Which investment ideas are good?

The best investment advice is to diversify. Choose a few reliable mutual funds and maybe also put some money in a stock index fund.

I did a search on Primerica and found this Not very encouraging.

Primerica, Inc. is a United States-based multi-level marketing company that sells insurance and financial services. You be come a member of the company. Go to Schwab or Merrill Lynch and buy mutual funds.

Anything that is promising returns of 14 to 18% is highly suspicious these days. Talk to an investment counselor.

It isn’t “their” Rule of 72. The rule of 72 is a well known formula for determining the length of time to double one’s money at a given compound interest rate.

If you are studying where to invest your savings but have not made a decision yet, go to your bank today and buy a short term Certificate of Deposit so you are at least getting a return while you contemplate.

I hope that you will take this advice in the helpful tone that it is meant, but… you know nothing about investing, and “looking around the web for investment ideas” in that state of ignorance (hey, we were all ignorant once; it’s not an insult and not meant that way) will part you from your money, and quickly.

You’ve gotten good advice above, to a point:
1. Primerica is a (mostly) legitimate insurance company and vendor of financial products and services. It’s true that their marketing scheme is “multi-level marketing”, which can be a big problem for the unwary. It can work very well for the right kind of person… who doesn’t mind trapping the unwary.

2. They don’t own the Rule of 72. Basically, as @zenvelo notes, the Rule of 72 is a simple mathematical formula that determines at what rate your money will double, given various rates of return. Primerica points that out, because one of their tenets – and this is a good one – is to buy term life insurance and “invest the difference” (that is, the difference between the lower cost of term life insurance and the much higher cost of “whole life”, which includes a growing cash value component). In general I agree with Primerica here that whole life is a bad buy for most people.

3. At some point in your life, if you follow the “buy term and invest the difference” philosophy wisely and well, your investment portfolio will have grown to a point where high-value life insurance to protect an income stream for your family will be obviated, because the portfolio itself will be more than equivalent to your insurance needs. But that takes a discipline that many people lack. That is, the discipline to “invest the difference” year after year and to manage the investment “wisely and well” – and to avoid tapping it when it’s right there and so convenient and you want something you can buy with it so much. Etc.

Before I would buy into a scheme where I could buy a cargo container for $5000 and earn a guaranteed return on it, I’d want to know ALL of the details, including who was going to be doing the paying, on what basis and in what form, and what are all of the assumptions about usage rates, insurance, demurrage (Do you know what demurrage is? If you don’t, then this isn’t a good idea for you to even consider yet.) and other things that I’ve never considered – but only because I’ve never been exposed to this “investment”. It has the potential to be rewarding based on the little bit that you’ve said but that depends entirely on the details of the proposition and the reputation and trustworthiness of the one making the promises.

Your best bet is to search the web (or a local library) to “learn about investing”. You need to understand concepts and some general rules about investing before you plunge into any specific investment – even the generally good advice that @LostInParadise offered.

Finally, when you know about investments in general, then you’ll realize the wisdom of @janbb‘s advice, too: “promised regular annual returns” of > 10% are either highly speculative, come with more caveats than you can count – or are outright lies.

Primerica is a Ponzi scheme. Avoid it.

Don’t plan on beating the market. Even the so called experts have not figured out a way of doing that. Just this weekend, I heard this Freakonomics program on NPR. They conclude that index funds are the best bet. I don’t know if that is necessarily the case, but it is an interesting argument.

Ask your investment adviser. Or invest in Roth IRA’s.

1) Pay off any debt that is not tax deductible (credit, car, etc)

2) Budget your spending

3) Maximize any qualified contributions you can do (IRA, 401K, etc)

4) Do an investment portfolio that is diversified and low cost (The Vanguard Lifestrategy funds are a good place to start looking)

5) If anything sounds too good to be true it is.

6) The claim that your money goes up 14–18% per year is ridiculous.

7) If you do go with a financial adviser pick someone who is a CFP and is a fiduciary. They all charge differently but generally expect to pay between 0.8 and 2% of your holdings. They also may have access to some financial products that you would otherwise not know about that they may charge for. That’s all fine, as long as they’re open about what they’re charging and realistic about the rate of return and can justify the extra cost. . You can check the background of the CFP here. https://brokercheck.finra.org/

8) Make sure you have health and disability insurance.

9) A good book to start with is Personal Finance for Dummies

10) Any investment you do must take into account tax implications.

11) Save 15% of what you make, no matter how much or how little.

Stares at paper that is in a box somewhere that says I have a degree in economics.

Yeah dawg. You do not have enough money to invest in anything. Tuck the shit in a savings account and see were we are in a few years. We are close to a top. And I really dislike timing the market.

If you have debts pay them off. Then just sit on the cash. Things are feeling weird now.