Being a "go getter"I am a single 28 yr old first time home owner, no debt ,Pharma sales rep90k annual income.

What more can I do to add to my net worth and to maximize earnings and income. Not wanting to seem greedy, just want to capitalize my flexibility and want some advice. What can I do? Buy another home for investment purposes or invest in mutual funds, dont know what to do?? Thanks in advance!

Standard investment advice is that you should invest in a diversified mix of stocks, bonds, and money market funds. You want to buy a diversified portfolio of stocks as individual stocks are too risky. Most folks have a dificult time buying a properly balanced portfolio of stocks on their own. They will misbalance their portfolio by buying all small stocks or all growth stocks, or some other misbalanced assortment of stocks. Unless you know what you are doing, it is best to buy mutual funds. I like Vanguard.com, other people like Fidelity, TIAA-CREF, and DFA. Buy no-load, low cost funds. If you are like most people you will invest part of your money aggressively in stock funds, and part conservatively in money market funds and bond funds. Vanguard has an on-line questionnaire which will give you an idea of how to do "Asset Allocation," determining how much to put in each type of fund.

If your company offers a 401K plan at work, try to invest the most you can. The money grows tax free, and some companies will match your contribution. Investing in a mutual fund IRA is also a good idea. If you have children, you may want to consider a 529 plan or other college savings plan that grows tax free.

I like index funds. Because of their broad diversification, you are less likely to have a dramatic drop in value. They also have the lowest expenses. For stock funds, I would suggest putting ~70-80% of your money in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. and ~20-30% in a foreign stock index fund. However, there are many different opinions out there on what the best mutual funds are. Read the links below and form your own opinion.

Buying rental property can also be a good investment. However, being a landlord can be hard work, and many people are not good at it. If you don't know how to handle deadbeat renters, you can have trouble.

Believing advice you get on Yahoo answers can be risky, so read these websites for further information. If you find it too confusing, contact a professional financial advisor. They will charge you significant commissions, however.

Sources:

http://www.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/planningeducation
http://www.fool.com/school.htm
http://sec.gov/investor/pubs/assetallocation.htm
http://www.diehards.org/readsites.htm
http://finance.yahoo.com/education/begin_investing
http://finance.yahoo.com/funds/basics

Asset Allocation Calculators
(Determining how much to put in stocks and how much into bonds and money markets is a personal decision depending on your financial status. These Asset Allocation questionaires give you a rough idea how to do this. I like Vanguard best, but try some of the other sites as well.)
https://personal.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/FundsInvQuestionnaire?cbdInitTransUrl=https%3A//flagship.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/planningeducation/education
https://ais2.tiaa-cref.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects.exe/DTAssetAlcEval
http://www.ifa.com/SurveyNET/index.aspx

Web forum: http://www.diehards.org/
(Many investment web forums are overrun by scam artists. This one seems the most legitimate site.)

529 plans: http://www.savingforcollege.com

Yes you should definetely invest in some real estate. You should start with a four unit complex that way you can get financed up to 80%, Make sure you do your research to make sure that rent can cover at least 80% of the monthly expenses such as mortgage and maintance. Keep in mind that you should put some money away for major repairs which you will get at least 5-6 times a year with things that can range from a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars. Overall your investment can bring you plenty of future income. A comercial building will not increase in value as fast as a single family residence but you can always count a demand for it and making some serious money after 5 years. You should also consider getting some mutual funds.

um sorry but totally off topic, could you tell me how you got to make that much by 28? i've been thinking of things i want to do by the age of 30 and you can really help me out with this, sorry i have no answer to ur q. :)

suomi1988@comcast.net

o, i'm 19

ugh, i'm jealous lol. u are what i want to be when i'm 28.

Find a way to take your manager's job away from him, or bettter yet, figure out a way to become his boss.

It sounds like your on the ball. Why so bumbed out. A date? Don't worry so much. Hell, just get out and meet people. Just people...not girls to date. It will happen. And watch out for the gold diggers. Do something you are interested in and you will meet people who have similar interests. Girl's included!!!

congrats on the income, but you need to tell us how much money you are working with to invest. you obviously dont want to take a big loan on a piece of real estate, because that is risky and collecting rent on it wont be as much income as u think when your paying a lot of interest on it. real estate is almost always a good investment, but you need to find a good place to invest. mutual funds are always safe and return on average 5% a year. I recommend investing in both if you have money so you have a diversified portfolio.

see a goof financial counselor

Hi,

I think you may want to check this website out:

http://www.geniusbusiness.tk

Any questions, contact me

Depending on where your are located, real estate wholesaling is great right now. Buy a short sale at 55 sents and sell it a 65 cents to an investor. You make 10 cents onf the dollar in less than 60 days. On a $300,000 house that would mean $30,000. We are doing alot of them here in California. If you need information where you can learn about that email me. I don't think mutual funds are a good choice right now. We are due for a huge stock market crash. If you want to learn about htem, see if your local college has any classes. Not a good idea to buy units, they have not been a good deal for years. The rental income need to be at least 15% annual of the sles price. Also, not a good idea to keep any properties. Thisn are going to get way worse in 2008. Prices will keep dropping. The best to invest is in the euro against our dollar. Our dollar has lost over 100% in the last three years.

will you marry me/lol

Don't buy another home. I've heard that real estate should never be used as an "investment" because there are more reliable ways to increase your money (larger increases as well).

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