I have $5,000.00 that I would like to invest. I have no experience.1 to 2 year investment???

Answer 1

For such a small amount of $ and such a small amount of time I would advise T.I.P.S - Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, otherwise known as I-bonds. You can buy them at any U.S. bank. The yield is adjusted to inflation and the current rate is available on the U.S. Gov't website http://www.savingsbonds.gov

Answer 2

Anything less than 2-5 years is considered a short term investment and with a 2 -year period you should basically avoid volatile stocks or anything that can experience wide changes in value over a short term. The idea is that in two years it could be down significantly and you would lose. The best thign for short term is also the lowest return, typically money market accounts and CDs. ONce you get up to 5-10 years or longer then it is a good idea to get into riskier forms of investment since you will have time to recover any losses that might happen early on.

Answer 3

It always depends upon what level of risk you can afford. Do not buy silly investments like artwork only put it somewhere that it will be easily converted to cash when you need it.

Most investment services are not interested in small accounts. The ones that are will probably charge excessive fees that would eat up earnings.

If you are looking to invest in the stock market try one of the on-line services like e-trade fees are usually lower on trades. Stick with blue chip or more solid investments if your risk factor is low. Banks stocks are always safe as they have some growth and pay dividends.

If you like risk try something like Petro Canada, (PCA), it is in the volitiale energy area but has the benefit of being a top to bottom company with oilfields and retail.

Stay away from the small venture or over the counter exchange stocks as a lot of them are pump and dumps. The promoter and friends make most of the money with some lucky ones getting out before the collapse. Most people lose everything.

If you do not like walking the road alone at e-trade try talking to your banks inhouse investment people. Remember they are there to earn the bank money and will try to sell you one of their own products.

I do suggest that you consider putting the money into a retirement account that can earn capital gains but are not taxable to you currently. It would enhance you retirement fund and give you a tax credit against your current earnings. A double whammy.

Answer 4

Go to your bank and drop it into a money market account or a Certificate of Deposit (CD). It will get invested in a short term vehicle like a T-bill or something. You don't have enough time to recover from a loss if you invest in stocks and they take a dive. The market is very high now. I don't think it's the best time to get in. The old adage "buy low" doesn't apply today.

I hope I helped.

Answer 5

That's a fair chunk to lose. Learn about investments first. People can easily sell you dreams you know little about. Read up on investing. Try looking at http://investing.hammocksurvivalguide.com/ for some useful articles.

Answer 6

As you have no Investment experience, I'd suggest before you do anything else with that $5,000 that you have a read through this first: http://www.fool.com/school/basics/basics.htm

But to start off with, I'd suggest maybe sticking it in either a fixed term savings account that pays out a high interest rate..... or sticking it on Government bonds...... that's if you want to play it safe, and don't need access to it (or parts of it) in a hurry.

If you do need instant access to it, then perhaps stick the bulk of it in an instant access savings account that pays out the highest rate of interest you can find, then perhaps use portions of it to occasionally buy (very carefully chosen) stock via Sharebuilder.com (preferably an established & stable company, that pays out a dividend).

Answer 7

With that timeline, really all you should do is a high interest savings account like Emigrant or HSBC. You don't want to invest in anything risky if you need the money that soon.

Good luck!

Answer 8

A great site to look at if you are looking for advice on investing is http://www.top10traders.com. The site lists out which investors are doing the best and what stocks they have bought. Just click on the portfolio of the best investors and you can see the stocks they like.

This is a totally free site. You can create your own portfolio of stocks with $100,000 in 'play' money, and then watch how your stocks compare against over traders.

Answer 9

Check this out has been a great investment for me.Income potential is limitless.I've never looked back, I LOVE IT! GO TO shahansdestinations.com GOOD LUCK ON YOUR JOURNEY!!!

Answer 10

buy 5000 $1 ipos, yea bro, real short term investment tho. or just throw it in term deposit or managed funds if u want lowww risk