Be leery. Never chase last years profits. Invest a little at a time in risky funds. You make a few sheckles if it continues to do well but you aren't fully invested if it tanks before the profits appear.
Straight cash right now. But my business is capital intensive so I need the flexibility. I don't trust the market right now so cash is my best friend at this point.
I'm pretty much an index fund investor. The thing I like most about them is the fees are so much lighter than managed funds. This has a huge effect on the balance of a portfolio over a lifetime. I like that my index funds have fees in the .01% range I also do a little in collectibles, mostly sports cards, action figures, comic books, and albums. These things actually generate great return if purchased correctly, but they don't qualify for the preferred rate. I only buy things that I can sell really quickly and at a huge margin. My rate of return on this stuff is un-real. I turned an initial January purchases of 11.62 into $1,700 liquid cash and what I project to be about another 1,000 in inventory. I am amazed at the steady stream of treasure I am able to locate. The best rate of return I ever got on any investment was on an Lionel train. I bought it for $.39 and sold for $39 a week later. That is a 9070% annualized rate of return. I also have a growing stash of silver. I come across a lot of the stuff while I am looking for collectibles, and most folks don't even know what it's worth. I also get a silver coin in change at least once a week. I'm talking coins and silverware. I am tempted to dump it now because I don't like commodities. Precious metals just have an awful track record, and I would feel much better if that silver was a mutual fund.
If you're talking about owning them in an IRA, you could probably get around it with some fancy footwork but you would really have to want to do that as it would be a major pain in the butt. Your returns are pretty impressive. my best was turning $10 into $2,600 with ticketreserve.com back in the heyday of 2007. But that was more luck than anything. I wish I knew more about collectibles. I'm studying up with numerous episodes of pawn stars and american pickers.
Though it would be possible they are way to volatile to hold in an IRA. Plus I don't want to hold this stuff for any length of time. I want to buy it low, sell it high then invest the cash. I run virtually a no overhead operation. Occassionally I will come across a rare piece and will hold it for a while to look for items needed to complete it. I generally turn things into cash inside a week. Those shows are making it so much harder to find stuff. More people are out there looking. There used to be about 5 regulars at storage unit auctions, now there are 15-20 people out there. I was talking to an auctioneer who does most of the auctions around BR. He said crowds are swelling everywhere he does auctions. I wonder if I could figure out a way to leverage my Roth to buy storage units. I used to do really well on those. Stupid A&E and the History channel are killing me.
So the silver thing is legit, I have been hearing about investing in silver for the past couple of months, interesting.
As of now I'm into Janus Overseas Fund T.Rowe Price Latin America Fund T.Rowe Price Small Cap Stock fund T.Rowe Price Financial Services Fund T.Rowe Price New Asia Fund Fidelity Dividend Growth Fund SPDR Gold Trust Fund. They have been pretty productive over the last few years.