[MulberryDraw]

I recommend reading the book “The Warren Buffett Way” for some insight into finding healthy companies.

[Innovative]

The most important thing, I can’t emphasize enough is: DIVERSIFY, DIVERSIFY, DIVERSIFY and do some research yourself, in addition to advice. The most important thing is preservation of capital — there are too many people out there who will give you advice, which results in commissions for them, and losing ALL your money for you. There is NO rush to invest, it is far better to “miss an opportunity”, than to grab something and lose all your money — I have seen it happen quite often.

Mutual funds of various types: growth stocks, dividend paying stocks, bonds, various combinations.

Real estate — in the area you know — you can buy apartment buildings with a few units (don’t buy large ones, unless you have many millions) or single family houses that you can rent out — buy them in “medium” type areas — not the worst areas, just because they are cheap and not in the most expensive areas, in case they have a price drop. DO NOT, repeat DO NOT get conned at some real estate investment seminar, where they sell you property in areas you aren’t familiar with, haven’t seen — I personally know people who lost their fortunes that way.

Then you can set aside a small fraction — maybe 20-30,000, if we are indeed talking about a million total, and you can play with that — buy individual stocks, if you make money, you will have fun, if not, then you learned that individual stock investing is not for you — but do NOT keep adding to this pot.

Many will tell you to turn your money over to “professional investment advisors” — just think of Madoff. You can get advice from reputable firms, BUT you also have to do your own research and don’t go for the “huge returns” — usually there is something wrong with those.

And do not be in a hurry, missing out on an opportunity is far better, than grabbing one that you think is one and losing all or most of your money.

Just take your time and also don’t start handing out money to everyone, including yourself, because once you start doing it the money goes fast.

I would separate the funds into bins — with a small fraction, emphasis on small to spend on something you want or help our relatives, but this has to be a small finite amount.

You can be financially secure, if you are careful and really follow my above advice, but don’t fall for all the get rich quick advice you will get from everyone coming out of the woodwork, whose interest is not your wellbeing, but their own.

Good luck!

[WesternCulture]

To everyone that has bothered to reply:

- Thanks a lot!

Whether you have money or not all American patriots are most welcome to my corner of the World, Sweden.

We are not all PC idiots.

Many Swedes and other Europeans too strongly believe in Nationalist values.

Best of regards!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Mutual fund.

Spread it through four different countries.

Currently I would go with US, Canada, Singapore and Chile personally as I don't know enough about Euro Markets to judge.

You might want to go with different countries but spread it out. That way you don't lose everything if things go sideways.

[babble-on]

American Balanced Fund

[Born to Conserve]

Long term, hide it, or short term, invest it in companies that are profiting in the dispersal of fiat and tax plunder.

[Mad Dawgg]

AEP

Even though the must close coal plants they will be replacing them with Natural Gas.

and unless someone comes up with a way to replace electrical power they will be making fat stacks for many years to come...

[Pollster1]

1. Read post 19 (by proxy_user); the advice is excellent.

2. If you are going to pick blue chip stocks, I would suggest that you take the 30 Dow Industrials or some similar list, and cross off the 15-20 that seem least safe, at most risk of a technology game changer, least stable, worst managed, etc. Buy the remainder of the list. Whatever you buy, review it quarterly, but plan on holding it for a minimum of 5 years. I don’t try to pick the great stock that I can brag about to my friends, just to avoid the bad stocks that will make me cringe in a year. As a result, I have outperformed the broad market by an average of 2.5% over the past two decades.

3. I have found that you can safely withdraw 1% a quarter, essentially forever, either to support yourself or to supplement your budget from other sources. With natural variation, that might mean occasional drops in your quarterly income, but anything unspent from the previous quarter(s) can be used to smooth those out, and with a reasonable return, the balance may rise faster than inflation on average.

[lurk]

People are predicting all kinds of dire things about an imminent crash. Is it wise to invest large in the market right now?

[The_Reader_David]

Diversify: maybe 40% in U.S. equities (stocks, ideally held through mutual funds spread over a variety of sectors), 30% in foreign equities (likewise, and spread about equally between Western Europe, developed economies in Australasia and developing markets, with a focus on the BRICs in the last lot), 15% in bonds, 10% in real estate (or maybe vice versa), and the last 5% in precious metals as a hedge.

If you don’t like the mutual funds, go with the same mix and pick your own stock — the mix depends on your risk tolerance, by you should have some in solid companies from which you expect dividends, and some in up-and-comers from which you expect price appreciation. And as someone else wrote, probably don’t put more than $10K in any one stock.

[Revolting cat!]

Everybody knows. So how come so many lose at playing the market? Just yesterday I deposited two checks for $0.36 each, dividends for 3 shares of something or other which is what was left of some hot company I had invested in years ago. I’ve done veddy, veddy well with mutual funds on the other hand, have some cash to invest again, and will invest it in... mutual funds.

[Hootowl]

Follow Mark Twain’s advice and invest in real estate. As he said, “They’re not making any more of it.”

[montag813]

Invest in FREEREPUBLIC! The minds you save may save you one day.

[max americana]

“I will not use them up at bars down in Berlin, Copenhagen and Rome Et cetera, even if this seems like something natural to do. “

I would. Your friend would have wanted you to enjoy your life. Then again, it’s now your money and invest in companies which have time and time again made money for (me) in the long run: McDonald’s, Samsung and 7-11 are examples..

[Crusher138]

I would invest it in my own company.

I have come to trust few with my money.

[Cloverfarm]

I’m sorry to hear you lost someone dear to you.

I would not make any big decisions, if possible, until after working through grief.

If I, personally, had a million dollars, I would buy farmland and cattle, or real estate, because those are familiar to my family and me.

[BreezyDog]

TVIX (VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX Short Term ETN)It’s at it’s lows. Risky but very easily could grow your money 10 fold quickly when TSHTF economically. Now is the time to invest in it.

[Flick Lives]

I will not use them up at bars down in Berlin, Copenhagen and Rome Et cetera...

There are worse investments.   ;-)

[PieterCasparzen]

Under US law and regulations, you would be termed an "accredited investor".

This means that you are not limited to publicly-held securities. No one cares if the market price of the stocks you own goes down. No one.

The only way to really be sure you'll not lose money is to trade on inside information, which is illegal. Wall Street and the SEC love to prosecute the occasional hapless inside trader that is not one of their buddies.

If you are an "accredited investor" (check into the US laws and regs that will actually apply to you because you are also a foreign investor, but $1 million is a cutoff point - search the web (SEC site, etc.) for info on this), you have a much wider array of potential investments available to you other than the "little people's casino" of publicly-held stocks.

In the private equity world, typically investments are made inside a limited partnership, and can often have great flexibility in what they invest in.

In fact, non-accredited investors (most of the public) are not legally allowed to invest in most private offering situations. This is how Initial Public Offerings, like facebook, twitter, etc., can see the early private investors earning fantastic returns when, around the time of the IPO, they sell the shares they bought while the company was privately held and just starting up.

There's nothing stopping you from setting up legal/tax entities (i.e., corporations, partnerships, etc.) in the US, buying real estate, businesses, etc., as long as, of course, all applicable laws and regulations are followed (and compliance is not that difficult or expensive with competent lawyer). Corporations, of course, generate taxable shareholder income whenever capital is returned to the investor, usually from share sales or dividends. Of course, the gains from share sales can effectively defer taxable gains for many years. For partnerships, on the other hand, income generally flows through to the partners as it is realized. Of course, partnerships can own shares in corporations. Generally speaking, Delaware law is the most consistent and therefore desireable, so legal entities are quite often formed in that state.

Certainly the US (along with the other "five eyes" nations, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) has the benefit of a legal system that provides the best assurance of being able to get judicial satisfaction (thus retaining ownership of your legitimate assets) in courts of law. Of course, one can form entities in the "offshore" nations, but IMHO there's a lot more risk there, especially in terms of appearing to be money laundering. IMHO, much better to stay within the US, the Commonwealth, and the more attractive European countries (probably in that order).

Of course taxwise, business can be conducted anywhere from 100% straight up legitimate, to being a little aggressive towards being "tax-efficient", all the way to being way too "aggressive" in using strategies to lower tax, i.e., stretching the rules to their limits, which, of course, has a high risk of causing fines and penalties. IMHO, best to be 100% legit in terms of tax, and focus on quality investments with real, solid earnings.

IMHO, carefully cultivated personal relationships are even more important when placing investments in a foreign country as they are in domestic investing. In private investing, much of the constraints on information are removed, thus the investor can be far more certain of future profits.

[CalTexan]

With a .076 growth rate in your country, you better invest in babies...

With a .072 in the USA, we should too.