your goals are such that you cant really go for a good rate of return, with safety and no chance of loss your primary goal, your not going ot do much better than a 6-12 month treasury or a bank CD, anything else is putting your self at odds with the primary goal of safety.... one idea would be to do liek 60-80% in absolute safe and the remaining in somehting with slight risk, but even liek the corporate money markets discussed carry soem (albeit little) risk
Alfonso- I have some friends whom I know well. I think that while they are not "safe" (what really is, no matter what inflation and taxes ding you) on a risk - return basis, you can do well by them. I know their styles and I think they are very strong. If making 5% a month with 2 down months a year over a multi year period is good enough. Or about 50% annualized I know quite a few guys who pull that without ever a down year. Unfortunately, most of these funds are not open. If they can do it, many others can as well. It really isn't too hard to pull 50% a year with very little leverage or risk. (Unfortunately, you still gotta pay taxes and beat inflation which takes a bite from that.) You just need to look further. Most of the really good guys keep quiet and do not want the PR, so very few guys know they exist.
The even bigger issue is that the better hedge funds with long established records of success require such steep minimum investments that its prohibitive for most people...
the safest thing you can do, weather it is short term or long term is diversify your investment. here is a good way to do that, you have a very good sum of money, take 20% and put it in stocks(your big name blue chips), keep 20% in cash( a CD, money market, etc.) take 20% and put it in some bonds or bond funds(something like a couple high yield bond funds), put 20% in a short term mutual fund or treasuries. and for the remaining 20%, just put that in a retirement acct. and forget about it for a few years.
http://www.bobbrinker.com try this guy.....for your type of goal he will guide you in the correct direction....you can subscribe to his newsletter for a few c-notes per year or listen to him free on Sunday afternoon talk radio. Hope this helps Michael B.
Why not buy some Berkshire. It kinda looks cheap to me as it has not moved much in years and book value has continued to climb. I think that the problems in their reinsurance and derivatives has finally been solved (or close). I think that book value can climb at 10-15% a year and the stock will roughly track that. Disclosure: Long BRK
www.ingdirect.com 2.00% on their savings accounts. FDIC insured to $100,000 (this maybe too low of a return, though)
Well, there's a gulf between our points of view. In my world, 50% is a long way beyond "good enough". Still, assuming that such funds exist, and their strategies can fairly be termed "safe" (I have my reservations), as vulture mentions, it's a safe bet )) that they're not interested in anything sub $1MM. (Bearing in mind, the OP was asking about "parking" cash -- generally not what you associate with seeking out the best returns, safety being by far the overriding concern.)