Exotic Car Flipping as a Strategic Investment? (US-CAN)
"You can greatly reduce the risk if you can line up a buyer prior to purchasing the car.  That kind of thing is common in business, one example is drop shipping.  Also there are sales companies that specialize in these kinds of things bringing manufacturers of goods together with customers.  The sales companies never take delivery of the product, just a commission on the sales.   From this the manufacturers are served as they have gained a customer for their goods.  The buying company is served as they can make a ""better"" end product.  The two parties may have not been brought together had it not been for the sales company so on some level both are happy to pay for the service. Can you find market inequalities and profit from them?  Sure.  I missed a great opportunity recently.  I purchased a name brand shirt from a discount store for $20.  Those shirts typically sell on ebay for $80.  I should have cleaned out that store's inventory, and I bet someone else did as by the time I went back they were gone.   That kind of thing was almost risk-less because if the shirts did not sell, I could simply return them for the full purchase price.  That and I can afford to buy a few hundred dollars worth of shirts. Can you afford to float 45K CDN?  What if it takes a year to sell the car?  What if the economy goes sour and you are left ""holding the bag""?  Why are not car dealers doing exactly what you propose? Here in the US this type of thing is called ""horse trading"" and is very common.  I've both lost and made money on these kind of deals.  I would never put a significant amount of my net worth at risk."
You setup a self-directed solo 401k by paying a one time fee for a company to setup a trust, name you the sole trustee, and file it with the IRS. None of these companies offer TPA because it opens them up to profit leaching liability. After you have your trust setup, you can open a brokerage account or several with any of the big names you want (Vanguard, Fidelity, Ameritrade, etc), or just use the money to flip houses, do P2P lending, whatever, the world is your investment oyster. If the company has recurring fees you need to ask what is going on because if they aren't offering TPA services, then what the heck could they be charging you for? I did see one company, I think it was IRA Financial Group, that had the option of having a CPA do TPA for you for a recurring fee, but I would pass on that. The IRS administration requirements are typically just the 5500-EZ that you have to file as a hard copy by July 31 if your investments are worth more than $250k, on December 31. Yes, you have to get the actual form from the IRS, write on it with a pen and mail it to them every year, barbaric. You can either have your accountant do it or do it yourself. If you're below $250k just google solo 401k rule change two or three times a year and don't try to launder money. If anything, the rules will loosen with time, I don't imagine the Republican Congress cracking down on small business owners any time soon. "Taking examples from this loosely Googled page: http://www.fundlibrary.com/features/columns/page.asp?id=14406 If you find, or calculate, the standard deviation (volatility) of the returns from your various investment classes you will find they range from low-risk (low volatility), such as Cash, to high-risk (high volatility), such as Strategic Growth.  The risk rating (volatility) is a good indicator of how reactive to market conditions your investment is likely to be.  As you can see below, from mid-2010 to mid-2011 the High Risk index performed really well, but it was also most reactive when the market subsequently turned down.  The medium risk indices performed the best over the chart period, 2010 to 2013, but it could have turned out different.  Generally, you choose your investment according to your ""risk appetite"" - how much you're willing to risk.  You might play safe with, say, 30% cash, 60% medium risk, 10% high risk.  (Then again, are you paying someone to manage cash, which you might be able to do for free in a bank?) Assuming, for a moment, European (3.) and Intnl Equity Tracker (9.) had the same medium risk profile, then holding 50% & 50% would also add some currency diversification, which is usually advisable.  However, the main choice is down to risk appetite. To address your specific question: ""my main interest for now is between Stockmarket Growth and Strategic Growth"", first thing to do is check their volatilities. For a further level of sophistication you can check how they are correlated against each other.  If they are inversely correlated, i.e. one goes up when the other goes down, then holding some of each could be a good diversification. FYI: An Introduction to Investment Theory The historical returns are important too, but the investment classes your pension fund is offering will probably be reasonably aligned on a risk-return basis.  You should check though.  I.e. do they line up on a plot of 3 year Return vs Volatility? e.g. the line through SA Cash - SA Bonds - Vol Target 20 - SA Equity.  Source" US corporations are allowed to automatically enter employees into a 401K plan.  A basic automatic enrollment 401(k) plan must state that employees   will be automatically enrolled in the plan unless they elect otherwise   and must specify the percentage of an employee's wages that will be   automatically deducted from each paycheck for contribution to the   plan. The document must also explain that employees have the right to   elect not to have salary deferrals withheld or to elect a different   percentage to be withheld. An eligible automatic contribution arrangement (EACA) is similar to   the basic automatic enrollment plan but has specific notice   requirements. An EACA can allow automatically enrolled participants to   withdraw their contributions within 30 to 90 days of the first   contribution. A qualified automatic contribution arrangement (QACA) is a type of   automatic enrollment 401(k) plan that automatically passes certain   kinds of annual required testing. The plan must include certain   features, such as a fixed schedule of automatic employee   contributions, employer contributions, a special vesting schedule, and   specific notice requirements. You generally have a period of time to stop the first deposit. One I saw recently gave new employees to the first paycheck after the 60 day mark to refuse to join. You also may be able to get back the first deposit if you really don't want to join. If you don't want to participate look on the corporate website or the Fidelity website to set your future contributions to 0% of your paycheck. Keep in mind several things: Personally I'm against any type of government sponsored investments or   savings. I can save money on my own and I don't care about their   benefits. Some companies provide an annual  contribution to all employees regardless of participation in the 401K. They do need to establish an account to do that. Again that is free money Does it mean if I never contribute any money so I will have 0 I might   go below 0 and owe them money in case they bankrupt or do bad   investments? Even in total market collapse the value of the 401K could never go below zero, unless the 401K was setup to allow very exotic investments. Does it teach anything else other than the DCF approach?  I've already learned that in on of my financing courses. I'm more interested in the more exotic valuation techniques, and how to use and weigh multiple techniques for valuation. &gt;Something to watch out for if you are analyzing this stuff though is the influx of used cars into the market. Remember, more defaults means more repossessions which means more used cars on the market.  I think Morgan Stanley said they expect to see up to a 50% decline in used car prices over the next four years.  Edit: [Can't find the report, but here's the Market Watch summary](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-much-morgan-stanley-thinks-used-car-prices-will-crater-in-one-chart-2017-04-03) Ok so Arbitrage?  I was looking specifically at the people who took this deal to the extreme taking the $5k and using the $10 giftcards to buy prepaid credit cards.  Would the better term would be positive-feedback loop, since the only constraint would be time and energy to the people exploit this deal.  Is there a financial term that fits this better? I don't think there exists a guaranteed 5% investment vehicle. You have to decide how much risk you're willing to take. Splitting your $200k between CD's and stocks (or whatever higher yield investment vehicle you've found) is a way to get a higher rate without risking it all. For example if you've got a CD at 3%, and let's say best case is 10% average annual return on stocks, after 10 years here are potential results using various splits from 100% CD to 100% stock:   The best case based on 10% average stock return and 3% CD return is the Total line for each split, the worst-case would be the CD amount only. Reality could be almost anywhere, but not below the CD amount. You could think of points 1 and 3 combined to be similar to buying shares and selling calls on a part of those shares. $50k is the net of the shares and calls sale (ie without point 3, the investor would pay more for the same stake). Look up convertible debt, and why it's used. It's basically used so that both parties get 'the best of both world's' from equity and debt financing.   Who is he selling his share to in point 2 back to the business or to outside investors?