In 2011, how should I invest $ 150,000 – $ 200,000?

Assets: I have $ 190,000 in cash, no one wins in a 1.1% market acct money online. I have $ 27,000 in an old and newer Roth IRA 401K ($ 5K contribution to the current year and past). I an MA and have worked as a consultant in gross salary $ 76 000 in 2009, $ 158,000 in 2008, $ 123,000 in 2007 and $ 115,000 in 2006, and 55,000 $ 2005. I own two cars outright. I have one bedroom condo 2:. Debts I split a total mortgage balance of $ 160,000. We overpay payment $ 650 monthly + $ 250 HOA. We pay $ 1400. My half is $ 700. As I work from home, I deduct a portion of tax payments. I used an accountant annually for the last 5 years and maximum deductions for any detail. I do not have credit card debt. I paid my $ 50,000 student loan in one year of graduation. I have lived frugally for the past 3 years.

Standard Board investment is that you should invest in a diversified mix of stocks, bonds and money market funds. If you're like Most people will invest some of your money aggressively in stocks, and part of conservative money market funds and bond funds. However, some young people will all stocks, and very conservative people will all money markets. The links below have online questionnaires that will give you an idea how to do "Asset Allocation," determining how much to put in each type of investment. You want to buy a portfolio diverse actions of individual stocks are too risky. The very knowledgeable can buy a well-balanced portfolio, but most People are struggling to balance things on their own. They balance their portfolio by buying all small stocks or all values growth, or some other unhealthy assortment of stocks. Back in 2000, some people bought all internet stocks, they were burned when they crashed together. You have to diversify across industries. Unless you know what you do, it is preferable to buy mutual funds that will diversify for you. Buy no-load, low-cost funds. Mutual funds should have a fresh ratio less than 0.5%. I like index funds. Because of their broad diversification, you are less likely to have a dramatic drop value. They also have the lowest fees. For equity funds, I like to ~ 70% of its money in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. and ~ 30% in an index fund in foreign stocks. The Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund is good for a bond fund. Vanguard Target Retirement funds can be good all-in-one stock and bond funds to an IRA. (If you have less than $ 3,000, you can not invest in most Vanguard funds. To those people I say funds Schwab.) There are many different opinions out there on what the best mutual funds are. Read the links below and make your own opinion. I warn you that there is a huge amount of stock investment books and websites that teach stock investment strategies that do not work. Particularly bad are the people who teach "technical analysis" systems that sound impressive, but does not work. I do not know what the interest rate on your mortgage is, but more than repay your mortgage can be another option. Believing advice you get answers can be Yahoo risky, so read these websites for more information. If you find it too confusing, contact a professional financial advisor. They charge you significant commissions, however.