gfy banking/financial experts in here pls
 

lets say you have a lot of money in the bank and you wanted to invest it, but still keep it in the bank at a very low risk (aka, you cant lose any of the $$). what would you do here?

LOL... asking for experts.. I love it. Keep up the great work folks :)

Buy Gold :2 cents:

With economists predicting 2K an ounce by next year, possibly higher, it seems like a good bet.

Probably GIC

ive plucked tons of extremely valuable information from gfy. 40% of the time or more, there is one smart and applicable response that makes shifting through tons of idiot replies worth it ;)

economists predicted oil at $200 and USD vs EUR at 1.8

GIC ?

or US t-bills or eurobonds

You need to diversify your bonds, bitch. - Wu Tang Clan

But look into treasury securities. T-bills, notes, and bonds are as low risk as you can get in America. If you can't risk your principle at all, that's probably where you should start looking.

You could also wire it to me. :)

Thats what I wanted so I opened a CD ladder with ING. 4.50% locked in.

That's a foolish comparison, sorry.
If you don't see it .. don't invest in it.

you can also place money in Poland

banks there are giving like 9% per annum for 3 months deposits, or 7-8% per year on 12 months deposit (minus 19% tax)

the polish currency also lost like 30% against the USD in recent 3-4 months or so but in the long term it will get strongerr again very likely, as Poland approaches the date when the PLN will be replaced by the EUR
so you'd get the 7% per year and an additional 15% or whatever because the polish PLN you bought will be worth more in dollars one year from now

then again I don't expect anyone here without any ties to Poland to do it :upsidedow
the financial crisis is not felt there in any way (yet) though, at least when it comes to bank bankrupcties or similar problems

here's the USD vs PLN 5 year chart for reference - you can see the slow, long term deppreciation of the USD and the sudden appreciation (probably temporary) recently


http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/5y?usdpln=x

CDs, Bonds and T-bills often have guaranteed rates. For example you can go buy a 12 month CD at a bank that gets around 3-4% return. So you will get 3-4% on your money, but you have to keep it in that CD for those 12 months. You will be safe unless the bank suddenly goes out of business and even then CD's are FDIC insured so as long as you weren't over the max deposit amount for that bank you will be okay.

perhaps foolish, I'm not an economist

but I don't see gold reaching $2k next year
we can bump this thread next year and see who was right

If the dollar continues to be devalued as it is .. I will be right.
if the dollar miraculously recovers and everything works out, you will be.

I get paid in dollars :1orglaugh so I hope you're right.

I'm not sure I'd want to invest in anything USD right now, if the dollar falls flat so does your investment.

Time will tell...

didn't mean to come across like a jerk, my point about your comparison was that gold has had value ever since the biblical times and before..
Oil has been around for a few hundred years or less .. and the euro, only a few years.
If there's anything that's a safer bet in these economic times to keep value, I'd put it on gold.

lol yeah experts

lol i see lot of experts here.. waaa brr..
contact me if u are interested in invest program..

If you're talking millions, then U.S. govt bonds is likely the way to go.

If you're talking say a million or less, then bank CDs are a safe bet.

Ie. say you have $1 million ...

At minimum, you will need to open CDs at four different banks that are not affiliated with each other in any way.

For maximum safety, assuming the amount you have is much less than $1 million and/or have plenty of time to open CDs all over the place, then open each for no more than $90K.

Why $90K ... because, the $250K FDIC limit expires at the end of 2009 and reverts back to $100K.

CDs opened prior to then may be retroactively protected for more, but if one is seeking near 100% safety, it's best to assume they won't be; assume $100K.

The $90K number allows room for accrued interest, and ensures the CD will still be under $100K up through maturity.

Retirement accounts already was $250K even before the recent $100K increase for other types of accounts; expected to remain $250K even beyond 2009.

For more info, see the FDIC website.

Ron