Invest

Opened a CD account, interest rates are going up so it makes it a decent place to park extra money that isn’t doing anything else specific. It’s a sure thing that gives you better returns than just a savings account. Hopefully I can avoid needing the money, and just keep rolling them over as they mature, and even add to it.

At this point, this goal is really close to being done. I now know exactly what I’m going to do by the end of the year, and have a plan for next year too. After that, I’ll see what happens.

And funded for last year & this year. That’s a good start on my long term planning. I have a finacial institution taking care of all of it for me. Which costs a little more than say going with a no frills broker & picking no load mutual funds but this process of trying to get some money invested has taught me one thing: That I really really don’t have the time to pay attention to all of this stuff, that it really is better to pay someone who does this kind of thing for a living. The trick is to shop around a little and find someone you can trust.

• Merrill Lynch isn’t for starting out—fees are prohibitive for accounts less than 150k but the rep I talked to was very helpful & patient, and gave me some recomendations of other places
• TD Waterhouse seemed mid size but I didn’t get a good feeling when talking to thier representitve.
• Waddell & Reed wasn’t all that verbose, may have just been who I talked to but he didn’t seem interested in telling me about thier services (was recommended by Merril Lynch guy though)
• Schwab seems about the best I talked to so far—they were friendly & informative on the phone, they don’t work on commission so he wasn’t being pushy, they have local offices & the fees are pretty minimal. They’re my current default pick. Unless I find someone better I’ll go with them

I have some smaller local companies to talk to—some that work mostly on referrals. They’re possibly smaller and more attentive to the details. Kind of like a secret club where you gotta know the secret handshake to get in. Something about that is kind of appealing since I think it might be possible to get better results than with a larger company who is more concerned about producing moderate results for everyone.

I’ve been reading some material to help with where to begin. “How to invest $5 to $5,000” was a pretty helpful book. It’s small but explains many investment options in clear, plain language. However given all that, I still think I’ll start by getting some profesional advice. When it comes to something as important as this then I think its worth it to pay a premium for expert help. Once I get started it’ll be easier to get the hang of where I should be putting my money & when, but it’s a little overwhelming to start.
I also feel like I’ve started late, and squandered more money buying unnecessary things than I should have so I’d like to make the time I have left really count. I certainly don’t want to be working for a living for the rest of my life! So the next plan is to come up with a list of “interview” questions for a financial advisor, then go to different well know, and well rated investment companies & see what they have to offer. Then I can choose one to plan my investments. Then I can learn from that.