My great-grandfather left me a decent sum of money in the form of bonds. Should I cash them in and parlay the money into a wiser investment?

Huggard's personal finance class taught me that bonds are a pretty bad investment, but that gold was worse, and look how that's doing.

7/27/2008 2:33:01 AM

Gold or bonds is where I'd keep it for now. Stocks are sucking now and they probably will be for a while.

7/27/2008 2:41:35 AM

I might be speaking out of place, but if it's not about the money (I.E.: the bonds didn't mature as much as you thought they would) there's may be reasons of sentimental value to let them rest and preserve the memory.

Money can always be aquired and squandered. But think of your favorite CD - not the music on it, but the actual disc. Or your favorite item in general, just the material per se. How would you stow that during a hurricane?

7/27/2008 2:41:59 AM

Shut up bitch, go make me a sandwich! *Alabama smack*

Srsly, good advice.

7/27/2008 2:44:10 AM

Shut up bitch, go make me a sandwich! *Alabama smack*

7/27/2008 2:47:32 AM

EUPHALO being decimated reminds me of the time that Rita took the Green Rangers powers away and then he was only able to use them when Zordon charged him. And then Tommy came back as the White Ranger. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that I'm a nerd who was raised by Fox Kids while my mom drank.

7/27/2008 2:49:18 AM

I made my first killing off the gold shilling

Got in at 680, out at at 1011

Its pretty much what put me on the map here

7/27/2008 2:50:38 AM

you just had to have parents who knew gold was awesome and bought in 93 when it was much cheaper and kept buying more when they could afford to.

BAM. instant google.

7/27/2008 2:58:20 AM

So, keep them?

7/27/2008 2:59:37 AM

No, my parents have Downs on everything Dow

Strictly Slave's intuition on this one

7/27/2008 2:59:54 AM

Do you mean short stocking or is there a company nicknamed Downs on the Dow?

7/27/2008 3:01:00 AM

I tried to make clever quip

I thought it came out alright

But what do I know

I'm coming down off mescaline and talking to people on the internet at 3 in the morning

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 3:02 AM. Reason : x]

7/27/2008 3:02:44 AM

I got it.

And hook me up yo.

7/27/2008 3:03:36 AM

Oh ok. Dammit. A reference too high brow for me? CRAP!

zep, explain plz?

7/27/2008 3:04:18 AM

he's saying his parents are retarded (Downs) with things regarding the stock market (Dow)

7/27/2008 3:07:33 AM

Well, now that my ego has deflated like a Macy's float, I will watch "The IT Crowd".

7/27/2008 3:09:06 AM

Love ya, babe.

7/27/2008 3:20:59 AM

Damn man, you got a "babe" out of this?

Shit, I have stock.

7/27/2008 3:22:38 AM

He is a babe in my book. Handsome, sharp, quirky and kinky. 100% sexorific.

7/27/2008 3:25:17 AM

"Chicks dig dudes with money." -Lawrence, Office Space

Chicks also dig dudes who will lick a vag. Do you have stock in Connie Lingus?

7/27/2008 3:26:08 AM

I have stock in "good men."

BACK ON TOPIC, SORRY.

7/27/2008 3:27:42 AM

Yep, stock in lickanass too.

7/27/2008 3:28:04 AM

apparently you didn't pay too much attention to those personal finance classes:

Bonds are a debt instrument where you give the counterparty ( in this case the US Government) a sum of money that they promise to pay back after a fixed amount of time. In return for you being so nice to give up your cash - they also promise to give you a quarterly coupon payment as interest.

What makes bonds interesting is that the payment is guaranteed (besides default risk of course - but that's getting too complicated and we're talking about the US government so they can always print more money to pay off their debts). All of the terms: maturity, coupon, etc are determined in the issuance of the debt. Hence the term fixed income. So I'm assuming you have a bunch of savings bonds. Those were bought at a discount to face value with the promise that on a given date, probably 10 years, that bond would be redeemable for the face value. It depends highly what series of bonds you have but once that baby matures it's definitely in your best interests to redeem it and put that cash to work elsewhere where you can build equity.

7/27/2008 3:28:18 AM

^^Very good, sir!

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 3:28 AM. Reason : aa]

7/27/2008 3:28:27 AM

now is a great time to invest in the stock market. id cash them in and buy up some ETFs

7/27/2008 3:30:13 AM

At the moment, the few % you could make in those bonds is better than the negative 10-15% you would get on average in stocks. When the market starts doing better is the time to sell them. We haven't seen the bottom of this market yet. (just my opinions)

^ yeah, like GLD

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 3:33 AM. Reason : .]

7/27/2008 3:32:12 AM

^uhm no - if those bonds have matured you'd get more by redeeming them and putting it into a CD


Please dont use TWW for financial advice - I've seen way too much bad advice.

7/27/2008 3:33:59 AM

the part you're right about is:

Quote :

"Please dont use TWW for financial advice - I've seen way too much bad advice."

7/27/2008 3:35:55 AM

Hahaha. It turns out they're 30 year bonds, bought from '90-'97. Two of them have matured beyond their full value, because of the crazy interest rates in '04-'07.

I guess I'll wait until the end of the year and then do something. Or cash them and bet on the stock market to go down.

7/27/2008 3:37:56 AM

.

[Edited on July 27, 2008 at 3:46 AM. Reason : .]

7/27/2008 3:45:50 AM

Damn, what did you say?!?

7/27/2008 3:47:29 AM

Quote :

"I might be speaking out of place, but if it's not about the money (I.E.: the bonds didn't mature as much as you thought they would) there's may be reasons of sentimental value to let them rest and preserve the memory."

treating money as "sentimental" is about the worst possible thing you could ever do. ever.

a diamond ring from your great grandmother may be sentimental

but $ ain't never sentimental

7/27/2008 3:50:28 AM

That's true.

7/27/2008 3:52:15 AM

7/27/2008 4:01:33 AM

the best thing you could do with the money is to hire a financial advisor and use the funds to better yourself financially for the long term.

financial independence is the greatest gift you can ever give yourself and its also nice for the family so they dont have to take care of your ass

7/27/2008 4:05:16 AM

Thanks for the advice guys!

7/27/2008 4:40:12 AM

Quote :

"the best thing you could do with the money is to hire a financial advisor and use the funds to better yourself financially for the long term."

unless this is a lot of money, there is no point hiring a financial adviser. the only financial advisers interested in people without much money are just looking to sell services. just educate yourself http://clarkhoward.com/

7/27/2008 10:55:42 AM

^ this is more bad advice, and a common misconception

the only financial advice you should listen to on tww is to not take advice from tww and talk to someone who knows what they're talking about

i assume you either have a job now or will have a full time job in the near future. if you don't know jack about investing and don't care to learn it yourself, a financial advisor makes sense.

7/27/2008 12:53:41 PM