Financial Channel

i know the same question has been asked multiple times, but every has different situations.

im 19 and i am full time student. my parents pay for anything that has to do with school, and other things along the way as well.

currently i am working 7 days a week. right now im making between 800-900 a week. pretty much my goal by the end of the summer is to have AT LEAST $5000 dollars. at the end of every month i am going to put in $1000 into a short term gic with ing, and by the end of the summer i will have a laddering effect with 2-4 gics. plus money in the bank.

my question is: are there any high risk investments that i can take part in with such a small sum of money?

-pete

$800-$900 a week? WOW what do you do? are u a pornstar? any hookups?

Back on topic if you can find a decent mutual fund that could give a pretty good return. Some mutual funds let you buy in as low as $500

Would you reccomend a market tied GIC? I heard they're not too bad and if the market goes well you can earn a pretty nice cut, and you're garaunteed your principal (well obviously since it is GIC :P).

Don’t know where you are getting your information, but it is incorrect.

Most MF companies will advertise a minimum contribution, but in truth there is none. (exceptions may be to the boutique firms where there is a few thousand minimum?) I have a child of a client who is contributing $20 every two weeks. The “minimum?on this fund is $500 to start, and a $100 per additional contribution.

And to the OP?there is no minimum sum of money that you should worry about. The beauty of mutual funds is you can get the same benefits of a> diversification and b> access to the market whether you have $100, $1000, or $1,000,000.

If you aren’t going to need that money back for a while, then GIC’s might not be the best solution. GIC’s are extremely low risk, and with low risk comes low return. If this money will be for the distant future, you probably could stand to take on more risk for your entire portfolio. A professional can help find the proper allocation for your risk tolerance and time horizon and goals?br />
Best of Luck to you!
M

Purchase MF on a weekly basis

I would not buy a mutual fund, for a student with your time horizon you are most likely going to want to cash out soon in order to pay off debts/buy a house.

Get some high yield bonds or talk to an advisor about a few stocks.

The thing with mutual funds is that they lock you in for a long time

What kind of MF has a LOCK on them??? Buddy ... all MFs can be sold at any time! (except for Segregated)

sexpuppet6000 ... I highly suggest you visit your local bank to speak to an Investment Advisor about the investment options available to you.

considering it's a 7 days a week job according to the OP

seems like a waiter/waitress job or some telemarketer thing

Interesting. I didn't read a time horizon into his post.

High Yield Bonds? They fluctuate in value too. As interest rates go up, bond prices go down and vice versa.

I haven't heard of a lock but they need you to commit to x months or years without taking out otherwise there are penalties to pay

There's no such rule when you purchase MFs at the bank. BTW ... I work in the industry so I know the regulations very well.

Sorry I've never actually bought any of those so i wouldn't be the one to ask. But from what i've heard and read it does guarantee the principal and your gains are tied to an index as you said. But since the market as a whole moves upward over time it can't be a bad thing (due to inflation).

i think im just going to keep them in short term gics as of now until i reach somewhere upwards of $5000+ before i gamble it away in something more high risk. that will leave me lots of time to read up on investing techniques and time to speak with an advisor.

for the record. my primary source of income comes from a hospital job.

Here's a question though...

What is the savings for exactly?
Because if you are sure that even $1,000 or so will be put away to start up a small RRSP... it might be a good idea to put it into an aggressive growth index or ETF because you won't need it for... well, i'd say at least 3 decades or so -- might as well capitalize on that 30 year opportunity and use time to neutralize the risk of an aggressive growth index/ETF. And the remaining $4,000 can be put into a combination of rotating (laddered) short-term GICs and a high-interest savings account because being a student (or young, for that matter), you never know when you might want to buy things on impulse.

^ I'm actually doing something like that myself, to tell you the truth.

Any other recommendations guys? I'd like to hear some more myself