What is the easiest and most convient way to invest money annually?

I want to somehow start investing my money each year like once a year. What type of investment is the most convient and receives the most back.

I would say an IRA mutual fund stock account with weekly deposits & automatic reinvestment of dividends would be your best bet.

As years go by, this increases greatly with very little notice.

I did this and when ready to retire, the amount I can cash in for is enough to carry me in my older years.

if you're in a company that has an Employee Stock Purchase Plan that would be the best way to invest. You can gain at least 15% since that is the discount they give you.

If you are willing to take risks Microsft has a great investment program that takes 50$ a month from your account or more and puts it toward stock brokerage fees or like 2.50$ a month. It is run by Mellon bank, www.mellon.com

First, buy certificates of deposit, money market funds, or short term bond funds until you have the equivalent of three to six months' income in these. This is your emergency fund to handle unexpected expenses without having to raid your high-yield investments.

Next, you're ready to begin investing.

It is better to invest some with each paycheck, rather than saving to invest once a year. Think of it this way: You have a payday January 15. If you invest each payday, that money will begin earning interest in January. If you save that money and invest in December, it will be earning little (in a savings account) or no interest.

The Couch Potato Portfolio and Margarita Portfolio are good ways to invest for beginners. For the CP, put 50% in the Vanguard Total Bond Market Index fund (ticker: VTBMX) and 50% in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index fund (VTSMX). (If you are young, make it 25% bond and 75% stock.)

For the MP, put 33% in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index fund (VTSMX), 33% in Vanguard Total International Stock index fund (VGTSX) and 34% in Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities fund (VIPSX).

These funds have a minimum investment amount. See your local bank or savings and loan for the best type of account in which to accumulate that. When you can meet the minimum for the bond fund, invest in that one. Continue accumulating until you have enough for the stock fund, then invest in it. (Ditto for the second MP stock fund.)

Once you have both (or all three) funds established, begin depositing a little each payday, rotating among the three funds so the same amount is deposited in each fund each year.

Once a year, rebalance your investments. Because the funds will earn different amounts, they will have different values after a while. Once a year, move money among funds to reestablish the 50-50, 75-25, or 33-33-34 ratios.

This is a very simple way to invest and it beats three-quarters of all mutual funds.

buying rare coins. I suggest you find out about low population pcgs and ngc coins. Buy what is affordable to you. They can start as low as $20 each to tons of thousands. So, start slow if you have to.

I'd love to help, but no one can help you until you tell us:

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS WITH THIS MONEY? (Retirement, College Savings, Saving for childreen, Saving for a wedding 4 years ahead, saving for a trip to disney land next year).

Once your goal is answered I could tell you the type of account (vehical) you could open. (401(k)-IRA-RRA-SEP-SIMPLE-Keogh-501-UGM...

There are so many more questions. I'd recomend you get a professional to help you.

DO NOT GET SCHWAB. Schwab fired 68% of it's work force in 2002. Since then, Schwas has gone from the best to nearly the worst in advice.

I agree with sp-- go with the 401k and get the free money from your company to add onto your own funds.

If you are really looking for a once a year program, take the money you get from your tax refund each year and stick it in a Roth IRA.

If you are investing once a year an ETF is a good idea, because the brokerage fee should not take a siginificatn cut of your investment. An index fund is a great place to start.

MUTUAL FUNDS CALL SCHWAB AND TELL THEM YOU WANT TO OPEN AN ACCOUNT. GREAT SERVICE....

Well, if you have enough, invest in a chunk of real estate. Shop around first.

Whatever you do not invest in a bank. You normally get lower than 1% interest. You should invest in a money marker fund where can get around 6%interest right now. For 6 months I had 19% interest using a money market fund. A good money market fund is Fidelity.

I belong to my company's stock program. If your work place offers this option you should look into it. Apercentage is taken from your check weekly and stock is bought at a discount rate. You can't loose.

Payroll deduction is the most painless, and a 401k, with a strong company will pay large dividends in a relatively short time. Be patient, and start as soon as you can. You won't regret it.

You can put the money in a discount brokerage ira, and then once a year make your purchase. The most convenient would be an ETF. If you are investing for a 25 year period and you want do do no investing homework, history shows the s&p 500 performs well over ten year incruments. Get a roth IRA through a discount broker ( Ameritrade, Scottrade). once a month buy $300 worth of an S and P ETF. Your broker can assist you the first time, but after that it is just 7 bucks a trade. Wait 25 years and you should average ten percent a year. You can go to yahoo finance and study the s and p since 1950. Let history tell you what will happen. Don't listen to those people who say, " the stock market isn't a good place to invest." You will notice that from 1970 to 1980 the S and P still broke thrugh with 10% gains. To me, 2000 to 2010 looks like the 70s. You see, we are almost flat to date, and it has been six years. That means if we don't get a huge rally the next four years, this will be the first decade in history we haven't had solid gains. By the way the 70s were way worse than now in terms of the "DOOM THEORYS" and we are still virtuley flat. Time is an issue. If you are under 30, put all your money in stocks. If over, you might want to do some allocative research on bonds etc. You can, however, do this through ETF's. Check out ishares.com

Also, here is my portfolio for 2006

oxps, amtd, aapl, ccj, ati, slb, mstr, unh

fixed deposit perhaps?

Bank, stocks or Bonds..

401K at work, you don't even see it so you don't spend it.

A monthly automatic withdrawal to a mutual fund, same as above if you don't work.

I live in a hostel and no eatables are allowed in there and I am the only girl who's going home on weekends so they make a list and i have to buy those things.buti charge like 30/-xtra

http://www.savingsbonds.gov/

Brokerage account and dividend paying stocks/funds.

This is personal opinion only, I'm not an investment professional, I have a day job unrelated to investing, this is not advice. If you want advice, seek out a professional financial advisor. :)

With a brokerage account you have full control of your funds and can be as involved as you want to be and go at your own speed. When I opened an E*Trade account, I received a Visa debit/ATM card (supposedly zero fee I think, never used it) and checkbook in the mail a week later for instant access to my funds.

Many stocks and mutual funds pay dividends as high as 13%, some of them tax exempt, and you have instant access to your money if you decide to sell part or all of your portfolio. With a bank/CD, your money is locked away for six months or years and usually earns a pittance. To me that's unacceptable.

Even being a lousy "active" trader (one month I lost 13%, woot) my end of year statement says I averaged over 5% interest per month compounded monthly. At any time I could have just clicked SELL and gone off on a spending spree that same day (I have a margin account so don't have to wait 2-3 days for stock trades to finalize).

Dividends are usually paid monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, and annually, depending on the company or fund. You can also subscribe to reinvestment plans where rather than receiving dividends in your account, your earnings are compounded by receiving more shares instead.

Opening a brokerage account gives you instant access to a wide array of financial tools that allow you to diversify your portfolio in any way you see fit: stocks, ETFs, bonds, options, even currency trading. Your diligence or lack thereof is the deciding factor in how well you do, it's ALL in your hands.

You can do as somebody suggested and just buy a simple index fund: that's ultimately diversified. It has the same risks as individual companies and funds though - it goes up, it goes down. You've surely heard in the news, "The NASDAQ was up/down half a [percentage] point today." Well, you can take advantage of that by buying/selling QQQQ if you want.

For me, the best I've seen is long-term investing in dividend paying stocks/funds, even if I don't have the patience for it. Your share price may fluctuate, sometimes drastically, but with regularity you will be paid a part of the company/fund's earnings. After a long while they'll have paid you back everything you initially invested. Not only will you own a piece of the pie, but you're earning money right along with them. Dividends show a certain level of commitment to the shareholder: you ARE an owner of the business and they make it known by distributing the profits.

Dividends can be cancelled abruptly, raised, or lowered depending on how well the company/fund does over time: risks are everywhere, but that is life and living it. It's up to you to have interest and pay attention to how the world turns.

Account maintenance fees vary from broker to broker, but most seem to offer "fee exempt" status by meeting certain requirements: IRA accounts seem to be free, where you only pay for trade executions. For others it's a certain minimum funding amount, or how actively you trade stocks/bonds/options/other.

You can open your account and simply pick a few things to invest in and sit on it for years: Not particularly involved. Or some afternoon on your day off you may take an active interest and decide you want to watch your stock/fund/index minute by minute and buy and sell it with abandon to take advantage of tiny market fluctuations.

Either way, banks and managed funds offer little in the way of earnings or accessibility. E*Trade has been nice because if you're sitting on cash they "sweep" it into a money market each night where it's earning 2-4% interest.. and you can sit for a few weeks with no portfolio, still earning money while you decide on your next investments.

Good luck wherever you go.

Invest in a high interest yielding savings account and roll over the interest earned back into the account.
Shop around for good interest rates from banks, financial institutions etc before you commit. Also check out savings that are internet or online based, they tend to offer higher interest because they incur less administrative costs than the standard banks. Good luck and It's a great way to start the new year.

you can purchace an anuitty with a anual premium and some insurance companys have a varity of thes that you can dicide how much to invest each year. i told you this becouse annuitys have a higher return than cds at any bank usaly twice the amount some times as much as 3 times the going intrest rate at the bank a banker wont tell you this though ask your insurance agent if he or she sells anuitys and find out the intrest rate these are tax sheltered as well

annuities or savings accounts at a bank.

Mutual Funds are safe and reliable.
401 K's cost money to remove money from and are vunerable to the whims of the company issuing them.
CD's pay low but are 100% secure.
US Savings bonds are FANTASTIC for refunds. (If you like supporting war)
Interest rates are too low to bother with savings acounts.

Quick money can be had by investing in the hot stocks of Wal-Mart and Home Depot but watch out, they fluctuate so often you have to ride them like a Hawaiian wave.

Easy money growth is the golden ring of finance...good luck!

Let your girlfriend hold it.

MUTUAL FUNDS

its safe and less risky or 0 risky...it either grows or dont grow at all. there is less funds that loose ur money.

Morgan Stanley. They're trustworthy and Insured/bonded, etc. I would suggest you consult with one of thier investing consultants. My Father & I have Been with them for years, and they've never let us down. They're sodid and helpful.

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