I have a lump sum that I want to invest in the medium term (5 years). What do I do with it?

It is just under 100K so not enough for property. Some suggest gold, others shares, others in term-deposits in banks. Liquidity is not important for the next 5 years. Any advice appreciated. Thanks

Five years is kind of a tricky length of time. Historically, over long periods of time, stocks have provided the highest return of any asset class. Most likely, a 5-year investment in a diversified stock portfolio would do well from here (especially since stock prices are down right now), but there have been some 5-year periods where stocks have lost money so it's by no means a certainty.

The long-term average returns on gold are not nearly as good, plus the price of gold has run up a lot recently. As we've learned from tech stocks in the late 1990s and real estate in the mid-2000s, buying things that have already run up in price a lot is very risky business. I personally would not invest in gold right now.

Term-deposits in banks are safe, but the returns are poor - usually barely higher than inflation (and sometimes lower after subtracting out taxes on the interest). They're good for PRESERVING money, but not for GROWING the investment.

You'll have to make your own decision based on how bad it would be if the investment lost ground over the 5 years. If that would be devastating, you might have to stick with safe low-return investments. If you're willing to take the (historically small) chance that stocks will be lower, then most likely you'll grow the money a lot more in stocks.

If you go with stocks, be sure to spread the investment across at least 10 (and preferably 20) different stocks in different industries - and choose well-established companies with a good history. Unless you want to do a lot of research, a mutual fund based on a major index (like the S&P 500 or Russell 2000) might be a good choice since that allows you to buy one thing and get pieces of many different stocks. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track those same indexes are another possibility. They're similar to mutual funds, but trade on the market like stocks.

Depends on your risk tolerance.

Lots of things are down right now. You might try buying blue-chip large cap stocks, especially companies that have taken a hit during the current 'panic' but are otherwise solid companies with good track records. Fairly low risk, fairly good chance of decent returns. You could try more speculative buying but the prospect of better returns is mitigated by having much higher risk.

Otherwise, go with certificate-of-deposit or government bonds.

I would be very conservative with this amount of money. May i suggest the following.

Buy 5 Certificates of Deposit.

The first for 1 year at $20,000
The 2nd for 2 years at $20,000
The 3rd for 3 years at $20,000
The 4th for 4 years at $20,000
The 5th for 5 years at $20,000

If you do this, you will have one CD maturing every year. And you will not have to worry about having all $100,000 tied up in one CD. When the 1 year CD matures, you reinvest it for 4 years in another CD.

I hope you see where I am going. It is called the ladder strategy.

Good Luck

The fundamentals say China / Asia
Wait till Asia starts to rise independent of how the US market is doing, THEN

with portfolio margining you can make $10,000-$20,000 a month on a $100,000 invesment with no risk at all.
ive got $5,000 invested and im making $3,000 a month

If you want your money to work for you then you definetly have to check this out:
http://my-robottrader.blogspot.com/

It are the results of my own investment.
The profit/risk factor is verry low, because my money is in the hand of people who have allot of expereince on the forex.
Annyway feel free to contact me then I'll give you his emailadress...
Because he can tell you allot more about the investment then I possibly can..