Random question

[sabriel9v]

If you were a regional/semi-national artist, where would you invest your money? I figure since it's twenty times harder to make millions off selling records now than in the eighties and nineties, we've got to broaden our options. What are some good places to invest say 10 grand?

[cherri]

Alternative energy.

[slight-return]

Do you mean where to invest in the biz (of making music)

 

or

 

as part of your personal portfolio

[germs]

Sarcastic reply:Take 6 months of sword-swallowing lessons in order to master your gag reflex, purchase a roundtrip ticket to Central America, and bring a large box of quality, unlubricated condoms.

 

Honest reply:Blow it all on gear. Get a PA and a trailer. Get lights. Get a good-looking, professional banner. A successful regional/semi-national act must be prepared and willing to travel.

 

Alternately, get a van if you don't already have one.

 

If you're already at that level, upgrade what you can and invest the rest into merch.

[sabriel9v]

 

Do you mean where to invest in the biz (of making music) or as part of your personal portfolio

 

 

Either or. Where would you invest 10 grand in the hopes of doubling your initial investment?

[sabriel9v]

 

Alternative energy.

 

 

Oooh interesting response. This is definitely a blooming field and will continue to prosper in the future.

[slight-return]

 

Either or. Where would you invest 10 grand in the hopes of doubling your initial investment?

 

 

OK, so it sounds like you mean for "sabriel" as opposed to "Beatrix Kiddo" -- I'd really recommend keeping your biz and personal finances clearly defined/separated as comingling can cause all kinds of problems.

 

What kind of timeline are you looking for a doubling (I mean it's really a RATE of return question I think you mean to ask..a savings acct will eventually double) ? what kind of risk exposure are you willing to take on (like are you willing to lose 100% of the value in a penny stock or horse race)?

Would you need to be able to liquidate the assests at short notice? (like if you get in a financial bind)

 

your bank might have a financial advisor you can talk with -- we're at different points along the path, so "what would syou (slight) do?" is prob different from "what would I (sab) do"?

[BlueStrat]

There are lots of mutual funds that pay 10-12% per annum.

 

Right now, real estate could be a thing to look at too, as prices have dropped and are close to bottoming out.

 

I'd be hesitant to invest too heavily into alternative energy-look what happened to the ethanol guys. It was all the rage for a few years, but the unintended consequences of higher food prices and increased environmental damage from the tons of fertilizer added to the water supply have all but killed it.

[sabriel9v]

 

I'd be hesitant to invest too heavily into alternative energy-look what happened to the ethanol guys. It was all the rage for a few years, but the unintended consequences of higher food prices and increased environmental damage from the tons of fertilizer added to the water supply have all but killed it.

 

 

What about investing in overall alt. energy business firms that specialize in research and developing all types of alternative energy?

[BlueStrat]

 

What about investing in overall alt. energy business firms that specialize in research and developing all types of alternative energy?

 

 

I don't know if I would, because right now, they're a long ways away from profitability, at least 10-15 years and as many as 20 by some estimates. I mean, really, look at all the startup costs that have to be realized and reinvested before profit is paid out to shareholders. In addition, alt energy hasn't shown to be very productive or efficient yet. As I've pointed out before, you could have a line of wind generators a mile wide stretching from Seattle to Key West and not meet the energy requirements of California for a day. Maybe someday, but not yet.

 

The problem with wind and solar is consistency and storage, not to mention environmental considerations. The problem with hydrogen is the cost. There just isn't anything on the horizon that's even close to generating the power consistently and as cheaply that we can with hydroelectric, coal, natural gas and oil.

 

Investing in alt energy might be a good idea for the long term, say 20 years, but I wouldn't hope for a short term (5-10 years) gain.

 

Of course, I could be completely full of bat guano.

[slight-return]

 

What about investing in overall alt. energy business firms that specialize in research and developing all types of alternative energy?

 

 

I'm not sure which biz firms would be specializing in the R&D process , esp across the board (ie 'all types')...I assume you are looking at VC groups there?...If they are involved there can be the problem that they are, somewhat, financially married to the processes so dead-end research, intellectual property issues, etc could stunt them

t's one of the problems with R&D, it's by its nature...speculative

There is also the question of investment term as bluestrat was talking abt...if you are investing in R&D, you could be looking longer terms that mature-industry investments

 

 

 

sounds like what you are looking for is diversification to mitigate risk, maybe there is a "green" mutual fund that would be of interest...that's basically what a mutual fund is for (esp at 10K where you couldn't make a really signifigant diversified investment across the board individually), and you've got a fund manager really into what's going down in those markets and actively modulating the investment.

'course that's the thing, you buy the reduction of risk with a generally more modest overall return.

 

 

I mean it's sort of a question of what you are looking to do -- is this purely "throw away" where youare willing to risk not having those dollars perform? are using it to build an investment foundation?

[sabriel9v]

 

I mean it's sort of a question of what you are looking to do -- is this purely "throw away" where youare willing to risk not having those dollars perform? are using it to build an investment foundation?

 

 

I'd say willing to risk throwing the money away, but would definitely prefer to build an invest foundation.

[Deeprig9]

The alt energy companies are very risky because we don't know which one or two of these are going to be the next big thing.

[ermghoti II]

$10k is plenty to spread around into 2-5 solid mutual funds. If you don't feel secure researching your self, go to a financial advisor. There used to be some excellent shows on radio in the Boston area, there may well be one or two in your area. I'd suspect there are some reliable web-based tools.

 

DO NOT buy individual stocks. DO NOT invest in some sort of start-up.

 

These are extraordinarily risky propositions, and the guys that make these kinds of investments professionally are wrong a massive proportion of the time. You'd be better off playing blackjack with the money. You probably don't even want to buy into the type of "sector" fund described above, it's waaaaay too early to have any idea what technology will pan out, and then you'd still have to back the right company. Beta was way better than VHS by any objective measure... DVDHD and BluRay were functionally equivalent... how'd you do guessing those?

[sabriel9v]

 

$10k is plenty to spread around into 2-5 solid mutual funds.

 

 

How do mutual funds accrue value over time?

[jaxn slim]

 

How do mutual funds accrue value over time?

 

 

+1 on the mutual funds. IMO, the only way to go. I made the mistake of going about half mutual funds and half stocks. Guess which ones are doing better?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_funds

[ermghoti II]

 

How do mutual funds accrue value over time?

 

 

A mutual fund sells shares of a managed portfolio of stocks, bonds and/or other investment instruments. Some, for instance, might trade mortgages. The fund's manager is paramount, he or she will make decisions about the apportioning of the fund's assets. The fund, in turn, is worth what the sum of it's investments are. Typically, funds are "loaded," meaning that one pays a fee when one purchases (front end load) or sells (back end load) the shares. Some funds are called "no-load," meaning the fees are rolled into the performance of the fund. Morningstar is the benchmark for fund performance, and will tell you exactly how a fund ranks among it's peers.

 

Therefore, buying a single mutual fund share could get you a portfolio of hundreds of stocks. Among the safest, simplest, and cheapest funds are Index Funds. They do no more or less than purchase an even distribution of funds in one of the indexes, eg S&P 500, DJIA, etc. They have virtually no overhead, and don't need a pricey manager, because there is no real decision making involved.

 

Considering that the market, over any ten-year period (including if one bought in the day before the Black Friday crash that ushered in the Great Depression) makes money, and often as not is in the 8% range, you could do worse than to just put the whole lump into one or two index funds.

 

If you are within 5-10 years of retirement, it's time to look into bonds, or some other extremely safe income-generating investment, otherwise, it's hard to recommend against funds.

[Deeprig9]

Specifically, open a Roth IRA in which you can contribute $4000 a year. All of your earnings are 100% tax free as long as you don't take the earnings out before you are 60 years old. If you every really need the money, you can withdraw your principal contributed with no penalty, as long as you don't withdraw earnings/interest/capital gains.

 

A mutual fund is just a way that you can really diversify yourself without a lot of money. You, and thousands of other people, give money to a fund manager, with a team of profesionals that research companies and market trends full time, have access to information you can't practically get, and makes moves in the market with your money. A mutual fund manager can spend $100,000 in research to figure out how to invest the $100,000,000 in assets they manage. They are generally low-risk because they are usually highly diversified. Good years they can turn 20%, bad years they can lose 10%, but as BlueStrat says, the long term returns are about 10%, which means your money doubles every 10 years. You should look into Vanguard or Fidelity and do one of their "targeted retirement" funds. I could type all day about this, but there's some info for you.

[sabriel9v]

A mutual fund manager can spend $100,000 in research to figure out how to invest the $100,000,000 in assets they manage. They are generally low-risk because they are usually highly diversified. Good years they can turn 20%, bad years they can lose 10%, but as BlueStrat says, the long term returns are about 10%, which means your money doubles every 10 years. You should look into Vanguard or Fidelity and do one of their "targeted retirement" funds. I could type all day about this, but there's some info for you.

 

[BlueStrat]

Anyone know the difference between a mutual fund and a musician?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

wait for it....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mutual fund eventually matures and earns money!

 

 

[slight-return]

 

What part's weirding ya out?

[Deeprig9]

 

 

What are you shocked about? you can't spend $100,000 in research to find out exactly what companies you should invest in. A Mutual Fund can, and does. In a mutual fund, your money is managed by a team of professionals. Think of it like a doctor. Sure, you can read online and check out books from libraries and subscribe to medical journals, and try to be your own doctor. But in the end, you don't have $1 million for top of the line MRI machine and a bloodwork lab to diagnose yourself for cancer.

[sabriel9v]

 

What are you shocked about? you can't spend $100,000 in research to find out exactly what companies you should invest in. A Mutual Fund can, and does. In a mutual fund, your money is managed by a team of professionals. Think of it like a doctor. Sure, you can read online and check out books from libraries and subscribe to medical journals, and try to be your own doctor. But in the end, you don't have $1 million for top of the line MRI machine and a bloodwork lab to diagnose yourself for cancer.

 

 

I'm shocked because it's so much information to digest.

[chevybusa]

LOL drugs

[chevybusa]

No, but seriously, if you've got that kind of money to play around with, don't get advice from a musician's forum, seek a competent financial advisor...