First, consider rental property. You can throw a rock in Riverside county and hit a property with great positive cash flow.
I have to vehemently disagree with those who recommend avoiding the stock market just because you’re an amateur. I certainly wouldn’t jump in and invest everything you’ve got, but a beginner can safely trade as long as you don’t risk more than you’re willing to lose.
To start the learning process, open an account with an online broker (I use Schwab, you’ll hear great/terrible things about all the big ones such as E-trade and TD Ameritrade) and put some play money in there – say $5k. Better to use actual money than to track a pretend portfolio. You’re more likely to stick with it.
Find a few good books and online resources and read, read, read. Among others, I use Motley Fool to look up stock symbols and get links to related articles, but you have to ignore their sales pitches.
Stocks like to plummet the moment you buy them. They can sense that you personally just bought the stock and are now emotionally invested, so try to leave emotions out of it. You’ll be “position trading” (holding for a few months to years – anything else is gambling), so checking your stocks every 10 minutes is pointless and will only stress you out.
Normally you’d want to allocate some of your money to “core” stocks (big, stable companies that you’ll keep forever), some to smaller companies with room to grow, and some to professionally managed funds. I say “normally” because with very small amounts of money you could just go with the riskier stuff (in my case, it’s the only thing making money right now). Diversify in different industries. My banking stocks are tanking today, but my alternative energy stocks are up.
Only buy a stock when YOU are convinced it’s a good buy, not just because someone blogged that he thinks it’s undervalued. If you don’t understand why it’s considered undervalued, do more research before you buy it.
Sell high. Many amateurs lose money because they see a stock drop to two thirds of its former value, and figure they need to sell before they lose it all. If you did your homework, you won’t own stock in a company that’s close to failure, and it could very well come back. Some won’t, but the idea is to gain on average.
All that said, I agree that the next 5-10 years don’t look pretty and I wouldn’t count on the stock market as a reliable investment right now.
