Investments

[GRH]

I was curious what types of investments people have. I live America, so I have two essential types of accounts-- taxable and tax-advantaged retirement accounts.

Taxable Accounts

Emergency Reserves: I believe in keeping 4 to 6 months of expenses in a highly liquid savings account. This is for emergency purposes such as unemployment, car repairs, medical expenses, etc. I keep this money in an online bank where I maximize my interest payments.

Savings Bonds: I keep at least a few grand in US issue savings bonds. I have a mixed portfolio of EE and I series bonds. I had a few bonds mature last year that were from 1979/1980 and had collected lots of interest. Currently, my bonds are paying better rates than any bank is. I'd like to expand my portfolio to include some Treasury's and TIPS, but rates are too low on these products right now.

Stock: I started purchasing stock last year after markets had begun to slightly recover. I have a brokerage account where I hold some of my stock, while some of my other stock is held in DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Program) accounts. I have positions in Conoco Philips, DuPont, General Electric, Heinz, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft, Realty Income, Energy SPDR, and Utility SPDR.

Precious Metals: As a hedge against inflation, I have some money in precious metals. I have exposure to gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and rhodium. Much of my exposure is "paper" exposure, basically exposure which is subject to counterparty risk-- specifically I use Kitco pool accounts to hold some of my metal holdings. But I also have physical possession of a decent quality of collectible silver and gold coins.

Tax-Advantaged Retirement Accounts

Diversified Portfolio Mutual Funds/Annuities: The bulk of my retirement savings is in mutual funds held through Vanguard. My wife and I have retirement target date funds that are held through a Roth IRA structure. My wife also had a diversified portfolio of mutual funds and variable annuities through TIAA-CREF. The advantage to all of these funds is that they allow for foreign exposure, a mixed slice of domestic exposure, and exposure to the bond market.

Commodity Exposure: I have a percentage of my portfolio in commodity exposure, both in the form of a mutual fund which tracks commodity companies and through a commodity-linked ETF.

Real Estate: Similar to commodities, I also have an actively managed real estate mutual fund as part of my portfolio.

China/India: I'm overweight in my exposure to emerging markets, specifically, I have an additional 4% weighting to China and India regions of the emerging market landscape. I hold this exposure through a mutual fund at Matthews Asia Funds.

In addition to my current retirement portfolio, I'm looking to purchase a few shares of a dividend-growing company such as Coca Cola, McDonalds, 3M, etc. I haven't decided on the stock purchase as of yet, but I will be making it before too long.

[ila]

I have investments in:
Mutual funds - taxable
Company stock - taxable
Registered Retirement Savings Plans - nontaxable until I start withdrawing from it
Pension Plan - nontaxable until I start withdrawing from it
Nontaxable savings account - I don't pay taxes on the interest. I can only invest up to a certain limit each year
Saving & chequing accounts - I pay taxes on the interest

I don't buy bonds anymore although I used to quite regularly. I've never invested in precious metals. The market for that seems to be to volatile.

[shadows]

Originally Posted by ila

I have investments in:
Mutual funds - taxable
Company stock - taxable
Registered Retirement Savings Plans - nontaxable until I start withdrawing from it
Pension Plan - nontaxable until I start withdrawing from it
Nontaxable savings account - I don't pay taxes on the interest. I can only invest up to a certain limit each year
Saving & chequing accounts - I pay taxes on the interest

I don't buy bonds anymore although I used to quite regularly. I've never invested in precious metals. The market for that seems to be to volatile.

Too bad you didn't have a nice bit of gold right now, ila. You would be getting a pretty nice return on it.

[ila]

Originally Posted by shadows

Too bad you didn't have a nice bit of gold right now, ila. You would be getting a pretty nice return on it.

I would, but gold has risen before only to dramatically tumble in price. Right now the price of gold is too high to even consider buying any.

[shadows]

Originally Posted by ila

I would, but gold has risen before only to dramatically tumble in price. Right now the price of gold is too high to even consider buying any.

I agree. It would be crazy to attempt to purchase gold right now, especially with it's propensity to tumble down in price at the slightest provocation. That being said, it would be great to have had that gold before the huge rise and then sell it right now while it is so high.

[The Conquistador]

Gold for me.

If a complete collapse of the economy or a really bad depression ever happens, metals will be the most useful things to barter. Gold, silver, hell even copper or brass would be in high demand. Federal Reserve Notes and other things of the sort are play money; a chunk of gold carries far more weight(no pun intended).

Just lookin out for the longterm you know?

[GRH]

Originally Posted by ila

I have investments in:
Mutual funds - taxable
Company stock - taxable
Registered Retirement Savings Plans - nontaxable until I start withdrawing from it
Pension Plan - nontaxable until I start withdrawing from it

What stocks and mutual funds do you own ila? And regarding the pension plan, is that a company plan, or is it administered by the Candian government? And is it invested in stocks/market or how is it invested?

[ila]

Originally Posted by GRH

What stocks and mutual funds do you own ila? And regarding the pension plan, is that a company plan, or is it administered by the Candian government? And is it invested in stocks/market or how is it invested?

My pension plan is government. I don't know what it is invested in, but about ten years ago the government of the day took 30 billion out of the plan because they said it was surplus.

Stocks are in the company that I work for.

My mutual funds are with one of the biggest investment companies in Canada. The particular funds that I invest in are scattered throughout the globe. I changed my exposure a while ago so that I would get a higher rate of return even though there is more risk. Even so I've more than made up for any losses during the recent economic downturn.

[The Conquistador]

I had a chance to get some Krugerrands awhile back. Shame I didn't know what they were at the time.

[GRH]

In the past few days I've increased my exposure to two ETF's. I bought a position in SCZ, which is an iShares ETF that tracks the foreign small-cap market. In addition, I added to my exposure in XLU, one of the sector ETF's that follows the utlility sector of the S&P. In December, XLU increased their dividend payment by 5 cents a share which pushed the yield of the security back over 5%. Thus, it made sense economically to reinvest some of my dividends into XLU.