Investment Questions!?

Yahoo Question:
Investment Questions!?
Hi everyone! So I'm going to be turning 18 soon and I have about 1000 dollars saved from an old job. My question to anyone that is very knowledgeable about investments is, what would be the best option for me to invest that money in so it would grow the fastest. Any serious answers would be awesome!


Good answers from other:
I started investing in stocks when I was in University as part of an investment club. We had the luxury of having a member of our group whose parents owned a small investment firm and I learnt a lot from this experience. However, we got greedy and the huge gains we made quickly got erased by the tech boom in 2000 (much like the commodities/housing boom today)

I came through this crash a much more cautious investor and it paid off. I didn't make a ton of money - in fact I barely broke even, but considering top hedge funds got decimated by 40-50%, I feel I did okay.

My point is, there are plenty of ways to grow money quickly, but you have to be prepared to lose it just as quickly. Really ask yourself - how much am I prepared to risk to achieve large gains. It's easy to envision yourself making huge dollars on one venture (penny) stock but when you see real money going away if a position moves against you it can be devastating, especially for a young investor.

In my experience, the worst thing that can happpen to a new investor is to buy one stock - make a good gain - and sell off. Although this feel great when it happens, odds are it will not happen regularly - This is why people pay money to have others manage their money. Consistent gains are key.

Don't go in looking for the big score, you will ultimately get burned. That being said, the traditional buy and hold strategy is also dead in my opinion (at least for the time being) so you need to have time, knowledge, and dedication. There is money to be made in the markets, but it doesn't come easy and it doesn't come without risk.

Please be advised that we are in a very dangerous time in the equity markets right now. This is not a normal environment and there is still potential for a fairly substantial correction to the down side (assuming earnings don't show up which is a distinct possibility)

This is a lot to digest, but I don't want to see you jumping on the bandwagon of some scam claiming you can make money without work. If this were case, we wouldn't need professionals and we all wouldn't need jobs - we'd just download a trading program and make millions.


My answer:
$1000 is not enough for any serious investment. Save more or invest the money to your education. Otherwise, you can use the money to buy bond. My econ. professor taught us that we can use a little portion of our money ($100) each month and invest into bond. Ultimately, you will become a millionaire when you retire.