[Poll] What percentage of your net worth do you have in investments?

Give me 100,000 ducks and I'll make it grow more.

 

I think this is what I got caught up on, personally.

I’m a pretty frugal person, so a lot of my income ends up accumulating in my checkings or savings account in the bank.

A typical savings account has like... 0.06% interest? So it sounds like you gain money to keep it in the bank, right?

But the problem is that inflation is 2.2% every year, so in reality, you’ve lost money ten years later by keeping it in a conventional savings account because your money devalues more every year than you gain from interest.

 

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If you are stupid enough to put them in the normal banks, but if you use online accounts as I mentioned above the rate of 1.30% is possible.

As for inflation, you are right that inflation rate is still higher, but it is still an investment in its own sense. Because keeping the money or spending it would depreciate larger than that amount. Just retaining your income in its own sense is an investment.

Investment also goes beyond just making short term returns. By having money in your savings account, you are insuring yourself against events that can derail your life. As I mentioned before, the biggest key to investment is having money on hand, when you have money on hand you get the opportunity to grow your money. Those who live in debt don't have this opportunity (Richer get richer, poorer get poorer)

Once you establish a safety margin for your lifestyle, you can then invest much smarter. Also having access to more money gives you privileges that let you save on money.

 

more like just for savekeeping ?
since interest on normal saving isn't interesting

 

What is still lives with family but has a job that pays minimum?

 

new grad here, so for now, my priority is to not have too much debt, while slowly earn and save money... I so envy people with fix income and stable lives..

 

Well,

there are about a couple of ways of thinking about this. If you bought a car for your business, you can calculate it as an investment against the cost of renting a car.

Frankly speaking, you have to be extremely diligent in calculating your investment. Say Real estate... some people just dont want to calculate the cost of mortgage rate, maintenance against the building rent. They just expect real estate to inflate in value. This is not so, and this is the reason of 2008 problems that are still lingering until today. I would say a real investment should make money no matter what, without you expecting to make the profit by selling the said investment.

 

Nice. I’m still at saving for 6 month emergency fund + a year of loan. May I also ask for future reference the least amount that I can start theough brokers cause from what I search, I will need atleast 10 grand to play with stocks.

 

that's why in my place used vehicle still sells like hotcake because the price differences between new and used a bit hefty, not to mention if you buy it in credit. well used vehicle have bigger maintenance cost though

 

Net worth?
Let's see... my laptop, my phone, my Light Novels, my coffee and tea stockpile, my savings. I have about 1500$ net worth I think. And 8000 dollar in my house property value

Investment?
Do paying for your imotous and otouto education can be called investment?
Then it's more than 30%

Luckily I have no student loan to pay at all, only house mortgage.

 

I'm currently supporting myself and two other people on an income that's just barely enough to support myself, so I don't really have the option of saving much right now. I do still put 4% of my paycheck into a 401k, but my debt (which is interest-free, thankfully) outpaces that.

In general, the current value is almost always more relevant than what you paid or the original price. More specifically, it depends on what you're calculating the worth for. For a business there are a lot of different goals to consider so deciding how to count everything gets complicated, but for a normal person who doesn't make a lot of money and wants a realistic idea of how much value they have, I'd recommend doing it this way:
Is it something that, if you didn't already have it, you'd need to buy it? Count what it would likely cost to purchase it now (or in the near future, if the price fluctuates quickly), or what you would gain by selling it and buying a cheaper alternative that will still serve your purposes, whichever is lower.
Is it something that, if you didn't already have it, you'd be fine without it? Count what you could reasonably get for selling it.

That's still a huge simplification, but it's at least a lot more realistic than just counting the retail price of everything.

That's not what the word investment means.

Money that is just sitting around isn't an investment, unless you're talking about an investment account with a bank. It's unlikely you'll find a checking or savings account that gives more than 2% per year (it's hard to even get a long-term CD that high these days), so if you keep everything in a savings account you're losing money due to inflation.

1.3% is well below inflation. Unless your only expenses are clothes and food, maybe, since those aren't currently rising as much as other things. If you own a home, chances are you'll need around 2.5% to outpace inflation, and your interest rate of 1.3% means that your money loses around 1.1% of its value every year.

Edit: All details here assuming US.

 

Just to note for all those in debt, or taking out loans, mortgages and the like. If you plan to pay off parts of your debt in advanced, be extra sure that you are paying down the principal, not the interest!

What most banks do is they resell your loans to other banks at a lower price. When that happens, the one buying your loan is most interested in you paying your loan and your interest, if you pay off the principal, they lose money. So what many banks do is if you pay in advanced, they automatically put it towards the interest, not the principal (which is stupid and hurts you financially). Be sure that if you pay parts of your loan in advanced, you are paying the principal.

Also, even if you are in debt you should save money, even if it is only 1$ a day/week. The habit of saving is important.

 

You just have to know the vehicle and at what year you have to buy them. Japanese cars usually have big maintenance fee after 3rd year. So if you bought a 6 months/1 year used car, you would profit a lot against buying a new vehicle. If you want to buy an older car, just look for one that has already been maintained and see how it drives. It would last to 6 years.

Just dont talk to me about other manufacturers ... My friend bought a peugeot once, he had to sell that sucker due to yearly maintenance part that would broken down due to faulty designs on the engine....

A friend of mine in a car door manufacturing industry in michigan said, Different manufacturers have different approach to things. Japanese manufacturer would look over a whole design if there are faults on the products that might have been a result of bad manufacturing process design. Americans would just send people to filter the faulty products and pressure the company.

Guess which company has more complaints?

 

(Well actually less considering the interest rate is taxed)

The money is not just sitting around, if I left it in my house doing nothing it would be sitting around. It's simply a low risk and low return investment.

As far as home goes, my home is in an area where prices are still going up.

But again, by having this money it opens up more opportunities for me. Which then lets me invest the rest of my money more freely with less risk.

Now what do I do with this money? I invest it into starting up multiple businesses which I am a part of. My latest investment got me so far about 1000% over 2 years.


Also a side note: You can make up for the inflation via credit cards. Plenty give 1.5% - 5% cashback on stuff.

 

I actually have around 70-80%
but that's cause I'm an asian living in asia, so I dont have substantial student loans like you US people~

as long as you only use up less than 50% of your periodic (monthly) income, and invest the rest (and keep re-investing) I think 80% is an easy number to achieve*)

*) if you dont have massive loans based on dreams and hopes and not actual financial capabilities

 

Do we need to count my nuffy?

 

they might be fully depreciated too

 

I vote ban this user, all he/she does is spam stupid polls.

 

10% today can save you for more than 10 years in the future, Investment is vital, but make sure you aren't investing in something that's likely to get lose value in the future.