Investing $2000?

Question

What's the best way to invest $2000 long term. Say about 35 years. without much risk

Answer 1

Hmm, the Dow Jones Industrials list is supposedly a selection of some of the most solid and solidly profitable companies around. However, over three decades, you will find that some of the companies have left the list and others added. To buy individual stocks for the long term is a pretty difficult choice. Still, had I money and inclination to buy Apple and Wal-Mart back then, I would be a pretty wealthy person today. Yet if I bought IBM's competitors (or even IBM) or then-flying technology stocks like Kodak and Polaroid, my value would be almost worthless, I might almost have been better off spending it on lottery tickets or pulling on some casino's 'one-armed bandit' (slot machine) all this time.

There are some exchange traded funds (ETFs) that will likely hold value for you as well as anything. DIA (commonly called diamonds), buys into the Dow Jones Industrials. Compare the current value with the value 35 years ago, and you would have made substantially better than bank interest had you socked it away in savings back then. So this might be something for your short list.

Another is NY. It holds stocks of the top 100, by market capitaliztion, companies on the New York Stock Exchange. They got big some how, do you want a piece of it? If a company does poorly, the ETF managers dump it and buy whatever the replacement company is. Check how it has performed, pretty good over the last year, that is for certain.

Another for your short list consideration is DVY, the Dow Jones Select Dividend list shows solidly profitable companies that spin off some of the profits to the stockholders. The "distributions" to the holders of this ETF are pretty nice, plus the price appreciation has been more than pleasant. I don't know about doing a dividend reinvestment, but think of this as an investment likely to grow while leaving you a very edible trail of breadcrumbs (dividends) along the road.

Consider also a couple of others, IOO holds shares in the top 100 (notice the difference between the letter-O and the number zero) publicly traded global companies. Another is PXN. This ETF invests in the biggest players in nanotechnology. Some astoundingly awesome stuff coming out.

No investment plan will work for a buy and forget plan over that long period without someone changing out the dead wood and replacing it with those that then better fit the criteria. The thing about ETFs is that the investment formula is simple, a no-brainer, that is very cheap to manage. Check out the link below for details and notice the administration fees. This is as close to fix and forget as you will come.

Answer 2

First get some knowledge on what stocks are and what they can do for you. Yahoo finance and the motley fool are two of the best resources to learn about stocks. Research what a small cap, mid cap and large cap stock is. Understand the difference between a mutual fund and a savings account. Research some of the top investment minds of the last quarter century like Ben Graham, Warren Buffett, John Rogers, Peter Lynch, Jim Cramer, etc. The main stay of this topic is that you can learn to invest your money yourself. The more you know, the least likely you're to get ripped off by some unscrupulous financial planner and or broker. The principle of investing are very simple. You typically want to average around an 8-12% gain year over end. Combine that with stock re-invests and or compounding interest you can be quite wealthy within a 20-35 year period. A little bit of money can go a long way. I hope this helps.

Answer 3

You have several options...no load mutual funds or a Roth IRA to name a couple. With 35 years to grown, I wouldn't hesitate investing in the stock market. You can visit a financial advisor at your local bank for more targeted investing direction. Just don't invest with an unknown person and/or company. Stick with Schwab, Ameritrade, etc. There are too many people willing to scam you out of your $$

Answer 4

$2,000 isn't going to make a whole lot of interest or "gain". It is such a insignificant amount of money. If you are willing to take a real gamble, you could try the gold market. If you are looking to make a big return, then you need to concentrate on high risk investments. The higher the possibility of a high yield, the higher the risk. Me? I'd take a nice vacation for about three days.

Answer 5

Invest in EFT: ETFs are cheaper than mutual funds. ETFs have very low annual expenses, nearly 20 basis points or 0.2% less. As against this, actively managed mutual funds show average expenses exceeding 135 basis points (1.35%). This does not include the extra 2% - 5% as loads, 12(b)-1 marketing fees, transactions costs, and soft dollar expenses mutual funds, passed on to you but never informed, except in very fine print that nobody cares to read.
http://debts-to-wealth.com/category/Why-Invest-in-Exchange-Traded-Funds.html

Answer 6

Buy a stock that pays a good dividend. Enroll in their dividend reinvestment plan and sit back and watch your money grow.

Answer 7

cd or tax free bonds.
complete safety