Does anybody know of any smart investments that a 19 year old can make?

Im looking for a potential investment but Im not sure where to put my money and how to make the investment....Any help?? Any suggestions??

Im looking for a potential investment but Im not sure where to put my money and how to make the investment....Any help?? Any suggestions??

And for anyone that has anything smart to say, Im already in college. A sophmore pursing double major and pursing a minor so save your smart comments.

You should invest in a diversified mix of stocks, bonds, and money market funds. You want to buy a diversified portfolio of stocks as individual stocks are too risky. Most folks have a dificult time buying a properly balanced portfoilio of stocks on their own. They will misbalance their portfolio by buying all small stocks or all growth stocks, or some other misbalanced assortment of stocks. Unless you know what you are doing, it is best to buy mutual funds. I like Vanguard.com, other people like Fidelity, TIAA-CREF, and DFA. Buy no-load, low cost funds. If you are like most people you will invest part of your money aggressively in stock funds, and part conservatively in money market funds and bond funds. Vanguard.com has an on-line questionnaire which will give you an idea of how to do "Asset Allocation," determining how much to put in each type of fund.

If your company offers a 401K plan at work, try to invest the most you can. The money grows tax free, and some companies will match your contribution. Investing in a mutual fund IRA is also a good idea.

I like index funds. Because of their broad diversification, you are less likely to have a dramatic drop in value. They also have the lowest expenses. For stock funds, I would suggest putting ~70-80% of your money in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. and ~20-30% in a foreign stock index fund. However, there are many different opinions out there on what the best mutual funds are. Read the links below and form your own opinion.


If you have high-interest debt, like credit cards, it is best to pay this off first before trying most of the investment ideas above. You should also have 3-6 months of salary saved up as an emergency fund in a bank or money market fund before trying more risky investments.

Believing advice you get on Yahoo answers can be risky, so read these websites for further information. If you find it too confusing, contact a professional financial advisor. They will charge you significant commissions, however.

Sources:

http://www.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/planni...
http://www.fool.com/school.htm
http://sec.gov/investor/pubs/assetalloca...
http://www.diehards.org/readsites.htm
http://finance.yahoo.com/education/begin...
http://finance.yahoo.com/funds/basics

Asset Allocation Calculators
(Determining how much to put in stocks and how much into bonds and money markets is a personal decision depending on your financial status. These Asset Allocation questionaires give you a rough idea how to do this. I like Vanguard best, but try some of the other sites as well.)
https://flagship.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/...
https://ais2.tiaa-cref.org/cgi-bin/WebOb...
http://www.ifa.com/SurveyNET/index.aspx

Web forum: http://www.diehards.org/
(Many investment web forums are overrun by scam artists. This one seems the most legitimate site.)

College.

Invest in a good education - it's the only sure thing out there. Do you really want to take monetary advice from a total stranger on the internet?

Over $5000 ? start in the market in Canadian energy trusts

Under $5000 ? you'll have to go with CDs , $5K is the bare minimum to open a brokerage acct .

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If I were you, I'd open a Roth IRA retirement fund. If you are only 19, that money has 50 years to grow into a great nest egg for your future. I know you can't invision ever being old, but beleive me, it will be here before you know it. When I was in my 20's I put away about $15,000 in retirement, and it is worth close to $80,000 12 years later. When I retire it will probably be worth about $350,000, but even if you are putting away a smaller amount at your age, you have the advantage of compound interest. You could easily retire a millionaire.

Do some projections using the financial calculators at www.dinkytown.net and see the magic of compounding interest.

Put your money in a savings account. Or buy coal trust me its gonna take off like a rocket.

LAND! It's the only thing that lasts. But not along the coast! You might want to consider "PURSUING" a course or two in spelling too.

Listed companies that offer direct investments, (dividend reinvestment plans, DRIPS), or for mutual funds try www.troweprice.com who are alot more helpful than some brokerage companys

You should look into the Real Estate Note industry.
You really don't even need money to start up.
Check into "Russ Dalby's Winning in the Cashflow
business". I've made almost a million dollars, with
very little money out of my pocket.

You can also find a lot of information at:

http://www.cashnotemortgage.info
http://www.mortgage-university.info
http://www.investmental.com/note

It depend on how much you made..
If you intrested in mutual fund. Here in malaysia there is alot of agressive fund
that per annum return 15-30%! Minimum investment is MYR 1000. And you entited for free insurance base on how much you invested..

hey, im in college too, and im 20, what i do is invest in options. i took a course with Investools, I knew nothing about business or the stock market. Im not even a business major im in the sciences. Any ways the online course was 999 and i started investing with 3,000 . in the past 3 weeks im up about 1,200 bucks with some ups and down. You dont have to go through investools or even buy that programs, that are many free sites to learn the basics on investing. like Yahoo Finance or MSN money, Motley Fools, and a bunch more. And you can invest with any amount, depending on your broker.

Either that or Sports Betting, makes the games a lot more interesting.

hi friend if u looking for best investment plan, pls feel free to contact me via mail. i Have Short term investment with good returns with interest rate of 20% to 35%. This is mnc co as well as no one in us. Have braches in India as well as chennai.