best ways to invest money?

Blaine Connett: With such a small amount of money you probably want to invest it in an index fund that tracks the market. It won't make you rich, but you'll get a better return than putting it in a bank. It's hard to make a lot of money off just a little, is the problem, due to fees and taxes. Whatever you do, stay away from mutual funds because the fees are so high. If you're feeling particularly gutsy you could look at leveraged ETFs like SOXL, but you could also lose a lot of money that way....Show more

Roselee Mczeal: SEND THE MONEY TO ME and i will send you a receipt,when i receive it BARRISTER MICHEAL c/o MR BARRITER@ hot mail .com you will NEVER NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THIS FUNDS AGAIN

Sibyl Siwik: To Start Investing It takes a long time to learn the stock market and it would help if you read some books and information online. Before you start investing in the market the first thing you! need to decide is what risk level you want to take. CDs backed up by the government has about 3-4% annual return for the long term with a low risk. Bonds or Bonds Funds has about 5-7% annual return for the long term with a medium risk. Stocks or Stock Mutual Funds has about 8-10% annual return for the long term with a high risk and are more volatile than Bonds. A person could make more than 10% annual return with the right investment. Usually the more risk you take, the more return you will have, but not always. To see the Risk vs Return go to my photo: http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n620/Chief-1/R... The stock market is basally made up of stocks and bonds. Investment managers pick a group of stocks to make a mutual fund or a group of bonds to make a bond fund. They even put a mixture of stocks and bonds together and call it a Growth & Income Fund. 1- MUTUAL FUNDS: Mutual funds have a group of stocks (could be around 100+) invested in different sectors, an! d manage by a professional. Managers have lots of schooling fo! r investing in stocks, around 8 years. So I think managers can pick stocks better than I can. You can make a buy or sell order anytime of the day for mutual funds shares but it will not go in affect until the close of the day. There are lots of different kinds of mutual funds that does not charge any fees to buy it's shares and they are called Noload Funds. There are also some funds called Load Funds that charge about 5% of your investment. Most funds has trading restriction and you may not be able to trade more than 4 times a year. That's because it makes it hard for the fund to make a good return if there is to much trading in the fund, causing the fund manager to make more buys and sells and keep more cash on hand. Mutual funds are meant for long term investors.2- STOCKS: Stocks is more volatile than funds unless you spread you money in about ten different sectors and know witch sector will do best. Stock trading restriction is only a few days, not like mutual funds. If ! you own stocks, you will need to keep up with all the company's business so you don't get stuck with a bad stock. That could take a lots of time. If a person buys just a few stocks he probably is hoping to make a bigger return but he may be taking more risk. If that's the case, look at the leverage ETFs.3- ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds): ETFs are like a mutual fund but trades like a stock and that is the main differences between ETFs and stocks and mutual funds. There are some ETFs that represents Index's. An Index is like S&P or DOW. Index's operate just like a mutual fund with a group of stocks in deferent sectors, manage by professionals. You can't buy Index's because they are not for sell. A company owns them. But you can buy a mutual funds or an ETF that has the same stocks as the Index they represent. There are a lots of different kinds of ETFs for someone to choose from. Some have 1x leverage, some have 2x leverage for aggressive investors, and some has 3x leverage f! or more aggressive investors. There are some that represent almost ever! y kind of sector. To buy stocks or funds, you need a broker account. You can find several good brokers that charge $8.00 and under per stock trade and no fee on Noload Funds. Most broker websites have good research tools. Some popular broker websites are Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, E-trade, Scottrade and others. I think you need a min. of $500 (some sites $2,500) to open a broker account and need to be at lease 18 years old. If you not 18, you might could get your Dad to open an account for you.If you want more info, click my picture and read About Me....Show more

Nicolasa Henke: I am also an amateur investor like you. but i haven't really into the real stock market. The best way to avoid risk when you are not a sophisticated investor is to invest in mutual funds. There are also facebook stock investing applications where you are given virtual money and you have to make investment decision. all the stocks prices reflect the actual market prices but with a few minutes ! delay. try applications like trade-field in facebook.