Need suggestions on investments for return of about 15%

[aseoane]

I am refinancing a property and I would have 100k to 120k available that I would like to invest smartly. I was hopping a return of about 15% :D . I am open to suggestions on different types of investments, mutual funds, stocks, etc. I would really appreciate your suggestions :P . Thank you

[jacobnbr1]

I am refinancing a property and I would have 100k to 120k available that I would like to invest smartly. I was hopping a return of about 15% :D . I am open to suggestions on different types of investments, mutual funds, stocks, etc. I would really appreciate your suggestions :P . Thank you3

you will need to get with optimus. he handles alot of other peoples money. he does this for a living and diversified is his middle name. he is a platinum nugget here. my suggestion is follow every word he says. i am sure he will comment. i will be reading up on his advice for i have some cash i need to place somewhere at low risk or or value. i only play with a percent of money i can throw away and say i dont care. the rest is in fort knox. welcome to the forum and besure to check out chartguru's quick pop trades.make sure you paper trade them first to get a feel of what he does. :D

[optimus25]

Thanks for your kind words about me jacobnbr1. As you've already described I'm all about long term, diversified investing. A solid portfolio is not built on a single group of stocks but an asset allocation mix tailored to our specific investment environment. At the end of the day, I can sleep well knowing that I've helped my client's diversify their portfolio.

Investing is also about having fun, suggested only for a small percentage of your portfolio. Haha chartguru's picks are fun for trading and I highly recommend following his oversold technical charting strategy. I've been following them, since he's gotten on board, and made some money paper trading and trading his picks.

Now back to the task at hand, investing 100-120K:
aseoane glad to have you on board. 15% is easy...but you've got to take a lot of risk. If we did a simulation of the likelihood you will get 15% annual returns, you'd probably find that the probability is really low unless, you take on more risk. With that said you will need to set your sights lower because as we all know, nothing is certain...especially with this market. We are at a precariously tricky time for investing. If you've been following the market you will know that there are a lot of potentially negative catalysts that can cause the economy to tip over into recession. Energy & gas prices, rising interest rates, housing bubble, inflation (I thought i'd add this one since the Fed is making such a big hubbub about it) more natural disastors. You really need to be able to stomach all the volatility.

Continued...

[optimus25]

aseoane I don't know what your current goals are aside from investing your money and trying to get a 15% return but I really try to get into more detail with my clients. Since I can't do that on this forum I offer you the following:

Safer Investment options:
1. Cash/Cash Equivalents - ING Orange Savings 3.4% Money Market & 4.2% 1 year CD.
2. Fixed Income Domestic - LQD (corporate bond index) around 4.8% yield. AGG (Broad US Bond Market) around 3.9% yield.
3. International Bond Funds (emerging market bond funds) as a hedge against rising interest rates in the U.S. since they will be unaffected by our monetary policy. They have been doing pretty well the past year in terms of total capital gains and yield. I see some 20%'s - TRowe Price looking good.
http://biz.yahoo.com/p/tops/eb.html
4. If you are in a high tax bracket then you might want to look into Municipal Funds in Florida which are exempt from federal and state tax. Check the link, returns and yield look great. http://biz.yahoo.com/p/tops/fl.html

I don't know if its a good idea to get into stock positions at the moment until we have an idea of where our economy is headed, so I don't recommend it unless you find good buying opportunities. I hope that there are more buying opportunities ahead. Stick with some of Cramer's big name picks as they will probably experience less volatility. Names like JNJ, UNH, COH, & PG. If you don't like individual names look into Index ETF's such as the SPY & QQQQ.

I like BAC & VZ because they've been getting hammered recently and both are almost yielding 5%. I'm probably going to be increasing my fixed income holdings with emerging market and international bonds and preparing my cash for adding on to some stock positions if prices drop further. Good luck, its a jungle out there.

[optimus25]

...continued. Almost forgot to include a generic long term allocation for your money:

10% - Cash/Cash Equivalent
15% - Bond ETF's (LQD)
15% - International Bond Funds
10% - Small Cap Fund
20% - Growth/Tech weighted Fund (QQQQ)
30% - Large Caps (SPY)

Hope this helps.

[TheChartGuru]

Optimus thank you for your post. You obviously took a lot of time and put in a lot of effort for that reply. Very concised.

The Guru has spoken

[aseoane]

...continued. Almost forgot to include a generic long term allocation for your money:

10% - Cash/Cash Equivalent
15% - Bond ETF's (LQD)
15% - International Bond Funds
10% - Small Cap Fund
20% - Growth/Tech weighted Fund (QQQQ)
30% - Large Caps (SPY)

Hope this helps.

I like what you have proposed. This information is very helpful. I am also a little bit skeptical about investing in stocks at this time because of the same reasoning you mentioned. Thank you again 8) and I would do some more homework. What do you think about the Vanguard Mutual funds as possible investments to get that return?

[optimus25]

If you're income allows, and assuming that you are self employed, I would look into setting up a qualified plan for tax purposes. Vanguard is a good choice, but I also like Fidelity, and American Funds. It doesn't matter where you go but I would suggest opening a brokerage account because you'll have more choices in terms of buying different funds, stocks, etc. As opposed to going with 1 fund company and only being able to access their product offering.

I posted a 3-part post. Did you look at the muni funds and fixed income choices?

[Brewbro21]

Also look into T. Rowe Price, a very good mix of funds that are very highly rated. Plus the fees and expenses are very low.

[Will]

great helpful post.
Anyone have any suggestions on some high yield international bond funds? :lol:

[optimus25]

For High Yield Int'l Bond Funds Check out the links I posted above from yahoo finance.

[Affirmed]

Canroys are where its at, also check out ZTR.