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Best investments to make in 2024
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Just about everyone knows that they should be making investments. After all, the more money you invest now and over time, the more financially stable you’re likely to be in the long run.
But if you’re not a market expert, you may not know where to start. After all, there are a wide variety of investment vehicles, each with its own set of pros and cons.
As an investor, your goals are likely to make as much money as possible while managing your risk. But what exactly does that mean from an asset allocation standpoint? What investments should you make in 2024?
Open a CD to earn more from the cash allocation in your portfolio.
Best investments to make in 2024
So, what are the best investments you can make in 2024? Here are a few ideas to consider:
Gold
Gold has a long history as an investment vehicle, and investors often use the asset to bring stability to their portfolios. That’s because gold has two meaningful safe-haven qualities:
- Inflation protection: The price of gold typically rises with inflation. As such, when you add gold to your investment portfolio, it can protect you from losing buying power as prices rise.
- Market volatility protection: When the stock market takes a turn for the worst, investors tend to sell their riskiest assets and move their money to safe havens — like gold — to protect their portfolios. This usually leads to an increase in gold demand, which can cause its price to climb. As a result, the commodity is known for helping to offset losses during bear markets.
Because of these qualities, experts often suggest allocating up to 10 percent of your investment assets to gold.
Learn about your gold investing options now.
Highly diversified ETFs and mutual funds
Individual stocks can be difficult to choose and even more difficult to keep track of. However, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds can give you diversified exposure to the stock market.
In fact, Mark Charnet, founder and CEO of American Prosperity Group, says, “If you don’t know which stocks to buy, a mutual fund has your name on it.”
Charnet suggests that you invest in funds regularly.
“The best way to purchase funds is systematically, every week or ten days, or at least monthly,” says Charnet. “I would look to purchase aggressive tech domestic or foreign tech funds. Since the goal is to purchase weekly or monthly, the decision to purchase should be automatic, consecutive and never-ending.”
No matter which sector you choose to invest in, the key is to invest now and to make contributions regularly. In doing so, you’ll build your wealth while taking advantage of the power of compounding stock market gains.
CDs
A certificate of deposit (CD) may also be a worthwhile investment vehicle, especially considering today’s high returns. When you open a CD, you agree to keep your money in the account for a predetermined period. In exchange, the financial institution you open the account with agrees to pay a fixed rate of return for the entire term of the account.
Many of the best CDs on the market today offer returns of over 5%. And aside from the market volatility protection these accounts come with, they’re also typically FDIC or NCUA-insured for up to $250,000 per depositor, per account, making them safe investment vehicles.
Remember to diversify your investments
Most investors shouldn’t choose just one or two assets to invest in. Instead, a highly diversified portfolio is key. Diversification means that your assets, and therefore your risks, are spread across a wide range of investment vehicles. Some of those investment vehicles should be on the riskier side of the equation while others should be on the safer side.
One rule of thumb for choosing your investment allocation is to use your age as your portfolio’s safety percentage. For example, if you’re 35 years old and you have a $200,000 portfolio, 35% of your money ($70,000) should be allocated to safety plays like gold, CDs and bonds. You should invest the other 65 percent ($130,000) in stocks and other high-growth investments.
As you age, your portfolio’s balance will lean more heavily toward safer investments, offering more protection as you near retirement.
The bottom line
A quality investment portfolio has a strong mix of multiple assets. That way, if one asset experiences losses, the gains across your portfolio make it easier to take the hit. If you’re not sure where to start, consider looking into gold, highly diversified investment funds and CDs. If you’re still unsure, consider reaching out to an investment advisor for personalized advice.
A passenger successfully landed a small plane on Friday after the pilot had a medical emergency, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The twin-engine Beechcraft King Air 90 was traveling from Henderson Executive Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada to Monterey Regional Airport in California, with a pilot and one other person on board, the FAA said.
The pilot suffered an unspecified medical emergency while flying, the FAA said, forcing the passenger to take the controls and make an emergency landing at Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield, California.
The Kern Fire Department told CBS News affiliate KBAX that firefighters were called to a report of a medical emergency on the plane. The pilot was reported to be “incapacitated,” the fire department said. Firefighters saw the plane approach and land safely, then “chased” the plane down the runway in emergency vehicles to meet it.
The FAA did not release the passenger or pilot’s identities nor give an update on the pilot’s condition. The pilot was taken to an area hospital by ambulance. The passenger did not report any injuries.
The FAA and the National Transportation Security Board will investigate the incident, the FAA said.
Congolese authorities began vaccination against mpox on Saturday, nearly two months after the disease outbreak that spread from Congo to several African countries and beyond was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization.
The 265,000 doses donated to Congo by the European Union and the U.S. were rolled out in the eastern city of Goma in North Kivu province, where hospitals and health workers have been overstretched, struggling to contain the new and possibly more infectious strain of mpox.
Congo, with about 30,000 suspected mpox cases and 859 deaths, accounts for more than 80% of all the cases and 99% of all the deaths reported in Africa this year. All of the Central African nation’s 26 provinces have recorded mpox cases. Officials in Congo previously told CBS News that they’ve struggled to diagnose patients and provide basic care in the vast country of 100 million people, where a fragile, under-resourced healthcare system is also burdened by the stigma associated with the virus.
Although most mpox infections and deaths recorded in Congo are in children under age 15, the doses being administered are only meant for adults and will be given to at-risk populations and front-line workers, Health Minister Roger Kamba said this week.
“Strategies have been put in place by the services in order to vaccinate all targeted personnel,” Muboyayi ChikayaI, the minister’s chief of staff, said as he kicked off the vaccination.
Moses Sawasawa / AP
At least 3 million doses of the vaccine approved for use in children are expected from Japan in the coming days, Kamba said.
Mpox, also known as monkeypox, had been spreading mostly undetected for years in Africa before the disease prompted the 2022 global outbreak that saw wealthy countries quickly respond with vaccines from their stockpiles while Africa received only a few doses despite pleas from its governments.
However, unlike the global outbreak in 2022 that was overwhelmingly focused on gay and bisexual men, mpox in Africa is now being spread via sexual transmission as well as through close contact among children, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups, Dr. Dimie Ogoina, the chair of WHO’s mpox emergency committee, recently told reporters.
More than 34,000 suspected cases and 866 deaths from the virus have been recorded across 16 countries in Africa this year. That is a 200% increase compared to the same period last year, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
A lack of diagnostic materials and basic medicines to treat the virus, which can improve survival rates, have also hampered efforts to contain the outbreak, and access to vaccines remains a challenge.
Moses Sawasawa / AP
The continent of 1.4 billion people has only secured a commitment for 5.9 million doses of mpox vaccines, expected to be available from October through December, Dr. Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa CDC, told reporters last week. Congo remains a priority, he said.
At the vaccination drive in Goma, Dr Jean Bruno Kibunda, the WHO representative, warned that North Kivu province is at a risk of a major outbreak due to the “promiscuity observed in the camps” for displaced people, as one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis caused by armed violence unfolds there.
The news of the vaccination program brought relief to many in Congo, especially in hospitals that had been struggling to manage the outbreak. Doctors with several charities working in the country have told CBS News they’re overstretched and short on supplies, even having to use tents and mattresses on the floor of makeshift isolation wards to treat a constant influx of patients.
“If everyone could be vaccinated, it would be even better to stop the spread of the disease,” said Dr. Musole Mulambamunva Robert, the medical director of Kavumu Hospital, one of the mpox treatment centers in eastern Congo.
Eastern Congo has been beset by conflict for years, with more than 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in the mineral-rich area near the border with Rwanda. Some have been accused of carrying out mass killings.
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