What are some pretty safe and profitable investments here in the U.S.?

Safe and profitable are mutually exclusive requirements. Safe investments (such as Treasury securities) barely keep up with inflation. Profitable (or, rather, potentially profitable) investments are risky.

I believe real estate is still the safest investment.

If you find a good real estate agent that can counsel you on which properties are better than others (make sure your sign a buyer's agency, then they work for YOU, not the Seller), then you can improve your yield.

The trick is finding one that has experience in investment real estate, not just SF home sales. Multi family units make a great investment. Good tax shelter, too.

I am not making this up: Go to a run-down part of town and buy a gas station that also sells lottery tickets and cheap booze. If that seems too challenging, try real estate. The real estate bubble began to burst about a year ago. It is a buyers market right now, especially in places like Miami. Make sure that you check to see what the insurance will cost if you decide to invest in real estate. Bueno suerte!

Everyone's definition of safe is different.

Complete safety is found only in U.S. Treasury bonds or T-bills. They are backed by the U.S. government and are completely credit risk free. The only risk you'll find with T-bills is inflation risk.

As far as stocks go, megacap blue chips offer lots of safety and profitability. Ex) Altria (MO), General Electric (GE), Citigroup(C)

These stocks all pay dividends and have the potential for capital appreciation.

You can also invest in REIT's, or real estate investment trusts. These are companies that are traded on the NYSE and are holding companies for commercial real estate like malls office buildings and industrial parks. Vornado Realty Trust is a good example. 90% of the profits are paid out in dividends to shareholders.

Good luck.

The answer to your question depends on what rate of return is acceptable to you.

Generally speaking, the greater the rate of return on investment is, the more risk is involved in that investment.

If you are are uncomfortable with risk taking and are willing to accept a rate of return between 4% -5%, then perhaps a long term Certificate of deposit (CD) or 10 yr. treasury bill would be a good investment to consider.

With a CD or T-Bill, there is very little chance of losing your principal, and the interest on CD's and treasury bills has historically been paid almost 100% of the time.

However, I suspect that you may be looking for a higher rate of return than just 4-5%.

If that is the case, then you may want to consider checking into investing in a no load mutual fund that invests in highly rated corporate bonds. There are also tax-free bond funds that you can invest in where the interest you earn is tax free (depending on the rules in the state you live in).

Investing in stocks of well-run utility companies can also be fairly safe and profitable since they generally pay quarterly dividends in addition to profits you make when their stock price goes up over time. Everyone uses electricity and/or gas in some shape or form, and this will hold true for the foreseeable future, so utilities tend to make money on a consistent basis year after year.

However, pick utility stocks carefully since not all utility companies have good management and not all companies are equally profitable .

These are just a few investments that are relatively safe, However, most of them will have a rate of return of less than 10%.

If you desire a higher rates of return you'll need to consider other investment vehicles such as: real estate investment trusts (REIT's), Stock mutual funds, commodities (i.e. silver, gold, etc..), or options trading.

If you want a guaranteed high rate of return, make sure to pay off any high interest (10-21%) credit card debt you may have before investing in any of the above financial instruments.

Good luck ! Hope this helps !

One of the best overall investments you can make, is LAND. I have had the pleasure of making millionnaires out of some of my clients by finding good real estate investments for them to purchase. There are some good bargains in the present market, and better deals to come. My investors are poised for the REO market to come down.....then it will be a great fix and flip market.

Investing requires balancing risk against reward. There's no free lunch. If it's safe, it probably won't have as much profit potential as something that's less safe. When you invest, you have to decide how much risk you can tolerate before you can decide what investments to make.

If you're talking about long term investing, with moderate risk and reasonable potential for gains, look at lifecycle or target date mutual funds. These funds provide you with a diversified portfolio that is managed by the fund staff--you don't have to do the investment strategizing yourself. See the webpages listed below for more information.

the assasinationof george bush..just a thought...

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