Are there any benefits to investing with a group of friends vs. by myself?
In most markets, there are fixed fees known as commissions. For instance, with a retail broker in the stock market, you can expect every trade to cost you $7.00 as an example, it is $7.00 regardless of if you place a trade for $25 or $25,000. You will see that just opening the trade, with a smaller amount, will eat up all of your profits and a majority of your capital, but if you opened the trade with more capital through the investment group, then the $7.00 commission will be much less of a tax on your trade. Basically, the only advantage is that the tax of commissions will be less if you have a larger account, if the commission is a fixed dollar value, which is not always true either. regardless, at $25 per month, not many markets will be accessible. There is also the possible educational aspect of investing with a group of people, or it can simply be clashing ideals. The benefits of pooling your money with others: The drawbacks of pooling your money with others: Practically Speaking - I say go for it. You stand to gain a lot of knowledge about how money works without having too much on the line. Good luck!
I would lean towards taking the lump-sum too if that were my situation. However, the value of the sum offered is likely lower than the value of the pension plan would have paid out - otherwise how would it be any advantage to offer it?  So, uncertainty about receiving the benefits is reduced, but you're still likely taking a loss vs what was promised. It's better then the pension plan going completely insolvent and paying nothing, but no reason for celebration either. eallan already touched on this, but generally speaking there is a tendency in this country to lump unions together and put the shortcomings of one local or one unit or one member onto all of them. An example would be the issue of corruption; many people cry about rampant corruption in unions when in fact only somewhere between 1-2% of locals have ever had any corruption charges, whereas I'd be willing to bet that the corruption rate is much higher in the corporate world.  &gt; Honestly, I cant think of any reason for minimum wage paying jobs to have a union. If you think the wages are too low for cost of living then the minimum wage should be raised. These people have no special skills, little to no training, and usually no education.  Genuine question: What reasons do you think someone would/could have for joining a union? Why would base pay/education/skill level of the job be a consideration?    Just so we're on the same page: Collective bargaining came about because workers in certain areas were pissed-off enough that they realized that to improve their situation they had to come together as a group, because only as a group did they have any leverage. All workers have the right to collective bargaining, rights which were signed into law because pissed-off workers were doing it anyway, and the regulation of the practice helped smooth it out and drastically cut down on violence and debilitating drops in production.    It takes quite a feeling of injustice and exploitation when not friends, not family, but colleagues, some of which may not even like each other, start seeing that they share common problems, and decide to tie the fate of their working lives to one another. And give up like 1-2% of their paychecks. Especially in a country with an individualistic culture like the US.   So if workers at certain Wal-Marts feel like working conditions are that bad for them, then I can't see why they shouldn't organize. &gt;But how often can you really do this?  Any time I'm at home and not watching with a big group, because no one I know texts me about sports.  If I have friends over I'll let it play in real time because the commercials give people a chance to talk about whatever is going on in the game without interrupting the action. "Another thing that insurance companies try to do with these types of vehicles is to promote the ""cash value"" of the policy. The longer you participate in the policy, the more your cash value goes up (assuming the investments perform reasonably well). The selling point is that at any time you can take out part of that cash value without impacting your insurance policy. A lot of people see that benefit as being the same as either putting the money in the bank or investing it, when actually they could do better if they did either of those things themselves. One true advantage of the whole term policy is that if you should fall on hard times and are not able to work, the premium payments can be taken out of the cash value. That way even if you can't make the monthly payments, the insurance policy basically pays for itself. I actually experienced this myself many years ago after I lost my job and had some health issues. I was out of work a long time, but my life insurance never lapsed. That in itself made it worthwhile for me." It's clearly a risk, but is it any different than investing in your own business? Yes, it is different.  If you own a business, you determine the path of the business.  You determine how much risk the business takes.  You can put in extra effort to try to make the business work.  You can choose to liquidate to preserve your capital.   If you invest without ownership, perhaps the founder retains a 50% plus one share stake, then whomever controls the business controls all those things.  So you have all the risks of owning the business (in terms of things going wrong) without the control to make things go right.  This makes investing in someone else's business inherently riskier.   Another problem that can occur is that you could find out that the business is fraudulent.  Or the business can become fraudulent.  Neither of those are risks if you are the business owner.  You won't defraud yourself.   Angel investing, that is to say investing in someone else's startup, is inherently risky.  This is why it is difficult to find investors, even though some startups go on to become fabulously wealthy (Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.).  Most startups fail.  They offer the possibility of great returns because it's really hard to determine which ones will fail and which will succeed.  Otherwise the business would just take out the same loan that Jane's getting, and leave Jane out of it. Sorry for the late reply. Nonetheless the Dow has the same pros as any other index but what sticks out to me is that all of the stocks are extremely popular with private investors. In my experience it helps to compare stock development of competitors in terms of popularity. Yes, but only if they're looking for investors. You would need to contact them directly. Unless you're looking to invest a significant sum, they may not be interested in speaking with you. (Think at least 6 figures, maybe 7 depending on their size and needs). This is otherwise known as being a Venture Capitalist. Some companies don't want additional investors because the capital isn't yet needed and they don't want to give up shares in the profit/control. Alternatively, you could try and figure out which investment groups already have a stake in the company you're interested in. If those companies are publicly traded, you could buy stocks for their company with the expectation that their stock price will increase if the company you know of does well in the long run. Short answer: NO, there is no financial benefits for you to expect in a local currency even if some might give tiny discounts on local sales. Local currencies are attractive for small business or communities, they are perfectly legal and starting to be popular in a lot of places. Local currencies encourage individuals and businesses to exchange goods and services locally.  Using them is like investing in your community. It could give you the feeling of doing something good for your community. Check this article for a discussion on the subject.  They should not be considered investments. Local currencies do not offer the same financial security and some could be like monopoly money, but that would be another subject or question to debate.  So, to summarize: no money to be made for your personal use, but some real social and financial benefits for your community. Would'nt that be a kind of personal benefit for you ?