You’re out of school and all the sudden finding yourself to be a working and productive member of society. Now that you’re getting this inflow of capital, you ask yourself how to invest it. Do you buy a new car, your first home? Do you enroll in your companies 401k, or do you invest your money by online trading via sites like Ameritrade? There is a virtually unending ways to invest your money. Not all of them will get you to your investment goals.

In establishing your investment goals, you first need to set the bar at where you want to be and when you want to reach those goals. Your goals should be reasonable, but not so easy as to undercut the point of investing your hard earned money. Once you decide on a dollar amount and a date, it’s time to research methods to get where you want to be.

There are many ways to invest money with a yield. You could go for conventional, or creative investment strategies to help you reach your goals. The only problem with a creative strategy is they have no real history of success, however they can be some of the most fun and fulfilling ways of reaching an investment goal.

Even if you absolutely despise the particular notion of putting money into an account you can never touch there is investment possibilities for you. For example, let’s say you like cars. You could invest money in becoming a franchisee for a car wash or lube shop. If it takes off, you’ll have a solid source of income with which you can invest in traditional methods such as stocks, bonds, and retirement funds.

Extending the example above, if you had a knack for automotive repairs, perhaps you could invest in buying old junk cars and restoring them. There is a huge market for vintage cars, and I can remember someone buying an old junk car for fifty dollars just for the steering wheel on it. Thrifty investments can add up into making a beautiful restoration, and a well restored car instantly becomes one of the few cars on the market that isn’t a negative hit on your equity.

Now, cars might not be your thing, but this example can be applied to a whole range of options and niche markets to help you invest your time and/or money to reach lofty goals. But the majority of big winners in the investment market approach investment through traditional means.

Some of the safest methods of investing your money include low yield personal savings accounts. They are underwritten by the FDIC, and insure your balance up through $100,000. Also in this category are bank CDs where you deposit money in, often for a much higher APR, but agree to not touch it for a set period of time. In general the longer you’re willing to wait, the more someone will pay you to hold onto your money.

The next step in safe investing is bonds. Bonds are government backed certificates that the government sells you now for a set amount of money and promises to buy back later at an inflated price. The caveat to investing safely, is many times the APR on the safest methods may not even be able to keep pace with inflation, or if so, these safe methods keep pace by only a nominal margin.

Another method of reaching your investment goals is to place money in money-market funds. These are a prolific method of putting money into a financial manager. Often a money market fund has the core of its portfolio in hundreds of different companies stocks. The mentality behind a money-market fund is individual companies rise and fall, but the general trend is up.

If an investment fund has more winners than losers, your money-market investment will grow. Every market fund is different. Some providers offer more aggressive and slimmer investment ranges than others, but with them they carry a higher risk of a negative return on your investment. For example, several housing hedge-funds have had huge losses lately as a result of sub prime fallout, and in the 90s, several tech-sector money market funds had big losses during the dotcom bubble burst.

The third method of investing is individual stock selections. Only through solid research should you place money into the stock market. Just because others are buying doesn’t mean you should jump in. The stock market is a place of daily rise and fall, and there are fortunes to be both won and lost. Any investment should be based on the individual assets, products, efficiency strategies, and other components of successful business. If a business loses money, the stocks lose money, and you as an investor lose money.

The key to reaching your investment goals is to diversify funds. At all times you should have some money in a delicate balance between all the traditional forms of investment, making sure to keep some money that’s attainable without huge penalties in the event of medical or automotive emergencies. You don’t want to pay a 10% or greater penalty fee to withdraw money if you don’t absolutely have to.