Advice on how to invest my money?

Question

I am coming into a little money soon. Not much. maybe around $6.000 or so. I have very little money to support myself as it is and I don't want to mess up and blow it as some one might do. I'm asking for some friendly advice from someone with experience on ideas of where or how I could invest my money to maybe make it grow a little. I know it's not allot of money. But I'd rather make it work for me and be better off in the end rather than go on a spending spree. LOL I know there are many, many ways to invest. I just don't know of any myself or how. I know nothing about stocks. lol But I am willing to listen to any ideas that come my way. Thanks

Netty

Answer 1

With the world economy as it is, there is only one win-win commodity you can invest in and expect a steady profit. Gold. You should go to Larry Edelson's page. Everything this guy has said, has been extremely accurate. He explains his reasoning behind the choices he makes and gives good factual back-up. Go to http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/Experts/L...

Answer 2

It all seems confusing and difficult when you first look at it from the outside...but it's not ...it's mostly common sense, with the decision to do something about learning to " invest".

Probably your first step would be to do just a little reading on a couple of " investing for beginners" sites. Juat a few paragraphs about what a mutual fund is...and just what buying a fund or a stock means.

You can go to E*trade or Scottrade and fill out an application on- line and then send a check or money order for whatever amount you decide to " invest"...in a couple of days you will get an ID and a password...when you log on with them you will see your account ... your money will be in " cash" or " reserve" or " core" account.. until you buy a stock or a fund.

A cautious way to start would be ...look at some mutual funds... they all have " symbols" that can be entered into the quote box on your site or any financial site ( yahoo has yahoo/finance or try moneycentral.com ) when you get a quote you can also look at how the fund has " performed" ( what percent it has made in the last year, 3 years, five years, etc)...you can also look at WHAT the fund is invested in ( holdings)...is it all big American countries?  is it mostly energy companies? is it foreign companies?

I'll suggest a couple that you can look at...they're going to be very basic, even sort of cautious..but something to buy into as you learn: FAIRX...FBALX...FGBLX... ICBMX..PRLAX

Buy into something like that and watch it..on your site...for six months or a year... meanwhile you'll be reading occasionally about other things ...and maybe move some profits ( hopefully) into an ETF that is completly different than the fund you have chosen ( ETF are like mutual funds but tradeable like stocks ..any time the market is open, you can buy or sell... and you can buy in smaller amounts....so you can get " a little of this and a little of that"  something like these XME: metals/mining, MOO: agricutural chems/products,  OIH: oil service/drilling companies, TAN: solar companies,

...or you can look at the " holdings" of your mutual fund and see which particular stock is doing well...and put a little into a few shares of that.

You will learn... you definitely do better than " blowing it" or even better than the bank rates ( if you just socked it away)

Don't go hog wild...take it slow...understand what you are doing... gradually you will see different angles, or a better way to make money... or get more " risky"...but that is all up to you.

P.S Don't just look at the funds I mentioned...that was just to get you to know how to use the quote box...look to Morningstar or Investors Business Daily to get lists of good funds.  

...and don't put EVERYTHING in to the market right away... hold some back and see if you like what you see..but don't panic if you have bad weeks either...give it time...and keep reading/learning.

Answer 3

You can put your money into bonds that will guarantee a principle to be paid out to you at the end of the term, but with the economy in such a questionable state, I would avoid this.  The reason being because if inflation rises to double digit numbers, your money will be useless because the interest rate you will lock in today will be lower than the inflation rate.  

If you want this money to do things for you long term, you should invest in long term opportunities.  Keep in mind that even the NASDAQ, S&P etc. only earn an average of 9-10% a year.   Also, if you don't have investing experience you are going to need someone else to help you pick out good stocks.

You can speak to a financial advisor and work with them about where to put your money.  Or you can choose a mutual fund to put your money into.  A mutual fund is a basket of equities managed by someone else to try and beat the market.  You can go to morningstar.com to get some good research on some well performing mutual funds.  However, keep in mind that past performance is not an indicator of future performance.  If you don't feel comfortable picking the mutual funds or equities yourself, you need to speak to an expert.

Keep in mind that nothing is going to grow that fast.  If you look at your returns in a short span of 2 or 3 years, chances are you aren't going to make that much money.  However, if you invest for a long period of time of 10 or 20 years, your gain could be quite significant.  Remember there are few get rich quick schemes out there and while you could invest in a penny stock and hope it goes up to a dollar, there is a much better chance that it will go to zero and you will be left with nothing.  And if you are going to do that, well you would have been better off with that shopping spree.

Goodl luck!

Answer 4

You're right to not want to blow it.... I'm not sure about the rest of your situation, so I can't say for sure (if you have important debts to pay first, etc.).  But with $6,000 I think you could invest in 6-8 dividend-paying stocks and then let dividends collect on a quarterly basis.  I can show you how to set it up for a monthly basis too.  Come over to my blog, I have lots of ideas there.  I'd be glad to give you more ideas.  Especially see my article on DRIPs.

MoneyEnergy

http://www.getmoneyenergy.com

Answer 5

There are lot's of great options how to invest money.

To my mind the best way to invest money is to invest in someone's business. It's safer and more profitable.

I have invested in my friend's online business and now I am getting guaranteed 40% annual interest.

I wish you success!