As for the financial advisor, I would not depend too much on anyone who has a stake in what you do. That means, no one at the brokerage where you want to invest. They are good for some general information, but I certainly wouldn't take their advice. If they could possibly have any interest whatsoever in anything but you, I wouldn't use them. This is difficult to figure out, cause you never really know when they may have some ulterior motive.
For that matter, can you afford a financial advisor and is it worth it to you?
I don't use one, can't afford one, and it's most definitely not worth it to me. I make my own decisions. I do occasionally call the customer service reps at my brokers to just get general info -- i.e. like a good spread of mutual fund *types* (not specific funds) at my age and risk level. Then I take it from there on making the actual decisions.
But it is true that no one can give you too much advice without knowing your age, your plans for the money... can you tie all this money up longer term or might you need some of it? Is this all the savings you have? Etc. The younger you are, the more you can put in the risky stuff, and as you get older, or if you need the money sooner, then you get more conservative. But with only 10K, how much can you diversify? Not much. And as for the question about a mutual fund -- there's a billion different ones out there, including money market mutual funds. You also have to consider minimums and fees. More difficult to get a mutual fund for only $2000, though it can be done, especially if you put it inside an IRA. (Do you have an IRA? If this is long-term money and you have other emergency or what-if-I-lose-my job money, do this through the IRA. You can even get money markets inside an IRA.)
Just for example (this is only an example! ), my retirement is over 10 years away, so I consider this my long-term money. Meaning I can be more risky with it. Since I'm a bit higher risk, I have 100% of this in stocks. (Through mutual funds, but it's in stocks.) A less risk tolerant person might want more like 70% stock and 30% bond. My <10 year money is partly in a half bond/half high dividend paying fund. I've also been looking into bond funds. Any money I need even closer-term is in CD's and anything w/in like the next 6 months is just in my money market, which right now is paying a big whopping 1.3%. (You can get a better money market online.) I also always have some "ready" money -- either for when the furnace breaks or something like that. Again, that's just an example of what I mean for illustrative purposes.
So your age, whether this is all your savings, what you need to money for, your risk tolerance, etc. will all play in to what you want to do with this money. And really, just your own personal preferences. Since you only have $10, that's going to limit being able to split it into pieces cause you can only spread that much so far.
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