The Million Dollar question. Where to invest 1 million dollars? Or $100,000 question (that would be a 10% return)? I don’t have $1,000,000 or any investments offering 10%, so what do I have?

For starters, some common sense ideas. I’ll follow that with some individual stock ideas (and for the record, I don’t own any of these). Finally, a few places to look if you just want something safe to put your money into and not have to think about it much.

Beware of Scams

In general, if you have one million dollars to invest, you can probably withstand some risk, but I suspect you aren’t too keen on losing a ton of money. I’m guessing you want to turn the million into something greater. So don’t invest with your Nigerian uncle. I doubt he is Nigerian and I am almost positive, he isn’t your uncle. The really sad thing is people truly fall for the scam. Often the promises of easy riches is just to much to resist. But think about it, how hard did you have work to obtain $1,000,000? It will continue to be hard work to keep it and increase it.

If everyone is pushing a particular investment, it may be a sign that the run is stalling. Take Gold for example. Nobody was really pushing it when it was around $300.00. If you indeed purchased it back then, your investment is looking pretty good. But with Gold now just over $1,600 it seems everyone and your brother thinks it is a good idea. I’m not saying it isn’t, but I truly believe there is a lot of downside risk at the current levels. If you have the time and inclination, you could probably make some good change day-trading it and taking profits on small up swings, but that would take some serious dedication.

Stocks

As far as individual stocks, Apple is certainly a hot commodity. And probably one of the most amazing comeback stories to boot. But, I still wonder, how long can it last. Especially, with their refusal to render Flash on websites. That is just plain silly and makes parts of the web off limits to iPhone and iPad users. With other tablets coming out that support flash, this could be a problem. Google is another stock that has steadily grown. But competition for Apple and Google are fierce. Oil stocks of the older companies seem relatively stable and many of them pay good dividends. I just always seem to think about individual stocks too late so I stick with ETFs. Of course, I don’t have a million dollars either. Maybe I would invest differently if I did. I suppose I might be willing to take a few more risks, but like many, I kind of like to hold on to what I have.

Certificate of Deposits

With the economy still in the doldrums, CD Investing remains fairly popular. Purchasing long-term CDs with low penalties is turning out to be a good hedge against the low short-term rates and provides for a low exit cost as rates rise. However, rising CD rates seems to be a long way off. Our analysis, looks at 2-year and 3-year equivalent yields. Although, many of these 5-year rates have a good chance of looking good in 2-years. Give us a shout if you would like an analysis.

cd :O)

-- By Chris Duncan

Posted in Economy