What's the safest investment with the best return?

Question

what types of investments are available in this kind of market with very little downside?

Answer 1

The safest of all investments are US Treasury Bonds and US Treasury Notes. They are US Gov guaranteed, no cap on guarantee (where FDIC only guarantees 100k). UST's are federal tax exempt (no fed tax on interest).

After that FDIC backed bank CD's under 100k would be the next safest.

Granted, the safer the investment the lower the rate of return.

Answer 2

Cash.

Like many you want to try to break the relationship between risk and reward. You can't do that.

Your return is in part your payment for taking risk.

Low risk means low return. That is how it works.  Why would anyone want to pay a good return when there is no risk?

Answer 3

The best investment you can make is to invest in yourself. Learn everything there is to know about investing. Although there are a number of experts that help out in this forum, these experts can only do so much for you. What works for one person, may not work for the other.

The best investment, for me, is investing in my trading business. I invest in myself to become a better trader. This means I read books on trading, attend seminars, talk to other traders and learn from others' and from my own experience. It doesn't matter which market I trade--I trade the stock market and foreign exchange market. My aim is not to make money, but to trade well. This works for me, and it might not work for you.

If you want to be a better investor, there are a lot of resources on the internet to help you acheive that goal. You can also go to your local library and find books on investing. Find a method of investing that best suits your needs. You will find that there is not just one way of investing.

You might want to consult first with an independent financial advisor. They are in the best position to learn about your present circumstances and point you in the right direction.

Hope this helps.

- Jim http://jsforex.blogspot.com

Answer 4

stocks!

Cash will lose value over time...at a 5% inflation rate (what we are at currently) sitting on your cash will actually make you LOSE money! yes you heard that right...

If you have $1000 cash and sit on it for a year, that $1000 will have the buying power of $950 today (gotta love inflation!). You will be poorer and you won't even notice!

However, in the past, stocks on average when picked with intelligence and bought at a discount to their intrinsic value can not only beat inflationary rates, but will also beat the return of any bonds.

If you are investing in solid companies with good fundamentals at a discount price to their value, then you are eliminating the majority of your systematic risk.

Answer 5

Risk and return are directly proportional therefore you cant break the realtionship as mentioned earlier. Over long periods of time the way to give yourself a SLIGHT edge is to dollar cost average stocks in bad markets such as this one and to diversify and rebalance a portfolio yearly.