Obviously a lot of factors come into play. Yes, many places require $3000 or so to even get into the fund. And the performance of the last 10 years sucks. I'm not current enough to know specifics of where to do it, but if you can get an index fund and stay in there for 20+ years (kid's college, retirement), then you'll see 8-12%. Over that kind of time, the major indexes (Dow, S&P, etc) have returned > 12%. http://www.fool.com/ddow/data/f4performancehistory.htm
-Matt >> WHERE are you getting 8-12% ??????? > >I'd like to know as well so I can throw money at those places when the >debts are paid down. One place I have a small amount of money parked >(initially invested $300) is prosper.com, a private-source lending >service. You can deposit money there and allocate funds to private >loans that others have applied for (which could be anything from debt >consolidation to home improvement). I've averaged a 14% return on the >ones that I hold there, but the total value of the funds I have in >there is pretty small so it isn't much in terms of dollars. Since >that site funds private loans, there is a chance you can lose money, >though if you spread your funds over enough of them the risk goes down >considerably. I believe they're touting the system average return at >about 10% right now. > >One person even told me that I should only pay the minimums on my debt >balances and put all the extra money into funding prosper loans since >I could earn a higher interest rate there than my debts are charging >me, so in terms of actual dollars you'd theoretically come out ahead >that way (i.e. earn more interest on invested funds than you spend in >interest being charged on the debt, though the amounts involved aren't >enough for me to get over the negative feelings that I get from >holding the debt). > >For now I'm just leaving the money that's in prosper where it is and >allowing it to earn the little bit of interest that it is. Every few >months I get enough funds back in my account from payments and >interest to fund another loan, so over time the interest will compound >and the account will just keep growing (assuming none of the loans >default). > >If there are other options to get 8-10+% returns that don't require >already having thousands of dollars to invest, I'm all ears. > > >-Justin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:335434 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
