What is a decent rate of return on an investment?

I have a club promotions company and my friends are wanting to get involved by investing. I know the higher return is better:), but what is a decent return for a low risk opportunity?

Safe return t-bills 5%
Investment in long term junk bonds 9+%
less safe return by investing in blue chip stocks 10%
somewhat less safe than above investing in small cap stocks 13%
somewhat speculative return 16% investing in China and India companies
very speculative return 22%+ investing in high risk speculative stocks.

Only you can answer that.

My dad used to say that you eat better on 12% returns, but you sleep better on 8%. You can buy an index fund and just follow what the stock market does. The least risky is US Treasury bonds, which I think pay 4-5%. As your returns go up, so do your risk.

It depends upon the risk associated with the investment.

And the cost of money (e.g. interest rates, inflation) for that currency.

depends on the timeline and risk of the intial investment. High risk is usually rewarded with a potential high reward. If the timeline is say 20 or so years, making 10%/yr for 20 years would be pretty good in my book. The benchmarkl for return is really the stockmarket (compare rates of return to the Dow index or S & P etc.)

24%