Where to invest money
The best place for money depends mostly on when you'll need it and how much drop you can live with.
By timeline
- Within a year: savings, money-market funds, Treasury bills.
- One to five years: CDs, Treasury notes, high-grade bonds.
- Five years or more: room for stocks and higher-yield income investments.
Compare what you keep
IncomeGrid ranks every item by yield after tax for where you live: federal, state and each investment type (Treasuries, municipal bonds, corporate bonds, funds, REITs and filed offerings are each taxed differently).
Explore
IncomeGrid has 40,000+ investment options screened, with risk levels 1–5.
Sources
More guides
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- Treasury bills, notes and I bonds
- Real estate income without buying property
- Saving for college: 529 plans and the alternatives
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- The stock market and steady income
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- What to invest in: the main options
- How to invest: first steps
- Social Security and the income gap
- Gold versus income investments
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- Asset allocation and risk versus return
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- Compare investment returns side by side
- High-yield income investments
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- Municipal bonds and tax-free income
- Tax-equivalent yield, explained simply
- Yield vs interest rate: the difference
- High-yield bonds explained
- Safer investments with higher yields
- Best yield investments, by risk level
- How to build a bond ladder
- Investments that pay interest
- How much interest will my money earn?
- Find income investments
- Example income portfolios
- Yields around the world
- Method and sources