How would you invest your money?

[lbeels]

My husband and I just met with a financial planner and we are planning on a few different investment accounts. I have read many different articles on how to be ready economically but I get confused and I need to reread everything. I can't help but feel like whatever we do we are going to lose our money. I don't understand the economic downturn that is happening and I know that I need to get a basic understanding of it all and also read through many of these threads and posts here on the subject.

For now, how would you invest your money in these times?

BTW, precious metals is one thing we want to invest in (gold and silver). If we do this do we keep it on hand ourselves or wait until things potentially get really bad before bringing it home.

Any advice would be appreciated. :)

[Beeferoni]

The first thing you need to figure out as a couple is what you're investing money for.

Retirement?
Children's education?
Downpayment for a home?
Other?

Knowing what you're investing for can help you determine how much risk you want to take.

You can invest money in relatively non-risky things, but those tend to have the lowest return on your investment.

You can invest money in high-risk things, which can have a very high return, but can also go belly up.

Depending on your age, you may want to be riskier. If you're young, you may want to take on some risk, because if you lose you've got longer to make it back up. If you're closer to retirement, you might want to be more conservative.

[Purplelinny]

Gold :nod

[Beeferoni]

Gold may or not be a good investment for you right now.

Clearly, if you already have a lot of money invested in gold, things are going pretty well for you.

But gold is at an all-time high right now. If you invest in gold right now, there is a good possibility that your investment will decrease in value (i.e., you'll lose money) as the price of gold comes back down.

You should only invest in gold right now if you assume that gold will continue to rise in price. I wouldn't be so sure, as it is at an all-time high already.

[Joseph The Carpenter]

Ammo:pound

[Issachar]

Gold is at an all time high because the dollar is at an all time low. We can't know for sure how the manipulators of our "free economy" will act, but imho, the dollar will continue down and consequently, gold will continue up. Some speculate $2000 per ounce. A year ago I wouldn't believe that price but now ....??? A year ago I would not have believed oil at over $90 dollars this Fall either ......

The times they are a changin' ...

Issachar

[WiseSheep]

I'd fetch some gold if it falls back down to around 650 an ounce. Silver is more stable it appears. Go check out apmex dot com. The whole mess is goin crazy right now though.

[Issachar]

All the markets today are waiting on seeing what the fed will do tomorrow with rates. (talk about (worldly) power!) If they go lower, which is sounding likely, gold will go up more because the dollar will come down more.

Issachar

[Waratah]

I understand your position. My husband and I were in that position not so long ago. I don't know exactly your current position but we worked to pay off everything but the house. We followed Dave Ramsey's plan (borrowed his book from the library) and boy does it feel good. Then my husband researched it all and we set up our own mutual funds. Our financial planner had a rather different idea and so we quit using him. Also, we were able to save a bunch on fees he was getting from our business. We understand that we may lose, there is always that risk, but at least we have everything else taken care of. We also pay extra off the house as it is a decent investment in itself. We put money away for our retirement, our kids education and we have an emergency fund set up also.

[CHRISTinCheryl]

store up your treasures in HEAVENS...will be an amazing return on your investment :hat