belding_j,

of course reacting and prediciting or profiting form the markets are different things but you would be surprised how many try to profit from yesterday's news. There are so many people that pay money for subscriptions to read yesterdays news today.

There is nothing wrong at all to discuss investment ideas with your friends etc. and yes it does get you thinking. It can be quite interesting but I view it as two blind people that try to describe to each other how to get from point A to point B. If you consider the fact that about 80% of professional investors have no clue what's going on you can imagine how much you'll learn from listening to them (they are popular guests on many of the business news channels but hey you need a good laugh during the day...right?).

I think you have taken the course of action which you feel the most comfortable with and that is a very good start.

One thing that may or may not help you out:

Any free discussion on strategy that you will get from any source...forget it. Worthless and won't work (You need to figure out your own because what may work for one investor will not work for another, if you do not want to do that you have to find funds that you are comfortable with and invest with those).

Look at it this way:

Could you call The Coca-Cola Company and ask them for their recipe for Coke?

Of course not. You can 'pay' them and they will 'give you' the product. You will know the ingredients of the product but that info is worthless because you need the recipe (the strategy when it comes to investments) in order to get the product. When it comes to investments the majority may know the ingredients but very few know how to put them together.

So, you have two choices:

1. Buy the product.

2. Come up with your own (like Pepsi did).

You may have noticed that there are not too many 'Pepsi's' out there...and there is a reason for that. The same holds true for investments. Only very few know how to put it all together, the majority will buy the product.

I hope that you are getting some value out of the heated arguments happening here, Odigo.

Your money must support your life, not the other way around. So, you have a personal need to buy your parents a house.

Or, do you just need to put a nice roof over their heads i.e. could you just rent them a house - at least for a while?

Why?

In the USA (and ONLY in the USA), it seems that we are at a unique moment in history ...

... BOTH money AND real-estate are cheap!

Usually, when one is cheap the other is expensive ...

... so, can you see why you should buy something here and lock it in for 30 years (something that you may live in for now, but are prepared to keep and rent out when you do move to bugger/better things)?

Whilst this unique USA situation persists, you should keep INVESTING here, and RENTING there.

If you are not happy renting for your parents; then you need to find a way to as much as possible as quickly as possible into investments here for as long as the current low interest/prices persist ... whilst, paying down your parent's home as quickly as possible.

That's IF you can do both ... if not, then by buying your parents their home, you just might be sacrificing your own financial future ... would your parents REALLY want you to do that?

Ask them, they might be happy to just have you pay their rent ...