Best way to invest 10-15K?

Depends on your risk tolerance. You can go with a S&P 500 index fund if you believe the stock market will increase. In any event, make sure you don't take any risks with your emergency fund.

The reason there are so many answers is because there is no one right answer. What's best for one person isn't what's best for the next person.

So, the answer is "it depends". It depends on where you are, where you want to go, and what you want to accomplish along the way.

How long are you wanting to invest this money for? Another way to ask this is, when will you need/want this money back? What are you trying to accomplish with this money: saving for a business start-up, saving for a house, retirement, etc.?

You could play the stock market. It's a crap shoot cause you never know what's going to happen. I just invest in IBM and Apple and keep it simple.

You could use that $10k to buy a home and rent it out. With the low rates offered today buying real estate is a great play. If I had the money to buy a rental I would.

If you are one of those who don't consider 10k-15k a great deal of money to gamble with, take the risks and invest in the stock market actively. Use your 2x margin as a backup buying power, so if you think your trade is right, steadily buy more when the stock drops with margin. Invest in bigger companies and do not invest in stocks < $2b (or even $3b to be safe) market cap. Do not panic sell your stocks. I have consistently made 30% year over year on my funds with this strategy in the past 2 years, and I have to watch it closely on a daily basis to achieve that.

Avoid anything with Bernie or returns which sounds too good to be true.

Education. Spend it on getting a better job so you can earn more.

Quote from stevenq : You could play the stock market. It's a crap shoot cause you never know what's going to happen. I just invest in IBM and Apple and keep it simple. You could use that $10k to buy a home and rent it out. With the low rates offered today buying real estate is a great play. If I had the money to buy a rental I would.

What market do you live in where 10k is a down payment on real estate? I need to invest there.

Quote from Brian1 : The reason there are so many answers is because there is no one right answer. What's best for one person isn't what's best for the next person. So, the answer is "it depends". It depends on where you are, where you want to go, and what you want to accomplish along the way. How long are you wanting to invest this money for? Another way to ask this is, when will you need/want this money back? What are you trying to accomplish with this money: saving for a business start-up, saving for a house, retirement, etc.?

this is a wonderful answer.

If there were a "best" way to invest, everybody would do it. Which, ironically, would probably make it not the best way to invest anymore.

Any opinions on lending clubs (like lending tree)?

Seems pretty safe if you spread out your loans.

15k is not enough to do anything with that is worth the risk today. Fixed income rates are garbage and with Fiscal cliff around the corner you would be stupid to throw it onto the trampoline.

Make an emergency fund into a savings account that is out of touch (online or another bank) and leave it alone so it takes effort to pull money from it.

Take the rest and start a Roth IRA. Once the account has been open 5 years you have full access to all principle contributions without penalty. Start it now regardless. It works for house downpayment and another emergency fund if push comes to shove.

If you have enough to save $15k in savings, increase 401k contributions and make more paycheck contributions to a Roth IRA. Max those suckers out.
Reinvest into your vehicle -- get the services it needed -- fix the radio antenna, windows or whatever to get it back up to standard. Extending the life of your transportation is an outflow, but is much better than buying a new car several years earlier. The longer you enjoy the vehicle too the less likely you will want to get rid of it.

Quote from saladdin : Education. Spend it on getting a better job so you can earn more.

I agree with this.

Also, if $15k is all you have then it's an emergency fund. Or pay off your debts.

Quote from mr_rolla : I agree with this. Also, if $15k is all you have then it's an emergency fund. Or pay off your debts.

but you'd be surprised how many people don't have anywhere close to that

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pay off debt