I never have but my parents lost a lot during the slump caused by George Saurus/Soros. My dad is in bankruptcy now because of it. He had a gas station on a land which he inherited from my grandfather(rip) and both were auctioned off by the banks because of it. Nobody to blame but my dad himself, he treated the stock market like a game of crap.
Well, I'm about to do some investing within the next 6 months, but I'm not going through any mainstream brokers. I have come into contact with a skilled financial analyst that has shown me some powerful investing techniques. My advice is to get a VUL. Instead of doing what most people do, I'm going to use variable universal life insurance. This is a powerful investment technique where the government CANNOT tax your money because it is in the form of an insurance policy instead of an investment. It earns an average of 12% interest per year, and it also serves as a life insurance policy. A VUL is secret weapon that most Americans and Investment advisors don't know about. In any event, I'm taking a long term approach to investing. I want to get to the point where I can live off interest, and I should be able to do it within 10 to 15 years.
I'm not sure if I'm old enough. But either way, I don't have money - when I do though I'll definately invest in something. Unless drasticly bad things happen to GOOG, then I'll be buying those shares.
IMHO, shares are over-rated. I usually just use the money I have to buy more sites and establish my presence on the net. I'd try to do day-trading as a hobby but won't take it seriously until I have 2 mils.
I never take anything where chance is concerned seriously so I'd never live my life solely dependent on surviving off income from shares, so I'd probably do it as a hobby to.
In my opinion, it is best to take a long term approach. The reason why a lot of people lose money in the market is because they are trying to get rich quick. When you invest, you can select your level of risk. If you are young, you can split your investments into secure, moderate, and risky. If you start making the proper investments while you are 20, I believe you can become financially independent by 35 or 40 if you save your money.
I'd go for real estate for passive income, well they say god isn't making anymore land. Stocks are just too volatile IMHO but I know some people are making a fortune from them.
Seconded, I also wanna get into the real estate business. I wanna do a lot of things with my life, xP
Another vote for real estate I'm very grateful to my husband for getting us involved in it. Shares have always let us down. BTW: check out PropertyTalk for articles and a forum for investors - anything sales related is tucked away in "caveat emptor".
As the safe goes, it is as safe as houses. In Australia, Real Estate always goes up, over time. And you earn rental income. Its great if you have 1-2-or 3+ houses. You live off the rental income every month. Its slow but it definately works over time.
Sure does, and even if something drastic happens like floods that wash it all away there's insurance to rebuild. Shares don't have that protection.
I buy any stoc if I like the stock. I am a big fan of googstock because I KNOW it will go to $700 soon. They make far too much money off adwords advertisers to not go higher. I also invest in bulletin board stocks with great success.