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Originally Posted by {aspiring_to_clarity}  Another point I didn't mention originally: for the moment, I would like there to be some fluidity to the money. I would like to be able to access it somewhat quickly in an emergency. Does that affect where I should put it? |
Yes and no. Today, almost everything has great liquidity (except more exotic investments like domain names or some fine art), but volatile investments are not always profitable to sell. For example your stock portfolio might be down 40% when you need the money, but in a few years, it might be up 40%, so if you wouldn't want to take loss you wouldn't be able to liquidate it. Diversification fixes this a little, if you own 20 stocks, it is very probable that if they are diversified enough some of them will be always in green numbers and thus ready to be sold with profit.
If I were you, I would probably use this service called "Champion Funds" and slowly build my portfolio:
Champion Funds [Fool.com: Mutual Fund Research] (it's not an affiliate link) - but keep in mind just like with stocks you won't be probably able to liquidate your whole portfolio without losing money on some of the investments, but as a whole, it might stay in green numbers.
Funds are generally much safer than stocks because they are diversified. Plus these guys at Fool.com pretty much outperform the market. I am a subscriber of another fool.com service - "Hidden Gems" - which recommends small cap stocks and I am quite happy about it. YMMV.