What are the best investments in the United States when you only have $5,000 to $10,000 to invest?

Question

What are the best investments in the United States when you only have $5,000 to $10,000 to invest?

Answer 1

why not considered about equity mutual fund

Answer 2

Before you invest, look at what debt you have.

If you have credit card debit you will be "Making" whatever percentage it is they are charging you every month.  By paying it down quicker or all off you are essentially making that 18.% 19.5%, 22%   they are charing you each month.

If you have a mortgage you could double your payments, or go a half more.  By putting extra money to Principal on your mortgage ( and noting that to the bank when you do it )  you will be excelerating the time for your mortgage to end, and thus reducing the amount of interest you will be paying in the long run. ie, you take 25 yrs instead of 30 to pay off your mortgage.    Same thing with a car loan.  OR, if you do not have an "rainy day" savings, put a fair amount to that to cover say a half a year's salary.

If you feel you can invest in the stock market , then what others have said re: risk is VERY important.  If you have little or no idea I'd read up on ways to invest.   The easiest way and best way for some one with no experience to get into the stock market is not with individual stocks BUT with a mutual fund.........and the type of mutual fund to  look at is called an Index Fund.  

An index fund buys all the stocks of the area it is covering. For a beginner that area probably should be the Total Stock Market.  Thus, by having all the stocks you will neither make super big gains, nor super big losses, but the AVERAGE of all.  You will gain or loose what the stock market does.

With individual stocks, or other mutual funds you might make a killing, or you might get thrown for a huge loss.  

With an index fund for the total stock market you are buying all the stocks of the Wilshire 5000, essentially all the major stocks.   Thus you will earn what the market does.  This is the safest way to get into the stock market.  

Vanguard and Fidelity have numerous index funds for a variety of areas but you would probably want to look at The Vanguard 500  ( stock market symbol VFINX )  or Vanguard Total Stock ( stock symbol VTSMX ), and Fidelity's  SpartanTotal  Market Fund, symbol FSTMX.----this does require an initial investment of $10K, unless in an IRA.

Presently the market is in some turmoil, some might say almost major turmoil.  Yes, it can be considered a buying time, but the market seems more intent on being level or going  further down.   Considering the way things are going it would be wiser to pay down any debt before investing a large sum in the market.

So, pay down debt and if you want to go into the market  look at an Index Fund.

Answer 3

With share market going down you can try forex trading which is showing a pattern these days. A little knowledge of forex could help you. Remember it involves risk

Answer 4

It will be best to consult first with an independent financial advisor to find which investments will best suit your risk profile.

I have been managing clients' funds for some time now, and this is the first step that I tell them to do.

Hope this helps.

- Jim http://jsforex.blogspot.com

Answer 5

Do you need to have access to the funds?  That's an important part here.

If you do, then consider a CD.  But, I would suggest breaking the funds into CDs of different lengths... six months, 1 year, 2 years, etc.  That way you're always earning money, but it's always coming up for access.

If you don't need liquidity, then I would suggest a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).  You put the money in, and can get a return of about 7%.  Be sure to go for privately-held REITs, as publically-traded will fluctuate their returns based on the stock market.

Answer 6

I'd open up a roth IRA and put the max 4k into it.  With that I would buy a blue chip stock like GE, XOM or JNJ and reinvest the dividends.

Otherwise you could put it to work in mutual funds.  Maybe break it up in 4 funds.  One domestic large cap, one small cap, one international, and one that tracks the market.

Answer 7

It all depends on your preference: risk, return, time etc.

The market can give you much more than you want but the problem is will you be able to take the associated risks?

So, my answer would be, you should ask yourself first, how much risk can you tolerate

how much return do you want

how long do you plan to get those return

if you can answer those questions, people will be able to narrow down for you. :-)

Hope this helps.

Answer 8

With that amount of money most investments are available to you from buying stocks, bonds, CDs, to mutual funds.

Most people starting out use mutual funds because they are run by professional managers that are doing your investing for you.