In general stocks and bonds are relatively low risk investments, however this will reflect in the payout you receive from them. In general, real estate is a very good investment as prices go have a tendency to go up, however this would require a much larger sum of capital, and so may not be your best option necessarily.

There are no safe ways to invest, there will always be some risk, but you can try to minimize this by doing your research into the market and the companies thoroughly.

If you don't want to risk your investment you can invest in an insured stock market tracker (talk to your bank about what they specifically call it). It usually tracks a major stock market trend like the FTSE 100 or FTSE 500 but it's insured against loss so only your interest is at risk not your capital. Worst case scenario after a 5 year investment all you get back is the money you put in.

If you are looking for a higher potential return on your investment and are willing to take some risk, then choose a financially strong company with more assets than liabilities. Then forget about your shares for a number of years while they gradually increase in value. Don't go gambling that the shares will rise or fall in the short term - that's how people lose a lot of money -you may as well be giving your money to a book maker on a horse race.

Jesus. You need to get your facts straight. "I heard..." is the statement of someone who is going to lose money. Investing in stocks is relatively safe if you do good research and don't fly by the seat of your pants. In decades of investing, I've lost big amounts of money on a couple of occasions but in both cases it was carelessness and lack of research on my part. The vast majority of the time I either made money or lost a reasonable amount. That's part of investing. Whoever you "heard" from that you can invest via an LLC is either a crook or an idiot. First, investment losses are not deductible except against gains whether you are a corporation or not. And anyone can deduct losses against gains, you don't have to be a corporation.

Buy high quality, dividend paying stocks, reinvest the dividends, add to them on a timely basis, hold on for a few decades and retire wealthy.

Try: XOM, PG, JNJ, T, or DIA, SPY, DVY

So I've learned some of the does and do nots of stock investing already. I am ready to try again. However now that I've had a job I have more money to invest. I don't want to be unsafe.

What are ways to protect my investments?

I have heard of investing as a business (LLC) so that any money you could possibly use would be eligable for tax write offs.

Are there any other ways to invest safely without starting a business.

I'm a novice so I don't exactly know what terms to search, but if I could use the account I already have that'd be cool.