I basically want the money to be in a semi-fluid form, but that is better than savings account.  I want to build money for a down-payment on a house in 1-2 years.

MAC10

Short term/house down payment = no risk.  Look at money market accounts.  You should be able to get 4% or so.

Quoted: MAC10

Not for 6 months.  Maybe 5-10 years it will pay off.

Either an insured Money market account or Cert of deposit.  They in the 4s so you can make some money.

The other option is to take it to the casino and bet it on black or red.  Either you double it or lose it.

Quoted: Quoted: MAC10 Not for 6 months.  Maybe 5-10 years it will pay off. Either an insured Money market account or Cert of deposit.  They in the 4s so you can make some money. The other option is to take it to the casino and bet it on black or red.  Either you double it or lose it.

Some money?  $200?

I'll take option two.

CDs maybe?

Treasury Direct. You can buy T-Bills with a decent rate of return that's somewhat better than a money market account, or inflation-adjusted bonds that have a guaranteed rate of return over the CPI.

Quoted: I basically want the money to be in a semi-fluid form, but that is better than savings account.  I want to build money for a down-payment on a house in 1-2 years.

Think of something you know about - everyone knows something - everyone has some hobby or area of expertise, right?  Go to a few auctions, and find some stuff that you know the value of, that you KNOW you could sell for more.  

Sure, this is a more 'active' form of investing your money than putting it in a CD, but you can make a LOT more money.  If you have only $5,000, that STILL prices most people out of the game (unless you are going to an auto auction or cop car auction, which I don't recommend - people pay 90% of marjet value there and think they got a great deal).

I once bought a 2 1/2 ton truck for $1300, sold it for $3100 two weeks later.  Made over 100% on my money.  Another time, I sold some farm machinery for $1200 that I bought for TWENTY BUCKS.  That's 6000% my friend.  I turned that transaction over in a week.  I also bought a large boat for $90 (at a time in my life when that was pretty much all I had) and turned it into over $800.  At the time, that $800 saved my ass.

Now, you can't get 'auction fever' and get into some silly bidding war, and you need to have your end game figured out ahead of time, but you can make a ton of money by doing the Sam Walton - buying wholesale, selling retail.  Play it tight - never overbid - let the idiot who really wants something have it, and wait for that find that you can make money at.  These are not as rare as you think.  In fact, last summer I was at a very heavy equipment auction with a friend who was buying several semi-trucks.  I was not there to buy anything - just keeping him company.  Almost everyone there was buying bulldozers, etc. - heavy stuff.  So when the pickup truck came on the block that I knew was worth between 12 and 15 grand, I bid $7,000 on it and won it.  Some other guys there wanted it, but they didn't have the cash like I did.  The guys there shopping for a backhoe didn't care about that item, unlike the fierce competition you'd have at an auto auction for instance.  I sold the truck a little over a month later for $13,000.  A $6,000 profit was a bit better than my bank was paying me to keep that $7,000 in their account.

This is but one way to turn the money over a few times without putting it into a passive investment like a CD or bond.  Those investments have their place, but if you are willing and able to put in some legwork and invest some time, you can figure out all sorts of ways to utilize that capital.