I am going on a mission for my church and it's 18 months long. I have $9,000 saved, $4,100 is my emergency fund and I don't necessarily want to invest that in anything, but I want to invest a few thousand at least while I'm gone. I want it to be a fairly safe investment with decent returns, but I know nothing about investments!
I won't be needed hardly any of the money while I'm gone, so I don't want it to just sit there!
Any advice would be great - thanks!

Kelsey - when using words like "best" and "safest" with regards to investements you need to be clear as to what you really mean. "Best" is probably different from "safest," and the answer depends in large part on when you plan on using the money. If safety is your main concern and you think you will need the money when you return in 18 months then you should either buy a CD at your bank or invest in a short-term government obligation fund. You'll probably get 1-2% return. Not the best investment, but pretty safe. However, if your time horizon for neeeding this money is longer - say 5 years or more - I would recommend investing some of it in a no-load, low cost stock index fund. Look into index funds from Vanguard or Fidelity as a good place to start.

I'm not sure if I'll need it or not when I get back, but it's better to be safe I guess :)
Thanks!

Hello k:

Ebaines gave you excellent advice, as usual. There are other considerations, though. Our dollar is under assault. There is TREMENDOUS pressure being placed upon it from ALL sides. The major fear is deflation. The drop in housing prices kick started THAT phenomenon, so the federal reserve is injecting massive amounts of dollars into our money supply. The fear from doing THAT is massive inflation. I don't know which one it'll be, but you can be assured it will be one way or the other. In fact, it's happening now. Can you tell which way prices are going to go?

I mention these things because they DO impact upon your investments, both short and longer term. The bottom line is, if you think DEFLATION will happen, dollar denominated investments, like ebaines suggested, will do the best... However, if you think INFLATION will win out, then dollars will become worth LESS, so you'd want to own non dollar denominated investments, like gold, diamonds, art and antiques.

Gold has DOUBLED in three years. Dollar denominated investments have yielded virtually NOTHING over the same period, or even worse, lost money.

Gold coins are easy to buy, easy to store, and easy to sell. It's also easy to buy a CD from your local bank. I'm not recommending either one. Nobody knows which scenario will pan out. But, I thought you should know what DRIVES your investments these days. It makes your decisions so much easier.

excon