What to do with $40,000? invest it, cd, or small business?

Recently i earned $40,000 from selling a share of a business owned by my late father. I know this amounts equals to noting in this world of multi-billions investments! but just wondering if its worth investing it, cd, or start some small business and would like to know what kind of business is worth this much? or the amount is to small to do anything and its better to spend it on myself and have fun? please advise?

Do not invest in CDs. After figuring inflation, you will actually lose money in the long run. Investing in real estate is a good option, especially since the market has almost bottomed out. When it rebounds you could double you money or more.

dude, get a car and a house then give the rest to family or something

spend it on me lol

invest definitely. You will benefit in the long run. Small businesses can go down the drain quickly.

ETFs and if you want to secure it CD's money market account blah blah.... What I would do, being as I like education, is go to school with that money.

mutual fund or IRA.

You could give it to me! You could buy me a new guitar, pay off some of mortgage...the list goes on ;-)

I'd invest it in high interest savings plans. In the UK we have ISA's, I dont know if there is an equivalent in the states

$40,000 is a significant amount to consider. Diversification is key. I'd seek out the advice of a reputable financial counselor to help identify the best options for you.

i think you should invest half and spend the other half on fun stuff!!!

the best thing to do is use it on a down payment on some property.. like a house or co op...

the prices are going down, and ultimately will produce equity and profit for you...

If it was me I would put it in an IRA or CD for my future. That is not much to start a small business with these days. I work around seniors 62 and older and I see how much they struggle just to make ends meet so if it were me I would put it in an IRA or CD so I would have a comfortable retirement and would be able to relax and enjoy life when I got older.

I do not know what stage of your life you are in. If you have high debt I would recommend paying it off first before investing any money.

As far as a business goes, at $40,000 it would be a small modest one that you can start part time. Do you work full time? Are you satisfied at what you are doing? Do you have benefits at your job?

To sum it up: pay down debt first, invest or purchase a home depending on where you are in life, start a part time business and keep your day job.

Good luck.

Plug it into a 6 month CD that has a decent interest rate while you decide what you want to do with it and yourself! ;-)=

Max out your Roth IRA for the current year in good mutual funds (look for funds with long track records of more than 10 years). If you have not filed your income taxes for 2007 you can max out last year's Roth IRA as well. With the rest of the money you can invest in a 401K at work or open up a traditional IRA with good mutual funds like above. Do not buy individual stocks since you put all of your eggs in one basket - mutual funds spread that risk over tens or hundreds of different companies.
Good luck.

with this you can do wonders.

analyze the following -
1) if you are young - utilize your money on education
2) if you are young and earning some thing use this put it in CD in a Bank - Capital will be in tact with little return
3) if you are young and completed education and if you are free - start a small business in which you have expertise - don't do business if you don't have knowledge in business.
4) share market - stock trading -- the way you have put question, I don't think you have knowledge in the stock market - even with little knowledge don't put your money in stock market - as present market in bear (down ward) trend - you are likely to lose the capital.

You didn't mention the place of living. Even though you can utilize the amount to start a business or invest in stocks or such investments. If you know any good business do it unless you invest it and invest in stock exchanges also need some awareness and committed study. If you are not aware all those invest in FD (Fixed Deposit) or in Mutual funds which will give you almost equal status in stock exchange but no much experience is required,
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If I were you... I would invest some in starting a home based business (not more than $200 or so), invest $1800 in stocks, mutual funds etc... and simply leave the rest for the time being in a savings account so it can collect interest.
It has been my experience, owning a business - you own a business.. you have to be there rain or shine cold or sunny.. that sucks to put it bluntly. I'm currently involved in 2 home based businesses - Ameriplan and Ignite and I plan on retiring in 2 years. Meanwhile I have been paper trading stocks to learn investing.

Simple. If you really want to have fun, take 5,000 out for you and your family.

Take the 35,000 and invest it. Turn that money into 100,000 and so on...

CD's are OK, but if you're at the age that you can run a business, then do that, but don't go investing all your money on a business if you don't know the market very well, etc...CD's have low interest rates especially right now. You could invest it into a Roth IRA, and have it build a lot more money down the road...

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Liquor store or a bar in Mexico is one of the best bussiness. You can invest less than 20,000 usd on it and you can get great revenue. If you want to know more about it, please let me know.