield falls to 6% that is still a good return on your investment. But you can also sell this stock then and claim a 50% return on your full investment. You have many companies now to choose from. Many well establish places like banks, utility companies, cable TV companies, R.E.I.T. (Real Estate Investment Trusts) phamaceuticals, and breweries generally all pay dividends. I prefer Liquor as people tend to drink in good times, but also bad times. They also tend to run at a discount as many people don't invest in sin stocks. I invest where I can make money.

Hope this helps.

[csabo]

Try Lending Club. Peer 2 Peer investing. Been in 2 years. Steady at 7%. Fairly liquid.

I am planning on checking that out soon. If you are up for it, please PM me with any tips you can provide. The Economist had a very good feature article on peer to peer earlier this year.

Cheers!

Check out lendacademy for tips/forums etc

[csabo]

Try Lending Club. Peer 2 Peer investing. Been in 2 years. Steady at 7%. Fairly liquid.

I am planning on checking that out soon. If you are up for it, please PM me with any tips you can provide. The Economist had a very good feature article on peer to peer earlier this year.

Cheers!

I spent some time researching this, including a related "Prosper" company. Either seem doable with a few pros and cons for each. The key thing seems to diversify and buy many "notes" as they call it. You put your money and can buy pieces of loans. You basically act like a bank. Sure Lending Club (trades as LC on the open market) or Prosper take a percentage for their time and trouble of setting up the system to find the borrowers, "check them out", rate the quality of the loans, process your money, etc. There will be defaults, up to 10% I think in some of the more riskier note categories. So buy many notes. If you invest $10,000, try and buy at least 100 notes of $100 each, spreading your risk around. After that, the key thing I found is you need to understand a loan. Just like your house mortgage, at the beginning, the borrower is paying mostly interest on his monthly payment. As the loan matures the payment is less interest and more towards principle. So to keep your money making money, I think on these sites you want to select the auto invest option. I believe the money sitting in your account where they pay you is FDIC insured via Wells Fargo I think. That is some comfort, but in general you won’t want money sitting there, you will want to invest it.

I talked with a Prosper rep today on the phone about how they do 1099 DIV, or 1099 INT or capital gains which could be generated as you sell or trade notes, or if your notes get defaulted on. I think the rep was knowledgeable and at the end of the year you will get those tax forms. I did not ask about if they withhold any taxes so that you don't get hit with a large tax bill or penalty. Of course you an always start quarterly payments to the IRS in anticipation if you want.

For simplicity, it seems like setting up an IRA with them would save you a ton of tax work and would be the best thing to do. You an roll over a 401 k if you are about to leave a company like I am, or you can open a Traditional or ROTH IRA with them. That basically means you don't have any yearly reporting to do with the IRS since all the stuff is inside the IRA. If you do a Roth, all is tax free. If a Traditional, then of course you get taxed on anything you withdraw. But keep in mind the ROTH penalty free withdrawal can only be done if that particular account has existed for 5 years, even if you are over 59 1/2, although I just read some fine print that says the IRS treats all ROTH IRAs as one, so if any of your ROTH IRAs exist for more than 5 years the other is considered like that also and you won’t get penalized. I would check on that.

Now some negative thoughts. What if the loan pool gets reduced and Lending Company doesn't get enough loans for you to invest in? There are more and more of these peer to peer lending sites popping up. Looking at online complaints, most seemed to be from borrowers, but there were a few lenders/investor complaints. Most of those seemed to be that they did not make as much as they expected, and I think most did not understand how the defaults took away from their returns.

That's this engineer's two hour research and analysis report.

Q2 results show loan originations now over 11 billion.

Also, a better diversification of 10 k would be 400 loans at $25

[csabo]

Try Lending Club. Peer 2 Peer investing. Been in 2 years. Steady at 7%. Fairly liquid.

This is a very interesting idea. I have looked into it and quite frankly I like it. I basically am acting as a bank, and lending out my money to others. Lending Club seems pretty organized. I like the 401k, IRA and direct ivesting options. Tell me, how do they report payments in a regular investing account? Do you get some sort of 1099? Is the net considered a capital gain, or a dividend or an interest type of income? Do they do tax withholding up front of some amount or can you specify a certain amount of withholding? I don't want to have to do quarterly payments to the IRS or have a large tax bill and be penalilzed when I file my taxes.

You have a lot of questions. Check out lendacademy.com

Its annual reporting though not quarterly.

LC invited lender customers to purchase IPO shares prior to going public last year at $15. Jumped to $25 first day and I pulled $2700 off the top. I appreciated that gesture to clients. Profits are starting to improve for the company and they have exceeded earnings so far. The stock should do well over the next year. You might not get 7% but you won't lose your money either. Drop a few grand on 36 month notes and see how you feel in a few months. I use their automated investing feature that buys notes on standards preset by me and then reinvests my interest and principal payments. You can liquidate but that needs more explanation.

[lostoday]

Try Lending Club. Peer 2 Peer investing. Been in 2 years. Steady at 7%. Fairly liquid.

This is a very interesting idea. I have looked into it and quite frankly I like it. I basically am acting as a bank, and lending out my money to others. Lending Club seems pretty organized. I like the 401k, IRA and direct ivesting options. Tell me, how do they report payments in a regular investing account? Do you get some sort of 1099? Is the net considered a capital gain, or a dividend or an interest type of income? Do they do tax withholding up front of some amount or can you specify a certain amount of withholding? I don't want to have to do quarterly payments to the IRS or have a large tax bill and be penalilzed when I file my taxes.

You have a lot of questions. Check out lendacademy.com

Its annual reporting though not quarterly.

LC invited lender customers to purchase IPO shares prior to going public last year at $15. Jumped to $25 first day and I pulled $2700 off the top. I appreciated that gesture to clients. Profits are starting to improve for the company and they have exceeded earnings so far. The stock should do well over the next year. You might not get 7% but you won't lose your money either. Drop a few grand on 36 month notes and see how you feel in a few months. I use their automated investing feature that buys notes on standards preset by me and then reinvests my interest and principal payments. You can liquidate but that needs more explanation.

I believe you have to be a resident of a state in the USA to participate and have a US bank account and mailing address. Correct?

[puukao]

i SOLD a lot of stuff Wednesday right on the close. Sure, the market can up a ton today, but i really felt the need to take off risk.

if the market goes up, i'll make 1/2 of what i could have......but lose 1/2 if it goes down

S&P 2000 is 100 points from a strong level....while support in the long-term might be 500+ away below.....so just didn't feel right owning too many stocks

in fact, really starting to dislike the markets...

maybe it is time to think of a second property. oh yea, those prices are crazy........

hmmmm

maybe a cottage in another state...

[csabo]

Try Lending Club. Peer 2 Peer investing. Been in 2 years. Steady at 7%. Fairly liquid.

This is a very interesting idea. I have looked into it and quite frankly I like it. I basically am acting as a bank, and lending out my money to others. Lending Club seems pretty organized. I like the 401k, IRA and direct ivesting options. Tell me, how do they report payments in a regular investing account? Do you get some sort of 1099? Is the net considered a capital gain, or a dividend or an interest type of income? Do they do tax withholding up front of some amount or can you specify a certain amount of withholding? I don't want to have to do quarterly payments to the IRS or have a large tax bill and be penalilzed when I file my taxes.

You have a lot of questions. Check out lendacademy.com

Its annual reporting though not quarterly.

LC invited lender customers to purchase IPO shares prior to going public last year at $15. Jumped to $25 first day and I pulled $2700 off the top. I appreciated that gesture to clients. Profits are starting to improve for the company and they have exceeded earnings so far. The stock should do well over the next year. You might not get 7% but you won't lose your money either. Drop a few grand on 36 month notes and see how you feel in a few months. I use their automated investing feature that buys notes on standards preset by me and then reinvests my interest and principal payments. You can liquidate but that needs more explanation.

I believe you have to be a resident of a state in the USA to participate and have a US bank account and mailing address. Correct?

http://www.lendacademy.com/lending-club-review/

[puukao]

On lending sites,

here is a site that warns of the possible pitfalls......always good to read all you can then make an informed decision

http://financialmentor.com/investment-advice/investment-due-diligence/peer-to-peer-lending-review/9777

[lostoday]

You have a lot of questions. Check out lendacademy.com

Its annual reporting though not quarterly.

LC invited lender customers to purchase IPO shares prior to going public last year at $15. Jumped to $25 first day and I pulled $2700 off the top. I appreciated that gesture to clients. Profits are starting to improve for the company and they have exceeded earnings so far. The stock should do well over the next year. You might not get 7% but you won't lose your money either. Drop a few grand on 36 month notes and see how you feel in a few months. I use their automated investing feature that buys notes on standards preset by me and then reinvests my interest and principal payments. You can liquidate but that needs more explanation.

I believe you have to be a resident of a state in the USA to participate and have a US bank account and mailing address. Correct?

http://www.lendacademy.com/lending-club-review/

1. Must be at least 18 years of age and have a valid social security number.
2. Have an annual gross income of at least $70,000 and a net worth (not including home, home furnishings and cars) of at least $70,000 or a net worth of at least $250,000 (with the same exclusions). Residents of California and Kentucky have slightly different net worth requirements.
3. Reside in one of the approved states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Wyoming. (there are options for people who live in several other states – you can invest via the Lending Club trading platform). With the recent Lending Club IPO, there is a possibility for these payment-dependent notes to become available to investors in all 50 states. You can read more about this topic here.
4. You are only allowed to purchase notes up to 10% of your net worth.

[csabo]

It might not be for everyone based on style or qualifications but it works as a part of my overall investment strategy. The tools provided and user interface make catering to your preferences simple and gives instant access to performance.

[VIPinthailand]

performance - 3 percent from January.

Far away from the + 7 percent I did in 2014.

[SpokaneAl]

performance - 3 percent from January.

Far away from the + 7 percent I did in 2014.

Chasing and reacting to short term performance when one's portfolio is allocated for the long term is a fool's game.

[SpokaneAl]

I've made quite a bit on currency trading over the last 3 years, esp sterling/ baht. Tax free and paid for my living expenses inThailand

Property in europe. Looking to buy a place in Italy before christmas

Recently the wife and I acquired some land in Bangkok and the idea was to build shophouses. But the investment was quite high so now decided on a development that caters to a service industry instead i.e. always in demand/people still need in a recession.

Depending on what country you are from and the tax situation in that country would determine whether or not that currency trading generates tax free income. If you are an American, the IRS would not necessarily consider that a tax free investment transaction.