I need to invest some money. I have about $5000. Where should I put it?

I was thinking, pay off my bills right now: $1000
Retirement fund: $1000
two college funds for my kids someday: $2000
and the rest in a CD? maby? $1000

I am 21 years old, and no where near even married, much less kids, but i plan on two kids some day. So i figure, why not? Right? I need some advise. I bank with Wells Fargo, and would like to keep my money all in one place, to make things easier. what do think?

You already have some good answers. I would like to add my 2 cents worth though. The Roth IRA is where you certainly should put as much of your money as you can for retirement. The earnings in that account are not taxed. A person earning wages can save up to $4000 annuallly. Now you certainly should have an emergency cash reserve in the bank at all times. Start with $1000 and add to it periodically until you reach enough money to survive for 4 months on it.

In this case simplicity with Wells Fargo may not serve you the best. The bank is out to serve itself, not you. A good mutual fund company would be a good place to open your Roth IRA. Unfortunately, most mutual fund companies have a minimum investment amount of $2000 to $2500. American Funds is an exception but they have a sales charge on the class A funds of 5.75% although most of their funds are excellent funds. T Rowe Price and Fidelity are two mutual fund companies that do not charge a sales charge but they do have those high minimums. Once you start saving, stick with it and put money into your mutual funds annually like clock work. In 10 years time you will have a very large nest egg. In 20 years time you should have enough to put your kids through college. Good luck.

It would be a smart idea to save as much as possible for YOURSELF right now. Open a savings account and deposit what you dont need for bills. Then, continue to work and send a small amount of money to that account every month. By the time you get married and have children, you will have much more than $5000 in the bank and you will be able to make more assesments from there when the time comes for children etc.

Good job. Unfortunately most young people dont know anything or care about investing. You are off to an excellent start! I read an interesting article the other day that showed that a 25 year old needs to be investing and saving at least 500 dollars a month for their retirement otherwise they are going to be screwed at retirement age. Way too many young people living paycheck to paycheck and not thinking about the future. They are going to have a rude awakening when they are older. I was lucky, my father was an investment banker, I had the importance of investing drilled into me at an early age and started investing my own money at 16. Once again, great job....you are going to succeed quite well!
Ok back to the question.....Absolutely pay your bills first. Being debt free is the first step to success. A college fund is great for your kids. The rest, right now, I would probably put in a S&P500 based mutual fund. They seem to be doing quite well right now.

Bill payoff $1000
Roth IRA $4000--Buy a balanced mutual fund like Balanced fund of America. You can do this @ www.americanfunds.com. Pretty sure they charge $15 a year for the acct. Do it. I wish I started when I was 21. The sooner you start the more time you have for it to grow.

If you know you don't need the money this is the way to go.

I want to be cute and tell you to put it in my bank account. Lol.

Seriously though, first pay off anything that's charging you interest. I'd split the rest between retirement, a CD, and a money market account. I'm not sure, but I would assume Wells Fargo would offer all of these services. You're young enough that you can take a bit more risk with your investments, so stocks might be a good option for you.

I would call your bank and ask what services they provide and ask to speak with a financial planner. If nothing else, they can refer you to a financial services firm. It takes a ton of research to find one of those on your own.

Good luck, and good for you for thinking of the future!

Yeah, pay off bills! I say put the $4,000 into a retirement fund. OK, now you need to to setup a IRA with mutual funds. I made $400 in 3 months not including the dividends I get quarterly, may not seem like a lot but once I get $80,000 instead of $8,000 i'll be making $4,000 in 3 months. CD I dunno, sometimes you could get one lower than the rate of inflation and it is fixed for a year. You'll need to learn about mutual funds. Once you are comfortable with mutual funds, start branching out to stocks and ETFs. Screw CD with mutual funds and stocks and ETFs it is more of a learning experience.

I suggest some alternative investing at such a young age. Staying in one place will do you no good because diversification is the key. Try attaincapital.com

OK TAKE OUT THE BILL,S THAT,S THE BIG ONE \ TILL YOU GET MARRIED AND HAVE KID,S LITTLE SUGGESTION SMALL PORTABLE AND WILL GO UP IN VALUE AND YES YOU CAN KEEP IT IN THE BANK \ BUT WOULD RECOMMEND A SAFETY DEPOSIT SAFE IN YOUR BANK \ OK $ 4.000 IN US MONEY CAN EASLY BE CONVERTED IN TO 15 ONE OZ GOLD COIN,S GO AHEAD CHECK THE PRICE THAY GO UP IN VALUE NO MATTER WHAT SAFE EASY TO TRANSPORT

I say:
$1000 pay off the bills right now
$2000 Roth IRA for retirement
$2000 emergency fund

The emergency fund should be a high interest rate savings or money market account. I use ING Direct, and they're paying about 4.5% interest last time I looked. That way, the next time the car breaks down, you won't end up with another $1000 in bills that need to be paid off! Try to keep contributing to it, a little every month. And if you don't have an emergency come up, you're working on a down payment for a home for those hypothetical kids!

Way to go for having the discipline to save!

I can offer a high return on your money in australia with full disclosure. Depending on the term you choose and the rate you require, it is a very good investment. e.g $1000aud can be doubled in 30 days.

If you like to invest in a cd that offers high returns, I know several banks in the Philippines that offers 20% interest per annum net of tax, interest payable monthly and is covered by 12 post dated checks each year for 5 years.. It is totally secured by PDIC. The banks (12 banks and growing) are a member of a group of companies that has interest in lending, credit cards, motorcycle assembling, pension and education plans marketing,newspapers and mutual funds You can email me for more information .

wow you could turn that into quite a bit!
i found http://goldenbullpicks.com to be fantastic for that!