I have a college/retirement fund I don't need right now; how to save safely?

Question

I want to protect my money while I'm going to college (military's paying, so I don't need it anymore), but I'm also going to be doing some high risk investing with small amounts of money, and if I go bankrupt or anything I want to protect this fund for short-term retirement? (ie I plan to retire early, so I want access to it within 10-15 years, rather than 20-30)

The ideal storage would allow me to earn a good APY, and be able to add money to it quarterly or yearly, and hopefully income tax free, or else annually paying taxes rather than deffering payments.

I was thinking of getting a CD account, but I'm really not sure.

Most importantly, though, is that I want this money protected and secure from another great depression, economic reccession, or inflation if that's at all possible.

I'm thinking investing in something physical like land or gold or ... would be a better idea, but it might be a worse idea than making 3% APY in a FDIC insured account?

Answer 1

Since you don't want/need this money for 10-15 years,  I have one question:  Will you have any earned income?  If so, start parking the maximum allowable amount into a Roth IRA  each year so that your money can grow tax free.  The rest you can put into a good stock index fund (or three depending on the amount of capital you have).  The reason that I say an index fund is because the stock market is cyclical and has never had a ten year period  with a negative return.  The average 10 year return is over 10% per year but that includes riding out the bad years with the good ones.

Answer 2

Gold and other precious metals is a terrible idea.  CDs you don't make much from.  Land there are cost associated with it, property tax, maint etc.

Put it into a mutual fund that has a proven track record and a management team that has been working on it for over 5yrs.