Money investment?

Question

Ive got about 5000 and i want to invest it to make more money what some things i could invest in thats safe for my money?

Answer 1

There are a couple of things to consider here....first of all is how long you want to invest the money. If it is for a short time frame (less than 3 to 5 years) you should forget about stocks or stock mutual funds. These are long term investments. If you don't have a long term time frame you should look at something like a money market or CD's. Money markets are nice because they let you get at your money any time you need it, but they will give you slightly less interest rate then CD's. CD's while giving you a higher interest rate restrict you to a certain time frame. If you try to access your money before the term of the CD you have to pay penalties. One way to help with this is to buy different term CD's at different times (called stacking) so you always have a little bit that is available for emergencies at any given time.
Even if you have a long time frame if you aren't willing to take on a little risk/volatility then these might be a good way to go. If you do have time and are willing to take on a little bit of risk however, you should look at equities. With only $5000 you need to look mutual funds. Since you don't have enough to buy multiple funds and diversify your portfolio on your own, I would recomend a balanced fund (one that invests in both stocks and bonds) or what I own is called the Ivy Asset Strategy Fund. It allows the managers to invest in any asset class they chose in any amount. So they could be 100% stocks or 100% bonds or 100% cash or even commodities. Obviously they are usually somewhere in the middle, but the freedom they have to invest gives them a great opportunity to yield good returns in any market.

Answer 2

You are probably going to have to strike a balance between safety and return. You can go with CDs and be pretty safe but the return will probably be a maximum of 4 or 5 percent. You can go with stocks and get a better return but you stand a pretty good chance of losing part or even all of your money (depends on the stock you buy). Mutual funds limit your loss a bit by spreading the money across many different investments. They perform a bit less than stocks can and you still have a chance of losing part or all of your money (although the chance of losing all is a lot smaller).

What you first need to do is think about how long you want to keep your money invested. If you are planning on putting it in for less than a year and then pulling out a nice reward then you will have problems finding an investment to fit that bill. If you are planning on putting the money in and leaving it alone for years then I would recommend stocks or mutual funds. If you keep the money invested then you will ride out the waves of the market, the highs and the lows. In the long run you can make money.

You have to research your stock well though. Don't rely on tips or websites that tell you what to buy. Do your own research. Go to the book store and buy a few books on beginning stock investing and learn the terms (if you have not learned them already) and learn how to guage stocks. There are a lot of sites these days that will give you access to all of the information that you need to find good stocks.

Be careful of tips, once again. There is a scam out there where the scammers buy up stock (or stock options) and then flood the internet with tips that the stock is going to do good. People jump on board and buy the stock. This is an increase in demand so the price of the stock will increase. The scammer will then sell their shares. Soon the market will adjust because the stock is now overvalued, its price will drop. The people who jumped in will start dumping the stock. If they are lucky, they only lose a little.

There is no magic stock out there that is guaranteed to make you money. There are no magic formulas that will let you guess what stocks are going to do. There are lots of people willing to take your money from you if you fall for their tricks. Educate yourself and proceed with caution.

One final note, if someone tells you they have a site or something that will make you quick, easy, fast money then get away from them as soon as possible. Odds are it is just a scammer.

Answer 3

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