Is it better to simply put $200 in a savings account every week or invest the money elsewhere?

Answer 1

What are you saving the money for? The time frame is important because some invesments fluctuate in the short-term but provide a higher average return over time.

Answer 2

like some others have said, it does matter what your time frame for your savings is. but in the meantime, you *can* get over 5%/yr in a regular savings account, contrary to what someone else has claimed.

i'm also not sure domestic stocks are such a good market right now for you to buy mutual funds in. would you really want to trust someone else to invest your money better than you could? with the american dollar likely continuing to lose value against other currencies, i would look into mutual funds that invest in international stocks, if you decide to go the mutual funds route.

if i were doing what you are doing, i would aim for up to 10% in gold, and up to 10% in silver, and consider that my "wealth insurance". you'd still have 80-90% cash in your savings account to consider other investments. how that would work out on a practical schedule would be to take $700-800 out of your account every 9 months and buy an ounce of gold, and buy silver with your $200 every tenth week, for example...

Answer 3

As mentioned by others, will you want cash in the near future?

If you are saving up for something soon, or will need "emergency cash", attempt to budget out how much you will need soon, and work around that.

The reason being, that investments with higher long term expected returns are not considered "liquid" (not easy to sell up fast without losing much value), and in the short term may make losses, in addition to having to pay fees once you sell.

What else you invest in, also depends on how much risk you are willing to take. There are always investments with possible higher returns than the bank, but higher expected returns come with higher risks. The advantage of mutual funds is that you make investments with others in investments you would not otherwise be able to invest into by yourself. But you still need to choose which mutual fund is best for you, based on what investments they are making, or trading strategies they may use.

Answer 4

Like the first person said, it's important to know how soon you will need the money, but in general investing (which is long-term, as opposed to short-term saving) you will do far better with good no-load growth mutual funds than in any bank account. The stock market has its ups and downs, but growth funds have historically done very well.

Answer 5

$200 is not going to make a lot of money in saving which is a conservative approach. Stock market will probably be a better option but you need to learn how to trade and use a broker with small to no fee. Here are some suggestions:
learn using virtual stock exchange where you have no risk, like:
http://www.Vvestor.com
and then when you are ready you can use
http://www.zecco.com who is giving zero commission on limited trades...
another option that is even more risky is a black jack table :)

Answer 6

Invest it elsewhere. You'll make a bigger return from mutual funds. My personal favorite is http://www.americanfunds.com but there are plenty of other, better ones I'm sure. Bottom line, you won't make as much money in a savings account. You barely get over 1% annually.

Answer 7

what i would do is put 100 in the savings and invest the other 100 in something else...

Answer 8

Elsewhere.

Your bank will pay you only $10.00 USD after a year.

If you invest 52 times a year then they will pay you only up to $520.00 each year.

Answer 9

put it in a savings account.

Answer 10

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