Investing in index funds without the wrinkly old grandpa age limitations of IRAs/401ks?

[Zarathustra]

I'm 22, see the government printing a lot of money, see the stock market going up, and I simply want to put my savings in index/mutual funds to get in on the rising market and beat inflation. I have $25k in USD just sitting in my bank and inflating away.

Looking into IRAs/401k's, they have this crazy "you can't withdraw until you're 59.5 y/o or else we'll penalize you" thing.

But I'm intent on following the Fastlane route and making much more money before I'm old and wrinkly at 59.5. I might need that money for business investments in the coming years. In the mean time, I simply want to get in on the rising market and beat inflation without actively managing a portfolio (i.e. index funds).

What's the best platform to do this on/way to do this?

 

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[Martzee]

There are many rules in the investing world and one of them is "do not invest money you cannot afford to lose or need in a long time"

Your claim that "you might need that money ... in the coming years." You need to sort this out. What exactly is the "in coming years"? In one year, two years, three years?

Although we are in an extremely bullish market, it may end tomorrow, or next week, or never. No one knows. So if you plan to invest money you "might need" soon, then forget about investing, or you have to have a damn good plan on how to protect those investments. If you invest, even into index funds, you still need to look at the long term horizon, because you may invest today, and the bull ends tomorrow and you will see your investments down for a year or two before it recovers. If in the meantime you spot a great business opportunity, you will not be able to cash out your holdings without losing money. So your business investments money is for investing in the business, not invest in the stock market. They cannot be both. Don't mix them or you lose them. Before you decide, read Reminiscence of a Stock Operator by Jesse Livermore. He talks about this topic on a few occasions where he mixed his money and invested the "other" money because he wanted the market to "finance" the other endeavor he had the money saved for before.

Once you learn the stock market ropes, you may invest some money but expect at least 5 years horizon to mitigate market fluctuations.

 

[Alfie321]

In the worst case scenario you need 25 years so far to get out with the standard ROI projected for the S&P500. If you are +25 you are fcked up and will join the old fart club if the worst happened. In any case, indexes can drop and some might drop badly as MJ has outlined in Unscripted . Nasdaq took 15 years to recover after 2000 without taking into account inflation. Go with bond index funds if you are not fine with volatility, but other than that don't count on Walstreet delivering with a 100% confidence in a few years.

I personally do invest in index funds but don't count on them short term. They have had great performance but that can end at any moment and I could join the old mans club, gains only count the moment i liquidate them, that's fine by me as I can get 10 years of my actual spending in a year of work and getting better each year, so it depends on context as well.

 

[Ing]

When you don’t need or can’t use your money for a business and want to park it I would recommend to invest it into the best 30 or so businesses in an area.
USA or World or GermanY or....

These are called ETFs and are boring.

 

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