Which is the best investment for someone in there 20's?

invest in bonds, mutual funds or IRA鈥檚. I am married and have a child but I want to make sure that I'm our futures are taken care of. When we get older we don't want to have to work forever or that our child has to worry about college.

I'm 21, and I invest in Vanguard's Target Retirement 2045 Fund (VTIVX), and I personally am very pleased with the fund's performance, and I think the Vanguard funds (there are retirement mutual funds for every 5 yrs) are always a good bet (low minimum to buy in, low costs).

Buy a house.
Before that you have to save enough for the down-payment. You want it to grow but you don't want to risk it. So, a money market fund or a conservative mutual fund. Fidelity has funds that combine stocks and bonds for example. Depending on where you live, you will probably need $10,000 before you can shop for a home.

This is a very difficult question because it depends on your short term, mid term & long term needs & whether tax implications are important to you. Whatever you end up doing make sure you diversify your funds to protect the ones that don't perform as well as they should in certain situations. In all seriousness see an independant financial adviser (One who is not tied to any specific companies, & make sure they are licenced) & they should go through a thorough profile of yours & your families needs are now & will be in the future, & how much you want to invest. These people are professionals & it is highly risky to try & go about spreading an investment portfolio of your ownwithout all the up to date information........... Good luck

If you have a 401(k), invest in the growth component, probably a mutual fund investing in growth stocks. Invest the max in that.

Then start an IRA,and keep that one in growth investments also.

But before you do any of that, you need to have 4-5 months of income stashed away for emergencies. And make sure you've got health insurance. Then do the 401(k) and the IRA.

Be sure to stick with high quality investments. And be patient and disciplined.

Asking strangers, whose qualifications and motives can never be known may not be the best way to do this.

You don't know them and just as important, they don't know you.

This is too important to take the east way out. You need to read some basic books on retirement investing, Mutual Funds and general money management.

Don't even consider investing until you've created an "asset allocation" that works for you.

Best of luck.

BTW: You can also go to an adviser. That will cost you ten's of thousand of dollars over your lifetime. If you do, don't get one from a bank or insurance company. Interview many.

All of the above and don't forget ETF's. If your company has a 401K then be sure to invest in that also, especially if your company makes a matching contribution, it's the best way to give yourself a raise.

The best investment is stocks. No bonds or mutual funds, they are horrible investments. Yes, get an IRA. By starting in your twenties you will be ahead of most people by the time you're fifty. Good times or bad, stocks are the way to go.

MBA