The best place for your money ... what a juicy topic. I wish I had one simple investment to recommend for everyone, but I don't. We're all in different phases of our lives and in different situations. What's best for me might not be so hot for you. But fear not -- I think I can still suggest some investments that will appeal to a wide range of readers.
If you're young or patient ...
If you're young or have a long investing time horizon, I'd recommend keeping much of your money in stocks, as opposed to bonds. According to the research of business professor Jeremy Siegel, stocks have outperformed bonds 74% of the time over all five-year periods between 1871 and 2001. Over all 10-year periods in the same span, that figure rises to 82%. Meanwhile, stocks outperform bonds 95% of the time over all 20-year periods and 99% of the time over all 30-year periods!
If you can't be bothered ...
If the idea of tending to your finances makes your head hurt and your eyes glaze over, I've got an investment for you: a simple index fund that tracks the performance of the overall stock market. For example, money plunked into the Vanguard S&P 500 Index fund, or in its exchange-traded-fund cousin, S&P Depositary Receipts, also known as SPDRs, will instantly be invested in 500 of America's biggest companies, such as Disney
The stock market -- which the S&P 500 roughly tracks -- has advanced, on average, some 10% per year over the long haul. If this pace keeps up, it will be enough to turn $10,000 into close to $70,000 in 20 years, nearly $110,000 in 25 years, and nearly $175,000 in 30 years. Not bad, eh?
Note: You can also invest in even broader indexes, such as the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000, which includes almost every public company, including those not in the S&P 500, such as Borders Group
If you can be bothered a little ...
If you can handle doing a little legwork for your investments, you can aim to top the market's 10% average return. My personal recommendation here is mutual funds, in which I've increasingly invested lately. Once you identify some extremely promising ones, you can sock your money in them, then let their managers do the rest of the work. They'll find undervalued, growing companies and decide for you when to buy into and sell out of them.
When you look for top-notch funds, try to read up on fund managers, seeking those whose philosophies and styles appeal to you. Look for low fees, a lack of sales loads, low turnover, and strong track records. I've found some very promising funds for my own portfolio via our Motley Fool Champion Funds newsletter, overseen by Fool fund guru Shannon Zimmerman. His picks are collectively beating their respective benchmark indexes (such as the S&P 500) by more than 14 percentage points last time I checked, and his range of recommendations can give you diversified exposure to everything from growth stocks to more value-oriented fare. (That's one of the great things about good mutual funds -- people who know what they're doing pick the most promising investments for you.)
If you're no longer a spring chicken ...
Of course, if you don't have your 40s, 50s, or 60s ahead of you, you might want to invest a little differently than younger investors. As you approach and enter retirement, it can make sense to pare your stock investments at least a little bit and replace them with less volatile options, such as bonds and money market funds.
That said, every investor should consider keeping a significant chunk of money in stocks. Why? Well, even if you're 60, you may well have another 35 years of life ahead of you. In other words, there's still plenty of time for stocks to perform on your behalf.
And if you're looking to perfect a conservative portfolio, Shannon can help you there, too. A free trial to Champion Funds will let you take a look at all of the model portfolios he's constructed. You can copy one exactly, or mix and match his recommendations to suit your needs. The no-obligation trial will also give you access to all past issues, so you can read about every recommendation in detail.
Just click here to get started -- and here's to a happier portfolio!
This article was originally published on Dec. 4, 2006. It has been updated.
Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian owns shares of an S&P 500 index fund. Coca-Cola and Borders are Motley Fool Inside Value picks. Disney is a Stock Advisor recommendation. UPS is a Motley Fool Income Investor choice. The Motley Fool is Fools writing for Fools.
