Ttyjukl

I'm looking to buy a house, but lacking in the capital to make an adequate down payment on said house. My lease expires in a year from now, so I am looking to build up my capital through investment banking - our first real attempt at investments in our lifetime.

Next month I will be able to open up an investment account through my bank with an initial $500 payment and $50 monthly payment into the account, which will build up $1100 from my savings alone.

I'm looking for growth in my investment, but I'm not looking to take such a big risk that I could stand to lose all $1100.

What type of investment should I make for this type of savings goal?

Note: $50 a month would be coming out of our current savings total, leaving $300 aside to build up regular savings (which we need - our current savings are only at $500!)

Generally speaking you want to layer your financial life.

First you want to have an emergency fund with enough money set aside to comfortably absorb emergency expenses and give you a financial buffer if you find yourself unemployed. Your emergency fund should be stored in a guaranteed account.

Above that you have some sort of longer term specific goal savings accounts. Depending on your investment horizon you may want to apply some risk here but really, you probably just want to keep it somewhere safe. A 10% market gain in this account might be nice, but a 30% decline would be horrible.

Once you have these layers established you may want to start investing some amount in to more risky assets. This is something you do when time is on your side.

If you have a one year investment horizon, the stock market is really not the place for this money. If I were you I'd keep this money in a safe high-yield savings account. Don't be lured by the high long-term average returns of the stock market, because this is not a long term investment for you.

There are internet bank accounts that link to a local checking account that pay about the same rate as a three-month Treasury Bill.

There are 6-month duration corporate bond ETF's that pay more than the three-month Treasury rate.

And there are Treasury Direct accounts that allow Treasury security investments with no fees or expenses. Non-hedge-fund investors are presently going as long as two-year durations but shorter durations are available.

But buying a house in the future might involve a worry about interest rates going up while waiting. An interest rate rise can be hedged with a sell-side 10-year Treasury future. The contract size is $100,000 and the minimum margin deposit is about $1300 per contract.

What type of investment is best suited for a 1-year investment on a down payment?

Do not invest the money you need in 12 months. That is because investments involve risk, and risk is what you should avoid at all costs.

If you are in the US (and probably Canada), open a savings account with an online bank such as (alphabetically) Ally; Capital One 360; Synchrony and many others.

which will build up $1100 from my savings alone.

Note: $50 a month would be coming out of our current savings total, leaving $300 aside to build up regular savings (which we need - our current savings are only at $500!)

Even $1100 is way, way, way short of what you'd need for a decent DP (down payment).

For example, 5% of US$200,000 is $10,000 and just about every regular on this site would recommend a 20% DP