Serious Business Inside

[Verik]

I have a friend in Spain that formed a company/incorporated just so that he could invest other people's money.

I don't know about international law but in regards to the US, in order to act as a investment advisor representative then he'd have to pass his series 66 exam (and thats provided he is only investing in stocks... securities, mutual funds and equities require a sleu of other exams to be passed). Lucky he is in spain i guess but that contract would prove to be void and unenforceable due to it's illegal stature here in america. The friend in this situation could sign a contract and simply walk away with the money, never fullfilling his part of the contract and the OP would never see a dime of that back. He might be able to charge him with fraud, but a civil court would never uphold the contract unless the friend was already certified to financially represent the interests of the OP.

Just wanted some opinions, I still haven't made my mind up. The poll says go for it, my gut feeling says no, but my longterm thinking says whats to lose? As long as I don't go more then $45k in debt before I leave college I am absolutely fine with taking out loans cause $45k is about what I would make in the first year outta college doing what I will hopefully be doing.

I'm going to tell you straight out, 45k is plain stupid. 4 years in college at an avg rate of 6% (lol you'd be lucky to see those rates on student loans atm) will leave you with 56k in debt, not to mention you start paying 6 months after your schooling ends, regardless of whether you have found yourself a job or not. You really haven't woken up to the world of finance have you? 45k is way too big of a decision for you to be making and its evident by the approach you have taken (asking IA lol).

You say your gut says no but you defend the idea whenever healthy and mature criticism is brought to the table, you debate the issue as if it's a surefire win and you've already decided to go through with it. The markets have been incredibly unstable and created massive ups and downs to capitalize on, those however have settled out and stabilized. As they always say, previous performance is not indication of future results. This is true with the investing skills of your friend as well. His profit could have been as simple as being lucky with citi when they dropped to 3$ a share and the next week were at 9$ back in november. It sure as hell does not indicate his performance, knowledge, or expertise. you are being allured and become drunk with the thought of making serious bank in short time for doing nothing, thats the new american dream is it not?

[SampaGuy]

I don't know about international law but in regards to the US, in order to act as a investment advisor representative then he'd have to pass his series 66 exam (and thats provided he is only investing in stocks... securities, mutual funds and equities require a sleu of other exams to be passed). Lucky he is in spain i guess but that contract would prove to be void and unenforceable due to it's illegal stature here in america. The friend in this situation could sign a contract and simply walk away with the money, never fullfilling his part of the contract and the OP would never see a dime of that back. He might be able to charge him with fraud, but a civil court would never uphold the contract unless the friend was already certified to financially represent the interests of the OP.




I'm going to tell you straight out, 45k is plain stupid. 4 years in college at an avg rate of 6% (lol you'd be lucky to see those rates on student loans atm) will leave you with 56k in debt, not to mention you start paying 6 months after your schooling ends, regardless of whether you have found yourself a job or not. You really haven't woken up to the world of finance have you? 45k is way too big of a decision for you to be making and its evident by the approach you have taken (asking IA lol).

You say your gut says no but you defend the idea whenever healthy and mature criticism is brought to the table, you debate the issue as if it's a surefire win and you've already decided to go through with it. The markets have been incredibly unstable and created massive ups and downs to capitalize on, those however have settled out and stabilized. As they always say, previous performance is not indication of future results. This is true with the investing skills of your friend as well. His profit could have been as simple as being lucky with citi when they dropped to 3$ a share and the next week were at 9$ back in november. It sure as hell does not indicate his performance, knowledge, or expertise. you are being allured and become drunk with the thought of making serious bank in short time for doing nothing, thats the new american dream is it not?

Amen

LOL @ notarized contract