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Say I have a small sum of money, which I have no use for for the following 6-12 months. I don't want to invest it in index funds, because these have a non-negligible risk of decreasing in this time period, and I need the money available.
What investment plan is better suited for this purpose?
If it matters, I live in Israel.
Unfortunately the answer is, almost none.
Almost everything has a risk of decreasing; but given your short time horizon and presumably given that you want back your principal in full, plus a little bit, you have few choices.
(Some of the following may be Canadian specific terms, but hopefully they are generic enough to apply)
Savings accounts, money-market funds and the like should be available at any bank. Interest won't pay you much right now, but the money should be safe (I presume Israel has some kind of deposit insurance for normal bank accounts?)
Slightly more risky would be a short-to-maturity bond or stripped bond coupon. The entry amount of money for one of these may be more than you have on hand, or the setup fee for an investment account might be more than you want to bother with for a one-off investment.
Given that you seem to indicate that you might need access to the money during the time-frame in question, the bank-account option seems to be the only one really available.
I would put this money to a high-interest savings account. It will not earn you too much, but it will save it from inflation.
CDs or money market funds. Zero-risk for the CD and ultra-low risk for the money market account; better return than most savings accounts.
