Solid advice and today there are so many retail platforms that make this easy by buy ETFs. I take have my saving funds and invest.

my problem is trusting someone else with my money nowadays.

For all that money made a lot of money had to be lost you would think, when there is a drop in the market and billions are lost and the market goes up the next day is all good then or not?

The lesson is to invest in good companies and ignore the short term headlines

Yes the market will be down at time but it also recovers. I'm at 12% annual average over the last 15 years.

Don't time the market, trust the market.

Boy my financial advisers suck. My wife and I are lucky to get a annual return of about 5%

Just wen't over this within the past week. I wish I new more about managing my money. Is there a class I could take to learn more about doing this myself.

White I do understand investing in good companies and not paying attention to the whims of the everyday market. Just don't know how to do those things.

Well rest assured you CAN learn it. You might start with some very basic stuff. Maybe a subscription to Money magazine or similar. Also, Investopedia.com and Morningstar.com are other unbiased sources of education.

Just dip your toe in the water and learn some basic definitions. You can open an account with an online broker and make all of your own decisions or buy into an actively managed mutual fund or funds and let a professional call the shots. Whatever you are comfortable with

Ok food for thought. You put 15,000 in savings at .02 % You earn 30 dollars in a year . Go down the street and by the kids bike for 40 bucks and resale it for 70 made the same amount of profit and don't have all your money tied up. I know a bunch of wheeler dealers that have made millions that way.....

One difference is that you can't sell that bike every day

My parents opened a savings account for me in 1964, in doing so the bank gave you a Silver Dollar. No big deal - right, well one day I was looking at the card the silver dollar is in and popped it out to look at the back of it. The bank is advertising its interest at 4.75%, boy you would think after fast forwarding all these years the interest would be higher, not lower.

Don't forget you lose roughly 2% to inflation yearly as well.

They are an insurance and depending on ones viewpoint metals might not be the best.

In 1964 money was still backed by metals in some form and our federal debt was at a modest and manageable level. Fast forward to today where our money is debt backed. What do you think will happen the liquidity of the US gubbiment and the American consumers if interest rates go much above where they are now. How about housing and land prices? The median home price in the USA is near 300,000, median household income is at about 61k. No way will new home buyers be able to afford a home if interest rates were at or near historical level.

The FED has just announced they are pretty much done raising rates. It's only at 2.25 to 2.5 percent now, the world is addicted to cheap money and in my not so educated opinion the only reason rates have gotten this high is they need something in their arsenal to combat the next recession.

Interest rates don't make things much more expensive unless the lower rates drive up the values so much that 3% of 250K is more than x % of 180 k. The lending institution can not deal with massive drops in equity values of leveraged assets. Many consumers can not either as they use assets or net worth to borrow money or use as collateral.

Bryce

One thing we have seen from the recent government shutdown, is that Americans, and even ones with 'good' jobs (i.e. government jobs), are still living paycheck to paycheck. They have no short term safety net.

While it's good to have long term investments (stock market, etc), everyone needs to have short term, easily LIQUIDATED investments, as well, in the event of layoff, sickness/disability, or just life in general. Dave Ramsey recommends 3-6 months of living expenses be at the ready.

I have a multilayered system of personal finance, which includes savings accounts and short term CDs. IMO, the OP was interested in this type of investment, either not having the funds for long term market investments, not having the knowledge/desire for same.

To that end, why not max out whatever interest you can on this "emergency" type of accounts? Everyone wants to jump in with their success stories of the market, but again, the shutdown has clearly shown us, if you slice the American financial system down the middle- the majority cannot withstand more than 2 or 3 weeks of monetary stress.

It needs to be addressed.

RKG well said. In addition here is another problem . Personal finance is NOT taught at home and is NOT taught at home. Very troubling for the future.

Sorry second NOT is school. More important to take 3 yrs of a foreign language that most will never use.

Not to hijack the thread, but it really irks me when we are so easily distracted by what the news, or politicians, or whoever, want us to see and believe.

Forget the wall for a minute, either side of the argument-

Look at the personal financial trouble our countrymen, and by extension, we are in.

Look at the financial trouble our nation is in. I gave a presentation 2 weeks ago and asked if anyone could imagine what a trillion dollars looked like. Sparing all the details and build up:

If you stacked 100 dollar bills on a standard pallet (42x42) and went 3 feet high, a trillion dollars would fill a football field, including the endzones. Our current debt is $22 trillion- 22 football fields worth of 100 dollar bills stacked on pallets. Our current year deficit is another football field of stacked 100 dollar bills.....

How is this ever going to be mitigated? Who is ever going to bring it up? Everything, from BOTH sides of the aisle, is smoke and mirrors.

I like to keep a years worth of living expenses in short term cds and savings. I need to check these guys out.

This savings account I am referring to is my personal savings.

My wife and I have 4 accounts with this bank. One joint checking, all monies go to this account, one joint savings, her personal savings and my personal savings. This was my idea when we married so we could spend money on things the other doesn't approve of. We contribute to all of our savings accounts each month.

I am going to give Ally a try. Eventually may put some of our joint savings into a account like this.

I am going to try to waste less time online here and spend some more time learning on some of the sites White recommended.

Thanks all for the advice. We also buy 1 roll of silver eagles every year, I enjoy giving these as gifts to nephews and nieces.