<p>Something that earn you good returns year after year or after many years of ups and downs ? </p>
<p>Do you have any ? Is it a single stock or mutual fund ? Bonds ?</p>
<p>Did an investment adviser picked it or did you do it on your own ?</p>
<p>prepaid college illinois plan.</p>
<p>Cremonese stringed instruments of documented lineage. ;)</p>
<p>“Investment vehicle”?</p>
<p>That would have to be my old 66 Mustang - that vehicle increases in value every year despite my driving it daily! ;)</p>
<p>Everything is eventually a trade.</p>
<p>Don’t fall in love with an asset. It will eventually break your heart.</p>
<p>Ans: My wife and son. They are not available for trade. I have fallen in love with them. They are not for trade, but I will consider other options.</p>
<p>If my husband qualifies as an “investment vehicle” then it fits the "earn you good returns year after year or after many years of ups and downs ? " and " did you do it on your own ? ".</p>
<p>I am in awe of everyone’s financial acumen and wit of course.</p>
<p>I am in a transition stage of my life and doing some evaluations. The best investment vehicle I have earned about 3.5-4% per year, over the last 20+ years. So we just barely keep up with inflation. 
Before the market crashed it was more like 5%. </p>
<p>Over the years we mostly make the choices ourselves. We never seemed to meet any financial adviser competent enough or stayed at the job long enough for us to trust. We did hire a private portfolio manager last year hoping he can do better than ourselves personally. Unfortunately he did worse.</p>
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<p>This has been my experience as well. But not everyone is willing to be responsible for their investment decisions (which can be highly emotional), so I understand the appeal of an “independent professional.”</p>
<p>As for advice, I’m with BCEagle – hold no financial investments permanently. (I know, it’s hard to know when to get out – but as the current troubles show, it’s essential to learn when to sell.)</p>
<p>I bought 100 shares of Cisco in the early 90’s. By the time it had finished splitting, I had 1600 shares (basis less than $2 a share). Have sold some off over the years, but still have some. Best stock purchase I ever made.</p>
<p>^Growth stocks are great but generally of higher risk. In the beginning stages it’s hard to figure out which stock was going to be a winner.</p>
<p>Don’t know if this is considered an “investment vehicle” but we just recently learned the value of life insurance!</p>
<p>With the market (along with our D’s “college fund”) tanking, I remembered back about 20 years when our insurance agent said, “Why don’t you put the $10,000 a year you invest with your broker for your kids’ college into a life insurance policy just this once,”, so we did! We hated to sell any stock, etc. with everything valued so low this year, so I dug that insurance policy out. Sure enough, its cash value was $45,000 - just about what we need to pay for D’s school for a year! I called up the agent and made an appointment. We are able to “borrow” the cash value of the policy, thus incurring no tax. We don’t have to start “paying it back” for 6 years and then at only $1,000 a year. Upon retirement, we just say we want to cash it in and then will be taxed at that income rate. Or, we can pay it back. The death benefit remains the same minus the $45,000 cash value we took out. Hopefully this will give us a year to let the stock market recover some of its value and we can then go back to using the money in the college fund. If we would have had a crystal ball, we would have done this more than once!</p>