What to do With my Parents Money?

**eeloha** · 04-20-2008 11:04 PM

hey everyone, my parents have quite a bit of money saved up from work and they have no idea what to do with it. I tried to invest some of it into stocks for them but that didnt work out too well... (almost made some money, but didnt) They have a financial adviser but i feel like he is shady and doesnt know what he is doing. Can you guys help me out, what should they do, they are not in the age where they can start an actual business, maybe online if i run it for them... any help much appretciated

**stlsmoore** · 04-21-2008 12:44 AM

What about bonds issued by city governments? I thought I read something about many governments offering this and your almost guaranteed to receive your money back once the term is up with interest of course

**crackah** · 04-21-2008 12:47 AM

Originally Posted by stlsmoore

What about bonds issued by city governments? I thought I read something about many governments offering this and your almost guaranteed to receive your money back once the term is up with interest of course

May aswell just put it into a bank account and get interest if thats what you want.

The return in government bonds is very low as there is no risk.

**Richesta** · 04-21-2008 03:43 AM

Funds? You must begin somewhere. Read books, join forums and so on. You can't just give up your investments. Keep on put in money and you will be a winner in the length

**rejoice** · 04-21-2008 04:06 AM

throw a party

**Mega B** · 04-21-2008 04:37 AM

I find it amazing when someone comes onto a Forum and asks how to invest there parents life savings,please note i am not having a go at you but you also stated you invested some of the money and almost made some money from that statement i take it you lost some although that was not mentioned the answer is you either have made money or not !!!

If you suspect the advisor as not being in the interest of your parents why carry on using them,put the money into the bank and let it earn some form of interest while you decide on what to do in the future.I am not a financial expert but i would certainly spread the risk around a bit as you have said there is a fair bit of money involved so place a small amount in a high risk investment,some in maybe property or the equity market although these are down at the moment in the long run stocks and property have always out done inflation over time and the last say 1/3 into a high rate savings account yes the last option is very boring but also very very safe.

This is only my opinion and dont have all your eggs in one basket and remember money that your parents have saved have taken a long time to earn but can vanish very very quickly.

Seek multiply financial advice to reduce the risk of loosing all the money involved.

**eeloha** · 04-21-2008 01:31 PM

Thanks for all the advise guys, but i'm not as familiar as I'd like to be with most of those options. I'll def. read up on them but i'm in school and working full time so I dont have that much time to do research. My dad is thinking about investing in florida (homes), but my mom doesnt think its such a good idea... any advice on investing in florida or arizona?

**rogercbryan** · 04-21-2008 01:38 PM

eeloha- what type of education or experience do you have to be making these types of decisions for anyone? I mean if you have an MBA in Finance... or if you have 10 years of experience in real estate then we may be able to work with you more.

**jasaunders** · 04-21-2008 01:38 PM

If you don't know what you're doing, then you shouldn't be investing in real estate or any other risky investment that requires knowledge or expertise in a single industry.

Spend a couple hours researching ETF's and throw money in many broad ETF's with low expense ratios, along with money (up to $100k) in a high yield savings account or CD's or money market account or bonds. Once you know more about riskier investments, you could move money to those.

**eeloha** · 04-21-2008 02:13 PM

Thats exactly the problem, I don't know that much about investments, I wasn't planning on actually doing it myself. I just wanted some suggestions or ideas that I could relay to my parents who then will ask a financial adviser more about it. My parents asked me to see if I can find anything out about investing because they don't know too much about it either. Basically I just needed some ideas and once I have some then we could find the correct person to do it for us.

**jasaunders** · 04-21-2008 02:58 PM

A financial adviser may steer you towards loaded mutual funds, when you can do just as good on your own with low expense ETF's or no-load funds.

**rogercbryan** · 04-21-2008 03:39 PM

This whole idea makes me nervous... how much money are we talking?

**clp11479** · 04-21-2008 04:37 PM

Find a depressed housing market, purchase a 2 family home. Rent out both halves of the home which should cover the mortgage payment and provide you with some income. When the housing market rebounds in 5 years sell the house for a nice profit plus cash out the equity that you'll have in the house.

**eeloha** · 04-21-2008 04:52 PM

Thanks everybody, I guess we'll steer towards the housing market for now

**CDRamming** · 04-21-2008 09:05 PM

Buy a home thats on or close to a college campus, with the housing market low. I go to the University of Dayton that has a student neighborhood of like 800 houses. The school owns the majority and charges around $2000/semester/student. People are more than willing to pay. There are 3 bedroom houses with 6 kids living. $12,000 semester and possibility for summer rental at lower prices. Theres a house called the Mansion for sale only $1.2 million, with 8 guys living there At $2200 semester. Its your calling...Just kidding. The downside is you are a landlord for college kids, but we really dont care how bad the house is, as long as the parties are good.