I've got $12,000 sitting in a money market yielding ~3.5%. What's a better strategy?

Question

I'm young, can handle medium-high risk. Also, the money will be sitting for years to come.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Forex trading! That's what I did @ 18/19 years old; just get a trading system to do the work for you while you work. This way you're getting two streams of income with no extra effort.

What you do (and what I did) is make sure the trading system has a 60 day money back guarantee first; then make sure you can use a demo account. A demo account let's you play the trading game with "play money" so you can see if you can profit from the trading system without investing your real cash.

Use the demo account for 59 days and if you see you can make profit you keep the system and invest your real cash. If there's no profit to be made you get a refund and try another system; there's literally no risk when buying one.

If you're interested I found reviews of the top 3 Forex trading systems: http://forex-tracer.the-perfect-solution...

Answer 2

Getting 3.5% in a Money Market fund is very good at this time.

The best ones I can find pay only 2-3% at most.

Which institution do you keep your money in?

Answer 3

A sure bet for a younger investor is to set up automatic investments into a Roth IRA, preferably in a no load indexed mutual fund. It gives you a hands off way to invest and allows for automatic diversification of your investments. I would recommend a Vanguard 500 index fund. Extremely low management fees and it tracks the S&P 500. Max out that Roth IRA. It's tax differed so you won't have to worry about losing money when you take it out.

Answer 4

If you are planning on parking your money for awhile, then your safest bet is in the S&P or the Dow.  Historically, the market has returned 10% for over 70 years through world wars, and many recessions, with bonds returning around 5%.  Of course there will be downturns but overall you will avg. 10% a year. You will barely make a return on money market or bonds when you account for inflation which right now is around 6%.  You can invest in the Spyders ticker SPY for the S&P tracking stock and the Diamonds DIA for the dow.  Good luck and don't get shaken out if the market corrects here or there. The market has corrected 33% over 10 times in 70 years and still offered a better rate of return than bonds or money market investments.

Answer 5

Log in to Fidelity or the like...open two accounts...a ROTH IRA and a brokerage account.... $ 5000. into the IRA...and whatever you feel like in the brokerage account.

Get the IRA into something like FAIRX or FGBLX...or something even more " international"... the rest of thr world is doing just a little better than the U.S for awhile...make it build up your nest egg for a few years...

Your other money can go into energy funds or stocks/ETFs... or natural resource funds...metals/mining ETF...Ag/chem ETF..   some of the things that could make you returns in the high teens...or better.  Just get used to checking on things weekly...

...oh! and add to that ROTH every year ...get a nice lump in there before your life changes ...marriage? children? house? education? etc.... and that " lump" will grow and grow for you whilst your busy with other things! Good luck!

Answer 6

Please look at the first two responses, which are excellent, and disregard the other ones, which are scams and will lead to you losing most, if not all, of your money.

Answer 7

Beginner traders often fantasize or wonder about how some people are able to achieve tremendous profits by trading stocks just a few hours on a daily or weekly basis.

So going beyond the hype & the bells and whistles that a lot of the called "trading gurus" like to invoke, the real "secrets" of the stock market game are enclosed within the trading set ups and market signals you rely on to decide how to CHOOSE stocks, as well as WHEN to BUY & when to SELL them, or even when to SHORT SELL those that are poised for a profitable fall. So the clearer your set ups are, the faster you can spot a potentially profitable trading scenario and ACT ON IT reducing your risk.

Complicated technical systems and information overload can make you slow and confuse you right from the start, making you loose money instead of making your profits grow.

In essence, You can be sure that the trading method you employ to approach the stock market and pick stocks can make a big difference in your results as a trader. In order to succeed you will need to FOCUS on a set of simple trading strategies that you can implement without hesitation.

Fortunately some sites on the web do offer more effective and updated day trading methodologies. One of those sites that can show you how to take advantage of certain stocks on positive and negative momentum as well is http://www.MomentumStockPick.com

They focus on momentum stock trading strategies, that are practical and easier to apply than many other technical systems out there.

Stock trading doesn't have to be complicated as many people perceive. But you do need to follow a well organized set of rules and tactics, that once you master them, you can aspire to replicate profitable trades with consistency.