O/T Questions

[zidane1strife]

Ok, what is Be OS? I know it's an operating system, but what does Be stand for?

I was told there were Roth IRAs which payed 15% interest... now I've looked around here, and the best I've found is 4.5%... WTF?!?

Need help, thanks in advance.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

I was told there were Roth IRAs which payed 15% interest... now I've looked around here, and the best I've found is 4.5%... WTF?!?

A Roth IRA is just a "wrapper" around the underlying investments.

I don't know what exactly you were told by whom, but I suspect it was either

1) A scam or
2) They were telling you past performance over some specific period of time, which doesn't tell you anything really important

I'm sure you could find a Roth IRA that has a "history" of a 15% annual return between any given set of dates, (just like you can find individual stocks or mutual funds with those return rates) but I'm quite sure that you won't find anyone guaranteeing future returns of 15%....in any market.

In today's environment, 4.5% sounds about right for a long term "low risk" investments that are set up to protect the initial capital.

 

[zidane1strife]

In today's environment, 4.5% sounds about right for a long term "low risk" investments that are set up to protect the initial capital.

Hmmm, well many banks over here have the initial investment and the interests insured, so what I really want is the best returns.

I'll try searching again... so thanks.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Hmmm, well many banks over here have the initial investment and the interests insured, so what I really want is the best returns.

Don't we all.

I will save you the trouble though. You will not find ANY investment that guarantees 15% return in today's market.

Question: How old are you? If you are no where near retirement, you are probably best off investing your Roth IRA money into equities (stocks). Most "banks" are probably the worst place to take out a Roth IRA for long-term investment.

 

[Gubbi]

Hmmm, well many banks over here have the initial investment and the interests insured, so what I really want is the best returns.

Don't we all.

I will save you the trouble though. You will not find ANY investment that guarantees 15% return in today's market.

Anything short of Pablo Escobar Inc.

Cheers
Gubbi

 

[RussSchultz]

In today's environment, 4.5% sounds about right for a long term "low risk" investments that are set up to protect the initial capital.

Hmmm, well many banks over here have the initial investment and the interests insured

Banks do not insure investments, they insure deposits.

These are two separate things.

Investments are where you buy shares of whatever investment vehicle. The current value of these shares may go up or down. The bank and/or government will in no way protect you from losses.

Deposits are where you give money to the bank for safe keeping. The bank may pay you interest on the money because they use it while its in your account.

You won't find any interest bearing deposit account that pays more than several points below the prime lending rate. Currently, that means ~2% at best.

Don't believe anybody who tells you your investment is insured, or that you can't lose money. Especially if they're suggesting interest rates that are greater than 5%, unless you're in a period of hyper inflation.

edit: removed a repeated word repeated word

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Don't believe anybody who tells you your investment is insured, or that you can't lose money. Especially if they're suggesting interest rates interest rates that are greater than 5%, unless you're in a period of hyper inflation.

On that note, it will be interesting (perhaps scary is a better term) to see what happens to some "safe" money market accounts if the Fed cuts rates again later this month as is currently anticipated.

 

[zidane1strife]

Question: How old are you? If you are no where near retirement, you are probably best off investing your Roth IRA money into equities (stocks). Most "banks" are probably the worst place to take out a Roth IRA for long-term investment.

Don't worry, I will never retire. Thanks for the bank advice. Now How could I purchase equities/stock? I don't want to pay anyone(broker/ameritrade/gov./ taxes/ the like), and I'm not sure of where I could purchase them. Can It be done online for free?

Don't believe anybody who tells you your investment is insured

Well the bank's Roth info/pamphlet indicated that all deposits and interests are insured... but they probably do pay low interests(I've not asked for these at actual banks.).

PS what about the Be OS? what is Be?

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Don't worry, I will never retire.

Heh...seriously, the reason I asked your age is to get an idea of the investment time horizon. The earliest you can withdraw money from a Roth IRA without penalty is 60. (If you think you'll need the money before then, you shouldn't be considering any IRAs at all.)

So if that's 20 or more years away or 5 years away, it makes a big difference in how most people would recommend you invest the money. (Individual Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, money markets...)

Thanks for the bank advice. Now How could I purchase equities/stock? I don't want to pay anyone(broker/ameritrade/gov./ taxes/ the like), and I'm not sure of where I could purchase them. Can It be done online for free?

Heh...nothing is for free. Whenever you buy shares or "deposit" money and get interest, any "fees" are generally incorporated into the returns that you get.

As for Tax Treatment....

Earnings on investments / deposits in Roth IRA accounts are tax free. Again though, this is assuming you make no withdrawls before age 60. I think you might be confusing an IRA "account" with an actual investment. (You also must meet certain eligibility requirements...if you make too much income, you can't contribute to a Roth IRA account.)

A Roth IRA account is one in which all the investments have tax-free earnings. The IRA account can contain stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or be more or less a "deposit" account like a savings account.

The "investment options" that are offered depend on the institution in which you open the IRA account with. With many small banks...there are no investment "options", you put your money in, and then the returns are more or less set by the bank...similar to a savings account. And as Russ indicates, they will typically be a percentage point or two under the prime lending rate. (Though they may be higher if they stipulate a minimum investment time frame).

If they guarantee your deposit (probably up to FDIC insured levels), then you will get a relatively low return. Such is the trade-off of risk / reward.

You might want to look into sites like:

http://www.vanguard.com

Click on personal investors...and browse around the site in the IRA sections to educate yourself a bit on IRAs. Vanguard has their own mutual funds that you can buy if you open one of their Roth IRAs accounts. Or (I believe) you can open an account through their brokerage service where you can age service which will allow you to buy / trade any publically traded stock to invest in an IRA.

 

[zidane1strife]

Heh...seriously, the reason I asked your age is to get an idea of the investment time horizon. The earliest you can withdraw money from a Roth IRA without penalty is 60. (If you think you'll need the money before then, you shouldn't be considering any IRAs at all.)

So if that's 20 or more years away or 5 years away, it makes a big difference in how most people would recommend you invest the money. (Individual Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, money markets...)

Weren't you allowed to take all your money, without the interests, out of your Roth to buy a house, expand your home... I read that somewhere.

As for the money, I was planning on keeping a small portion growing for one or two decades... the swordfish inspiration

edit:

Oh, and thanks again.

 

[BoardBonobo]

BeOS was a groovey little OS that was built entirely with multimedia in mind. The OS could stream video form the beginning and was incredibly fast at anything graphical. It certainly put Windows to shame.

I think it had a Unix like backend and used OGL for it's graphics. It died a death through lack of support but still runs on one of my PC's here. It was also bad at getting updated to handle new hardware. You can get news updates here

 

[zidane1strife]

thanks.

 

[BoardBonobo]

zidane1strife, I see you live in the land of enternal youth! Are you Irish by any chance?

 

[zidane1strife]

Are you Irish by any chance?

Nope.

But isn't my homeland great, I liked last year's vacation to an 'Alternate' dimension.

edtdii

 

[nutball]

Ok, what is Be OS? I know it's an operating system, but what does Be stand for?

AFAIK the 'Be' didn't really stand for anything. Possibly Belgium (wasn't the head of Be Belgian? Or it was thought up in Belgium? Or something>), or "just BE man!", but not really anything deep.

I ran BeOS for a year or so, it was a very cool OS, some very nice ideas. It went the way of almost all other operating systems which were cool and had nice features. Hopefully some of the ideas will make their way into Linux, but I'm not holding my breath.