What do you want to do after you're settled in with your MD

[Dr McSteamy]

after a few years of salary,

I want to learn how to invest in the stock market,
and start my own porn company.

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[Law2Doc]

after a few years of salary,

I want to learn how to invest in the stock market,
and start my own porn company.

How to invest well depends on the kind of corporate research you have time to do. Meaning someone working full time in medicine simply doesn't have enough time to research stocks, follow stuff in Bloomberg, etc. So your best investments will still be to pay fund managers to do the research for you, through mutual funds or other similar investments.
And for porn, you could have done this before med school, and probably are past your porn prime by the time you graduate, agewise.

 

[Danbo1957]

Doctors make terrible businessmen, something in our DNA. The best advice that I can offer is to find a financial advisor in your area that other doctors use and recommend. Tell your financial advisor what results you expect from your investments - then he'll tell you why your expectations are so unreasonable. You'll respond with, "Damn." Then allow him to offer you similar investment packages that his other doctors/clients prefer. You'll learn it from there... oh, be sure to not invest in the sports bar that your brother-in-law wants so badly.

 

[BoredMD]

start my own porn company.

Very ambitious plan there.

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

After a few years settled in, I'll still be living like a resident so I can pay off those pesky student loans!

 

[etf]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=176

 

[ninjapenguin]

How to invest well depends on the kind of corporate research you have time to do. Meaning someone working full time in medicine simply doesn't have enough time to research stocks, follow stuff in Bloomberg, etc. So your best investments will still be to pay fund managers to do the research for you, through mutual funds or other similar investments.

You're always so quick to shoot down everything. I know you're just trying to be the resident realist here, but sometimes the things you say are just plain absurd.

In fact, it is very much possible to learn how to research and invest in the stock market wisely, without spending your life on Wall Street. The average investor need only spend a few hours a week on researching his/her stocks and following the market on a daily basis is as simple as pulling out your Blackberry or iPhone and checking the news reports and updates. Both of my parents are avid investors and neither of them have careers in anything remotely close to finance. They've worked long hours their entire life and have built quite a sizable nest through their investing. Don't be so quick to be the naysayer all the time Law2Doc, especially when you're wrong.

 

[Dr McSteamy]

Doctors make terrible businessmen, something in our DNA. The best advice that I can offer is to find a financial advisor in your area that other doctors use and recommend. Tell your financial advisor what results you expect from your investments - then he'll tell you why your expectations are so unreasonable. You'll respond with, "Damn." Then allow him to offer you similar investment packages that his other doctors/clients prefer. You'll learn it from there... oh, be sure to not invest in the sports bar that your brother-in-law wants so badly.

for real.
with a funds mgr, all the earnings will go towards his cut, and i'll see none of it

 

[Dr McSteamy]

In fact, it is very much possible to learn how to research and invest in the stock market wisely, without spending your life on Wall Street. The average investor need only spend a few hours a week on researching his/her stocks and following the market on a daily basis is as simple as pulling out your Blackberry or iPhone and checking the news reports and updates.

radiologists do no work . they spend their whole day watching stocks.
i'm not going to be a radiologist. but i'm sure i can squeeze out a few hours each day on the internets instead of watching tv.
i'm not planning to be a workaholic. 9-5 hours max!

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

Oh dear, I already see the stereotype living for another generation.

Are there doctors who can invest? Absolutely. But I agree, in the vast majority of my experiences doctors severely overestimate their financial accumen.

 

[Danbo1957]

with a funds mgr, all the earnings will go towards his cut, and i'll see none of it

Ah, grasshopper, so young, so...

His "cut" comes from all his clients, not just you - and one of the things that you'll learn is to negotiate the amount of his cut.

 

[Law2Doc]

The average investor need only spend a few hours a week on researching his/her stocks and following the market on a daily basis is as simple as pulling out your Blackberry or iPhone and checking the news reports and updates.

The "average investor" does not do any better than an index fund. They do a contest in the Wall Street journal every year and even most stock professionals barely pick stocks better than a dartboard. If you want to do better than this, you need to spend more time or have better info. Timing is everything -- there will be years (decades even) when folks investments turn to gold and they think themselves geniuses. There are sure to be other decades where the reverse will be true. It's the folks who stay on top during the lean years that might actually know something. But honestly, a few hours a week squeezed into a hectic physician schedule isn't going to compete against someone who does it 60 hours a week and lives, breathes and sleeps charts. You can get lucky just like they do. But you can't expect to know as much about the companies they follow 24/7.The whole financial services industry exists because they have the time to do what you don't. Not to mention the skills/business education/understanding of markets/economics.

 

[Law2Doc]

i'm not planning to be a workaholic. 9-5 hours max!

There is no such job in medicine that's going to give you the disposable income you seek. best to bail now and do that porn thing you mentioned.

 

[SomeDoc]

In fact, it is very much possible to learn how to research and invest in the stock market wisely, without spending your life on Wall Street. The average investor need only spend a few hours a week on researching his/her stocks and following the market on a daily basis is as simple as pulling out your Blackberry or iPhone and checking the news reports and updates.

From personal experience, I agree with this- but one needs to be willing to learn about the market and it's dynamics (read: random, absolutely unpredictable- I can count the numerous times the motley fool would repeately praise a stock saying it's a gem, only to find out later on that it was grossly overvalued at it's IPO. Anyone who mentions the history of the market's performance as an index of it's future earnings potential does not know a head from a tail in the book of economics (I will spare the explanations why), and I personally don't see many physicians spending the time to manage their earnings (sad but true) in such a way. All of the information and tools are available to you if you care to look for it. I will also never pay someone else to manage my money. Someone close to me does the same, and has done it for decades, and neither will I, unless I see a pressing reason to do so.

 

[persia]

You're always so quick to shoot down everything. I know you're just trying to be the resident realist here, but sometimes the things you say are just plain absurd.

In fact, it is very much possible to learn how to research and invest in the stock market wisely, without spending your life on Wall Street. The average investor need only spend a few hours a week on researching his/her stocks and following the market on a daily basis is as simple as pulling out your Blackberry or iPhone and checking the news reports and updates. Both of my parents are avid investors and neither of them have careers in anything remotely close to finance. They've worked long hours their entire life and have built quite a sizable nest through their investing. Don't be so quick to be the naysayer all the time Law2Doc, especially when you're wrong.

Dude! this is so awesome. You wrote exactly what I was thinking.

Finance isn't that hard. It depends on the person of course, but it is totally accessible if you are willing and interested in learning it.

 

[bcat85]

after a few years of salary,

I want to learn how to invest in the stock market,
and start my own porn company.

Retire... and the porn thing.. I could only direct though... by the time I get to that age, I'd be much to old to be doing anything but nursing home porno

 

[ninjapenguin]

The "average investor" does not do any better than an index fund. They do a contest in the Wall Street journal every year and even most stock professionals barely pick stocks better than a dartboard. If you want to do better than this, you need to spend more time or have better info. Timing is everything -- there will be years (decades even) when folks investments turn to gold and they think themselves geniuses. There are sure to be other decades where the reverse will be true. It's the folks who stay on top during the lean years that might actually know something. But honestly, a few hours a week squeezed into a hectic physician schedule isn't going to compete against someone who does it 60 hours a week and lives, breathes and sleeps charts. You can get lucky just like they do. But you can't expect to know as much about the companies they follow 24/7.The whole financial services industry exists because they have the time to do what you don't. Not to mention the skills/business education/understanding of markets/economics.

When it comes to personal investments, you are not trading and analyzing stocks for an entire sector, but instead you only need to monitor the few select companies in your portfolio and maybe a couple other prospective companies you are thinking about investing in. This is easily manageable in almost anybody's workweek (don't give me that BS about physicians working so hard they have no time for anything else other than medicine). All you need to do is analyze certain key aspects and numbers of a company, then buy and hold it until you feel like selling.

Also, comparing an average investor to a Wall Street professional is fruitless. Of course the financier will have more knowledge and experience - he does it for a living. But that's not the point. He also manages the portfolios of hundreds, if not thousands, of other clients. So while he spends 60 hours a week living and breathing the stuff, in the end, he does very little for your portfolio that you can't do yourself. All you need is the proper knowledge base and due diligence, which are not difficult to obtain. I've been investing in the stock market for the past 3 years, and in that time, I've managed a much greater annual return than my financial advisor has with my trust fund, even through the mini-recession we had earlier this year. Figure that one out.

 

[8mile]

One piece of advice, follow strong stocks, or follow where idiots are putting their money into, and get out before they get out.

example: crocs.

 

[Dr McSteamy]

crocs of crap.

are crocs the new ipods?




anyway, back to what do YOU want to do after your MD?

run for mayor?
just be a regular boring old doc?

 

[kdburton]

The "average investor" does not do any better than an index fund. They do a contest in the Wall Street journal every year and even most stock professionals barely pick stocks better than a dartboard. If you want to do better than this, you need to spend more time or have better info. Timing is everything -- there will be years (decades even) when folks investments turn to gold and they think themselves geniuses. There are sure to be other decades where the reverse will be true. It's the folks who stay on top during the lean years that might actually know something. But honestly, a few hours a week squeezed into a hectic physician schedule isn't going to compete against someone who does it 60 hours a week and lives, breathes and sleeps charts. You can get lucky just like they do. But you can't expect to know as much about the companies they follow 24/7.The whole financial services industry exists because they have the time to do what you don't. Not to mention the skills/business education/understanding of markets/economics.

What it comes down to is investing in the right things... If you invest in something other than the stock market, real estate for instance, you don't really need to really put a lot of time into following the market on a daily basis. I know lots of doctors who own properties in different places all over the country - locations where real estate is [and has been] on a steady rise. Its easier to predict something like how real estate is going to do because prices don't fluctuate quite as much and they're based on more objective observations than picking stocks. If, however, you decide to buy securities you just have to realize that the more money you want to make (or potentially lose), the more risk you have to take and the more "research" you're going to have to do to keep that risk to a minimum. The "average investor" can do just as well a financial adviser by investing in a bunch of low/no-risk investments such as guaranteed fixed income [guaranteed bonds] and mutual funds. In securities markets, the only people who can beat the market, so to say, are those who find markets that aren't in arbitrage-equilibrium, and this is 100% for sure not going to be some doctor who is trading online for 2-3 hours/week. On average though, if you make low-risk investments you'll do just as well return-wise as you would if you handed your money over to some sort of fund/money manager, took on some higher risk investments and then paid him/her their commission.

 

[Doctor J]

What it comes down to is investing in the right things... On average though, if you make low-risk investments you'll do just as well return-wise as you would if you handed your money over to some sort of fund/money manager, took on some higher risk investments and then paid him/her their commission.

Ha, that first sentence had me all ready to jump on you for pointing out the most blatantly obvious tripe I've ever heard barring some Terry Bradshaw gems ("What this team needs to do is score some points!"), then the rest of your post actually made sense.

Bah.

Guess I can't get too libelous on you now.

 

[Mr Cookie Pants]

Doctors make terrible businessmen, something in our DNA. The best advice that I can offer is to find a financial advisor in your area that other doctors use and recommend. Tell your financial advisor what results you expect from your investments - then he'll tell you why your expectations are so unreasonable. You'll respond with, "Damn." Then allow him to offer you similar investment packages that his other doctors/clients prefer. You'll learn it from there... oh, be sure to not invest in the sports bar that your brother-in-law wants so badly.

Disagree. Speaking from n=1 here, a family member of mine was a board cert. anesthesiologist, went back to school as to get a MBA, started a financial planning business. He did both for about 6 years and then stop practicing to run the business.


But on the whole, we are bad businessmen.

 

[Jwax]

Why such opposition to hiring a financial advisor? Are we really that proud that we can't admit that someone else may know more and be better at something than ourselves? Ehh... I'm not too proud. I have more interesting things I want to do with my time than learn the stock market.

I think I'm pretty much just going to settle into being a boring old doctor / mom / wife. I will provide medical services to the underserved at least twice a month and take medical mission trips at least once a year. I intend to make time for several vacations a year, have a hot tub, learn to play piano, garden, bicycle, do yoga, swim, hike, white water raft at least twice a year, get a professional massage twice a month, and enjoy the fact that I get to do something with my life that makes a small difference to others and get paid well to do so.

 

[Law2Doc]

Finance isn't that hard. It depends on the person of course, but it is totally accessible if you are willing and interested in learning it.

Having taken quite a few finance and accounting courses and having worked on securities oriented deals in my prior career, I assure you it is "that hard". People get PhD's in it; it isn't child's play. There is a lot to know to value a company usefully and be making smart decisions. Otherwise you are throwing darts. I think Gordon Gekko got it right in the movie Wall Street, "The public's out there throwing darts at a board, kid, I don't throw darts at a board; I bet on sure things." Can you do the research on your own to make a smart investment? Probably. Will you be able to do it competitively in a couple of hours a week? Not so much.
Again, bear in mind that in good economic times idiots can make a ton in equities, so pointing to someone you know who made money provides no useful evidence. Maybe they know something, but more likely they got the timing right or got lucky with their darts.

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

Why such opposition to hiring a financial advisor? Are we really that proud that we can't admit that someone else may know more and be better at something than ourselves?

Pretty much.

 

[cpants]

I want to get a boat as soon as I can afford it.

 

[Dr McSteamy]

I think I'm pretty much just going to settle into being a boring old doctor / mom / wife. I will provide medical services to the underserved at least twice a month and take medical mission trips at least once a year. I intend to make time for several vacations a year, have a hot tub, learn to play piano, garden, bicycle, do yoga, swim, hike, white water raft at least twice a year, get a professional massage twice a month, and enjoy the fact that I get to do something with my life that makes a small difference to others and get paid well to do so.

that's gonna be a full life right thurrrr.


so who here's gonna cure cancer?

 

[Law2Doc]

so who here's gonna cure cancer?

Did that during first year. But a cancer drug company paid me a mint to sit on it for a while, until their patent runs out.

 

[Xerxes1729]

Again, bear in mind that in good economic times idiots can make a ton in equities, so pointing to someone you know who made money provides no useful evidence. Maybe they know something, but more likely they got the timing right or got lucky with their darts.

Also, people will talk a lot about how they made a killing in the markets. They tend to be more tight-lipped about losing half their net worth on a bad stock.

As has already been mentioned, index funds are the way to go.

 

[NPR]

Having taken quite a few finance and accounting courses and having worked on securities oriented deals in my prior career, I assure you it is "that hard". People get PhD's in it; it isn't child's play. There is a lot to know to value a company usefully and be making smart decisions. Otherwise you are throwing darts. I think Gordon Gekko got it right in the movie Wall Street, "The public's out there throwing darts at a board, kid, I don't throw darts at a board; I bet on sure things." Can you do the research on your own to make a smart investment? Probably. Will you be able to do it competitively in a couple of hours a week? Not so much.
Again, bear in mind that in good economic times idiots can make a ton in equities, so pointing to someone you know who made money provides no useful evidence. Maybe they know something, but more likely they got the timing right or got lucky with their darts.

Not without inside information.

And if you can do that without inside information and with limited time constraints, why be a doctor? Why not beat down Warren Buffett at his own game by going fulltime?

It can't be done. Those who tell you otherwise either have that inside track or are trying to sell something.

 

[DoctorPardi]

Law2doc or someone else, what percent of investment could someone likely gain throught investing with a financial advisor. Right now high yield savings accounts are around 3.5%. What does the typical mutual fund return?

 

[Dr McSteamy]

Law2doc or someone else, what percent of investment could someone likely gain throught investing with a financial advisor. Right now high yield savings accounts are around 3.5%. What does the typical mutual fund return?

they say 16% return per year averaged over 10 years.

however, after the money man gets his cut and 44% of your profit, you walk away with....... 6%?
Then uncle sam takes a little more

 

[kdburton]

Law2doc or someone else, what percent of investment could someone likely gain throught investing with a financial advisor. Right now high yield savings accounts are around 3.5%. What does the typical mutual fund return?

It really depends because the advisor is going to ask you how much risk you are willing to take and then act accordingly by investing certain amounts of money into all sorts of different stocks, bonds, funds, etc. The market as a whole (in the US at least) is usually judged by index funds such as Dow Jones Industry average [DJI] and the S & P 500 [SPX] which are the two largest stock index funds in the US. Dow Jones is comprised of stock in the 30 most widely held public companies (very lage ones, mostly if not all American) and the S & P 500 is a index of the 500 most widely watched American large-cap (> $10 billion) public companies. Both indicies essentially approximate the American stock market at large. The annual returns thus fluctuate as the economy gets better or worse. The annual return for S&P 500 for instance was 15.8% and 5.49% in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Also there really all no "typical" mutual funds. There are three types of mutual funds (equity, fixed income, money market) and all funds have different risks. As a general rule you'll have a better chance at making more money with a mutual fund than you are on a high-yield savings account because savings accounts are absolutely no-risk for the first $100,000 you invest. You could potentially lose money with mutual funds, but your investments are so diversified that as long as the economy as a whole is not going down the sh1tter then you'll usually make $$

 

[Law2Doc]

It really depends because the advisor is going to ask you how much risk you are willing to take and then act accordingly by investing certain amounts of money into all sorts of different stocks, bonds, funds, etc. The market as a whole (in the US at least) is usually judged by index funds such as Dow Jones Industry average [DJI] and the S & P 500 [SPX] which are the two largest stock index funds in the US. Dow Jones is comprised of stock in the 30 most widely held public companies (very lage ones, mostly if not all American) and the S & P 500 is a index of the 500 most widely watched American large-cap (> $10 billion) public companies. Both indicies essentially approximate the American stock market at large. The annual returns thus fluctuate as the economy gets better or worse. The annual return for S&P 500 for instance was 15.8% and 5.49% in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Also there really all no "typical" mutual funds. There are three types of mutual funds (equity, fixed income, money market) and all funds have different risks. As a general rule you'll have a better chance at making more money with a mutual fund than you are on a high-yield savings account because savings accounts are absolutely no-risk for the first $100,000 you invest. You could potentially lose money with mutual funds, but your investments are so diversified that as long as the economy as a whole is not going down the sh1tter then you'll usually make $$

Totally agree with this post. When you average out the up and down years over a fairly long time, I think you ought to realistically be making something in the 7-9% range in an index fund or similarly conservative equity investment. So yeah, much better upside than a money market or CD, but you are taking a modestly increased market risk. You can get more aggressive and pick a fund that focuses more on small cap or growth companies and give yourself the chance to earn more, but they tend to be more sensitive to market down turns, so it's a riskier play. Any mutual fund company is going to have a variety of offerings based on how risky you want to be. And you can diversify your investment over multiple funds of varying risk, as well as bond instruments, whose earnings are flatter, but which tend to go up when equity instruments go down, so act as a conservative hedge.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

Law2doc or someone else, what percent of investment could someone likely gain throught investing with a financial advisor. Right now high yield savings accounts are around 3.5%. What does the typical mutual fund return?

The S&P 500 has returned ~13% annually since its inception. Thus, S&P 500 index funds return approx. the same in the LONG-TERM. As Law2Doc said, the S&P 500 outperforms > ~90% of actively managed mutual funds, so I wouldn't bet on any actively managed mutual fund doing any better. However, some of the most saavy investors/fund managers DO consistently beat the S&P, but you have to find them, and you probably don't have enough money to "buy in" to their funds.

If you are planning for retirement, you should be able to conservatively earn 5-10% with stocks in the long-term based upon past performance. As always, "past returns do not guarantee future performance."

 

[DoctorPardi]

Thanks for the info.

 

[Xerxes1729]

However, some of the most saavy investors/fund managers DO consistently beat the S&P, but you have to find them, and you probably don't have enough money to "buy in" to their funds.

Given the enormous number of mutual funds out there, some are going to beat the market indices by chance alone. Some of them will even do so for a long period of time. That doesn't mean that their managers are especially skilled, or that they will continue their performance in the future.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

Given the enormous number of mutual funds out there, some are going to beat the market indices by chance alone. Some of them will even do so for a long period of time. That doesn't mean that their managers are especially skilled, or that they will continue their performance in the future.

I agree, but there ARE fund managers who know how to manage money well enough to beat the S&P and it is by skill. These people are very rare. See the rest of my comments above.

But, overall, I agree with what you are saying, and stick to index funds and real estate myself.

 

[45408]

The "average investor" does not do any better than an index fund. They do a contest in the Wall Street journal every year and even most stock professionals barely pick stocks better than a dartboard. If you want to do better than this, you need to spend more time or have better info. Timing is everything -- there will be years (decades even) when folks investments turn to gold and they think themselves geniuses. There are sure to be other decades where the reverse will be true. It's the folks who stay on top during the lean years that might actually know something. But honestly, a few hours a week squeezed into a hectic physician schedule isn't going to compete against someone who does it 60 hours a week and lives, breathes and sleeps charts. You can get lucky just like they do. But you can't expect to know as much about the companies they follow 24/7.The whole financial services industry exists because they have the time to do what you don't. Not to mention the skills/business education/understanding of markets/economics.

Or he could still just do it on his own and have fun if he likes it.

 

[45408]

Given the enormous number of mutual funds out there, some are going to beat the market indices by chance alone. Some of them will even do so for a long period of time. That doesn't mean that their managers are especially skilled, or that they will continue their performance in the future.

And then there are the hedge funds....this guy makes a mind-blowing salary by heading up a hedge fund - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Harris_Simons


As for me, I'll probably just entrust my money to Vanguard or something.

 

[Law2Doc]

Or he could still just do it on his own and have fun if he likes it.

Well sure. But this isn't a discussion of "fun". It's a discussion about sound investment practices. And for the professional with limited time, limited business education and limited experience, you aren't going to beat an index.

 

[Law2Doc]

And then there are the hedge funds....this guy makes a mind-blowing salary by heading up a hedge fund - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Harris_Simons


As for me, I'll probably just entrust my money to Vanguard or something.

None of us will have the kind of money a hedge fun manager would be interested in managing for many years, if ever.

 

[parto123]

All you need to do is analyze certain key aspects and numbers of a company, then buy and hold it until you feel like selling.

In general this is not correct. There is really no way for anyone who isn’t working on this a significant amount of time to come up with anything resembling sound fundamental analysis.


There has forever been an academic debate on the efficiency of markets and whether anyone, even the best professionals, can consistently beat the market. One theory, the random walk theory, basically says that the market is very efficient and no one, not even top hedge fun managers, can consistently beat the market (they attribute specific stories of investing success to random distribution- like if 1 million people flipped a coin 10 times, a few people will land on heads every time). They say only those with inside info can beat the market.

Another theory, less extreme, still maintains that the market is efficient, but if one has the expertise, professional resources, technology and time, it is possible to beat the market.

What they both agree on, however, is that a non professional investor, making picks based on the public information that the market has already absorbed will not beat the market at any rate higher than if it were random picks.

If your parents are doing well in the market it is probably nothing more than random luck. It sounds like their picks are based on nothing more than public information that was already completely absorbed into and taken into account by the market.

 

[Cirrus83]

How to invest well depends on the kind of corporate research you have time to do. Meaning someone working full time in medicine simply doesn't have enough time to research stocks, follow stuff in Bloomberg, etc. So your best investments will still be to pay fund managers to do the research for you, through mutual funds or other similar investments.
And for porn, you could have done this before med school, and probably are past your porn prime by the time you graduate, agewise.

Please do realize that most analysts and fund managers more or less just makes stuff up. Discounted Cash Flows analyses, and even comp valuation are total jokes.

And I say this with a large chunk of my US extended family working as investment bankers and hedge funders.

If you want some pretty hilarious reading about those analyst reports, just google for mary meeker's hilarious youtube valuation report.
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2007/08/mary-meeker-bac.html
Basically she misread some numbers then made up an analysis. But since correcting the mathematical error would have resulted in her analysis claiming that Youtube can generate $720,000 of revenue per year (after Google paid almost $2 billion) she ended up fudging every single other number in her analysis just so her "corrected" report wouldn't look totally *****ic.
And mind you she's one of the top technology bankers out there

That's not to say that there aren't super talented hedge fund managers out there, but by and large don't assume the average manager is going to do anything except charge you a lot of fees.

An interesting strategy I read about is to invest only in index funds but swap them out as you see fit. So swap between a European index, Asia-Pacific index, Small Cap Index, Financials index, etc. That way you can still attempt to use some vague strategy or another without having to read too much about any particular company. Then I'd probably just add on the occasional random stocks that for some reason you've come to believe is going to be totally awesome.

That way you'll avoid overpaying fund manager fees (index funds essentially just mirror an index, sector, or region in terms of their makeup, so fees are very low, usually around a quarter percent or even less compared to up to two percent with most mutual funds-losing 2% is a huge deal when you compound it out for 30 years).

BTW this strategy is from a former Goldman Sachs partner who writes for the Wall Street Journal, and it's the strategy he uses on his own money.

Hedge funds are a little different than mutual funds though, since most hedge funds have a lot of their OWN money invested. Most mutual fund managers have either very little or even none of their own money in the fund-so either way they get their fee from you. This isn't to say that every hedge fund manager is brilliant, but at least they'll make decisions like their own money depends on it (plus much of their income comes from fees on profits, so that's another incentive there).

Since most of us can't just up and invest in hedge funds it's kind of a moot point though.

But seriously if you want to invest I'd probably read the wall street journal every day for like a year before doing anything serious, if only to get an idea of what everything means. Also, I find Evan Newmark's blog on the wall street journal website an awesome read-about everything from getting fired (written for the many, many, readers who are getting laid off on wall street), to his hilarious writeup about M&A bankers. If you read his biography you'll see that he really does know Wall Street very, very, well....which is also why his investing advice linked below is solid advice.
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2008/06/05/mean-street-the-secret-of-my-investing-success/

That said, I'm gonna be a ******* and probably end up using half my money to attempt to beat the market myself. More fun that way Plus some portion of my ego wants to compete against my wall street friends and family, although I'll still never, ever, ever, make anything near as much as they do =(

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

That said, I'm gonna be a ******* and probably end up using half my money to attempt to beat the market myself. More fun that way Plus some portion of my ego wants to compete against my wall street friends and family, although I'll still never, ever, ever, make anything near as much as they do =(

Hey, some of us are gamblers I've been there, done that, and did pretty well.....for a while.

 

[junomcguff]

i wanna make my own laboratory as a business...or medical supplies and books and stuff. but i still wanna practice

 

[HMSBeagle]

I want to open a restaurant with my future wife!!!
I don't know much about the workings of it but I know it is a lot of work but seems fun.

 

[bcat85]

after a few years of salary,

I want to learn how to invest in the stock market,
and start my own porn company.

"I'll tell you what I'd do, man: two chicks at the same time."

Do pre-meds watch office space?

 

[45408]

Well sure. But this isn't a discussion of "fun". It's a discussion about sound investment practices. And for the professional with limited time, limited business education and limited experience, you aren't going to beat an index.

Fine, but even if we're not talking about throwing your money to the proverbial stock market wind, you can make money (maybe not the highest yield possible) and be able to enjoy having a hand in managing your money rather than trusting it to someone you'll never meet.

 

[Doctorverardoll]

Retire... and the porn thing.. I could only direct though... by the time I get to that age, I'd be much to old to be doing anything but nursing home porno

Well according to a recent Time article, elder porn is all the rage in Japan right now.