Best way to invest 10-15K?

Just save it. You don't want to put it in the stock market right now, unless you wait for a good entry point, but even then you need to research and know what you are doing.

I Bonds, if your willing to hold it for 12+ months.

Quote from dealgate : gold, physical gold where you take possession of it.

+1 ....

Vice Fund

Quote from hunnii : 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.

I agree with hunnii that this is a fun and rewarding stradegy, after awhile tweak/make your own.

Having money make more money for you is empowering. To maximize savings further, make sure to really question what makes you happy so you can be more frugal and focus on increasing incomes and focus on having fun with friends and family, compared to spending time with material possesions or watching reality tv (someone else having a fun time and getting paid to do so).

Occasionally if you want to, and have mastered emotionless trading after awhile, try taking $2k-$4k and playing with a Company under $2B market cap with solid growth potential that you believe in. Your emotionless risk might be very rewarding.

Some of the Billionaire Portfolios, play with "small percentages" of their portfolios with tiny companies, because for them $1 million can turn a tiny company into something huge, and they are getting $1 Million + in returns from their dividends of other solid big companies.

Their playful risk of 1 million (or 0.3% of their portfolio) turns into $50 Million profits that they knew might happen because it's a solid business plan/model.

Quote from ps2cho : 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.

Research Financial Indepedence before investing in late retirement funds like 401k's and Roth IRA's.

If your investment incomes > then your expenses at age 40, then you can retire/be Financially Independent/ not need to work a job for money.

Then any extra you make from volunteering somewhere or turning your hobbies into revenue while retired extremely early, can be put into 401k's/ Roth IRA/ HSA for when you are 65+. This keeps your federally tax incomes at $0 at age 40 while you are livng up the happy life work free, occasional investment observations. (up to $16,500 in income can be put into the 401k in US).