anyone know about interest rates on investments?

[Dustin_m]

well i got news yesterday from my mom that my grandfather's sister passed away. i was told that in her will, she left her house and everything inside to her daughter or something, but all her money was left to her brothers grandson. this means that it is either me or my cousin. apparently she said that it was for her brothers grandson to get a good education. now, with that little bit of info, it is almost certain that it is me becasue my cousin is almost 40. also, apparently my aunt was always so glad that i was always in advanced classes and stuff because she had been a teacher, so she wanted me to get an education i guess.

the will hasn't been read yet, so i am not sure about anything yet. i talked to my mom today again, and she told me that she had talked to my other aunt and she had told my mom that the executor of the will told her that the last interest check from my aunts accounts or investments or whatever had been 2,000 dollars for the month.

now i know nothing really about the average amounts of interest on different savings accounts or investments, so i was hoping that some of you could give a little info if you have any knowledge in that kind of stuff.

also does anyone know if there are laws or regulations on the time frame given by different states to read a will and take care of everything? if it helps at all, my aunt lived in tennessee.

thanks

 

[cheese9988]

Really depends on the investment type specifically. They are all different, if its just a savings account that might be easy to find out. If its a 401k type there could be several different types of investments in there, each one giving dividends and interest. For examples my savings gives a piss poor .7% interest rate. So thats not worth anything. But I have some stocks that give some decent dividends, and when they issue them they are swept into a cash account through my broker, and they gain additional interest there. My 401k has to have 10 to 15 different investments on there, I think most of them give some type of dividend, that are just reinvested to buy more, so everything is compounded, plus the interest. There are roth iras which are good long term investments, bonds, mutual funds, etc. I have found some good sites that explain investments well. You could always take $500 and buy some stock somewhere, that way you could learn how it works, and at some point when it goes up, make some cash. Not sure if that helps with anything.

 

[jeffie7]

Bottom line, Low risk = small return, high risk = totol loss or tons of money.

My bank account is something like .25%

ING Direct http://home.ingdirect.com/ has a 3.80% return. (really really really really good for a savings account) by far the highest I've ever seen.

3.8% over the year is super high for savings but is still jack shit in the investment market.
If you have a million to put into the account you can bank a pretty penny off the account every year.
however, if you only have $10-50K 3.8% yearly return is pretty shitty.

Then theres money markets, and stocks.

If you're lazy and want a better then avg return on your money buy a money maket/mutal fund. It's pretty much an account that has 10-15 different stocks in it. So if you buy 1000 shares it might have 80 shares of google 80 shares of sirius radio, 80 shares of yahoo 80 shares of....

Some go down, some go up. over the year the idea is they're able to pick more winners then losers and therefor you get a some what nice return. My IRA (has a bunch of money markets accounts) some years can do 10-15% but other years it can do much less 0-5%. over all its not bad. more then 5%+ a year. one year it did 50%!!!!! but then lost like 30% the next year. lol doh!


Then the way to make REAL MONEY, or lose it....... Stock Market. You have to do a lot of research, you can't do what ANYONE else says, in the stock market (opinions are like assholes, everyones got one) If someone gives you a tip you can't buy off that tip you need to research off that tip and take it from there using your own judgment. http://finance.yahoo.com/ is a great page to research stocks. they post up to date info on each stock as the news comes out.

Stocks can have returns up to 20-30-40% in a SINGLE DAY. but they can also go down just as fast. Most stocks go up or down .2%-2.0% on avg everyday. then someone comes out in the news stating the company had great profits this quarter and the stock will jump up 3-5-10% in a single day. or they miss the quarter in the stock could take a hit.

Or like my one stock just did, they were down on profits for the quarter yet reported a big ass order so the stock shot up based on the info that they got a contract to do a very high dollar job.

In the last 3 days I've made about a 10% gain on my stocks. Not to shabby IMO.
If I had 10K in the account I would have made 1K back, if I had 100K in the last 3 days I would have made $10K in the market.

but as quick as it goes up it can come back down.

It takes a good bit of research to stay on top of things and even then its still risky. I love the stock market and enjoy trading in it. but it's not for everyone.

If you have a lot of money just put it in a money market account and let it sit. youll make a long term pretty low risk return on it.

 

[handlebarsfsr]

if the interest check is for 2000 bucks, then you're looking at some serious cash. even at a 10% interest rate (which was stated, is pretty unheard of) thats 20 grand. at 5%, thats 40g's with your name on it. if that shits in a savings account- you hit the jackpot. 200,000-700,000+ 40-50 grand is a 4 year education at a decent state school, or 3 semesters at a private college, or a full education at tech school.

 

[get_nick]

Senate: I'm a financial advisor and might be able to give you a few suggestions. for free that is. Just PM me with any specific questions. First off, odds are she isn't recieving interest checks. it's probably a large annuity that pays monthly. Interest and dividends are usually reinvested automatically so there isn't a taxable event every time the values change. The other thing it might be is from a variable annuity. Checks are rarely sent monthly and they are never sent from banks that are holding accounts. It could also be from a retirement plan. Depending on where the money is and how it is declared to the beneficiary has a lot of implications on the amount you will get and the tax implications.

In short, don't do anything with the money without speaking with a professional. I have seen too many cases where someone dies, especially someone close, that the money is spent on cars or other garbage and just wasted. like I said, if you have specific questions hit me up.