I want to invest in something. i am 24. what do you recommend i invest money in?

Question

I have decided this year to invest my money. i just don't have any idea in what. i want a short term investment for the moment

Answer 1

If you are only looking for short term then you should be in a money market or high yielding savings account. If you want to get into stocks and mutual funds you should have a time frame of a few years at least.

Answer 2

Your best bet for a short term investment is going to be a high-yield savings account like HSBC, Capital One or Citigroup. They're offering 5% at the moment and that's better than locking your money up for a set period of time like CD's.

Once you have a few thousand saved up, you're opportunities open up greatly.

While you learn about different investment types, your money is making 5%.

Long term, Roth IRA's are great. You do run into maximum contribution limits, which I believe $4,000 per year is the current limit. You can also have a Roth set up to automatically draft as little as $100/month from your bank account.

I'd suggest at least setting one up with the minimum monthly investment. That way, you are putting something away while you figure out how much you want in short term and long term investments.

Either way, I recommend both. You don't necessarily want to tie up all your money in something you don't have access to should something come up, but don't forget about the long term.

$100 into a 5% savings account and $100 into a Roth IRA per month adds up quick, and that's a small investment until you learn more about mutual funds, the stock market, currency trading, etc....

Answer 3

You can invest in whatever you want for a short term investment. CD might be a good answer if you want to be sure that you get back the principal with interest after a few months. As some of the people out there had said, you are young means that you can afford to make a so called high returns, medium-high risk stocks, mutual funds or bonds. You have to make up a plan to do your investment. First I would advise you to start reading more about investing to improve your knowledge of financial literacy. After that I guess you should be able to make a good plan for your investment.

Answer 4

As you have probably noticed there is a lot of information out there regarding investing. The difficulty is figuring out which arena to participate in. Stocks have certainly had a nice run this past year or two; mutual funds are good choices to diversify your portfolio with a good mix of stocks. Personally, I have been finding the most fun and profit has been in the foreign currency market.

The challenge for you will come in the fact that the investments with the most potential profit will usually also have the greatest risk. The foreign currency market (Forex) has a great feature called leverage where a small investment can control a sizeable amount of currency. As I mentioned this could be good or bad depending on which way the market moves. Many of us use a process called hedging where we are protected regardless of which way the market moves. This technique is working great for me in keeping any losses small while capturing frequent nice sized gains.

I would be happy to discuss this with you further. Just drop me a line at your convenience.

Best wishes for a prosperous 2007.

Paul

Answer 5

The best short term investment could be a 6 month cd or such from a bank. Shop around and you can probably get an annual rate around 5% or higher. Stocks are risky to invest in short term. If you have more cash, you may want to put your money to work as an investor in a project. Opportunities like these arise daily. I know of several just in my area.

Answer 6

If I was 24 again I would probably invest it in wine, women and song. But since that can't happen I'd probably invest in for the short term in Chevron or Texaco. I might consider Google (please don't tell Yahoo) or in Microsoft. they aren't really hot stocks but they are safe. Probably one of the safest things you could do is invest at the bank of your choice in a money market account. It's a fair return and it's safe.

Answer 7

Take a look at Sciele Pharma (SCRX) for the moment, since you want to start short term. I've been doing Gateway (GTW) and Unisys (UIS) myself, so take a look there too for not much cash outlay.

For new folks in the market who want to "invest", keep reading in the business magazines like Fortune (CNN.com/Money link) or BusinessWeek.com. You will read of various companies, good, bad, or simply something new (new boss, new product, new approach). Eventually you will say something like, "I want to be a part of that"--so you buy some shares. Then you sit and forget. Check back from time to time to see the news. When things are good you can stick out your chest and proudly say, "I'm a part of that!" This is investing. It is different from trading, something important to remember.

Answer 8

Depends on what your needs are are.Do you want regular good returns ? do you want appreciation of investment , do you want to save tax ?, You will receive high returns from Risky investments - you may gain much but you may loose also. If you can bear the burden of some loss invest in Shares, Do not put all your eggs in one basket.select some shares from say Pharma, banks, infrastructure and create a mix.Mutual funds too are good choice, the money is managed by persons who are experts and thus they are put into good use and you save trouble of rearranging your portfolio. Money can be invested in BPOs but there is no guarantee you will alloted shares . Safest investment is FDRs in Bank or term deposit in Post office.Opening a PPF a/c is very wise choice- it offers good returns along with tax savings.Indira Vikas Patra ( assuming you are an Indian ) and National savings cert. too are good choice. but it depends on what is your ultimate aim of investment.

Answer 9

If you put $2000 on a Roth IRA at age 16 it will be over a million dollars by the time you reach retirement.

Pick a diverse portfolio like Spectrum Growth from T Rowe Price. At your age it's okay to take more risk than when you start getting close to 50.

Answer 10

It depends on how much money you are talking about here. But by not knowing how much, at age 24, you should be willing to take alot of risk.
Look at some stocks that have long term uptrend history in the past few years. Project your target (time and money), and God willing, once you get there, buy REAL ESTATE in the BIG CITY. And don't forget, LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.
I hope one day you beat Donald Trump. Good luck to you.