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One of the hardest parts of investing is knowing what is considered to be the right thing to do. I’ve talked to a lot of different people, including financial advisers, and the perspectives often clash. One person swears up and down path A is what you need to do, while another would bet his life savings path B works better. So who is right?

For me, the problem is how to invest over should I invest, so really, it’s not a bad problem to have. But even so, that little inkling of not knowing—due to ignorance—for sure who is right is what gets me. Hopefully, with a lot of reading, I’ll be able to better comprehend the others point, and make wiser decisions for the future.

Yeah, I think [whoever] cashed out at some $157Million? Ridiculous. I would like the money, but hate the attention/publicity.

As far as advice goes, for the most part it’s similar to yours: invest for the long-term. My Grandfather is a stock-market master, and buys for the long haul. He watches the market daily, and keeps hand-written logs of its activity. It truly is a science. Now that he has tons and tons of stock, he can play around a little, but his advice was to always buy quality. It seems obvious, but sometimes quality isn’t always in the budget.

First thing is to set your base for your savings, meaning what you feel comfortable having on-hand in case of an emergency. Anything over that base should be put into something worthwhile; something with a higher return. A money-market is a good option. And if you don’t have a money market account, try PayPal. Right now, the return is 5.04%, which is far better than any savings account. I kept a PayPal balance for a long time, and it actually did quite good.

I have a Simple IRA through work, where IRC matches a certain percentage. It’s pre-taxed, so I thought it made sense to put a lot towards it. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. But my financial adviser said it’s better to put money toward a ROTH IRA, which isn’t pre-taxed. He said the Simple IRA is pre-taxed now, but when it’s time to retire, when you go to take out that lump sum, that’s when you have to pay the taxes. The ROTH get’s taxed little by little now, but the money you have in it, is the money you have in it. There’s no tax or penalty when you go to take that money out, at any time. But the ROTH is capped at $4,000 per year—his recommendation: max out the ROTH, meet the IRC match for the Simple IRA.

My comments such as “who is really right?” lends itself toward the moments when I never know if the adviser is pushing a certain investment because he or she makes a better commission. One guy tried to tell me I needed at least a $500,000 life insurance policy! Don’t get me wrong, I want Amie (and future family) to be completely covered should something happen, but that’s just absurd. Especially right now… no house, no family, one car being financed, relatively small student loan balance, etc. It just didn’t doesn’t make sense, and it makes me wonder what else doesn’t make sense.

All of this stuff is kind of new to me, so I’m probably the last person to inquire. I mean, I learn what I can, but I can only be as confident as the person I’m talking to, or the article I’m reading. Basically, I think as long as you’re making a conscious effort toward investing, you’re in good shape. Maybe it’s not living up to 100% of its potential, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. Good luck with it, and feel free to send a million or two my way once you win the lottery :-)