If you had 20k- What would you invest in TODAY?

if i had that money today, i would invest in Multi Level Marketing Business. its the only business which gives you the returns basing on your level of commitment to it. lets say you put in 100% effort, 100% returns guaranteed. take a look at;

1. 20k +/- less than that is required
2. The risk tolerance - low
3. Ideal return - 50% - 100% (gurantee depending on your commitment levels)
4. Investment horizon - < 1 yr

The largest portion of mine is sitting in muni bonds and the money market. The market had a great rally and it is a little long in the tooth. Ask again in November. I do have a healthy position in WMT, BDX., and CHL

Have you ever thought about investing in gold?

For the next two years, you will want to support solid investments, like that of Gold or Silver, as the economy has about 2-3 more years of heading down before it starts to recover.

As far as sectors doing well, technology is doing fairly well, as every technology company i work with seems to like them. Franchises are doing well, as people look for cheaper meals. Also Grocery stores are doing better (although i see some closing due to a move to online shopping).

So you have some speculation on them. The areas to keep out, and this I know for sure is housing. We will see them continue to go down for several months, if not the next few years. Most "house sales" are foreclosures, so house sells are not really up.

But technology and Green energy are the two areas that long term investment will prove useful.

1 year is not long term.

Mid term is 18 months to 7 years -- for most people in most situations the correct investment option is cash -- money markets, CDs, Treasury securities, etc.

Long term is 7-10 years plus. Stock investments are not generally considered a good idea until you have at least $100k to invest and you are on the 10 years+ side of things.

Currently I would recommend money market funds for anything under 7 years (such as INGDirect.com or your local credit union).

One of THE most important things you can learn from an experienced hand is that you almost always make serious mistakes when picking investment ideas because you have money available to invest. Serious, long term gains only come from those who wait to invest until they have an A+ investment opportunity. Cash is the appropriate waiting place for everything except long term retirement savings (which should always have some stock exposure).

Tricky time to be getting in.

We may get some good rally action into December, but what next year holds is a crap shoot and I personally would not be going all in.

If you really need to get into something, the previous answer mentions gold, that might be good, except that everybody is buying gold, which makes it a crowded trade. Try a gold stock instead of the actuall commodity. GFI is a good one, South African company so it will not get hammered if the US dollar drops.

Other than that, tech is good, RIMM doing well today, PALM, AAPL all favorites heading into the end of the year.

You should keep 50% of the money in cash, and increase that to about 60% by the end of this year to play it safe.