I want to prepare a college fund for my newborn w/ a $1000 investment. What is the best course? CD? Bonds?

A 529 plan will work for you. It has it's perks for tax purposes, but more importantly, designed to house the funds for schooling.

It depends on your time frame... For a short period of time you would be better in a fixed income (CD, Bonds, etc) investment. For a longer period of time, an equity investment can usually give better returns. Given that you have about 18 years to go, I believe an equity investment like the Vanguard S&P 500 mutual fund would be better than a Bond or CD. A CD probably will not give you more than 6% no matter your time frame, while the equity markets have averaged 10% returns over the years.

bonds..hey go to sku and u'll learn..

Many states have prepaid college programs they are the most cost effective way to prepay as tuition rates are rising so quickly.After that you can start on a prepaid housing plan.All the money is safe & if your child goes out of state the money can be used there.

Again you have not mentioned the city where you live on. The best investment option also goes as per the country/state. In my state, the best option is investing in realty. It gives risk free return of 50% in a year. Our economy is booming so investing in equity also gives decent return.. so kindly mentioned ur city

go talk to a certified accountant and he can lead u in the right direction. there are many programs out there. One is where u can put all the money in one account. But if the child doesnt go to that college, u are out all of that money. So u need to talk to a pro.

Do not get CDs or bonds. CDs and bonds are not even breaking even between taxes and inflation. You will incure negative worth this way even though it will look like your investment is going up. With a 529 Plan (and you want an individual plan and not a state plan since you have no idea where you kid is going to college or a university) money may only be used for schooling. This means you have to audit the money. If you do not spend this money you will have to pay the 10% penalty and regular taxes on it. That means you might want to underinvest in the plan.

You would probably want to invest in the SP500 (SPY) because the majority of mutual funds can't beat it over the long term. There is DIA (Dow Jones Industrials, also known as The Dow, Dow Jones or Industrails), and QQQQ (the Nasdaq 100). You could also invest in gold (GLD), silver (SLV) and energy (XLE).