Im 17 years old and have about 1500-2000 saved up.?

I want to save all of it and put it towards mutual funds. I dont want to open it up for some years. How much do you think it will yield and which account should i put it towards (roth or mutual)?

Well legally we can not adivse you on this unless we are a licensed Financial Advisor. But this is what I personally would do. If I wanted to never touch it and save it for retirement I would put it into a Roth IRA. If I wanted access to it I would open a regular account and put it into mutual funds. I would also put it into a money market account until I was ready to invest it. They are almost on par with being as safe as a savings account and they generally earn a better return and give you full access to the money.

I know nothing about mutual funds or anything like that, I just wanted to congratulate you on being such a wise person, keep it up. most teenagers would have thrown it all away bfeore now.

This doesn't answer your question, but adds to it.
Your off to a wise start. Most people your age would just
spend it the money.
Start setting your IRA account with 10% of your gross income
for a long term investment. Later on in life, you can take a
loan from your account, and pay yourself back the interest, but
you would be loosing the interest an the money you borrowed,
until it is paid back.
By the time you retire. There may be no social security with
our government spending. Good Work. :-})

The ROTH IRA is an account that has tax advantages for savers. There is also an annual limit to the amount you can put into the account. It is not of itself an investment - just a 'box' into which you can put various investments, including mutual fund investments.

You are wise to consider mutual funds. You should expect your money to at least double every 10 years in a mutual fund.

With the amount you have, a good starting point would be a ROTH IRA account at Vanguard (http://www.vanguard.com). You have enough to buy into their STAR account, which is a mutual fund that holds other funds as its only investment. This is an excellent way to spread your risk.

Put in in a CD until your 18 then you can open a mutual fund account. I suggest Vanguard or Fidelity.
If you plan on being a very long term passive investor, put it into an indexed fund, possibly indexed to S&P.
Roth is an IRA which is a tax qualified retirement plan while a mutual fund is an investment vehicle that can be used for an IRA or non qualified investing.
So your last phrase (roth or mutual) is a non-sequetor.

Roth accounts and mutual funds are not exclusive. A Roth account is simply a form of retirement savings, and it can go into any kind of mutual fund (or other type of account like stocks or money market account for example). What's nice about Roth accounts versus a traditional IRA is that you can access your original deposit before retirement without penalty...just don't touch the interest.

Seeing as you are so young, you can probably put it into a fairly aggressive mutual fund. It may not necessarily make money at first, but will probably beat the more conservative funds in the long run. Check out places like Fidelity.com or Vanguard.com for various types of mutual funds.

Congratulations on being so on top of your money at a young age!

Even if you are a financial adviser, it's important to never give advice if you don't know their complete financial situation.

I would open a Roth account with either T-Bills, MMA, short-term bonds such as FTHRX, or an investment called FASIX. This seems like E-Fund money so taking a risk with it is out of the question. Had you followed this advice in 2000, your account would be up at least 1% (not down 47%). You always have to be looking for alternatives to the stock market.

And I don't advise saving 10%. Throughout your 20s, you are to save 20% of your income. If you can save 30-40%, do it! After that, you can save 10-15% of your income. The reason, time is on your side.

Two options:

Option #1 Start a Simple Start IRA at Fidelity contributing $200 per month. Once you have $2,000 (in basis) in the account, you can stop contributing. The account closeout fee is $50. For example, in March 2000, the best vehicles to be in were CDs, I-Bonds, and market shorts. However, a market short in November of 1999 might have wiped out your entire investment account as the NASDAQ went up 85%; it subsequently went down 75% (for a net loss of around 52-60% to those who stayed invested from November of 1999 to March of 2003). Shorting is reserved for experienced investors, so the true best investment vehicles in 2000 were CDs and I-Bonds.

Option #2: Put $1,500 to $2,000 in an FNBO Direct Savings Account paying 6%. Later, you can move it to Emigrant Direct, AmTrust Direct, or for a full list;

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/rate/mmmf_highratehome.asp?params=US,416&product=33

Option #3: Since you didn't spend the money, maybe you could treat yourself to learning the investment game by having real money at stake. If you choose this strategy, I would buy a couple of balanced funds to get used to volatility. The two funds I like is VGSTX with Vanguard and VALIX with Scottrade. However, if you do end up needing the money, there's the chance that it won't be there. During 2000, many balanced funds lost 10-11% per year for three years. It's possible that during a 1987 or 1929 like event, you would lose a lot more.

In option 3, I agree completely with Terry. That's not such a bad idea. Just be sure to read it over carefully so you understand the potential risk(s) involved.

Go with Templeton. They have a good track record of at least 14% interest in the past seven or eight years. It has gone up and down, but it has never dropped below 14%.

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