Shell G
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If you have a checking account somewhere, a lot of banks have financial advisors you can talk to for free or low cost.
You could always do both, put part of your money into savings incase you need to access it quickly (liquidy) and then invest some in a mutual fund. Be leary about the state everything is in right now. You might want to wait a bit until the media stops throwing around the word "recession" before you invest in anything like stocks.
There are lots of great mutual funds when you want to start looking. My favorite is the Ariel Funds, I'm partial to giving back and they have a great program where they teach at risk youth in Chicago how to be financially sauvy! Plus they are green friendly: only invest in socially responsible companies (but you'll probably get a bigger return going the more traditional route like Philip Morris/Altria).
Try Moringstar.com, it will help.
~Shell
mommy of TCKidz.com |
Jay
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There are couple ways to invest your money. The safe route would be opening a CD account at a bank of something they are really safe and usually give around a 4% return depending the when you do it and how big the CD is. If you are willing to accept a little more risk and uncertainties investing into stocks offers a greater payoff but riskier. If you invest into blue chip stocks (or large corporations) like Microsoft or Apple they offer a pretty good return and the likely hood of either company going out of business is extremely rare. You could also consider IRAs but you wont see the benefits of IRA until you retire in 40+ years. Since you are young and seem a little uncertain about what to do i suggest just opening up a CD account since its extremely safe and gives a guarenteed return. Not only that it will also prevent you from being able to spend it on junk. If your worried that you might not be able to suddenly withdraw money you need, you can open up short term CD, like 3-4 months or 6 months so the money will be freed up faster. |
Brendan Prewitt
 |
I would suggest you put at least half of the funds you plan on investing or saving into CD's to earn some interest, preferably short-term, so you aren't stuck waiting for your money should you decide you are ready to invest. Put the rest in a standard savings account so you will have the money should you need it. While you save your money, take some time to study the markets. I have included a couple resources for you to look at. First, Investopedia is a great resource for investor education. The site has tutorials that will help you learn various investing techniques. Secondly, I have included a link to The UpDown. This website allows you to create a virtual portfolio with $1,000,000. Should you manage to beat the market consistently, or write quality stock analyses, you will be compensated with real money. If you combine the two you will have the ability to do implement the strategies you learn from Investopedia through virtually investing on The UpDown, while not risking any of your money, but potentially earning money. Only you will know when you think you are able to take on the real market. I would suggest waiting a few months, as the current market conditions make it more difficult to make money, thus, sparing you from being discouraged should you lose money. You will need to be able to invest a minimum of $500, as commission fees for trading raise your cost basis, thus lowering your returns. Whatever you do, don't rush into investing without the proper understanding of how the markets work and how to analyze investments just for the sake of trying to make more money, as most of the time, people who do this lose money. Also, when you do decide you want to get into the market for the first time, do it prudently, through methods such as dollar-cost averaging, which you can read about on Investopedia's website, until you have a full grasp on how the real market works.
Best of luck!
Brendan Prewitt
President, New York Capital Investment Group LLC |
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