Fly2Scuba
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2003
- Posts
- 377
Mike Oxlong said:go to a financial palnner!
Unfortunately, most financial planners earn the most with commissions on investments and insurance they convince you to purchase. Total conflict of interest. If you go that route, best to stick with flat hourly fees or just a flat out percentage based on amount of portfolio. I personally prefer to control my own destiny and with the amount of reading time available with this job, have no problem finding time to research through books, magazines, newspapers, and of course, the web.
www.scottrade.com - the best place for Roth IRA and general investment accounts IMHO
http://biz.yahoo.com/p/top.html - lists the top performing mutual funds in each category. I then look to invest in only 4 or 5 star morningstar rated funds among the top performing in the 5 year average. In addition, find it best to stick with the solid companies like Black Rock, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Vanguard, etc.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=acus - just an example of a stock on Yahoo finance. I like the mean recommendation rating on the bottom right
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/srs/srsmain.asp?Symbol=acus - Microsofts rating on same stock. Great way to cross check analysts opinion. There are tons of other statistics to look at; I've found these tools are the quickest.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/srs/srstopstocks.asp? - Same site lists out their highest ranked stocks in each category
Besides the other massive info on the web, Fortune, Money, Smartmoney, Kiplingers, Consumer Reports Money, and the Wall Street Journal all have tons of information. With inflationary pressures and Bear market alarms, latest recommendations I've heard are Japan funds, Latin American funds, banks, health care, basic needs stocks (like food) and gold (which is already way high). Of course those opinions could turn out be wrong. Nobody knows for sure, it's like forcasting the weather. Diversification is always the safest most secure way, while non-diversification is like gambling with better odds than Vegas.