What's a good 1-2 year investment?

I currently have around 10,000 and due to being in the military my cost of living right now is very low. Over the next 20 months I estimate I can add an additional 1000 or so (On average) to my total savings, for a grand total before any interest of around 30,000 by the end of 20 months.

What might be a good short term investment plan to try to maximize this amount of money? I likely won't have to spend much of it, and I 'd like to have as much money saved as possible for when I get out of the army and start going to college full time.

I'm open to all options, investments, and really any way people might have to take the above amount of money, and really turn a decent profit with it.

Thanks for any help.

You probably should sit down with a professional and discuss the best strategies. They will be able to assess your current situation, long and short term needs and goals you want your money to accomplish. Remember the shorter the time horizon the more risky you are going to put your money especially if you are attempting to see a sizeable return.

Not knowing your full situation you may want to explore funds that are allocated and diversified spreading the overall risk exposure that your money will incur from being invested in the market. Especially since you mention you want to go to school full time when you get out of the army which may equate to minimal earnings thus requiring you to live off some of that 30K that you are going to potentially have saved up.

Find the right advisor or firm that is gonna focus on your needs and they should be able to begin to point you in the right direction

Hi ,

Buy US dollars and hold for a couple of years.
rgds.........

Since you are only looking at one to two years, I really would suggest a CD. You want something that is safe, and has zero risk. Any stocks you really have to invest for the long term to make any real money, and they carry a lot of risk. You can also look at some mutual funds, but they too carry some risk and are not worth it for only a year or two.

Types of investments?

Well that is not a black and white question.

You need to ask yourself a few questions before deciding.

*What are the chances that I will need to "dip into" saved funds?
*How much risk do I want? Would you risk losing it all, some, none?
*What type of return do I want?

Assuming you want to have little risk, which usually means smaller return (reward), you should consider opening an internet high yield savings account (www.ingdirect.com). This account will earn you 4.5% compounded daily. The money will be accessible.

10,000 * 4.5% (Compounded daily) = 10,460 after 12 months

The beauty of an ING Account, is its accessibility.

Another safe option is a CD. Money can be placed in different terms (3, 6, 9, 12...) The money is not accessible for that time (without penalty). But the interest is higher.

10,000*5.5 (Compounded daily) = 10,565 (12 months)

It is a good suggestion to contact a investment expert in your area to find out all the options, risks etc.

I suggest you look at forex trading(either you trade yourself or go for a managed fund if you currently don't have the time).

In addition, you can read below my answer to a related/similar question:

It varies from person to person. It depends HIGHLY on your age, goals, risk aversion, personality.ALso, be sure if you're gonna invest, that money should NOT be(as a general rule) money which YOU CAN"T AFFORD TO LOSE.

Choices in A & B are by no means complete, there are other investment vehicles out there:
A) Relatively low-risk products, like bank products, CDs, bonds, mutual funds.. (Research about these)

B) (be sure to STUDY these before you jump in) stocks, forex, options, futures, commodities, real estate.


if you are risk-averse:
go for A

if you are not so risk-averse(that is,you're a risk-taker):
go for B

if you are 15-35y.o:
you can go for 20-40% A, & 60-80% B (Note: regardless of age, this still depends on your goals,personality & risk aversion)

if you are 36-50y.o: (at this age ONWARDS,you cannot afford to lose money,regardless of the amount,so think hard of how much & where you'll invest)
you can go for 60-70% A, & 30-40% B

if you are 51-80+y.o:
you can go for 60-80% A, & 20-40% B

***it also HELPS to maintain a day job while you have investments--work while (on the side) your money works for you. Eventually, you don't have to work anymore as your money 100% works for you!

****Remember to LIVE BELOW YOUR MEANS.(being in the military, &having discipline, i know this point came across you easily)

Bear in mind these points, don't be hasty(Patience helps), do your research before you invest & you will never go wrong.

Hope i was able to help..
Good luck to your $10ooo!!

Your time frame is far too short to invest in stocks. Short-term bonds or money markets are your only viable options, IMO. Any of the following would be fine:

- Money Market Account
- Mutual bond fund, investment-grade, 1 - 2 years average duration
- Bank CDs

For money market and bond funds, there is clearly one leader, due to their low costs: http://www.vanguard.com

I'd hate to piss anyone off, but 20 months is certainly NOT a valid reason to avoid investing in stocks. I am fairly well versed in investment vehicles, and the one thing that determines your outlook and potential returns are your views on risk. That's it. I regularly collect decent returns in my short term stock trades, and with careful long term investments in stocks, I am doing pretty well. The point is, you CAN make a decent return in 20 months. Nobody can be certain, but with a little attention to detail, I wouldn't put it past an investor to turn that $20K into $25K-$30K or more in two years in lower risk growth stocks. The sky is the limit in higher risk stocks.

Take a look at the OIL and TECHNOLOGY sectors. Apache (APA) is an oil play with solid long term prospects for the next 4-5 years. So is COP. Boeing looks great. Short term, I really like EMC with it's VM Ware spinoff. That's probably going to be a 20% return by September.

Look, bottom line, by the time you get through collecting that 5% interest on your CD, it's only worth 2%-3% after fees and inflation. Same for money market accounts. That's pretty measley, and in my book, the only people who should invest all their money in this type of investment are those who are extremely adverse to risk or old and with enough money that the interest makes a difference.

You can also check out some of the global investment funds by Fidelity and Vanguard. Think Europe, South Amaerica, China, Asia-Pacific Rim. Some of those funds are returning 60% plus annually for 3+ years running. Risk is minimized because the fund invests in a variety of stocks, and fund managers move money to reduce unnecessary risk. Putting 30% of your money into each fund would be a great way to go and it spreads your risk around a bit. Short of a collapse in the world economy, I don't see growth slowing down in those regions.

I work in an organization that serves military members and dependents. I understand your concerns better than most. Don't give up good returns just because you will be deployed. You will still have occasional access to the internet and can still manage your money that way. Plenty of soldiers do it.

Scottrade, Morgan Stanley, T Rowe Price, USAA all offer online investing services. Check them out!

Mutual funds invested in stock (like the global funds I metioned above) may be the best way to go if you won't have time to manage your money while overseas. Do you have an investment advisor? Be careful - some will fleece you! Find a good one and pay their fees if you need help. They are well worth the money.

Lately, I've been researching the explosive growth in the online video category. Obviously YouTube leads the pack here. But you can't benefit from the growth of YouTube, unless you are willing to pay $550 per share for Google. Which may not be a bad investment by the way. But you can't really maximize your investment with such a lofty per share price. The only way that I currently know of to play this very lucrative space, (so far) is GoFish (GOFH.OB).

There are a ton of video hosting sites out there, but they are all private, or part of a much larger public company. GoFish, is in acquistion mode. They just purchased Bolt Media, a very respectable internet brand and destination site, for $30Million. And they are pursuing some very smart and strategic pro-growth partnerships.

Its a volatile stock, that I do NOT currently own, but the upside here is tremendous. I'm looking for it to fall another 10% or so. At a $15Million valuation, I think this is a great buy. You need not invest a great deal at current levels ( $0.77 per share). Maybe 15% to 20% of your investable funds. They're some very smart people running this company. And they have access to venture capital money.

Try investing your "small" amount on product launches, there are a lot of "inventors", with both ridiculous non-profitable products, to "the next-best thing" out there. use your own instinct, and ask tons of questions on how their product will succeed over other similar products, how its built, who will buy it, who invented, how will it be marketed, etc. return investments are huge, because inventors looking for "small" investments can usually be persuaded into giving you the investor a more lucrative return, because you hold the key of their product launch