[byoung2]

Obviously there are no 100% guaranteed ways to double your money in a year, otherwise everybody would just do that instead of working for a living. I wouldn't recommend putting all your eggs in one basket, so you should invest in several areas to spread out the risk. I'd also recommend looking at investment as a long-term commitment (e.g. 3-5 years or more). I invest in the stock market, specifically dividend stocks. The most reliable stocks (e.g. Dogs of the Dow) pay 3-5%, and some of the more risky ones pay 5-12%, and up to 15-20% for REITs. For the last 2 years I have been leaning toward the REITs, since the real estate market is in recovery and should continue to improve over the next 3-5 years. With a good mix of dividend stocks you can spread out your risk and still get a healthy return of 8% or more.

[allman]

You're right of course - I know there are no guaranteed ways to double your money.

Have been considering stocks - its definitely a real option. Or possibly investing into a managed fund. I did play with the stock market a few years earlier and did have a nice return on it.

But was thinking about possibly more creative/risky ways to try. Stocks are fine - my only problem with that was - it takes time/research to do properly (if I'm doing it blindly its a bit like Vegas then). And obviously 8% on a 30k is not as profitable as spending my time doing more freelancing.

So if I'm spending that time - I was thinking I need higher returns. I've also been looking into FOREX for a while, but I have mixed feelings if any amount of research/time could predict the volatile jumps over there :)

[byoung2]

That's definitely something to consider. I spend an hour or two per month researching stocks. Research is easier for long term investments (since you can look at how the stock has performed over the last few years, rather than constantly looking each day). My returns have been closer to 12% since 2011. If I wanted to be more hands on (e.g. day trading, forex, etc), it would take more time, and of course time is money. If you spend 40 hours a week for a year to double that 30k or even quadruple it, you'd be better off freelancing.