I am 30 years old and just inherited 15k. How should I invest it?

A good, safe way, is to buy I Series Inflation protected US Savings Bonds.

They return a base rate, plus the rate of inflation, so you have a guaranteed inflation protected gain.

It is highly possible that you currently have debts. If that is your situation, use your inheritance to pay it down or pay it off.

The debt interest is typically much more than the investment growth/interest you get (and they are not also assured to be at those levels except for money market/savings/CD accounts). So you would want to get rid of these debts first.

Once you get rid of the debts, you have a cashflow that you can save up or immediately invest.

If you don't have an Emergency Fund yet, set aside 3-6 months worth of living expenses for emergency purposes. You can place this into high(er)-interest savings accounts such as WaMu, Capital One Direct, ING Direct or ETrade. They are currently at 3% level. That's still better than the ordinary accounts.

If you still have a surplus and you do not foresee a major expense in the next 6-12 months, you can then start either saving up a significant amount (typically $2500) so that you can buy mutual funds OR you can start automatic investment for as low as $4 with ING Sharebuilder

If you are 30 years old you probably have a sizable amount of debt... car payments, credit cards, lines of credit from a store? Consider the amount of interest you are paying on these items (10-30% for car, 15-40% credit cards, 25-40% on a line of credit). The way these high-interest loans are amortized, you end up paying the amount you owe 3-fold before the debt is removed. Anything payed OVER the minimum is applied directly to the principle, Interst Free! You're not going to find an investment with an interest rate higher than the interest you're paying on these right now. To maximize the return from this recent wind-fall you might want to pay-off your high-interest debts first.

With the money you save each month by no longer making payments, you can increase your 401k contributions or start a tax-deferred IRA (Individual Retirement Account) with your bank. Anything you contribute to an IRA is tax deductible and will help you out come April 15th each year with a bigger tax return. And starting an IRA at age 30 helps ensure you won't have to work beyond retirement.

Whatever you choose, just remember that it doesn't make any sense to invest while you're making high-interest payments on debt you already have! Making 10% on an investment just so you can pay 25% on a loan is... well... illadvised to say the least.

I think some mutual funds will let you invest with as little as 50$ / month (with automatic deposit) but may require you to put down several thousand dollars up front. As for which mutual fund, there are a bunch but a number of them (like Fidelity) have funds that automatically spread your investment into the right blend of investment categories based on when you want to retire which means you don't have to worry about how to invest your money ... Probably a good start for you until you can talk to more people and learn more about retirement investing.

Don't take Feeling Mutuals advice. Series I bonds are horrible investments right now. They return only the rate of inflation, with no additional base rate.

Of course the question is, for what purpose do you want to invest this money?

If retirement, open a Roth IRA, and invest in a Targeted Retirement account with a no commission, low cost mutual fund company like Vanguard. A targeted account will invest and diversify your money, balancing risk based on your anticipated retirement date. You can only put in $5k this year though.

For general indefinite investing, I recommend again going with a low cost mutual fund house like Vanguard, and picking up 2 or 3 funds to spread your money around. Maybe something like 1/3rd in each of the Total Stock Market, Total Bond, and a Foreign Index mutual funds.

If you are a beginner in the world of investing, it is natural to be a bit apprehensive about getting started investing in stocks

A Good Mutual Fund With Good Record of Annual Return and Moody rating.

If you do not have an IRA open one.

pay off your bills in full, then if you have money left over save it for your emergency fund (about 4-6 months of income to cover bills down the road). Then after that you can look into various mutual funds depending on your needs and tolerance of market ups and downs

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I would put half into Kinder Morgan Energy Partners and half into ABB or Citicorp.

That is only if you want to make some money of course!!