What is the best thing to invest "spare" money into?

I've let a saving account build up over several years and the money is just sitting there, drawing next to nothing in interest.
Now, I'm good at saving money, but I have no idea on how to make money with my money.
Is there something safe that I could throw say $20k into and let it sit for 10 years and make a good amount?

oh dear, that's the question of our age isn't it? everyday things seem to pivot on the head of a pin and what was a working solution for people to come together, pool their monies, and trust someone to manage the interface between those who have money and those who need it to use for improving their ability to generate more cash flow by making things or serving people or just trading money seem to end up with Bernie Madoff and there you have it, so many then frustrated by inherent fallibility of human psychology.

whatever it is you find your way to, your interest in, that makes it reasonable to you that it will give you something back because you gave it something first, consider it within the tapestry of what has served humanity well and grown hugely in penetration to the common individual. I hate Apple, but well there you have it, the i-Phone has deep penetration into society, appears to have had good margins manufacture to retail and is a consumable which is still not quite trivialized into a commodity. Things like that may be your ticket into a comfortable R.O.I. But seriously, this is often highly personal, requires great consideration, and in the end, you have to make your peace with the possibility that you may never see a penny of that money again. Or, perhaps worse, see the money grow into a huge success and feel like you're on top of the heap; only to discover it was just money on paper and the next day, the day before you were going to cash out, it all disappeared.

So, now that I've given you the total downer speech, investment in mutuals or money markets or bonds or some ginned up equity fund may likely give good performance over the long run. You can hardly expect to do better than a market index fund, or you may consider such to be the baseline to compare your intended investments in stocks. These all have the past history of generally performing better year after year. Yet, the folks in the business will be the first to tell you past performance does not guarantee future earnings.

You really need to look around for someone in the business, someone you can trust because you feel you can trust them, or someone with a fiduciary requirement based upon the nature of their profession. They are the only ones who'll be in a position to give you the advice you want and perhaps step you toward the instruments which can help you gain your goals.

(sorry if this sounds like the talk your Father gave you about sex and women and life in general... seriously, that's about what it was! Good luck!)

Desgin and launch a new razor

Merle is a downer - but he's right.

If you don't need to touch the money for 10 years or more, the best answer is an index fund with very low fees.

This is how Warren Buffett has laid out instructions for his will: http://www.thestreet.com/story/1246...rd-index-funds-for-mom-and-pop-investors.html

Vanguard Index funds (as suggested in the link above) are the best answer. They give you broad exposure to the market and with a ten year plus horizon, you can ride out the inevitable downturns. Just remember to be patient when things go down. You and I aren't smart enough to guess when the top or bottom of the market will come. Heck, Warren Buffett doesn't think he can do it either.

good luck!

Assuming you don't have any vehicle loan or student loan debt to pay off first, then a low fee ETF stock fund is your likely your best bet, but of course there are no guarantees of getting the best return. 10k is too small amount to divvy up and buy individual stocks unless you anticipate many more years of adding 10K+ investable income in order to build a balanced portfolio over time (assuming you had interest in pursuing that path).

Before you do too much investing you should educate yourself on the topic. If you are risk averse you could put most of your money in short term bond funds or something a little more balanced like Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND).

Very hard for anyone to give general advice since every person's finances and situation is different.

If you want to make money, you have to take some risk. With a 10 year time-horizon, you can put $20k into any decently diversified portfolio of index funds, and make money - even if you are unfortunate enough to go through recession like 2008. Recovery after a recession rarely takes longer than 3-5 years, well within your 10 year timeline.

Invest, stay the course, and don't freak out and sell when the market hits some bumps & lows.

If I were you, I would buy an acre or two of prime unrestricted farmland somewhere East of Kansas, and I would forget all about stocks and commodities.

I believe Dave Ramsey's approach is actually very good.

1. Consumber Debt. Credit Cards, Student Loans, Car Loans, Home Line of Credit, etc.
2. Emergency Fund (3 - 6 months expenses) Leave that in a savings account or money market. It's a safety net, not an investment, and you need to be able to get your hands on it quickly.
3. Retirement (15% of gross). Low Fee Mutual Funds.
4. Kids' College
5. Payoff your House
6. GIVE GENEROUSLY. When you have the money to do it, it's actually really fun.

lloydrm said:

Desgin and launch a new razor

Click to expand...

Scratch my first answer. This one's better.

You know, canning live worms might just be "it."
I'm still working on keeping them alive after I put the lid on, but as the physicists point out, it's a50 50 chance the worms are still alive anyway. Tomorrow our crowd source goes online... Invest in me! Sent money now!

Vanguard S&P 500 Index Fund

Take up wetshaving ... you won't have $20,000 to kick around soon after that.

I'm not OP, but I'm investigating Vanguard thanks to this thread. I've been trying to figure out what to do with my excess money for a while too.

nsl said:

I've let a saving account build up over several years and the money is just sitting there, drawing next to nothing in interest.
Now, I'm good at saving money, but I have no idea on how to make money with my money.
Is there something safe that I could throw say $20k into and let it sit for 10 years and make a good amount?

Click to expand...

Why not ask at your bank? With that much sitting in savings, you're bound to be a preferred customer.

Sure, sure, these are all fine idears for city slickers.

But if you wanna take the advice of ol' Lucius Clay, you'll take all that there money and stuff it into mason jars and bury it all around...

I have to go with Garret's recommendation of Dave Ramsey's approach. Are you debt free? If not, the answer is obvious. Even if you have pretty low interest debt, paying that off early pays you way more than a savings account. Sure, a riskier investment could do better than that in the long term - but I wouldn't go down that path unless you've got things pretty squared away otherwise.

BSAGuy said:

View attachment 634407

Click to expand...

BSAGuy:
...and maybe "...[we] should listen to this guy [Vinnie], he's flipping a coin while holding a toothpick in his teeth" (Peter Griffin).



But seriously, all great info and advice from our Members. To paraphrase (if I can),...stick your money with a good company / fund with low to moderate risk that will 'grow and evolve' because I'm adamant in the belief that 'there is no risk without a past and no certainty
without a future'.

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." Benjamin Franklin

I consider land to be the best investment. They don't make it anymore.