Investing $500 Dollars, What to Invest Into?

I plan on working this summer, saving up for next semester tution, but what ever I make this summer, I plan on putting at least 500 in some sort of investment.

Things is i don't know what to invest in. I don't want to invest in something where I will lose it all, nothing risky. I would prefer something safe and secure.

Any ideas?

What are you interested in? Do you like Coke, or prefer Pepsi? Both are very profitable publicly-traded companies. Do you shop more at Home Depot or Lowes, or even Wal-Mart? You can buy a piece of them if you like. How about all that money you chucked at the gas pump? Exxon-Mobil, ConocoPhillips, BP, and others are very profitable firms that are publicly traded--but not CITGO, Hugo Chavez and the Venezuelan government own it, so their profits won't be shared by you, it isn't publicly traded anymore. Do you eat at McDonalds, Wendy's, Applebees, etc.? All (of these, not all restaurants or restaurant chains) are publicly traded. BTW, if you like Kentucky Fried Chicken (excuuuse me, KFC), Pizza Hut, or Taco Bell, then look up the symbol YUM.

Otherwise, you can buy into broad baskets of stocks with mutual funds, in particular exchange traded funds (commonly known as ETFs) which trade like stocks. Want to be a part of the 100 biggest companies on the New York Stock Exchange? Look up NY. Want to buy into the 500 best big companies that Standard and Poors, a corporate rating company, likes? Check out SPY (or more broadly, ISI for the S&P 1500 top companies). How about the 100 biggest Global companies? IOO. The next big thing in technology? The biggest publicly-traded players in nanotechnology can be bought under the symbol PXN. You can even buy into the Dow Jones representative sampling of the Total US Market--look up IYY. The idea is that while some may go down, some will certainly go up and you try to find some edge on a broad set of holdings, which you buy small shares in.

This is the kind of stuff that you sock some away and pretty much forget it. Over time the stock market does much, much better than just money in the bank. Trading, what a lot of us do, is sort of like chasing in a field after rabbits. Investing, like what I'm suggesting, is more like planting a tree. It ain't sexy but none of these I've mentioned will embarrass you. So, what floats your boat?

For starters,,,1 year CD. at your bank

$500 is barely anything to invest in a CD, savings bond, FDIC secured investment, or other "safe" investment. The most you will earn on a CD for a year is $30-$50. Which when you think about it, it is almost nothing, unless you are planning to go long term and just keep on letting the interest compound. My recommendation to you would be (even though it is extremely risky) is a high volume penny stock such as XDSL, USSE, or AURC You can easily gain 10% or more on your money in just one day . Good luck to you and its good to see that you are saving money

I would suggest putting it into a mutual fund. This will give you some exposure to the market which could potentially provide double digit returns (10 - 20%) reasonably. At the same time, it could be somewhat secure. Obviously you could lose money, but in the long term, if you stick with the investment you will should make money.

The only thing is, you will want to find a company that will allow a minimal initial investment. You will also want to avoid funds that have sales charges. Your best bet would probably be an index fund (S&P 500).

These are my personal views and in no way guarantee performance or is a solicitation of a sale. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Just open up a simple online savings account. You will earn 4.5% to 5.05% interest with basically no risk at all. Plus there are no restrictions as there are with CDs.

INGDirect
EmigrantDirect
HSBCDirect

When you start to create an investment portfolio you need to build up a security bucket first and foremost, a sum of money that will pay all your bills for a month or two if something happens. This should be nice and liquid (i.e. you can get you hands on it at a moment's (or worst case a day or two) notice and for no cash out fee).

Assuming that you don't already have that this is where you should start and go for a high interest bank account. I know it sounds boring and "investing" is sexy but you can't possibly (at least not sensibly) invest money in high return and therefore high risk schemes if you'd be broke if the scheme backfires.

You know what occurs to me, you'd be better off in the long run investing in financial education or Suzy Ormon books than effectively betting on a stock or mutual fund. This will give you incentive, knowledge and power to invest when you have more money in the future and Suzy and her like will show you how to save even more so that you don't lose what you earn.

$500 feels like a lot but spend it wisely on books and financial education and it very soon will be pocket money.

Beware of anyone who promises something that is too good to be true that you can't personally verify. And don't select stocks until you know a whole bunch more about investing, the fees alone will swallow you whole.

I'm sorry to be the one to tell you that you need to consider building deep assets in simple savings before you rush to riches.

unless you're planning on keeping the money in the market for an extended period of time, you should put it in a CD.

that being said, if you want to invest in the stock market, you should first learn a little bit about it.

read this link
http://www.wealthbuildinglessons.com/200...

I think you could look at FOREX market. The bigest market in the world. Take a look at:

http://www.finanzasforex.com/prg...........

they are a FOREX Private Club of Investments and offer very high interest funds (10% to 23% month) with more 3000 investors just in this moment. You can gain access now for FREE to register and look inside.