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paradox in a box |
He’s been talking auto mechanics. But I’m not sure he’s sold. But you are correct. Carla’s would have sent him to school. He had an in there too. For some reason he didn’t take it. He’s working at his moms daycare now. I don’t like it as it’s not a long term option but it’s easy money for him now. He has a plumber option also but apparently doesn’t want to do that either. I’m being lenient on him now but he has maybe 2 years to do something before I wash my hands of it. These go to eleven. | |||
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| I swear I had something for this |
If I didn’t have a savings plan through my employer, I’d probably sign up for Acre Gold. Whenever you send in enough money, Acre sends you a 1 oz gold bar you can throw in the gun safe and sell whenever if you need money. It’s not like gold will ever be worthless. | |||
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| Left-Handed, NOT Left-Winged! |
Anyone can start an account with Fidelity or any other discount brokerage and invest in anything they like with after tax money. Gains are taxable and losses are deductible when you make a trade. There are plenty of income funds with a decent return that are relatively safe. Just avoid retail brokerages that front load commissions - 6% is common. | |||
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Drill Here, Drill Now |
Yes. I had seen your post. Like I wrote, no federal age limits so it could be used years from now. The OP's post 45 minutes after mine about already ending the 529 contributions and the kid having 2 years to shit or get off the pot would have certainly changed my post. Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer. | |||
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Ammoholic |
If he wants to go the trade route the best option for that would be a union shop for electrical or mechanical (HVAC), plumbing is also a good option and pays pretty well. Most mechanics don't make good money, very few do. I work in a data center, I landed my job there due to my electrical experience. They pay well and the internet isn't going away. I make pretty good money to babysit the infrastructure keeping the internet on. We hire licensed electricians, HVAC techs, former Navy Nuke guys almost exclusively. Worse case scenario if he goes the route I suggest, the schooling is free and no one is kicking themselves over wasted college tuition or trade schooling. If he hates it, he can simply walk away and do something else, no debt to pay back, no money of yours wasted. If he's in a decent sized city or suburb he could do his schooling from home so there's also no dorm expenses. Jesse Sic Semper Tyrannis | |||
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| paradox in a box |
I did an auto mechanic program out of high school. I'm trying to push him away from that. Working in a garage is not an easy job. It's greasy and rough. I think he has been blinded by the mechanic shows on tv where there are spotless garages working on custom cars. I keep telling him to go work in a shop before he decides to go to school for that. What really pisses me off is that his mom pushed him away from going to the local Vocational Tech school for high school. He would have had the opportunity to try multiple trades and then be way ahead when he graduated. These go to eleven. | |||
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Only the strong survive |
Maybe Vale with it's 16 percent dividend. 41 | |||
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| Experienced Slacker |
What if you put the $300/mo into a side hustle that interests him? At least for a little while, then invest it elsewhere as it suits you. Worst that happens is he figures out what he does and doesn't like along the way. | |||
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| paradox in a box |
This money is not his unless he goes to school. It's part of my divorce obligation. No school no money. Nevertheless, if he wanted money for something reasonable to start up, buying property or something, then I'd help him out. These go to eleven. | |||
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| Victim of Life's Circumstances  |
Buy junk silver or a commodities based etf. ________________________ God spelled backwards is dog | |||
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Lost |
Just off the top of my head, two possible options immediately suggest themselves... Simplest is the Money Market fund you're already considering. Easy to use, doesn't have to be monitored that much, funds are liquid in case you need the money or wish to save up for a different, larger investment. Downside of course is the relatively low return. A second option, especially since you're thinking of a monthly contribution plan, is to use a Dollar Cost Averaging strategy into a more aggressive investment, e.g. a mutual fund or even an individual stock. This is more risky, of course, but the DCA approach does have the advantage of being beneficial whether the share price is going up or down. You would choose the actual investment vehicle based on your specific risk tolerance. As I gather it, the use of a qualified plan of some type is irrelevant to the issue of what to invest in. Even if you did it as an IRA or 529 plan, for example, you still need to decide on the actual investment type (stock, bond, mutual fund, etc.) to purchase inside of it. | |||
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| Member |
Assuming the rest of your finances are healthy put the $300/month into guns, ammo, AR-15/pistol magazines and reloading components. Savings/CDs pay too little and the stock market is long overdue for a crash/correction. If the market for those things doesn't go up, no problem! Just enjoy using them. If it does go up, it'll likely outperform just about every traditional savings/investment instrument out there. | |||
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| Member |
At your age and income level, you should have an investment account outside your retirement funds. Period. I am not interested in investing in anything that pays less than the rate of inflation, which may be around 7% these days but can change quickly. So bonds and CDs are out. Even those I bonds. What you describe, $300 a month, is perfect for dollar cost averaging. It means that you will buy more shares if prices go down, and fewer shares when prices go up. Over long periods of time the stock market goes up, before inflation. Start an account at Schwab or Fidelity. Buy some of these ETFs. ASML Oil pipeline ETF pays a 7% disribution COWZ S&P Cash Cows pays a 1.4% distribution SMH Semiconductors pays .5% SPSM S&P Small Cap pays 1.5% SPY S&P 500 pays 1.2% QQQ NASDAQ 100 stocks pays .4% Or buy some of these stocks AVGO computer chips pays 2.7% BX Blackstone private equity pays 3% BXMT commercial mortgage lender pays 8% GOOGL Google pays 0% MSFT Microsoft pays .8% TM Toyota Motors pays 2.3% Start with ETFs. Don't put over 10% (at first, later 5%) of your funds in any one stock. Each month buy what is cheap. Any stock will go up and down in the short run. GOOGL and MSFT have been hard to beat. GOOGL is up 39% in the past year, and MSFT is up 26% over the past year, but is down 9% in 2022. Because of price fluctuations I don't pay much attention to dividend yields. I was very disappointed with AT&T and Verizon, which had high dividends and very poor price performance. No one will totally agree with me, but the question was how would I invest $300 a month, and there you have it. Additionally, please consider that the current regime wants to make child care free. There will be fortunes to be made in child care, my friend. Your son may be smarter than you realize. ---------------------------------------------------- Dances with Crabgrass | |||
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| paradox in a box |
Thanks for this advice. I'm not sure I'm savvy enough to follow it. I didn't even know what an ETF was. This looks like something I'd have to be following often and I'd also have trouble knowing what stocks to pick, other than the usual big companies you mention. But I will do some research. On the daycare front, my fear is that if the government makes it free, it will be just more public schools. They won't be paying private daycares, they will be opening public ones. These go to eleven. | |||
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| Member |
An ETF is an Exchange Traded Fund. It is the modern version of the mutual fund, with some significant advantages. The ETF buys a group of individual stocks, giving you diversification, which reduces risk. For instance, the SPY owns shares of each of the 500 stocks that make up the S&P 500, the largest companies. The ETF is administered by State Street Global Advisors, and they charge a very reasonable .09% expense ratio. You can research ETFs and stocks at CNBC(dot)com. Type the symbol in the search field. Under profile, there will be a list of stocks owned by the ETF. For SPY the largest holdings are Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Tesla. There are also charts that show how the ETF price fluctuates. There are at least two significant advantages to ETFs over mutual funds. 1) ETFs do not generally generate capital gains distributions, so you will not have taxable capital gains income until you sell the ETF. https://sigforum.com/eve/forum...0601935/m/2170067884 2) ETFs trade all day long. Mutual funds are priced at the end of the trading day at net asset value. So when you buy or sell a mutual fund you don't know what the price is until after the day is over. If you want to buy a mutual fund that closed at $100 the prior day, you may end up paying $101 or more when the trade is priced. With an ETF you can put in a limit order to buy or sell at an exact specified price. ---------------------------------------------------- Dances with Crabgrass | |||
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| Member |
The rules for a 529 are pretty generous. Got any other kids ? They can use the funds. Kid never decides to go to any post high school education? No prob take your lady on a trip to Italy for cooking lessons. People do it all the time. as of now the IRS has not cracked down on the 529 and it’s the Wild West. With the volatility in the market I would not be adding new money to a mutual fund or ETF that I may need in 24 months or less. Excess Cash needs to go in a boring old online money market. If you get 1/2 of 1 percent on cash your right at the market. | |||
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