how to invest?

Question

hubby wants to put it in cd's, but i have no idea what they are. we want a short term investment, such as 24 months.

what are our options. any ideas?

please, only people who know about investing, no stupid answers.

thanks.

we would have around 10k to invest. hubby will be 3 more yrs with his present job, then he is done and wants to move to PA and get a postal government job, seeings as he is currently military right now.
i am scared i guess to let someone 'have' our money and then rely on them to give it back in a yr. or 2.
our goal is to be debt free in 3yrs. while our current bills top out around 25k, most of it is a student loan, which i am going to keep paying on to create credit history length. the rest are car payments and credit cards.

Answer 1

What you invest in depends on what you plan on using the money for. The fact that you are considering CD's and specifically targeting 24 months indicates that you want a fairly secure investment and need the money in a fairly short period of time. That would rule out several of the suggestions made by others because they recommend you take more risk than is appropriate for your situation (forex, microcap stocks, any stock for that matter). Several posters made good suggestions for where to check CD rates and explained them very well.

Given the short tem nature of your need you have a few options: CDs, bank accounts, money market mutual fund, or perhaps a short term bond fund. All of these minimize your principal risk (the risk that your initial investment will decrease in value). Because you have lowered your principal risk, you also lower the expected investment return, but that is ok for your situation because the biggest risk you face is loss of principal.

You added a little bit more information, so I might actually change my answer. How much credit card debt do you have and what is the interest rate on that debt. Your best option might be to pay those credit cards off. WIth a move on the horizon, are you thinking you might need that money for a down payment? Because of your husband's military service he is eligible for a VA home loan which offers a no-down payment mortgage. Unless you have locked in some low rates on your credit cards, paying those off will get you the best return on your money.

Answer 2

CD's are Certificates of Deposit. You can get them at a bank or brokerage house - usually a bank. They go from 3 months to about 5 years. They pay more interest than a passbook and are secured by the FDIC. CD's are your least risky investment. 24 months is considered a short time for investing in most things. If you invest in stocks or bonds over a short term you have what is called investment risk. This means that they can go up or down and there is no guarantee that you will either make or loss money. It is also not backed by the FDIC so you can loss it all with no fall back.

Answer 3

Hello, join the vast majority of military families that are not versed in the way to invest money.

I was in the military and retired after more than 25 years.

Your husband has the right idea about investing. CD's are the safest way to invest in terms of risk. They also pay the least amount of return on your money.

My suggestion before you invest in anything if you have not already is to

#1. Find a Stock brokerage firm in your area. I will list a few, but it is not necessary that you use any of them at all. Look in the yellow pages under investment you will find many.

Edward Jones, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, Wachovia Securities as well as some real estate investments you will find in the same place.

Now the reason for this suggestion is this is your money, if you are going to let someone hold it for you and you want to make some money off this investment you might as well go in knowing all the knowledge you can about how much you can earn, the risk involved and other things you need to know so you can be an informed individual about how your money can work for you.

It took me about 4-5 years to learn this after losing lots of interest because of ignorance. The military should take a more active role in this however they don't, but you should. One I became aware of better ways of investing I was a happy camper and better informed about where and how to place my money for retirement, children college education, purchasing a house and lots of other things that you as a person need to know.

The information these people will give you is free. Just remember they are salesmen and will try to sell you on their product immediately. You are there to get as much information as you can so you and your husband can make an informed decision as to who and how you want to invest your money so it will do the very best for you.

You are seeking information as to where to place your money that will benefit you the best whether sort term or long term.

Ask these individuals how much it cost for their services, ask if there are any free services they offer, find out the risk you are taking with your money. What is the greatest possible gain you can earn with your money. Find out the tax advantages you will have by investing with them. How much should go toward your retirement.

Don't just plop your money down in a slow moving worthless fund because it is the only one you know about, inquire about other avenues.

There are some mutual funds that you will find out about that are extremely safe that are pullling down a great interest rate of between 14-15%, which is a lot better than that sorry 3.5%-4% you are going to be getting in those darn CD.

Now I am not putting down CD as an investment, I just think it will be better for you in the long run to investigate other instruments that will give you more money.

I hope this has been of some use to you, good luck.

"FIGHT ON"

Answer 4

A certificate of deposit is an investment made with a bank. Basically, you "loan" them your money, in this case for 24 months, and when the term is done, they pay you back your principal with interest. If you withdraw your money prior to the 24 month due date, you'll be slapped with an early withdrawal penalty (generally of about 3 month's worth of interest, which is a deduction on your tax return). Right now, there are some great rates on cd's. I like to check on http://www.bankrate.com for the best rates not only in your state, but in the country.

Another good option lately are money market funds or money market accounts (a fund is with a brokerage or mutual fund company, and account is with a bank). Again, you can check money market accounts at bankrate.com. The big brokerages like TIAA-CREF and Vanguard have some amazing interest rates right now, too. The advantage of the money market over the cd is that you have access to your money at any point over the 24 month term you mentioned.

Since you're looking for short term investing, I think those are your two best bets. There's no chance of your investment losing market value, as you might with a short term bond fund or something like that.

Good luck!

Answer 5

CD is certificate of deposit. It's one of the basic bank products with least risks involved, in which your money is 'locked in' for certain period of time, and given higher interests than regular savings or current account.

Before choosing where to put your money at, you should first know what's your risk appetite and your expected return. There are plenty of different kinds of investment: from Time Deposits, that only generate return almost equal to the FED rate (it's 5% p.a. now), to Treasury Bills, Bonds, and Structured deposits, all the way to Mutual Funds, and stocks and forex trading, which can give return as high as 10% per month.

The key to a safe and profitable investment is to diversify between several products (if you can afford to). What I meant by this is that you should choose to invest in two or more products with different risk levels and time horizons. The idea is to make the most of your money without exposing it to too much risks.

If you can't handle the slightest amount of risk, I would stick with CDs or T-bills. T-bills are similar to CDs, but they're usually longer in terms and give slightly higher interest. However personally, I would recommend Mutual Funds. This type of investment won't give your regular streams of income, but toward the end of the two years, a reliable fund in a good market condition would very likely to generate significantly higher return than CDs or T-bills. And unlike investing in stocks or forex, you don't need to continually keep an eye on your money. It's a good product for passive investors with limited market knowledge who want to earn better return on their money. DO know that investing in mutual funds usually involves some kinds of risk and fees.

If I were you, I would go to one of the reputable banks in your town and consult with a Personal Banker. They usually have some sort of questionnairies for you to fill out so they can recommend products that are best for your situation.

Good luck and happy investing!!

Answer 6

In the short term like 24 month the money was needed. your husband is right, CD is the best option, if the money doesn't far out more than 5 year. The stock should be your best option.
You guys should learn how to invest properly
Yes you could learn invest by yourself. it is your money, you should know how to do with it. for starter check this site out.

http://www.pathtoinvesting.org/index_fla...
http://www.stockcharts.com
http://www.streettalklive.com>... university. a lot amount of information. It will serve you well
I accumulate in good amount in 401k at the young age.I could share with you. when consider invest in stock market. you should consider basic 3 things:

fundamental analysis==(economic data,finincial health, management, business model, competetion)>>what to buy

technical analysis==(chart+indicator)>> when to buy

Sentiment/schycho analysis==>>mood of investor, Contrarian point of view.
Market cycle===>> check out book Trader Almanac by jeff hirsch will give you inside stuff
When you combine 3 thing, It is one of the powerful knowledge goinh with you for the rest of your live

At the age of 32. my 401k is amassed 74,000.00 and 30000.00 in taxble account. by follow simple rule

Answer 7

CDs (certificates of deposits) are offered by banks and are safe

You can buy them with different maturities, such as 6 months,
12 months, 24 months
Talk to someone at your bank and they will help you with this

Other options are savings accounts, money market accounts

Answer 8

It is very difficult to answer your question without knowing more

How much is the investment

What is your income

Do you own or rent?

Three are lots of factors to determine the best

Regarding CDs I saw 5.8 the other day and they are very very low risk so.......

It depends on how much you want to invest and how much risk you can afford with that money.

If you don't know what to do You can't loose with CDs and Government Bonds. Especially federal bonds. There are short term government issued bonds that can outperform CDs and are very very low risk.

Answer 9

perhaps you can try forex. which is also excellent way for you to invest.

The FOREX or Foreign Exchange market is the largest financial market in the world, with an volume of more than $1.5 trillion daily, dealing in currencies. Unlike other financial markets, the Forex market has no physical location, no central exchange. It operates through an electronic network of banks, corporations and individuals trading one currency for another.

try forex from here:

http://www.bernanke.cn/easy-forex/

Good Luck && Wish you make a fortune!

Answer 10

I invest with a company in Minnesota that pays excellent short term returns. They guarantee your principal and it can be withdrawn with 7 days notice. The company researches and invests in micro cap stocks.