If an investor does not know a whole lot about investing and is not willing to put up with the work/research/reading necessary to learn, I would recommend broadly based index funds (like the vanguard VFINX). The stock market will fall sometime but if you spread your risk over time you should come out ahead. Investing is by its own nature risky. Use the 401k/IRA’s to minimize your taxes, invest in the index funds, and then live your life. There are too many things to do instead of living and dying on the stock market.
While I would certainly recommend real estate investing, it too takes as much work as picking individual stocks and has many pitfalls. Again, if you are not willing to devote your time to it, you are better off just sticking to investing basics. Once you can handle the basics, then you can stretch yourself out some more and then go stock picking and all that.
Finally, in order to answer your question, I have been investing in metals and mining stocks, vanguard’s energy fund, and index funds. It has done somewhat well (one stock I chose, BHP, took off like a rocket the past year). From what I’ve been hearing and seeing, the China index funds, a lot of international funds (like the Brazil ETF) have took off and done well. Still, more than half of my portfolio is in VFINX and I am cashing out a lot of my funds to build up my VFINX (my time frame is 20 years). My “play” money only takes up about 20% of my whole portfolio.
So… basically metals/mining, China, Brazil, and energy. However, these stocks are VERY volatile. They tend to swing 1% to 5% over the course of a week. So they aren’t safe.
Remember, just stick to the basics and let it go. It’s fun to see money grow, but it will go on without you and it’s best to let it grow and not obsess over it.
As always, take this advice with a grain of salt and note that the person who runs this site is able to answer your questions better…
