If I care about maintaining my money, should I buy stocks, bonds, or a CD?

There's a difference between maintaining your "money" (number of dollars) and maintaining your "wealth" (buying power).

If you put money into a CD you eliminate volatility. But you almost guarantee a loss of wealth due to inflation.

If, instead, you want to maintain your lifestyle (or improve it!) you'll need things that grow faster than inflation over time. 

These would be small businesses, income producing real estate, and public and private stocks. Also, peer to peer lending is an attractive alternative to low yielding CD's and bonds.

Just make sure you're well diversified and have a nice margin between your income and expenses...

Hope that helps!

If your main concern is protection of principal -- as in NOT losing your original investment -- then a certificate of deposit (CD) at your bank or credit union is the "safest" investment. CDs are FDIC insured (NCUA insured if at a credit union), and even if you cashed out your CD early, the most you could lose would be any earned interest but not the original investment amount. Keep in mind, the "safer" the investment is in terms of not losing money, the less interest or earnings it will produce. 

For those who are willing to take a little more risk, government bonds or corporate bonds from large, stable companies may offer a better return. However, investors can lose money on bonds if they cash out the bonds before maturity, or if the issuing company goes out of business.  As long as an investor holds a bond until maturity date, the face value of the bond is returned to the investor.  

Stocks, on the other hand, can and do lose value with no assurance to the investor of protection for the original investment.  Think of stocks (and bonds for that matter), as long term investments you would be willing to keep for several years before selling them. 

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