What is the best investment for your money?

[Aaliyah Whitney]

What is the best short term investment for one's money with the highest return, with the lowest amount of risk? I'm invested in CD's and they give a good interest rate and very skeptical of the stock market yoyo and not interested in the shaky housing market. But my question still remains and want to know what do you think would be the best investment, also thinking about foreign securities, but what do you think is a good investment and also for retirement long term too?

[GForce]

For long term you can invest in gold or buying shares (only if you have expertise). However, the most safe for long term investment with zero risk is invest your money in your Bank!

[pacifichost]

Talk to a financial advisor, you don't ask that kind of question on a forum

[ejfern22]

The best long term investment is something you can hold such as gold, silver, copper, and even commodities such as wheat and rice. These are good things to have since they are always worth something whether there is a paper currency or not.

[Spike]

Talk to a financial advisor, you don't ask that kind of question on a forum

There's nothing wrong with asking what's a good "investment Vehicle" on a forum.

The thing that should never be asked is what specific stock should one invest in. Everyone's goals and risk tolerance is different. You'll also get a bunch of misinformed info when asking which stock.

At the current rates the 2 worst options would be a savings account followed by CD's. Inflation is running around 2% which is higher than most saving/CD interest rates currently. Also the safest place for non-investors.

Stocks would be good for the people that have experience. A good investor can make money in any Market in good times and bad.

[rizwanrajput]

well everyone has different views for this question...
for me, a good investment can be a good business

[luckygal]

Now there are a lot of investment methods. But we have to choose one according to your requirements. if you need a long time investment then you can think of investing in gold or share. Now most of the people prefer to deposit in gold. the price of gold is increasing day by day.

[multipass]

I invested in a paid community and find a lot of clients to start doing my money. The best investment ever in my life and made around 5000$ in december 2009, more to come in january this year.

[Ali11]

Stock market could be a better choice to secure investment but risks are involved in all kinds of businessses so your abilities and patience also matters for what you earn for your investment.

[asdfghjkl]

Good investment management requires that you pick good investments, maintain diversification and pay attention to details. Since most people don't really know how to invest on their own, many of them turn to professionals to handle the investment management chore for them. This can be costly. Here's how to get the most bang for your buck ... your best investment.

If you've got several million to invest you're probably not much more knowledgeable than most folks when it comes to investing money - you just have more of it. Hence you can afford to pay big bucks to someone else to pick good investments for you and manage your investments.

Otherwise, you either learn how to invest on your own, pay what you can for professional help, or avoid investing altogether. The latter is a poor choice if you ever expect to get ahead financially. That seems to leave you with two negative choices if you are not really interested in studying investing in detail or paying hard-earned money to someone who calls himself an investment professional.

Don't fret; I've got some good news for you! If you are willing to put forth a little time and effort you can get good professional investment management for a lot less than you think. I call this the peoples' best investment: no-load mutual funds.

Mutual funds in general are designed for folks who need or want help picking good investments and putting together an investment portfolio with diversification. The problem is that some funds have sales charges, yearly expenses and other fees associated with buying, holding and/or selling them. Not only does the fund itself have a cost structure, the investment professional offering them needs to get paid, too.

With no-load funds there is no middleman giving you advice and selling you on the merits of the product (fund). There is no investment salesman telling you how to invest or where to invest ... and charging you for his efforts.

Instead of costing you 5% off the top and 2% or more a year for expenses and perhaps other charges and fees ... you can get professional investment management from some of the largest and best fund companies in the country for less than 1% a year in fund expenses. Period, that's your total cost to invest.

When you invest in no-load funds I suggest you deal directly with the fund company, rather than investing through a brokerage firm's web site. You can go to their web site or call a toll-free number to get info or to open a mutual fund account.

With no-load funds there should be no charges or fees to pay, only modest yearly expenses which are automatically deducted inside the funds themselves. The best investment management deal around? For my money it's no-load funds.

A retired financial planner, James Leitz has an MBA (finance) and 35 years of investing experience. For 20 years he advised individual investors, working directly with them helping them to reach their financial goals.