I have $40,000 in my checking account. What's the safest/smartest way to increase it in a year?

been a while since I wrote about what you should do with your money. since I'm licensed by finra, you won't find any security recommendations herein

1. separate out your money into short, medium, and long term as follows, matching the amount of risk you take with what time period you'll use it for
   1. short term is daily checking + emergency funds. this should be kept liquid as in FDIC insured and not fluctuating in value. emergency funds will depend on your station in life, but most rules of thumb are at least 3mos expenses (if you're single with no kids) to 12mos (if you're the sole breadwinner, it'd be difficult to find a job if you lost it, etc.)
   2. medium term are things that will come at some point before retirement but aren't very far off. if it has a known timeframe (e.g. I'm saving for a trip to Curitiba for NYE 2024), then I'd keep it more liquid like a short term goal, but if it's sometime in the indeterminate future (like a down payment on a house within 10y), you can take more risk. what I do personally is if it's a nice to have purchase but not a need to have, I'll take some risk with it (meaning stocks), but if it's something like my wife's 4 weeks pregnant, gonna have to write a large check in 9 months, I keep the risk like it's part of my emergency fund
   3. long term is like retirement, bootstrapping future businesses, or just growing your net worth. put it at risk, and abide by the below principles
2. once you've determined how much of the $40k is available for long term investment, take advantage of all tax-advantaged savings vehicles. I personally max out my 401k, backdoor and megabackdoor Roth IRAs (look them up), and that should eat up a large chunk of the $40k, but if it doesn't, then just open up a brokerage account
3. your investment strategy. I'd suggest reading some of the classics like the intelligent investor, some of the "little books," but the takeaway is this - equity investing has created more wealth than any other method. do your research, find what makes the most sense to you, and stick with it. for me personally, this is a combination of GARP and dividend growth (which could be two sides of the same coin). I also recommend diversifying either with at least 30 names across different sectors, or broad based ETFs/mutual funds. what ruins investors is not getting 11% a year instead of 15% like your buddy, it's taking hugely levered bets, being concentrated in a sector that gets shellacked, and other derivatives of being greedy

so in sum, I wouldn't focus on growing it within 12mo, I'd focus on your overall financial strategy and that will lead you to decide if those funds should be short, medium, or long term, and then you just invest and move on with your life