I am a graduate student, but do not qualify for 401 K. What should I invest on?

what type of fund can a person like me invest on?

I'm assuming you're a traditional student, ie., many decades to go to retirement. Go with broad based stock mutual funds with no load and low expenses. eg. Vanguard 500 index fund or extended market index.
Dont put all your money in one go. Put in fixed amounts each month. As you get more assets, start putting money into international no load low expense index funds.

Since time is on your side, go with what has historically provided the best returns over tens of years, ie., stocks.
Diversify by industry, size of company, and geographically, ie., mutual funds rather than individual stocks.
Dont pay loads and go with low expenses.

Open a Roth IRA.

You can buy a good mutual fund [i will recommend index funds]. If you want this money to grow tax free you can open it as IRA account.

There are several good sites you can get lot of information.I like vanguard.com, troweprice.com, fidelity.com. They are very customer oriented and offer lot of good information over the phone and also on their website. finance.yahoo.com and fool.com are great sites for learning basics.

Before investing in anything, what do you want it to do?

If you are on the 'bubble' from dropping into a different tax bracket, open a traditional IRA so you can drop a bracket.

There are a plethora of options available for you.

When do you want the money? What type of investor are you, conservative, moderate, aggressive? Will you leave this money alone, even in times of need?

Just some options available to you, IRAs, traditional & ROTH, equity indexed annuities, variable annuities, fixed annuities, etc.

You definately want the protection of tax-deferral, if you are going to keep it and use it solely for retirement. It will grow faster.

Something else to think about is do you want the money to buy your first home. If so, look at a ROTH or traditional, as both qualify for first time home buyers, to where you can take the money out, without penalty, to buy your first home. ROTH funds will be federally tax-free, while a traditional will be taxed when you take the funds out.

Whatever you do, you need to sit down with someone to go over this information with you, and begin planning your future.

Go to http://www.wslife.com to find a financial representative who can help you. If you are contacted by the office closest to you, make sure you tell them you want someone who is licensed to handle investments. You do not want someone who is just licensed to sale insurance. They can not offer you the type of investments that you may need to hit your objectives.

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you need not qualify to open a 401k, you mean your job dont offer 401?

I suggest get a job that has 401k with matching, then if you need more, open a self directed ira

Hi, i recommand you a good and basic tutorial for investing. it covers all Issues related to your Investing and everything around it.

http://www.investingtutorial.info/

wish it will help you.

Good Luck , Best Wishes!

do you have earned income?
if yes invest in either a Roth or Traditional IRA

if no... then use an individual brokerage account... or open an individual account at a mutual fund company.