Be me

>be me
>19 y/o
>Work at Denny's as a fucking dishwasher
>In the National Guard
>Been interested in investing money

I make about $25,000 a year working a shit job. Ive saved about 7,000 and can save $10,000 by the end of the year. If I keep going in 3 years I could have $30,000. Should I keep going or should I start investing in stocks and double/triple my money by taking a risk? Also I was talking to a financial adviser and he said I should split up $2,000, 50/50 one for stocks and one for bonds. I was thinking putting 2,000 in stocks, but I should diversify my portfolio. I wanna be more aggressive so I could have high returns. Any advice?

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unless you want to be a cook you should go active duty and quit your day job

also that guy gave you shit advice lol you don't need to put that much in bonds their returns are absolute garbage these days considering the low interest rates

Well I want to become a cop and Im going to go to college for criminal justice, and since im in the national guard I go to college for free. So I want to save as much money as I can right now. Once I get my license I will go and see if I can apply to the local post office. Active duty did sound promising one time but I had a plan. And yeah I know their returns are garbage, I knew I shouldn't have listened to him. Should I still put some in bonds, because I feel like I still need to diversify my portfolio.

>duty

LOL

Also a cook doesn't make that much either, they make about 11/hr. I make about 9.50 which is good for a starting job, but im looking for more especially since im 19, I need to start now so that when im 30 I don't have to be struggling to keep up. I want to live comfortable for the rest off my life.

Grab a bunch of straws and suck it up, OP. Keep doong what you're doing. Don't mske stupid risks. You're doing fantastic saving money, so keep it up. Your interest on it will grow, and you'll be laughing while your """friends""" beg for money from you. If you really want to, stop at 7k, and invest the last 3k of each year.

Yeah no, my interest sucks, but yeah ill keep on saving, hell ill probably do 2k instead of 3.

You don't need a criminal justice degree to become a cop. Try and apply for the police academy without going to school first. Even if going to school is free (and it may not actually be if your gi bill payments are late; fellow vet here), the amount of time you're in school (~4 years) is a long time to not be making money if you didn't need to in the first place.

>TLDR: only go to school if absolutely required to obtain the career you want or if you truly interested in it and have weighed the pros/cons.

njarmyguard.com/tuition/
NJ national guard doesn't have to gi bill payments. Were you active duty? Also one, my mother would be very disappointed if I didn't go and two, who do you think they would accept someone who went to college and is in the NG or someone who didn't go to college and is in the NG?

I also have thought about that, but it would seem kinda silly to decline the offer. I could also work part time somewhere.

don't get a criminal justice degree, you're pigeonholing yourself into a specific job you don't even know if you'll actually like.

As for the financial stuff my advice is that you don't waste your time with stocks, only 5% of day traders actually beat the market and you're not going to be the 1 in 20. What you should do is take $5000 and set it aside as your emergency stash, you don't touch it unless you have unexpected medical bills or lose your job. Once you've got that set up you open up an index fund (vanguard's S&P500 fund is the most popular because it has the lowest expense ratio, but there are other good ones as well) That's what you should be putting your savings into because your return will closely mirror the performance of the S&P500 which is about the best bet you can make. Here's the one I like personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0540&FundIntExt=INT

the nice thing about being a line cook is that you can go anywhere in the country you want and be able to get a job that day, it's quite nice if you like to move around a lot. Just something to consider. Personally I think the best thing you could do to set yourself up for a prosperous future is to go active duty for a while, get your GI bill and then get your college degree. I know you want to be a cop so I understand having a degree is very advantageous if you want to move up the ranks in a department.

at 19, your plan of going more into stocks is solid (unless the market goes funny, but we have no way of knowing that will happen). The key to that though is, holding through the downturns. With fees and the high frequency tax in, the first few weeks of holding a stock will nearly always be painful. You need the discipline to stay in the market during the painful times much more than the intelligence to pick the best stocks.

I highly recommend Ben Graham's 'The Intelligent Investor', but it's a tome and you sound like you're busy already. So if you don't want to read it, here's the summary of what I got from it: Pick a percentage of your wealth that will be stocks and one that will be liquid (i.e. bonds or cash). Rebalance regularly (something like twice a year) to get the ratios back to their targets. You now have a foolproof way to buy low and sell high.

Example: You target 80% stocks because you're young and won't need the money right away. Six months later, the market has tanked and the 80% of your net worth you put into stocks is now only worth 50%. You put 60% of your remaining cash (30% of your net worth) into stocks despite everyone warning that the market is going to go down much further, thus buying near the bottom.

Another example: You put 80% of your wealth into stocks and the market does great, when it comes time to rebalance your stocks are now 90% of your net worth. You sell off some stocks and put them back into cash or bonds, just in time for a pullback.

everyone (and I'm as guilty as anyone) wants to time the market, but if you just pick your dates when you'll rebalance ahead of time and stick to them, you'll do essentially the same thing with much less work.

I was thinking of putting 5 shares into netflix, and keeping that until the millennial passes. With teenagers like myself growing up and getting their own money they'll start to make their own accounts and by 2020 the stock will be over the roof.

That actually seems like a good read, ill check it out, ive been reading a lot of books so thanks for that.

A line cook does sound nice, I was thinking about being a server and because I can get away with the tax on my tips I could make a lot of money that way.

A criminal justice degree doesn't only give me one job, ive looked into it, I could become a security guard for example.

And I don't really want to become a day trader, but I do want to start investing in stocks. It sounds too risky and I hear a lot of people losing their money on this site.

I've worked in security, you don't want to do that. It's literally getting paid to do nothing, which is nice while you're going to school because it gives you plenty of opportunity to do schoolwork while you're on the job but as a career you'd want to kill yourself due to boredom within 6 months.

And quite frankly, you'll have to excuse me for saying so, getting paid to do nothing is the ultimate nigger job which is why so many of your coworkers will be moronic lowlifes with no ambition in life who work 2 jobs and put half their money to child support or alimony.

After I finished EMT school I got out of security and never looked back, don't waste your time.

I was just giving an example, but im pretty sure im not going to change my mind about being a cop. Ill see if I can get in without going to college though. Even though im not paying it would still be a waste of time if I don't need to go.

education is never a waste

Okay well im getting conflicting viewpoints, someone is saying I shouldn't get one while another is saying I should. I know education is never a waste thats why I was going in, in the first place.

I was saying that getting a criminal justice degree may be overly narrow in its focus, but I still think you should go to college especially if its free.

It depends why you're going into education in the first place, and what you hope to get out of it.

A simple pro cons list can help.

I was thinking about going for a liberal arts degree. But then I was planning on being a cop for the long term, so I went with criminal justice.

Well I plan to learn and also get up in the ranks. While also landing me the job in the first place. A con would be that I would be losing money while in college, not by debts just by being there. But thats the only one I can think of really.

Don't go to college for criminal justice you fucktard. That major is useless, most departments don't require it, and will accept anybody to the academy who has a 4 year degree. My dad's a cop and he went to college for engineering. Get a fucking business degree and actually learn to invest, don't waste your time doing criminal justice

Damn dude, don't get so worked up.

Based.

I got a 4 year criminal justice degree thinking the world would be my oyster.

Mfw
>the feds want a STEM degree
>local cops don't care what your associates is in and will pay for your bachelors
>law schools just laugh

That was 6 years ago. Been wanting to suck a gun ever since. How could I have been so dumb?

No

This really is rage worthy.

I was OP's age and in his shoes.

I actually had a few brain cells to rub together and went to private schools. I had 2 fucking years of school left and I threw all of my upbringing away to piss away with a CJ degree.

Imo both degrees are fucking useless but business is the lesser of two evils.

I would suggest stidy personal finance.

Learn to mitigate that risk.

Learn stops and shorts.

Learn stock options.

Trading actual stocks is for faggots these days user.

Do your homework.

Youll never be 100% sure, but a few books on handling money will teach u more than any of us.

Youll learn to make that same investment but with a lit lower risk. Or better yet u will know about why u shoukd or shouldnt invest there.

Investing is all about control.

Once you buy stocks u have lost near all of that control.

Consider unconventional investments like guns and shit youll be pleasantly surprised when u see the stash most cops have.

Or real estate if u got the sack

In any case goodluck user. Saving some money is good but short of having wnough to live 6 months id say fuck the rest.

Study, invest small amounts, watch check them daily, move things around. Study more. Continue.

I've been studying, got some books on the matter. Thanks for the advice user.

Are you sure it's your mom would be disappointed if you didn't go to college or rather your mom would be disappointed if you weren't successful? Two different things. Mark Zuckerberg didn't finish college but I doubt his mom has any hard feelings he didn't get that Harvard degree.

Regarding your second point, sure go to school if you're really interested and use the free tuition assistance, but seriously, you don't need a criminal justice degree to be a cop. Is it a prerequisite in your departments job description? No? Then don't do it and go to school in STEM instead.

sauce?

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