Best way to invest for the kids right now?

luvmykids wrote: My grandma has been paying on a bad life insurance policy for the kids for years and is now cashing them out and sending me the money to invest differently. I have no clue what the best thing is, if it's stocks (which are bound to recover by then, right?), another insurance policy, money market, etc....I'll have about $900 total and want to just make one lump investment, then split it three ways when it's time to use it. Advice or ideas?

Kaitlin'smom replied: I have a college fund for Kaitlin is pretty well devisified and yes it has taken a hit but not nearly as bad as I thought, I just got her statement the other day, I do hope one day it reverses and gets back to doing good.

advice, no sorry I dont have that knowlege but I can ask a few people I work with as to what they suggest. I also have some more funds of hers I need to move to get better rates.....I will ask and find out.

coasterqueen replied:
We have college funds for the kids too, through an investment broker Dh's work uses. It is well diversified, but unfortunately we took a pretty big hit anyways.

MommyToAshley replied: I definitely would not pull the money out of their current college funds. The stock already took the hit, so I personally would leave it in hopes that you are able to recover what you lost. Good thing is that time is on your side .... I feel bad for those that are at retirement age and took a huge hit on their retirement funds.

If I had the funds to invest right now, I would invest in real estate. But, of course, that's not a good option for the kids college fund as it would require more than $900 and is not very liquid.

As for the money from granny, I think it depends how safe you want to be. You could do something really safe like a money market account or CD, but right now they are not yielding much more than a savings account. Before the stock market fell, Roth IRA's were the way to go ... so they thought. But, as we found out, even those are vulnerable and have some risk. Personally, I think we're seeing the bottom of the market right now and it is actually a good time to invest. But, I am not an expert and would not feel comfortable giving advice. Have you tried talking to financial or investment broker?

luvmykids replied:
No, I figure for my measley $900 it's not worth bothering someone....I was just curious what others were doing with the market the way it is. I know some experts say if you have plenty of time, stocks are the way to go but I wondered what others are doing.

cameragirl21 replied: My mom is the guru of these things and I didn't inherit it ONE bit but she says the thing to invest in now is gold and if you can handle some volatility for the next year, oil also as it will rise again.

Kaitlin'smom replied:
actually there are ones who will do it for free, check with your auto and home insurance company and see if they have a financial professional, they normally give advice for free.

moped replied: I am an oil investor myself.....but of course i would be right......it is very unstable, but prices are low and you do stand to make money.

Now if it was my kids $$ I would put it in low risk somewhere - maybe even a boring old GIC...........

MommyToAshley replied: I would think alternative fuel sources would be the place to invest rather than oil as I see it as our future. (no offense to you oil folks) But, like I said, I am no expert.

moped replied:
I am no expert either, but right now the gas/fuel has a worse outlook than oil. Too much gas, not enough demand..........companies slowing production which will lower their prices.

cameragirl21 replied:
I would think so too but my mom says it is bound to go up and so far she has never been wrong about these things. Her predictions are more on target than Bernanke's some of the time.
I personally would rather see alternative fuel sources take over but in the here and now, she says oil will go up, but that this first year will be volatile and suggests waiting some time to invest in it if you can't handle the volatility.
She could certainly explain it a heck of a lot better than I could, I am so the opposite of her when it comes to these things.

TheOaf66 replied: a nice safe option would be split the money 3 ways and put it into CD's

MommyToAshley replied:
Oil is a commodities stock (a resource that comes out of the earth) which means that supply does have a huge factor in it's price as Jenn eluded to. And people buy and sell commodities based on speculation. For example if there is a hurricane coming and it's predicted path may destroy all of the coffe beans, you would probably buy as much coffeee beans as you could before the hurricane. However, if the hurricane makes a turn in the other direction, then you risk a substancial loss on your investment. I don't think a hurricane is going to wipe out all our oil supplies, but I do think that alternative fuel sources (particularly wind) is going to decrease the demand for oil, maybe not in the very near future, but in the long term.

If I were to invest in the stock market (but like I said, I would put it in real estate), I would put it in a cyclical stock that is based on the economy -- Stocks that are low when the economy is down but go up when the economy goes up -- as I believe we have hit bottom and things are goign to turn around real soon. But, I may just be an optimist and as many of us have learned, when investng in the stock market, it's not all science and therefore there are risks.

momofone replied: I would just put into CD's because the economy still hasn't recovered.

moped replied:
So basically guys, if you want me to keep my job we need to use more oil and gas and get the demand up PLEASE

I won't pray for bad weather, but that would help - sad but true!

lovemy2 replied: Long term CD - won't earn enough money to have to file a tax return - and its safe for now....

msoulz replied: Mattress.

MommyToAshley replied: