The best place to invest $1,000 for the Investment Challenged?

Answer 1

Depends on how soon you will need the money and your risk tolerance.

If this is a long-term investment, investing in an index fund ( a mutual fund that follows a stock market index) is very simple to do. You just need to invest using broker (Fidelity, Vanguard, Charles Shwabb, etc). They can walk you through the steps. All of their websites have information as well to help you understand what you're doing. You will basically have a piece of a lot of different companies and the account will have low fees (which can add up for regular mutual funds over time).

Here are some suggested low-cost investment funds.

TIAA Equity Index
http://www.tiaacref.org
Invests in approximately 3000 companies
Expense: 0.26%
Mininum investment: $50 if you start an Automatic Inv. Plan. If your balance is below $1,500, you will be charged $25, unless you invest at least $100/month in an automatic investment plan.

Vanguard Star
http://www.vanguard.com
Invests 35% in bonds and 65% in stocks using a basket of Vanguard funds
Expense: 0.37%
Minimum investment: $1,000 minimum to open an IRA; $1,000 minimum to open an investment account

Schwab 1000 Fund
http://www.schwab.com
Invests in largest 1000 companies Expense: 0.46%
Minimum investment: $1,000 minimum to open an IRA; $2,500 minimum to open a investment account

If it's short-term, then you could get certificate of deposits of 3 to 12 months. The rates are not too different from savings accounts, though. Placing the money in a boring old savings account is fine also. Just make sure you use an internet bank like ING or Emigrant Direct, which have much higher rates than the local banks. You can go to their websites to see the current rates or go to http://www.bankrate.com to compare rates at most banks in the US.

Happy investing:)
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Answer 2

I'd park it in a mutual fund that tracks the market, like the S&P 500. That gives you diversity of investments. You won't do better than the market, but you won't do worse, either. If you're very risk adverse, then you could put it in a CD with a good interest rate, or even a money-market fund. I'd park it somewhere like Charles Schwab, where they pay a good interest rate on cash and you can then go out and learn.

Answer 3

"Call options" on the stock market.

Some people do this from home.

Basically they predict what the price will be for stocks.

If they are wrong, you get the stock. If they are right, you get a dividend. Everybody wins.

It's super conservative too.