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$500 to invest. In what?

edro

edro

Lifer
I know $500 isn't much, but it has basically been sitting in a savings account for like 3 years, so I figured I might as well do something with it.

Any investment advice? My bank's Money Market accounts are like .00005% more than a savings account, so I think that is out of the question.

Not really specific on long term / short term.

Just a good sound investment that will make more money than a savings account.

Thanks.
 
open an ING direct saving account from me, you will make $25 on that. then you will have 2% interest rate on your $500+$25. good deal?
 
I'd go for stocks, given the current economic situation. I'm up over 20% this year. though perhaps it is a bit late for that.
 
Originally posted by: minendo
How much does your current savings account pay?
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Huntington Premier Savings: $300 Min. @ .025% (What I have now)
Huntington Premier Money Market: $2000 Min. @ .05% Annual Percentage Yield
 
Nothing. There is no reasonable investment that will get you any sort of appreciable amount of return on $500 in any reasonable timeframe.

If you can live without the money then you could buy some VERY speculative penny stocks with it (or anything trading under $1 a share) but in all honestly you may as well go play blackjack/roulette with it instead.

Frankly I'd hold onto it and use it when you need it. Or if you don't ever think you'll need it, go blow it on something that will make you happy. But the odds of turning that $500 into more than, maybe, $600 in less than a year or two are VERY slim, and the odds that you'd accidentally turn it into $400 are just as good...

 
Originally posted by: flot
Nothing. There is no reasonable investment that will get you any sort of appreciable amount of return on $500 in any reasonable timeframe.

If you can live without the money then you could buy some VERY speculative penny stocks with it (or anything trading under $1 a share) but in all honestly you may as well go play blackjack/roulette with it instead.

Frankly I'd hold onto it and use it when you need it. Or if you don't ever think you'll need it, go blow it on something that will make you happy. But the odds of turning that $500 into more than, maybe, $600 in less than a year or two are VERY slim, and the odds that you'd accidentally turn it into $400 are just as good...
Click to expand...

I've got a story to tell. A year ago in October, AMD stock was trading at $3.50. Exactly one year later, the same stock was worth $18.00. I would definately call that an appreciable amount of return. I know these situations are rare, but go out and do some research anyway. $3.50 caught my eye because that seemed way too low for a solid company like AMD. Plus I knew their 64-bit processor was about to come out, and it was going to be supported by Microsoft.

Look around and see what you can find. Just don't blow it all on kitty and beer. If you want to do something crazy, bet the pass line 😉
 
Originally posted by: benchiu
S&P 500 index fund
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If you don't know about what stocks etc you want ... I agree an S&P500 Index fund will be pretty low risk and good return. From what I've heard, most require 1000 or 2000 to start ... however you should be able to find one to start with a $500 investment.
 
Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
Go buy some satellite radio stocks and hold on to them.
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Im sorry, but thats the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Both are currently paying interest payments in excess of yearly revenues.
 
Originally posted by: flot
Nothing. There is no reasonable investment that will get you any sort of appreciable amount of return on $500 in any reasonable timeframe.

If you can live without the money then you could buy some VERY speculative penny stocks with it (or anything trading under $1 a share) but in all honestly you may as well go play blackjack/roulette with it instead.

Frankly I'd hold onto it and use it when you need it. Or if you don't ever think you'll need it, go blow it on something that will make you happy. But the odds of turning that $500 into more than, maybe, $600 in less than a year or two are VERY slim, and the odds that you'd accidentally turn it into $400 are just as good...
Click to expand...

Started trading stocks a little over a year ago. Bought 750 shares of a mining company for about $610. Just sold those shares about a month ago for over $2250. Very nice returns can be had if you do your homework.

 
Originally posted by: VictorLazlo
I've got a story to tell. A year ago in October, AMD stock was trading at $3.50. Exactly one year later, the same stock was worth $18.00. I would definately call that an appreciable amount of return. I know these situations are rare, but go out and do some research anyway. $3.50 caught my eye because that seemed way too low for a solid company like AMD.
Click to expand...

And for every success story there are dozens of Enrons and KMarts. Trader Vic talks about a stock he bought in his first book. I think it was like a quarter. He watched as it went down to 1 cent, and wondered if he should sell then and decided no, "How much lower could it go? How about to zero?" The stock was delisted and worthless.

And he's a pro.

Nobody wants to hear it, but let me assure you that dumping it all into one stock is almost certainly going to lose money for you. You'd be far better off putting it in an index fund. But you should only do that if your time frame is big (10 years or more).

Personally, I think you'd be better off putting it in your retirement account or trying to launch your own business or taking a class or doing something to help your career.

 
The rags-to-riches stories are great (500 to 2500) but for every one person that pulls that off, there are 50 who lose their $500.

I'm sorry, it's just not worth it. And in all honesty, for your risk - you still only ended up with 2500.

But with that much success - please, take your $2500 and turn it into $12,000... and then your $12,000 to 60,000. After all, if you did it once, you can do it 3 times, right? 🙂

Seriously, all the best of luck. But picking the right stocks for that small of an investment is mostly luck, and then managing to hold onto it for the "correct" timeframe is just as bad.

Of 10 "risky" stocks I was watching 18 months ago, today 3 have skyrocketed, 5 have gone to basically 0 and of the remaining 2, one was down 10% and the other up maybe 20%. So yes, if I had happened to pick the right 3 I would be dancing in the streets - but if I picked one of the bad 5, I'd have lost all my money.

PS: Even if I had picked the right 3, there's no way I would have held on to them this long - by the time they had doubled or tripled what I had bought them at, I certainly would have done the "smart" thing and sold and taken the healthy profit.
 
Originally posted by: TheGameIs21
If you have any interest bearing debt, pay the $500 towards that.
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Nope... All my credit cards are paid off. Although I do have a huge college loan. Oh well, I will let that one perculate for a while 😀
 
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