5 ms·

Ask HN: How do you invest?

5 points by thewarrior 12y ago

kelukelugames 12y ago
poorly. now i just buy aaa bonds and sp500. lost too much gamblin' alreafy.
mnort9 12y ago
Haven't used it yet, but I'm intrigued by WealthFront.
- adamnash 12y ago
  I'm CEO at Wealthfront. Saw your note - check out our whitepaper. It's full of information on how to allocate assets (both taxable & tax-deferred accounts), and which ETFs are the cheapest / best index funds. You can use the info yourself, or have Wealthfront automate it for you. https://www.wealthfront.com/whitepapers/investment-methodology https://www.wealthfront.com/whitepapers/investment-methodolo...
dangrossman 12y ago
Of the money I invest -- 25% in Vanguard dividend growth index fund 25% in Vanguard total stock market index fund 25% in Vanguard total bond market index fund 25% in stocks I chose myself
majurg 12y ago
bitcoin
OGiR 12y ago
I personally own (not through a broker) shares in a diversified portfolio of companies, all of which offer Dividend Reinvestment Plans with optional cash purchases of additional shares directly through the company's transfer agent. This means that I pay no fees when purchasing additional shares for my DRiPs, in fact, a lot of the companies I invest in offer discounts on shares purchased through their Share Purchase Plan. I mostly invest in large companies that pay reasonable dividends with long histories of stability and dividend payments/increases. My goal is to almost never stop buying, making use of dollar cost averaging, and earn a safe return that ought to still beat the market in order to save for retirement/other future investments.
- PhantomGremlin 12y ago
  Buying DRIP stock has a lot of tax complexity. You establish a new cost basis for stock with every dividend you receive. I.e. 4x a year. Above all, the importance of recordkeeping cannot be overstated. Unlike other tax-related documents, DRIP statements, recording all reinvestments and OCPs, should be kept indefinitely. [1] But if you die and leave everything to your heirs, all is forgiven. They get a brand new tax basis and it no longer matters when you bought. [1] https://finance.yahoo.com/education/drip/dspp_plans/article/101139/Tax_Considerations_of_DRIP_Investing https://finance.yahoo.com/education/drip/dspp_plans/article/...
  - OGiR 12y ago
    Thanks for the advice. It is important not to overlook the downsides of any investment strategy, and I do keep very diligent records. The downside to DRiPs as you mentioned is the amount of paperwork you have to do and the difficulty in selling. For me, however, I am willing to incur that cost for the upsides which are particularly maximized by my personal situation. I am not sure about how difficult US taxes are, but in Canada they are fairly straightforward for someone adept at math and logic.
akuma73 12y ago
Read about asset allocation and mean variance optimization. The rest will follow.
panorama 12y ago
Betterment and Bitcoin speculation for the most part. With the right knowledge, you can certainly outperform Betterment, but as a programmer I'm content just outsourcing that and saving that time for other things (like getting better at programming, for example, which implicitly earns me money as well).
marioluigi 12y ago
The Taleb way - 90% in debt instruments and 10% buying options for the black swan event.
lutusp 12y ago
I don't know your reason for asking, but if it's advice you're after, avoid investment counselors, and invest in index funds. Here are the reasons: http://arachnoid.com/equities_myths http://arachnoid.com/equities_myths Warren Buffet has chosen index funds as the basic approach for his estate and relatives after he's gone.
th1agofm 12y ago
I'm a buy & hold stock market investor in companies which have good management, care about the shareholders and of course, good balances. I use the simple strategy of (1 - my_age)% in the stock market and the rest in fixed income funds(or less risky investments, including some hedge in gold and dolar due the fact that I live in the third world and currency fluctuations happen frequently). It's funny because even though I work with software development, I don't have much interest about internet companies(read FB, TW and so on). The other sectors in the industry are less of a gamble and I like that.

5 points by thewarrior 12y ago

kelukelugames 12y ago

poorly. now i just buy aaa bonds and sp500. lost too much gamblin' alreafy.

mnort9 12y ago

Haven't used it yet, but I'm intrigued by WealthFront.

adamnash 12y ago
I'm CEO at Wealthfront. Saw your note - check out our whitepaper. It's full of information on how to allocate assets (both taxable & tax-deferred accounts), and which ETFs are the cheapest / best index funds. You can use the info yourself, or have Wealthfront automate it for you. https://www.wealthfront.com/whitepapers/investment-methodology https://www.wealthfront.com/whitepapers/investment-methodolo...

dangrossman 12y ago

Of the money I invest -- 25% in Vanguard dividend growth index fund 25% in Vanguard total stock market index fund 25% in Vanguard total bond market index fund 25% in stocks I chose myself

majurg 12y ago

bitcoin

OGiR 12y ago

I personally own (not through a broker) shares in a diversified portfolio of companies, all of which offer Dividend Reinvestment Plans with optional cash purchases of additional shares directly through the company's transfer agent. This means that I pay no fees when purchasing additional shares for my DRiPs, in fact, a lot of the companies I invest in offer discounts on shares purchased through their Share Purchase Plan. I mostly invest in large companies that pay reasonable dividends with long histories of stability and dividend payments/increases. My goal is to almost never stop buying, making use of dollar cost averaging, and earn a safe return that ought to still beat the market in order to save for retirement/other future investments.

PhantomGremlin 12y ago
Buying DRIP stock has a lot of tax complexity. You establish a new cost basis for stock with every dividend you receive. I.e. 4x a year. Above all, the importance of recordkeeping cannot be overstated. Unlike other tax-related documents, DRIP statements, recording all reinvestments and OCPs, should be kept indefinitely. [1] But if you die and leave everything to your heirs, all is forgiven. They get a brand new tax basis and it no longer matters when you bought. [1] https://finance.yahoo.com/education/drip/dspp_plans/article/101139/Tax_Considerations_of_DRIP_Investing https://finance.yahoo.com/education/drip/dspp_plans/article/...
- OGiR 12y ago
  Thanks for the advice. It is important not to overlook the downsides of any investment strategy, and I do keep very diligent records. The downside to DRiPs as you mentioned is the amount of paperwork you have to do and the difficulty in selling. For me, however, I am willing to incur that cost for the upsides which are particularly maximized by my personal situation. I am not sure about how difficult US taxes are, but in Canada they are fairly straightforward for someone adept at math and logic.

akuma73 12y ago

Read about asset allocation and mean variance optimization. The rest will follow.

panorama 12y ago

Betterment and Bitcoin speculation for the most part. With the right knowledge, you can certainly outperform Betterment, but as a programmer I'm content just outsourcing that and saving that time for other things (like getting better at programming, for example, which implicitly earns me money as well).

marioluigi 12y ago

The Taleb way - 90% in debt instruments and 10% buying options for the black swan event.

lutusp 12y ago

I don't know your reason for asking, but if it's advice you're after, avoid investment counselors, and invest in index funds. Here are the reasons: http://arachnoid.com/equities_myths http://arachnoid.com/equities_myths Warren Buffet has chosen index funds as the basic approach for his estate and relatives after he's gone.

th1agofm 12y ago

I'm a buy & hold stock market investor in companies which have good management, care about the shareholders and of course, good balances. I use the simple strategy of (1 - my_age)% in the stock market and the rest in fixed income funds(or less risky investments, including some hedge in gold and dolar due the fact that I live in the third world and currency fluctuations happen frequently). It's funny because even though I work with software development, I don't have much interest about internet companies(read FB, TW and so on). The other sectors in the industry are less of a gamble and I like that.