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• St Lucia property investment?

  I will try and keep this in a nut shell. A friend has been given the opportunity to invest x amount of pounds from his pension fund into property being developed in St Lucia. The return from this investment would be x amount of pounds on the basis that 30% of the return goes back into his pension and the rest just goes into his bank account. Once he has made the investment apparently he owns x% of the property with the developer owning x% of the property, with my friend then effectively having to pay the developer x amount to pay off the rest of the property via a % of his return. Ultimately he will then have the option to sell the property for a nice profit or continue to rent it out.

  Sorry I am not great at explaining these things but has anyone else ever come across this kind of opportunity and is it too good to be true.

  Cheers.

   

• My Sister Needs Advice..about the best way to live on Social Security and invest 100K pension pay-out?

  She has 0,000 in pension funds and is retired on disability. What is the best way to invest that money to live on?
  She just got 100K in a lump sum pension pay out. She is already retired, has no debt at all and living on Social Security and a small pension. Her income is about 40K per month. She wants the 100K to last for ten years and wants to live as well as possible for the next five years, around (,000 month), she expects to cut her spending in last five years down when she won’t be able to do things things she wants to do now, (vacations,spend more on Grandkids, clothes, gifts, beauty maintenance, fun stuff). She lives in an apartment and does not own anything. What is the best way to advise her? She is not very trusting of financial institutions right now, but who is? Advice from regular people will help her decide how to work with a financial adviser later. What is a good rate of interest for investments these days? I should mention that she does not expect to live more than ten years with her illnesses so please no advice about a twenty year plan. She can live on Social Security and pension she has now if she lasts longer anyway. She is well covered for medical needs, by the way.Thanks for any ideas!.
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• Should I choose a Roth or traditional IRA?

  I am 27 years old and currently make -55k. I have a college degree, am in sales, and obviously expect to make quite a bit more money in the future than I do now. My wife contributes to a teacher pension fund, which is nice for her (and me too). My company has a Simple IRA (instead of 401k) that matches dollar for dollar up to 3% of my income. Right now I am only saving the 3% and need to improve that. I’d appreciate any expert advice from somebody who knows about investing. I always hear that the Roth IRA is the way to go because you have already paid the tax…but I feel I may net more money paying the tax as I withdraw in retirement. Thanks for any help!

   

• Should I choose a Roth or traditional IRA?

  I am 27 years old and currently make -55k. I have a college degree, am in sales, and obviously expect to make quite a bit more money in the future than I do now. My wife contributes to a teacher pension fund, which is nice for her (and me too). My company has a Simple IRA (instead of 401k) that matches dollar for dollar up to 3% of my income. Right now I am only saving the 3% and need to improve that. I’d appreciate any expert advice from somebody who knows about investing. I always hear that the Roth IRA is the way to go because you have already paid the tax…but I feel I may net more money paying the tax as I withdraw in retirement. Thanks for any help!

   

• Who/what makes up the typical stock market buyers?

  I’m trying to grasp who does all the trading on the major US Markets. for instance is it 70% pension funds, 20% hedge funds, 10% retail etc?

  When we here about " the market thinks this or that" it would be great to actually grasp what is making up that market, and then it might be a bit easier to understand their motivations / perspectives etc, as it certainly isn’t one amorphous being!!

  Thanks in advance for any guidance.

   

• What is wealth and property?

  Since we may be facing a world holy war and money invested in Pension Funds keeps dissapearing, what is wealth property?

   

• What are some advantages of investing indirectly in stocks and bonds via mutual funds and pension funds.?

   

• Is investing in stocks just gambling?

  I have to repeat my question as I didnt get any good answer.

  An investor in stocks doesnt have any real, practical stakes in the company. He cannot claim a divident, and his only profitability lies in the increase in the price of the stock, which again depends not on any stakes in the company, rather only the market sentiment. Moreover stock prices doesnt really reflect the company fundamentals, nor your money on stocks benefit the company either except in IPO, Rights issues etc. This might explain the wild swings in stock market without any rationale unlike in commodity prices. So is it that investing in stocks just a gambling?

  I am not talking about the risks here. I mean practically what value a share has, except what the market sentiment, another word for gullibility of masses, thinks it has? This is different from say the value of gold, which is used for ornaments and like. Also what benefit a company get if you dont buy stocks from it directly but rather from an existing buyer?

  Some may argue shares have book value which is ascertainable. BUt isnt this only of theoretical significance if you are not guaranteed that at any time? Doesnt the share price go even below book value during bad times? This shows that it has no intrinsic value, unlike gold which can at least be used as paper weight.

  My question is what ethical basis or productive function does the stock exchanging deliver? Some body’s windfall is simply another body’s pension fund.

   

• Should state pension funds speculate in commodities, driving up the cost of energy and food?

  A lot of state pension plans such as New Jersey and Californico are deeply underfunded because they have offered too much to too many people. For instance, in New Jersey, even part time workers are elligible for pension benefits. Now that they can no longer just raise taxes and float bonds, they are looking at other investments to make bigger returns.

  In the last 6 months they have invested billions in the commodities market, and the price of crude oil has doubled. Yet the government will not investigate or regulate this market. Could it be that the powerful teacher’s unions are making sure they don’t?
  Please don’t try to claim that an increase in investors speculating that the price of a commodity will not make the price go up. That is like saying that more oil supply will not make the price go down.

   

• Why do investment banks and banks give bad investing advices?

  Is it because of conflict of interest? My mom lost a lot of money in pension funds because of that? what is going on here? Do they sell based on commission they get from companies they are representing? How is this money useful for the funds?