What is the best way to invest your money?

[Lourette]

Fixed Deposit or Money Market?

[Dave A]

And there I was thinking education, shares, property, unit trusts, endowments, government bonds...

[JohnBush]

I think the best way to invest your money is to start deposing 50% of your money in bank and your invested money will help you start up a small business to earn more cash.

[Nickolai Naydenov]

Yip I'll go with what Dave says, cash will make you lose mone in the long run

[Blurock]

Why are you investing? The purpose of your investment will determine the best available option.

If you are investing for an overseas trip, you work out what it will cost and how much you can afford to save every month.
If you are investing to buy a house or a car, you may do a similar exercise.

Do you need liquidity or can you invest long term? Are you risk averse or would you opt for a high return high risk investment such as investing in a building or a business that can give you a recurring or annuity income? There are so many options, you need to speak to an investment adviser to tailor an investment to your own circumstances.

I am personally not much in favour of leaving money in the bank. Even the Bible tells you that money will rust away. I believe that money should work for you...

[jeccyka]

You can put money in a bank, invest in property, stock market or anything really.

There has never been easier to invest in the stock market. All you need is internet access & an account with an online broker. You can probably get started with a couple of hundred dollars - but about $2,000 would be a better place to start.

Stock market can be risky, but the returns can be very high.

Putting your money in a bank will generally be safer, but the returns are not that great.

Or investing the insurance company, that's a cool.

[Onetwo]

I do not invest on Stock Market any more, but would like to benefit from the overall growth of the JSE. If you look at the track record of the All share index the last couple of years, i don't think there is any bank in the world that will offer that growth on capital. There is a product available from Satrix 40 (http://www.satrix.co.za) that seems to look like something worth wile.
Exposure to the top 40 shares in South Africa. That should also help with risk diversification, I think?

[Miro Bagrov]

Money Market is short term, Fixed deposit is long term.
Money market is used when you may need the money in-and-out frequently.

[ians]

I invest my money in my own companies and myself, why take chances with other people who dont have "your" best interest at heart. They dabble your money and take chances, i hear of too many people complaining about years of investments only paying out what they put in. I could be wrong, but from personal experience, i dont trust anyone anymore not even the "safe" blue and green companies. I lost a lot of money trusting a broker with the green company.

Once my last installment goes through for my vehicle in 2 months time, i plan on saving the money i pay towards the vehicle in a pure save then once it gets to a reasonable amount (R100 000) , i might expand one of my hobbies into a bigger operation or just go bigger on my contracting company.

I have considered buying property, but with the amount of empty buildings and hassles with getting rent out of people and all the restricitions, i think not. My last house, it took almost a year to get a family off the property and there was a klittle pushing involved and not even that worked, just too mnay laws protecting people renting, not even going into the electricity and water bills.

[Blurock]

I invest my money in my own companies and myself,

I can not agree more. Money has to work for you, not you for the money. So many people retire and then realise that they can not live on the income from that safe investment.

Times have changed and I do not believe there are safe investments any more. The best investment for your old age is to have something that pays you a monthly annuity which grows with inflation. Are there any investments that can give you that?

[ians]

My father and many others gave me advise many years ago which i took, and watch now how they are suffering from the same advise they gave me. Their policies they purchased and paid for years, paid out a couple of years ago, my father couldnt even pay off his his little flat he purchased, after selling his house, battling to come out every month on his railway pension. The green and blue companies must have made millions out of all those railway, telkom, municipalities etc employees, because in those days, it was the "right thing to do" or so people thought.

I remember the days, when i was an apply on the railways, we had the green and blue companies there daily trying to sell endowment policies, life insurance, giving you the whole support your children and family for the future, it the "right thing to do speach", take out heart and dreaded disease cover, i was 16 years old, my parents drummed it into me that it was the "right thing to do", if i invest early i will get a much better payout, hundreds of thousands of rands, i have still got 20 years to go (to get to 65) before they would have paid out the hundreds of thousands of rands. Hundreds of thousands of rands at this point in my life wouldnt even be worth much, for example the education policy i had before i lost everything, would not even have covered my kids varsity fees for one year never mind the entire course. You cant even buy a decent house for under R1m at the moment, just image what that money would be worth in 20 years time. So in a way i should be gratefull i lost everything when i did 12 years ago, i have saved the R3000 per month (well by now with the inflation rate increases would be a lot more) and rather invested in myself, My company is already worth more than all those policies put together in less than 10 years.

I suppose if you are in a dead end job going to work everyday to make your boss rich, thats another story, you would need to be investing money somewhere, so that you can retire one day, so that you can sit in front of the TV and wait to die.

[Mike C]

That's quite a testimony you gave there ians - very thought provoking - because I remember the same speeches given to me when I was young.

There was another one that went "If you are faithful to the company you work for, they will be faithful to you." Well, that might have been true 50 years ago - but is an old wives tale now.

[Rusty Willard]

I think the best way to invest your money is on mutual funds it's on safest way. It will be professionally managed.

[Rafael]

Fixed Deposit or Money Market?

In my opinion, neither of the above.

If you looking for flexibility and liquidity, unit trusts are great.
Depending on the fund determines your return.

[Rafael]

I suppose if you are in a dead end job going to work everyday to make your boss rich, thats another story, you would need to be investing money somewhere, so that you can retire one day

You on the money right there.