Investor Returns - Non Real Estate.

[David T.]

Hi BP, it's been a while. Been working hard. Happy new year to everybody. What is the average return an active investor is getting on their money outside of real estate investing.Say $150 to $250k? Sorry to bother with this, but I can't seem to find any credible articles or blogs about it. Any info helps. 

[Ryan Gillette]

If you mean in securities, there's not really an accurate % for that. It depends on your time horizon, both in terms of how long you can let it sit and how much risk you can take with it during that period. On the risk-free end of the scale, 12 month CD's are at ~1.3% or just flat interest ~.8%. There are funds offered by Vanguard and the like that return (sometimes) 1-3% with a little risk and low fees. Then there are more aggressive indexes. But as you creep up the return ladder, you increase the risk taken. You could invest in the S&P 500, which is a pretty solid index, and get -15% one year and make 20% the next.

If you are looking for credible starting points, Vanguard is reliable for low-cost index funds. You can sort through the funds and see what they invest in and what the returns have been over 12 months, 5 years.. In terms of information on investing, anything by Warren Buffet is reliable. He's definitely not flashy or get-rich-quick, but his investing is based pretty deep in value investing principles. I've found a lot of overlap into real estate investing from value investing.