What is the best way to save money and watch it grow?

You have asked a vague ?. Breath and put your priorities in line. Extra emergency fund is a must and I'm glad you are thinking of that. Money for a house.........saving to get the downpayment and finding one that you can afford is the key to buying your first house. Don't overbuy but don't skimp a dump that will cost you major $$ down the road. A savings plan for your child. when you can afford to live comfortably, I suggest starting with something simple.....like a savings bond. They double in 7 yrs. Then once your child is tween age, I'd see a financial advisor to weigh your options. There are several diff money market accounts that you can invest in. They will range from being risky to no risk. Course more the risk, the more money you will gain or lose. To save money, I've gotten in the habit of throwing all my change into a jar. At the end of the year, I cash it in and put what I get into savings. Its usually around $300. That is a good start for a savings account. Also, try cutting back the little things that you can live without. If you eat out 3 times a week, cut it back to 1. Browse garage sales, thrift stores and discount stores to buy new things. Any little bit will add up over time.......its just a matter how much you are willing to give up. good luck

There are very little investment choices. The main problems are inflation and taxes. This leaves stocks (and stock options) and commodities (resource contracts such as gold, oil and foreign money) as the two types of investments that are not only beating inflation and taxes, they also can increase your worth. Since commodities are probably to high of a risk for you and stock options can be complicated, that leaves straight stocks (including ETFs, indexes and mutual funds). First go to www.investopedia.com and brush up on the terms and then call a mutual fund company and tell them you are interested in investing some money.

Have two bank accounts. Take half your paycheck and split it between the two bank accounts. Use one bank account for food, clothes, and fun things. The other one can be for emergencys, and college, and anything that will take a lot.

What to do is dependent on your situation. If you have credit card debt pay that off first - Where else can you get 19% Return On Investment (ROI). For the college money I would think an agressively placed Growth mutual fund (American Funds: New Perspective Funds NPFBX, Growth Fund of America AGRBX etc). You will be able to connect these funds to you checking account and Auto Transfer a set amount each month into any number of funds. Class B Funds must be held for years or you get a penelty for pulling them - after 5 years you have access to the money once the shares have auto converted to Class A shares. For the house money I would also look at Mutual Funds - But with an eye to Growth/Income Funds. Also consider Class C Shares as they have only a 1% charge for funds pulled out after less than a year. For Emergancy Money look into Money Markets. Americanfunds (and others who sell Mutual Funds) can offer a single place to manage you money. Money Markets are good for their liqudity and relitivly high ROI. You should also look into a ROTH IRA. If you ar not doing this now you should - Do not count on Social Security you need to save for the future and a ROTH IRA IS THE BEST WAY TO DO THAT (unless your employer does matching 401K and even then the ROTH IRA is a close second - and even if the 401K is better you should do the ROTH also). I would start out opening Four Accounts: 2 Mutual Funds in Growth and/or Growth and income (one for collage and one for the house), a Money Market account (emergancy reserve) and a ROTH IRA Mutual Fund (for retirment and some other things that you will learn about when you open the account). Link these accounts to your checking account and set up monthly transfers into each of them. if the emergancy fund gets to big (larger than three months worth of your bills) sweep it into the ROTH IRA till it is full for the year, then into the house fund. Once you have bought a house you need to re agrange your finances a bit but saving is the first step to wealth. Pay yourself first - the first dollar of every paycheck NEEDS to go to your future - not a car, RV, new clothes but rather put the dollars to work for you.

It really depends on your situation. For example if you really don't have a lot of money to invest and never know when you may need to pull it out to use I'd suggest a high interest savings account or CD's or the like you can make 5-10% a year your money's fairly safe and somewhat liquid... although cd's will have like a 6 month waiting period. Although if you've got more money than that your options open up. But once again it depends how much money you have to save and your timeframe. Really the best investment for someone who's smart about it has good credit and moderate income and willing to put up with all sorts of time consuming crap is Real Estate. If you're rich you prob want to invest in stocks but if you were rich you wouldn't be asking this question. Stocks can be a good choice for you as well but once again it's time consuming doing the research and if you don't have a lot to invest it may just be easier to invest in CD's and the like. But for a midrange family who really want to sure up there finances I reccommend researching real estate and when I say that I don't mean get rich quick house flipping real estate. Do your homework and get info from credible sources many people out there will take advantage of naivety.

Set up an automatic withdrawal plan that will place funds into a fund like Vanguard's Star fund or another mutual fund with low expense ratios.

Plant a money tree?

piggy banks r good choices. =D i have 1 too lol

real estate real estate and oh yeah real estate. it's not going to decrease. depends on how long you want to make money. you can look at www.prosper.com too. it's a great web sight i highly recommend checking out. even with bad credit or no credit you can get a 0money down loan on a home. you may only be able to work with one, thus living in it, while adding and improving small tasks as you are able. in 2 years my home has over 40k profit for me with no repairs included.